Star. — London, England, 1829-12-03 00:00:00

THE THEATRES. DRURY-LANK—KEAN'S RICHARD 111. From the recollection of the unworthy means that were adopted by the Managers of Covent-garden Theatre, to deprive the great rival establishment of that support to which their defeated jealousy has given additional value, we would gladly pass on to the contemplation of the splen did triumph of KEAN 's great talents onWednesday evening, did not the indignation excited by the machinations of his ungrateful opponents demand from us that severe repre hension with which it is the duty of the Press, not only to discountenance illiberality, but to repel every tendency to oppression and injustice.—When we witnessed, with unfeigned regret, the state of actual beggary, and almost hopeless ruin to which the affairs of Covent Garden had been reduced—we looked upon Mr. CHARLES K BLE as " a very ill-used gentleman ;" and we regarded the fatalities of that destructive system of management, to which, as we have observed, he was but a party, as the natural and inevitable consequence of admitting persons who were not professionally experienced in such pursuits, to any participation .whatever in the direction of theatrical affairs. We thought so then :—we do not think so now. Mr. CHARLES KEM BLE has undeceived us ; and in the frankness of his nature he seems deter mined to remove every particle of blame from the con duct of his unskilful colleagues, by convincing the pub lic, that with all his experience as an actor, he possesses neither the discretion nor the judgment—the policy nor the tact, which should qualify him for so important and responsible a station as that of the Manager of a great Metropolitan Theatre. With every pretension to high repute as an accomplished comedian, but with only the attributes of a respectable third-rate tragedian, we are sorry to see such a man in dulging that desire for exclusive display which was the great failing of DAVID GARRICE,—the bane of his popularity, because it was , the " moat easily besetting sin" of his management. To us it appears as if Mr. CHARLES KEMBLE had cheated himself into a belief, that the tragic mantle which had so long been shared by his distinguished relatives, had fallen upon his shoulders ;—or ' in somewhat less figurative language, that with the shares in the proprie tary of the theatre which were the bequest of the truly great JOHN PHILIP KEMBLE, the sublime genius of that brother had also been bequeathed to him as a species of hereditary heir-loom. As managers, neither " the mighty dead," nor the ambitious living of the race, need desire to be " remembered in their epitaphs ;"—the unbending spirit of the one excited such a storm of popular fury as, if not timely allayed, would have left the Theatre a heap of ruins :—and the mistaken self-importance of the other, neither chastened nor sub dued by the calamities of the last summer, bids fair once more to consign the establishment to that unenviable con dition from which it has been raised by adventitious circumstances. However ungracious these remarks may be, they are called forth by a strong sense of pub lic duty—and, however problematical the assertion may seem to Mr. KEMBLE, by an earnest desire to deter him from the further pursuit of measures which so far from injuring the object of unjustifiable and ungenerous persecution, we can assure him can only prove injurious to himself,—prejudicial to the dawning hopes of his highly-gifted daughter,—and destructive to that property in which the fortunes of his family are involved. We should have so far trusted to the prudence for which we had given him credit, as to have con - tented ourselves with the friendly remonstrance, which the subject elicited from us on Tuesday ; had not the play-bills for the succeeding evening be trayed the rankling inveteracy of an uncharitable spirit— baffled in the gratification of its jealousy, and driven to the most paltry expedients to perpetrate an injury which the law refused to sanction. Strongly as we protested against the publication of " the one-sided correspondence" pending the decision of the Court of Chancery, what shall we say to the mischievous ingenuity which suggested its re production as an appendage to the play-bills in which the performance of Romeo and Juliet was announced? It is not enough to designate it—a vile but impotent attempt to excite a prejudice against Mr. KEAY by placing him in a determined position of rivalry to Miss KEMBLE, which he never thought of assuming :—we know not by what term of opprobrium we should stigmatize the worse than foolish the illiberal and inveterate effort ; but we must do the only responsible person in the affair the honour to adapt to his merits one memorable expres sion of that scourge of petty tyrants—Junius--and freely tell Mr. KEMBLE, that we look upon it " as an odious act, because it is the act of the Manager—and as his act, because, lie is Manager." But is there not something more in the whole transaction