in our author's time: the fheets are written only on one fide, contrary to the univerfal cuftom.

The whole of thefe manufcripts may be eafily conceived to have been fabri cated within the fpace of one year. As to the library of Shakspeare, nothing could be more eafy than to tranfcribe Mr. Capel's lift of the volumes of that age, procure fome of the books, and write remarks, with Shakspeare's fig. nature in the margin. The parchment of the deeds may either be old fkins from which the writing has been difcharged, or new parchment rendered ancient in appearance by art.

P. 352. On the whole, fays Mr. M. in the courfe of this inquiry it has been fhewn that the artificer or artificers of this clumfy and daring fraud, whatever other qualifications they may poffefs, know nothing of the hiftory of Shakspeare, nothing of the hiftory of the ftage, or the hiftory of the English language. It has been proved, that there is no external evidence whatfoever that can give any credibility to the manuscripts which have been now examined, or even entitle them to a serious confideration. That the manner in which they have been produced, near two centuries after the death of their pretended author, is fraught with the ftrongest cit cumftances of fufpicion. That the orthography of all the papers and deeds is not only not the orthography of that time, but the orthography of no period whatfoever. That the language is not the language of that age, but is in various inftances the language of a century afterwards. That the dates, where there are dates, either exprefs or implied, and almost all the facts mentioned, are repugnant to truth, and are refuted by indifputable documents. That the theatrical contracts are wholly inconfiftent with the ufages of the theatres in the age of Shakspeare; and that the law of the legal inftruments is as falfe as the /fpelling and phrafeology are abfurd and fenfelefs. And lastly, that the hand-writing of all the mifcellaneous papers, and the fignatures of all the deeds, wherever genuine autographs have been obtained, are wholly diffimilar to the hand-writing

of the perfons by whom they are faid to have been written and executed; and where autographs have not been found, to the general mode of writing in that age. If any additional proof of forgery is wanting, I confefs I am at a lofs to conceive of what nature it fhould be.

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I have now done; and I truft I have vindicated Shakipeare from all this imputed trafh," and refcued him from the hands of a bungling impoftor, by proving all these manufcripts to be the true and genuine offspring of confummate ignorance and unparalleled audacity,'

Through the whole of the Inquiry Mr. M. has enlivened a dry and tedious fubject with much claffical elegance of language, and many happy ftrokes of humour. The piece ends with a lively jeu d'efprit, in which Apollo is reprefented as giving orders for a hue and cry after the delinquents, and for configning the Mss. to Dr. Farmer, Mr. Steevens, Mr. Tyrwhitt, and Mr. M. to be burned.-Were it not that the ingenious author of this volume will be amply repaid for the labour he has beftowed upon it, by the confcioufnefs of having vindicated the injured manes of Shakspeare, we might be difpofed to regret, that fo much ingenuity and diligence have been beftowed upon fo unworthy a fubject for who would lift the club of Hercules againft a dwarf ?

"Or break a butterfly upon the wheel?"*

were dignified with a pretty name; so alfo on the flage it is deemed effential to a performer's fuccefs, more especially in tragedy, that his name be pleafing to the ear; it is fuppofed to be the precurfor of his profeffional reputation, and therefore becomes a matter of great importance in the preparatory arrange ments of the embryo actor. For this reafon, Mr. Blewit, became Barrymore

Rotten, Wroughton-Davis, Harley M'Laughlin, Macklin-Sorace, Sto race-and Magan, the subject of the present sketch, Middleton. His father is an eminent apothecary in Dublin, where young Magan was born.

Mr. Middleton was defigned by his father for his own profeflion, and was accordingly placed under Robert Bowes, Efq. who then prefided over the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The objects of the diffecting room, however, foon difgufted him, and he refolved to follow his own choice. He had performed with applaufe on a private ftage, and caught the infection of the times. About this period the rage for private acting was at its height; in Ireland, this paffion was, if poffible, more predominant than in this country.

His first performance in private was Sciolto, in the Fair Penitent, and we are told that his talents are peculiarly adapted to old characters. It is curious, alfo, that Kelly was celebrated at Naples, &c. for performance of old men, in the Italian comic opera.

Mr. Holman may be called the dramatic father of Middleton. During one of his Dublin engagements, the latter gentleman found means to recite to him fome of his favourite paffages, and received fuch encouragement as probably fixed his determination to purfue the profeffion of the stage.

Middleton loft no time, but haftened to London, and waited on Mr. Harris, who promifed him an opportunity of exhibiting his powers the enfuing fea fon; recommending him, at the fame time, to fill up the interval at Bath, where he made his appearance on the thirtieth of January, 1788, in Othello; and met with a very flattering reception; his next part was Romeo, in which he gained on the good opinion of the

Bath

Bath critics. At the commencement of the Covent-Garden feason, he appeared in his favourite character of Romeo; and repeated it fix or feven Mondays fucceffively; he played alfo Chamont, and fome other parts, which the abfence of Holman had left open for him. The following feafon, however, that gentleman returned to his fituation, and Mr. Middleton vifited his native city, where he performed a variety of cha racters, to the great fatisfaction of his countrymen. He continued in Ireland till 1792, when a difference taking place between him and the manager, he repaired to Edinburgh.

In Scotland he met with the fame fuccefs as in Ireland and England; and on the clofe of his engagement returned to Covent Garden, where he remained fince the feafon 1793.

He is a tall and elegant figure, and poffeffes a voice of much mufic and inflexibility, not unlike that of the late Spranger Barry.

Defcription of the Public Brothels, or Mufic-Houfes in Amfterdam. (From Pratt's Gleanings.)

