guments on which he founds his conclu ; may, it is faid, be affigned for this: he V. Shakspeare's Manufcripts in the With refpect to the particular мss. this writer's obfervations are thefe: The Ms. of Lear may be genuine, notwithstanding its defects; for it may be the author's firft hafty copy, written, A THIRD pleader here rifes up to without a ftrict regard to m afure, ma- defend Mr. I.'s ass.; but he advances ny years before it was brought upon nothing fufficiently new, to require us the Rtage queen Elizabeth's letter may to enter into the detail of his defence. be genuine; for in the year 1585, Shak. fpeare had been an actor three years, and had doubtless acquired celebrity: befides, the earl of Leicefter might be entertained with fhows till 1588; and the Globe theatre might then have been in exiftence, for, in a licence granted to Shakspeare and others by James I, in 1603, the Globe is fpoken of as their ufual houfe. The love-letter may be genuine, though its ftyle does not happen to refemble that of a dedication to à court patron. The fac-fimilia, &c, may, according to the best conjectures, be the genuine work of the fuppofd authors: no proof to the contrary can be given. It is acknowledged by this writer, that the difcovery of thefe Mss. may naturally excite an inquiry into the when, the where, and the how. But, though the gentleman at whofe houfe Mr. .'s fon found thefe Mss. might wifh to be concealed, a fufficient reafon He feems to lay the chief stress upon the legal inftruments, which, he says, would, in the judgment of feveral gen. tlemen, learned in the law, be admitted as evidence in any court of judicature. If thefe writings were forged, the forgery muft, in this writer's opinion, have been executed at, or near, the time of Shakspeare, and would have been applied to fome ufe: he further urges, that these writings are fo nume rous, and in their nature fo unconnected, as to time, circumftances, and events, that it is not probable, that an impoftor would have deemed them neceffary, or, if he had, could have accomplished the task of fuch a forgery; that nothing can be more abfurd, than to fuppofe, that any one would think of forging fuch a vaft mafs of collateral evidence, fragments, letters, fketches of drawings, deeds, grants, notes on printed books, &c., all for the purpofe of introducing upon the flage a forged play in imitati on on of Shakespeare, in which the prof. pect of fuccefs would be extremely doubtful, and the difgrace of failure certain. This writer, as well as Mr. I.'s other advocates, appears to be aware, that the concealment refpecting the time, place, and manner of the difcovery of thefe mss., reafonably excites fufpicion; he therefore takes great pains to perfuade the public to wave this inquiry, and to reft the queftion of their authenticity wholly upon internal evidence. VI. Free Reflections on Mifcellaneous Papers and legal Instruments, under the Hand and Seal of William ShakSpeare, in the Poffeffion of Samuel Ireland, of Norfolk treet. To which are added, Extracts from an unpublifed MS. Play, called The Virgin Queen. Written by, or in Imitation of. Shakspeare, 8vo. 55 pages. Price 2s. 6d. FROM the fignature annexed to these reflections, we conclude, that they are written by the publisher, Mr. Waldron. The defign of the pamphlet is to controvert the authenticity of the Shakipe rian Mss. in the hands of Mr. Ireland. The remarks are very ingenious: we fhall give fome of them in the writer's own words. The fuperfcription of queen Eliza beth's letter to Shakspeare, written with her own hand, is as carefully worded, as if it were to have been fent by the penny poft had the office fo named been then eftablished. So far from directing a letter, Elizabeth wrote not the inward contents; that haughty perfonage was not in the habit of fuch condefcenfion; her fignature only, or, on rare occafions, an additional line, comprised nearly the whole of her hand writing, in any letter from her. the letter the queen ftyles him" Mafterre William," the orthography of that age was Maier, from the old French Maifre, now written Maitre; the French having ejected the s from many words in which we, though they are derived from them, retain it. This Chattertonifm occurs frequently in thefe In wonderful, or rather blunderful, papers." "Letter to Anna Hatherrswaye." This female's names were Anne Hathaway. Anna is a latin adoption of, comparatively, modern ufe; the orthography of Hatherrewaye is merely Chattertonian. In the letter to her, a kingly crown is termed a “ gyldedde bazuble." Bawble formerly meant the carved truncheon, with a fool's head at the top of it, used by court and ftage buffoons; therefore a very unlikely epithet to be applied by Shakspeare to the fymbol of majefty; to which he every where pays great refpect.' In the "letter to Richard Cowley," we read, "a whym/ycalle conceyt;" -the word whymlycalle, or whimfical, as I have already faid, does not, I am affured, occur in our near that period. I have a little book, printed in 1631, entituled, “ Whimzies: or a New Caft of Characters' which, though whim mult apparently have preceded, is the earlieft inftance I can recollect of any word like whymlycalle*. One might imagine, from the careful fuperfcription of the letter to Cowley, that queen Elizabeth had condefcended to direct that too. The figure evidently meant for. Shylck," is reprefented with a blue cap. on. Jews in Venice are obliged to wear a red cap or hat, as a badge of their perfuafion. Shakspeare, how N 0. T E. * Whimfie, 1 have fince found, oc→ curs in Jonion's Volpone, 1607, A. 3.8. L. F. G. W. ever, or the painter of this grotefque figure, might not be acquainted with the coftume of that place and people. In the "deed of gift to Ireland," after the word "followithe" are three conjunctive notes of admiration!!! I believe two notes of admiration, in conjunction, have not been used