than " is meant to meet the eye ?" Are the workings of personal vanity --professional jealousy—and some feeling yet deeper and more despicable than either—quite indiscernible in the supercilious treatment to which Mr. KEAN was 'most unkindly and uncourteously subjected in the first in stance, and most ungratefully exposed throughout ? Or do we owe the re-iterated publication of a Stage-managers' " communications" only to the egregious vanity of Mr. BARTLEY, " concurred in" by the careless complacency Qf Mr. CHARLES KEMBLE? Be it as it may, there certainly must be something more " than is dreamt of in our philosophy," to justify the line of conduct so systematically pursued towards that gentleman, who, after having relinquished three provincial engagements, (by the performance of which, upwards of two thousand pounds would have been se cured to him) and hastened to London, to fulfil a voluntary and disinterested promise, had the mortification, instead of being honored by the visit of the person on whose behalf he had made such sacrifices—a mark of condescension by no means degrading to the dignity of a party who could condescend to accept that generous proffer in the time of need.4o be waited upon by deputy, (a most respectable and effi cient deputy, certainly—but still a deputy) and 'moors momously informed that " his services were not re quired." Will Mr. BARTLEY question the accuracy of this statement ?—And all this, too at the very time when, to render the gratuitous services of Mr. T. P. COOKE in any way available, the Managers of Covent Garden are reduced to the necessity of palming upon the patrons of that Theatre, on the very evening on which Miss Kunlun played Juliet, an after piece which has been played even to satiety at the Surrey—an Afterpiece of which even the complimentary critic of the Times admits that the purpose of its being played here was to enable the managers to avail themselves of Mr. T. P. Cooxu's offer playing in aid of the theatre," but " under any other: circumstances it might be very questionable whether the piece is of such a kind as ought to be acted at a theatre like Covent Garden." And has it already come to this ? Are " our Nobles so soon sunk to ninepence ?" Upon the very showing of this-most indulgent of all critica-- especially when the interests or Covent Garden are at stake—we should not• be at all surprised to find, that with all the show of an • affected indifference to "fr. Kiaiei unequalled powers, " there is some. , thing rotten in the State of Deinlark." How ever the Morning Chronicle may think " the natural course would seem to he for Mr. KEAN to have imme- diately taken the three open nights of the week," with all their disadvantages, we request our contemporary to an swer us one simple question Had the circumAances under which Covent Garden was opened this season, been 5..3 untoward" at the period when Miss F. H. Kta.a.v d all the world to witness her delightful pe:Tormonz - e ot Juliet —and it was fully as attractive as Miss E —and the aid of Mr. KEA N had been proffered, just ;Li it was in this instance, dos he suppose that the borstal " sense of gratitude and d4csrence to the public" w.).;ld have operated so far as to set aside so powerfal an auxiliary, merely be ea use Miss F. H. KELL Y played on the very nights for which Mr. KEAN stipu lated, as the only condition of his gratuitous assistance ? —The flies of his own parer may furnish an an swer to this interrogatory.—We have said all that our duty rendered it imperative upon us to say at present ; and however we may deprecate the necessity of recurring to this subject in a similar spirit, yet we warn Mr. I( - BLE against the blind and ruilems pursuit of measures, which, we repeat it, can. only be injurious to him self and to the property over which lie has shown himself but indifferently qualified to preside. But he must not hope to play the despot or the op pressor with impunity.—" So much for Buckingham. and now for the only " Richnol " of the age. -.At an early hour on Wednesday evening, Drury-lane was sci crowded in every part, from the foremost row in the pit to the highest bench in the gallery, that when the cur tain drew up, there was scarcely standing room in any quarter. Through the first scene of the tragedy, thanks to the noisy advocates of injustice, little more could be heard than if it ivere the " tale of an idiot, full of sounds and fury, signifying nothing"—but provoking such a manifestation of popular feeling in favour of KEAN, that his malignant assailants saw they had but little chalice of adding insult to the wrong be had sustained. All was impatience till, on the opening of the second scene, the breathless suspense of a moment was broken by the most enthusiastic applause with which a public favourite was ever yet greeted. This was too much to be endured by the unprovoked antago nists, who were evidently so stationed and dispersed through the House, as to satisfy the most unprejudiced person, that the attack was systematically organized : but never was an attempt of so atrocious a nature more promptly, or more signally defeated. KEAN, on his en trance, was evidently labouring under that nervous ex citement which the attempt to prejudice the public against him, by ex parte statement had naturally produced ; hut the depression was only momentary ; and the cheers and plaudits by which he was welcomed back to the scene of his early triumphs, whilst they deeeply and visibly affected him, soon reassured him, that in " standing the hazard of the die," be had nothing to fear from the most rancorous hostility of his enemies.