N this city" fays Mr. Pratt, "they tolerate vice as well as virtue; the number of common brothels, licenfed by the States, in almoft every large town, is enormous. They are known by the name of Mufic-houfes, of which there are not less than five and twenty in Amfterdam. Strange as it may feem to you, they are no lefs the repofitories of guilt and fhame, than the reforts of innocence and curicfity, as perfons of the beft characters, and of both fexes, are to be feen in them, almost every evening. The Mufic-houfe is, amongst the public places, vifited by almoft every ftranger: but you are to underftand that the fcenes thus exhibited to travellers, are no otherwife grofs, than as they excite ideas infeparably connected with the fight of fuch a number of females, devoted by avowed profeffion to a life of impurity. The Mufic-houfe has always one very spacious apartment, where all perfons are admitted on paying, at entrance, the price of a battle of wine. Two benches, the whole Hib. Mag. May, 1796.

length of the room, are placed for the reception of inhabitants and vifitors. There are feldom lefs than twenty women belonging to one houfe, Thefe affemble about eleven at night, dreffed, or rather undreffed, in all the dif gufting difplays of their trade; an enormous pad to fwell out the hips, a flaming red petticoat, which fearce reaches the calf of the leg, an immenfe pair of fhoe buckles, which nearly cover the foot, two broad black patches, the fize of half a-crown piece, on the temples, and uncovered bofoms. This, indeed, excepting only the bofoms, is the ordinary Dutch woman's flyle of drefs. A miferable pair of fidlers are fcraping in a corner of the room, which is flaringly lighted up with tallow candles: the men are, moft of them, fmoking on the benches, and the women' dancing in the middle. Some of the dances are curious enough: one in particular, where the man turns the wo man round on tiptoe, feveral hundred times together, without the fmalles intermiffion, with one hand encircling her wait, and elevating the other above the head, to meet her hand. The incredible rapidity with which this whirling is performed, and the length of time it continues, turns the fpectator giddy, but feems to have no effect on the parties engaged in the dance. And while one couple are performing this roundabout, it is not uncommon for ten or a dozen others, to leap from their feats, pipes in hand, and feizing the girls, join in the twirl, like fo mar ny te to tums, or rather fleeping tops: for, notwithstanding their activity of limbs, there feems in their countenances, and even in their movements, a fort of torpor, which the fprightlieft pleature cannot diffipate: although it fhould be obferved, that the Dutch are much addicted to dancing, and albeit, they beat the ground with the foot, rather of a giant than a fairy, they appaar to derive from their unwieldy, and fometimes ungraceful motions, fuch folid happinels, that a good natured fpecta tor cannot but be himself happy, on the principle of general benevolence, to to fee an Hollander rampant. "Carter tells us, thefe Mufic-houfes LII

have

now and then they have inspectors, to fee that no indecencies are committed. At other times, in confequence of great diforders, they are fhut up, and per form a kind of quarantine, before the magiftrates fuffer them again to be open for the reception of company. In point of number, privileges, and enormities, they certainly exceed any thing of the kind, even in Rome itfelf. What the State offers in its own defence, on this head, amounts to the ftale maxim, that

"Private Vices are public Benefits." "On the night I made this curious affembly my gleaning vifit, it was crouded with people of all countries: for it was during the time of the fair, and the humours of the Mufic-houfe were confidered as one of the fine fights of the fair. Amongst the fets of frangers that attracted my notice more particularly, was a groupe of female Frieze land peasants, dreffed in the picturefque habits of their province. Bonnets made umbrella fashion, and not much lefs as to fize; the linings of flowered linen, of a more flaring pattern that the out of-date printed cotton, for bedfurniture, and window curtains: but at the extremity of thefe, were fnugly depofited fome of the faireft faces I ever, beheld, which, coloured by modefty at the blufhing fight of fo many young creatures, who difdained covering of almost any fort, appeared yet more beautiful the beauty of virtue-from the powerful advantage of immediate contraft, with the deformity of viceIn the lovely eyes of one, I gleaned the tear of innocence, pitying guilt, and at the fame time, vindicating her fex. This gentle drop was hid from the company in general. A young man, poffibly her lover, on whofe arm the hung, faw and felt it, for I perceived him prefs her hand, and whifper fomething that increased the crimfon in her face, and yet checked the tear upon her cheek, where, it fixed midway, like a dew drop on the rofe-bud.

Of the mufic girls, many are pretty featured, but carry in every lineament the figns of their lamentable ve

the worf colour; eyes that are com manded to attempt exciting paffion, but which, in the very attempt, feem difobediently to thrink into the fockets; and conftrained merriment, which fubfitutes a noify and difcordant laugh, and childish anticks, for the notes of genuine mirth and unharraffed fpirits. How different, my friend, the powers of modefty, and the blushing honours in its train-how different from the blameless beings I have juft defcribed for you-breathing health, and blooming in beauty, the bleffed effects of pure manners, air, and babitudes !

"The inhabitants of the licenfed houfes of Amfterdam are, indeed, more unfortunately fituated than any of their fadly merry lifterhood of London. They are never fuffered to pass the doors, which are guarded by three or four illlooking fellows, who literally confider. them as private property. Thele keepers of their prifon-house (for it is not lefs fo, though with lefs accommodation) abfolutely purchase them in the firff inftance. The buyer finds them in the haunts of the laft diftrefs, and many are feduced by the hope of an escape from famine, and the idleness which produced it, to accede to almoft anz terms. For a few weeks, they are fupplied, even to profufion, with not only neceffary comforts, but with thofe meretricious and flaring decorations, which at once difcover their trade and their tafte. Little do they fufpect that this bounty is a trap to catch them; that it is intended only to plunge them beyond redemption, deep in guilt and flavery, ferving the double purpofe of dreffing out the victim, and binding the prifoner in chains-though they seem of filk-of fin and mifery, and difeale and death.