till very lately. When the plays of "Kynge Henrye thyrde of Englande," "Kynge Hy vii," &c. come to light we must not be furprifed at finding in them the words fwindler, shawl, and Otaheite; or the of Triftram Shandy." "The "Tragedy of Kynge Leare," our Pfeudo-Shakipeare lays, "Iffe fromme Mafierre Hellinnefoedde." I have not a volume of that hiftorian at prefent in my poffeffion; but, to the beft of my recollection, the orthography of his name in the title-page to his works are much more fimple. The Libbertye" he has taken, Shakspeare adds, in having "fomme lyttle deparretedde fromme hymme," "wille notte," he trufts," be blamedde bye" his "gentle readerres.” This is the firft inftance of Shakfpeare's appealing to readers; in writing his dramas, it is well known that he thought only of auditors and fpectators-but, as it neceffarily includes an implication that he had prepared this copy of " Kynge Leare," for the prefs, kimfelf, we might naturally expect the text to be correct, at least intelligible; fo far from which, it is, maugre Mr. Ireland's preface, the mott incorrect, enintelligible text I ever faw, in any copy of any play whatever: and, in ftead of fuppofing, as fome may, Mr. Ireland, his fon, or any other intelligent perfon, the fabricator; I fhould rather imagine it to be really, and bona fide, an ancient copy; taken furreptitiously and erroneously, from the mouths of actors, by fome printer's illiterate devil to which had, for private pur poses, been added an imitation of Shakipeare's fignature, and addrefs to his gentle readerres." ་་ " The affectedly-antique fpelling in "Kynge Leare" is, throughout, fo unprecedentedly redundant, as of itself, to be a convincing proof of inartificial imitation; but the fpelling of the latin verb in the quotation, " Glosterre exitte," with the old English termination, the double t, and e final, is so very ridiculous, that, could it be proved to have been by Shakspeare, we might hereafter fay, that he had fmall English, and lefs latin; as we have been taught by Ben Johnson to say, that he had small latin and lefs greek: but, if he had any latin, he must have fpelt the word exit, not exsitte. To have done, therefore, with "Kynge Leare," at leaft for the prefent, the blunders, corruptions, omiflions, interpolations, and fophifti cations, warrant me in faying, that it is impoffible for this Ms. of "Kynge Leare" to have been the production and handwriting of Shakspeare.'. Other threwd obfervations occur in this pamphlet: but it is time that, for the prefent at leaft, we relieve our readers from this tedious inveftigation, leaving the question fab judice. The fuppofed extracts from the Vir gin Queen, if not a very clofe imitation of Shakspeare, are at leaft an ingenious jeu-d'efprit. VII. Familiar Verfes, from the Ghaft of Willy Shakspeare to Sammy Ireland. To which is added, Prince Robert : an aurcient Ballad. 8vo. 16 pages. Price Is. THE writer of these verses, who takes it for granted that the question concerning the authenticity of the Mss. afcribed to Shakspeare, in the poffeffion of Mr. Ireland, is decided in the negative, reprobates the impofition with fome humour, and more feverity. The ghoft of Shakspeare thus reproves the youth who has dared to disturb his repofe : Oft have I conjured, from the vafty' deep, Myriads of fpirits at one magic fweep! And fhalt thou dare, with weak unner vate arm, [cobweb charm? To bind WILL SHAKSPEARE with a His genius unconfin'd with fancy plays Where Avos's fiream through fertile meadows frays; Laughs with the loves, the flitting funbeam rides, [Nature glides through the boundlefs paths of And Not Not lock'd in trunks,—in auncient dirtie the art of verfification. In a fhort fcrolls, [muftie rolls; time the author was fenfible himself of Long fhreds of parchment, deeds, and its faults, and, it is faid, endeavoured Receipts for candles, bills, and notes of to fupprefs it. We fhall, therefore, hand, [derstand. not revive this abortive effort by any Some that you may-but more not un- extract. About the fame period he Samples of hair, love fongs, and fonnets wrote the following ode on the arrimette, [Areet; val of the Earl Marifchal in Scotland, Together met by chaunce in Norfolk which he called an attempt in the Where, fruitful as the vine, the tiny manner of Pindar. elves [fhelves. Produce young manufcripts for SAMMY'S Dramas in embrio leave their lurking holes, [fhoals. THIS HIS gentleman was defcended from one of the moft antient families in the North of Scotland, being coufingerman to the chief of the clan of the Macphersons, who deduce their origin from the antient Catti of Germany. He was born at Ruthven in the county of Inverness, in the latter end of the year 1738, and received the first rudiments of his education at home, from whence he was fent to the Grammar School of Inverness, where his genius became fo confpicuous, that his relations, contrary to their original intention, determined to breed him to a learned profeffion. With this view, he was fent fucceffively to the univerfities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, in the laft of which he finished his ftudies. While at the univerfity, he exercised his poetical talents, which, however, were not (if a few paffages of Oflian are excepted) of the first order. In the year 1758, he printed at Edinburgh a poem in fix cantoes, intitled “TheHighlander," in 12mo. This performance is a tiffue of fuftian and abfurdity, feeble, and in fome parts ridicu lous, and thews little or no talent in 'TWAS when the full ear'd harveft bow'd Beneath the merry reaper's hand; When here the plenteous fheaves were ftrew'd, And there the corns nod o'er the "Now the wifh'd-for day is come," I rofe; and by yon mountain's fide,. Dunnotyr's towers refound the peal Home from the field his weary fteeds, At yon old tree the rot buck fell: The huntfmen's jocund mingled shouts his downfall tell. |