— We hinted to the Covent Garden Managers, that " re-actions" in all such cases are very dangerous to those by whom they are provoked ; and this truth was fully exemplified in the discomfiture of " the common cry of curs" that yelped in holes and cor ners, in the vain attempt to decry the talents of the actor, and to militate against the interests of the Theatre. Gloster's first soliloquy was scarcely audible, amidst the general and long-continued uproar, till Ku.t s —with that inimitable scarcasm of tone and manner which is so peculiarly his own, gave galling effect to that very applicable line—" the dogs - bark at me, as I halt by them." A cry of " Turt; out the dogs !" was in stantly heard in boxes, pit, and gallery ; and the " curs" that had hired out ' their most sweet voices' slunk back into theirown insignificance-humbled, silent, and subdued. From that moment no opposition was offered to the per formance, which was not to be surpassed even by the most successful of Kzale's most vigorous efforts. He has not for many years been in such fine voice, and he played with that regard to his great histrionic reputation which, we trust, he may never again lose sight of. All the ad mirable readings, and the exquisite touches of art, Which have stamped his4lltistration of the character as an unri valled-chef d'auere, were as excellent and effective as ever. His scene with Lady Anne never was distinguished by more consummate skill than on this occasion ; and throughout the play, he maintained all that fire and pas sion which so strongly contrast with the deep dissimula tion, and insatiate projects of the tyrant. Of the pas sages that drew down the most enthusiastic peals of admiration we may notice that, in which he seals the doom of his quondam "bosom friend"—" Off with his head !' So much for Buckingham !"—which was as ably, followed up by the alternate bursts of triumph and savage ferocity 'with which the closing scenes abound. But we have al ready exceeded our limits—and can only say, that when, at the close of the Tragedy, WALLACE appeared to an nounce the performances of the ensuing nights, KEAN was loudly called for, and on complying with the unani. mous wishes of the audience, received every mark of respect and favour. Hats and handkerchiefs were waved amidst the loudest cheers, whilst he continued for some moments testifying , ' his sense of. hi t s, most gratifying reception , --actor and audience alikeicielighted to find " Rickard himself again !" The Duke of CITY BER LAN I) has been Indisposed with a slight cold during tho last two days, at hie residence at Kew. The Boston Papers state the Revenue seeming at that port, during the last month, was 500,000 dollars ; and the Revenue this year fully maintains' the receipt of last year. . Accounts frtim the Havannah of the eth;:aitnouiice that transports ba4 been engaged to convey , .7 . , - 0 . 0.0 troop, to Tampico, iiiiirthaiteveral American ships weVe; engaged by the Cuba Government for the service. The wine Paper also adds, that titridia a Russian ship had been chartered to take on board 500 sailors, to man the Spanish fleet at the Havannah. . . . From the Boston Paper of the 3d November :—" Satur day we were visited by a storm of wind and rain of un usual violence. It commenced at day-break, and con tinued till midnight; the tide broke over the wharfs, which sustained much damage. So high a tide has not visited this city for 30 or 40 years. The damage sus tained by the shipping is less, however, than might be expected. The New Orleans Courier of the sth Ult. says,' We are sorry to state that the fever still rages T on the coast, nearly all the way from here to Natcher.' EaCELLENN SHOT.—A gentleman belonging Ito Dunse, in company with other three went out the other day with a gun to frighten the birds from a field of barley which they were destroying; a lark sitting . at a little distance from where they were standing, one of the compent, asked the, gentleman referred to to shoot it fqr him - Afthout doing it any material in ingots be ettomesticate a bird of that kind ; 1 to which he rithek, do that for you," and firing, grazed one of It, All the injury it re-- ceived was the lies of s ilting feathers.. It is now is a cage, and doing THE SPANISH LOANS. A Meeting was convened, by public advertisement, of the holders of the Spanish Cortes Bonds yesterday morning, at the City of London Tavern, for the purpose of taking into consi deration some important documents from Madrid connected with the Loans• . . The Committee of the Spanish Bondholders, appointed to manage the negoclations which have been going forward for some arrange ments between the King of Spain asd his foreign creditors, gave ”otice th at they bad nothing at present to communicate on the sub j ct of the Loans, and that, when necessity required, a meeting fluid be convened by them. At the Meeting yesterday morning only a few of the Bondholders aimilded, and no business was gone into up to one o'clock. Some thisatisfactiors is expressed that the Committee did not make public the steps they have adopted of late to obtain justice from Ferdi n.nd, especially as it is generally believed that they bad more than one interview with Lurd Aberdeen on the subject. It is also un derstood that two eminent Houses are engaged in the negociatiaos referred to. APPEALS TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL. The Lords of his Majesty's Most Hon. Privy Council had a Meeting yesterday morning in the Council Chamber, to re sume the bearing of Appeals, one of which had been opened the day preceding; the Lords present were the same as on Tuesday, Lord Wynford presiding. The Paymaster of the Forces joined their Lordships during a short period of the Sitting. Mr. Bosons addressed their Lordships at considerable length for the respondents, in the appeal et Wlsat v. Porutber, which had occupied the Court the whole of the day preceding. Mr. Burgess, and the Counsel by whom he was supported, argued, that as to the plea that the mortgagres had been in possession of the estate for such a number of years as to constitute their, a legal title, and consequently preclude the respondents from making proof of claim incumbrances, which they maintained existed prior to that of the mortgagees, some of the parties in the case were infants ; and could not, therefore, have commenced proceedings before. Mr. 'taupe% for the appellants, replied, and stated, that if the other parties had any such plea as was now pt forward in the bill filed by them in 1821, it ought to hive been explicitly stated, so that issues might have been joined. De also commented on the hardship of that part of the Decree which ordered them to produce the accounts and vouchers of the expend' s of the estate, which, front the complicated nature of the establishments on such estates, and the distance of time to which the Decree referred, could not be done. The case having concluded, their Lordships intimated that they would make known their derision at a future period. The next: Appeal, Simpson versos Forrester, from Demerara, was opened by Dr. Lushington, in support of the appellants ; he was followed on the same side by Mr. Telford. Mr. Adam addressed their Lordships for the respondents, and was replied to by Dr. Lushington. Lord Wynroan. on the part of their Lordships stated, that in deciding the case, they were guided by the practice of the Dutch [ Civil Law. A sum of money was left tn3one of the parties by her . husband, and as far as the intention of the testator could be steer , tained, the wife was to have the benefit of the property during her lifetime by enjoying the dividends of the funds in which it was or ' dered to be invested. with power at her death to dispose of the principal ; should she net dispose of it as directed, it became liable to the creditors of her husband. The Judgment of the Colonial Court was confirmed, and the ap peal dismissed, but without taste. The Meeting then atii"urtiett. DESTRUCTION OF RAMSUATE THEATRE. ILA MSG ATH, Dm 1. Last night, at a late hour, this town was thrown into dismay by the announcement of a fire, which bad broken out in the theatre a short time after the performances had closed. In an instant the bells on the pier were set tinging, and the en gines put ,in motion, and, in a short time, the inhabitants had congregated near the scene to the amount of many hundreds. • —Unfortunately, ftoin the confined situation of the premises, there was a seamy supply of water, and it was feared that the houses proximate would fall a prey to the devastating element. However, by a judicious application Of the quantity that could be obtained, the fire was confined to the indicting, though it raged, from the combustible nature of the interior, with appalling and destructive force. The roof very soon gave way, owing to the rafters having igeited through the agency of the burning scenery, which consumed like wild fire; and notwithstanding the exertions of the inhabitants, who seemed to vie with each other in activity, no human aid could subdue the terrific influence of the element, and long before day-light the whole of this fine property, with all the scenery, dresses, decorations, &c. were consumed. The theatre is the property of Mr. Fawcett Salvi 1. whose com pany of comedians have lately been performing with great success. The house, we understand, is insured, but not to au amount sufficient to co►er the loss. The fire is supposed to have originated from a candle having been incautiously left burning, and a spark flying frum it commu nicating to some of the scenery. 'fbe.,poor comedians are left in a woful plight. LORD KINGSTON and Mr. .MACDON N ELL.—Mr. 'Franks, the law agent of the Earl of Kingston, received a letter from his Lordship, intimating his:wish that if the punishment awarded against Mr. J. M. Macdonnell should be light, that Counsel would address the Court to have it altogether remitted, but stating that if the punishment should be of a serious nature, he would himself personally apply to Government for its remission. Mr. M'Donnell, for a libel on the Noble Lord, was sentenced to pay a fine of 50/. to the King, be imprisoned six months in the gaol of Kilmainham, and give security to be of the peace for seven years, himself in 5001. and two securities in 250/. each. ME POST Or Flc E.---Rumours have been prevalent through town for some days past, relative to the detec tion of certain clerks in the General Post-office in the commission of frauds, and their consequent dismissal. On inquiry, we learned that no fraud had been disco vered, and that no dismissal had taken place ; but some clerks have been suspended from duty, pending an inves tigation which had been instituted respecting the conduct of the officers whose business it was to lodge the monies reeved from the country offices in the Bank of Ireland. =Dublin Morning Register. • su • bletting act ' We believe a draft of an amended suble act has been already prepared, at the instance of theltivernment, and that it will be one of the first measures submitted after the opening of Parliament.—Morning Register. EXTREME DISTRESS.--In order to form seine idea of the situation of our fellow-creatures struggling for a bare existence in the Liberty, it is enough to know that the Distress Committee at the Mansion House have been compelled to cOnSfie their relief to a sum averaging one penny per diem for each individual. Even under this limited plan the funds now in hand will not carry the operations of the -Committee far beyond. the ensuing 'Christmas;' and' neither clothes nor bedding have been, .nor can be; distributed to those who are `sleeping upon straw withaut a'blanket to cover them. It is apprehend ed that 400 cotton weavers in the Liberty will be thrown out of employment next week, and east upon the Com mittee:—Dublin Morning Register. The Waterford Chronicle of Saturday says—" For the satisfaction of the friends of the county of Water ford, we shall simply say, that the independent ilterest are taking their measures in the most effectual m inner ; and-that the Beresford party will find their temporary hopes dispelled and dissipated into air. The information from Liverpool this morning of the 30th November, states—" We continue to experience a fair inquiry for British Plantation Sugar, and the sales of this week amount to 800 hhds. at steady prices ; be sides 1200 bags of good Brown, at 475. 6d. to 535. per cwt.- There was also a steady demand for Cotton : the sales were during the week, 14,350 bags. The demand for Tobacco rather limited, sad the prices keep steady." SMITHFIELD MARKET,' Dia. 0. cams As aassas.. :•:•.4-. • Iloasts•• U4 !Cobras •••vsdup•trm•—•••••• 334 I nstep sad lAwabsPip ...trogt,4o *.s,, r stralt 110 I Ssef ....mils 44 ts 4s 041 Vat:. —. ~.* . ail to 4s 641 Mlatt;; •••• •••11. 'ld 4s 44 Posifflati.Ar` Id 44 04 • •As • • Od Or Od 4 Okbilr•=- I • • Hay per load, 40 II& to 44 10ssr..alottP41 &to Ad" -Al 104. to 41 las. .,...,..,•: . - .- . THE SONNETS OF SHAKSPEARE. NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE FOR DEr.:EMfER. HENRY COLIUBIC San *SEWARD BENTLEY. I am frequ,... y obliged to decline conintontc..tions transmit:eel to this periodical; (lone their contain:llg par idoxical epit.ions win, la I have no desire to promul,ate. It is no: always, how,vct . 'Cl out reluctance, that. I take my leave of :Mee whoitable vendee - lions. In sense of them there is Such an amusing vein of ;set v. r rid ingenuity, th.t but for my aversion to be relsonsible tor other men's eceent: :cotes, I at; uld be moved to publi-h them. A piper comithorly answering to this description bas teen lately supplied to me by a friee.d, who is lucid on every subject is the - world excepting one, but on that one, which is Snakspeate, the zeal of Gone house has eaten him up. My friend has discovered. as he imagines, iu Shakspeare's sonnets, a clue to the entire history of the poet's life; and be hails these poems as a rich nom of in. formation, which, by a folly little abort of fatality, has bee,. hithetto neglected by all the poet's hiograph-ra. Happy di.ettsery, could he only make good his words ! How blessedly i world save us from repeating the stale truth, ao.l lamenting the tee •me (liable misfortune, that we know so little of our Shakspeare'a titivate history. For who can pardon the Genius of Biography tiers she neglected the poet in his own days, and cnnsigned not his .i3Ong picture to her o:lets—that she has told us every thing about 01 fi nery men, and almost nothing about the prodigy of nature—J:lqt she has embalmed so in.ny dwarfs of our literature, and buried i . Colossus in oblivion ? But to return to my sanguine friend,—after he has lustily bela boured George Steevens, fur daring to say that the strtmgest Act of rarliameot oasolei not he sr: g ermigh tJ chrome the MILII t reading of Sh..aspere'.. sonnets, rod .est: be-towed some e :gclls don on Mr. Malone for having at) weakly defended them, Le I 1-t -ete& to dig up, att.!. in his own words, to exit :oat the dist:owed mine of Shakspeariaa biography. Alas! it i. a poor and very easily exhausted ; geed his golden hopes turn out ; th e the generality of modern mining speculations. I was les. surptioal, however, that my friend should have fallen into a fit of ringer. via. on any subject connected with Sli kveare, than that this erroneous over-estimate of the light derivable from then: poems re-peen:.: the poet's history, should have apparently origimtrd ai:h w.c of the most brilliatit and acute si , irtts of the age,—l mean Anta , t Wilhelm Schlegel : be is an cxcrllert and eloquent critic. In.: with all my respect tor &Vega. I cannot le-1p thinking that he bad not exactly wri,tfird the forte of his wor.'s, when he made the following remade to his dramatic lectures. "It b.- rayed" la.- says, "no ordinary tie lief , icy of critical acumen in the conunta.- talon of Shakspeare, 'het 1.0 one of them has ever thought of elm:: ing himself of his sonnet, for tracing the List.lry of Lis life. Theo: sonnets paint, most on qtavo ally, the actual situation and Wit; mews of the poet, and they eisaltle , us to become acquainted with the passions of the ni in. They even coot.in :lie most remarkable confession of his youthful errors." Now, if Shakspeares commentators were to in the new .li.cove ries in the poet's biography, it most have been it. one of tam way.— either by the facts sad traditions otherwise existing reap. c:mg Is . life, receiving illustrations from the contents of the .ormets, r . from additional intrinsic facts being f tool in eh tie poems the:::. selves. Looking at either or both of tease mode, of investigati..g Shak.peare's life, I can see no glaring proof of tl-ficient acumen in cornnientaturs on their failing to hiographise bias ley the help of his sonnets; and I should have pixie l Schlegel himself if he had been condemned, with all these poems about him, as reflecting te lescopes, to make the history of Shakspeare importantly mote dia. duct. What were the commentators to discover in these sonnets ? —I mean, what clear and circumstantial facts—fut it is too bad to blame biographers for not tracing the history of a man's life by the aid of documents that furnish only conjectures and 'surmises. I venture to say that the facts attested by the sonnets can be held in a nutshell—that they do not unequivocally paint the ac:ual situa tion of the poet, or in all instances give us a draught of his senti ments that is to be literally interpreted—that they do not make us acquainted with his passions, so as to throw any new light upon his history which can be called,-in the slightest degree, important nr satisfactory—and, that they do not contain any confession of the most remarkable errors of his youthful years. To begin with the last uf these points, the only part of the sonnets that can be pretended to contain any specific confession on the part of Shakspeare of his own immorality, are those which are dedicated to an apparently trail female ; and the error to which he there alludes, assuming his gallantry m have been real and criminal, was not an affair of his youth, but of a period of his life " When age in love loves not to have years to:dr' for he speaks of himself in Sonnet 138— " Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, Although she knows my days are past the best." I may be reminded, Lofted. that the discovery of a frailty in a great nsan's life, unpleasant as it may be, is not diminished in im portance by its appearing to have been es. error of his graver years : and I must own, that if we are to interpret this love-affair by the letter of his own confession, we shall be obliged to acknow ledge that our insmortal bard bad not always the fears of Doctors' Commons before his eyes. But my present object is nei ther to advocate nor to impeach the immaculate morality of Stith speare, so that I waive discussing the possibility of the whole affair having been lintited to paper and poetry. The simple point on which I insist is this, that magnify this discovery as much as you please into the broadest shade on Slakspeares conjugal character, it throws no light on his biography beyond a solitary, insulated, and most obscure incident, illustrating, at the worst, without name of. or accompanying circumstasces, the mighty truth that Shakspeare's virtue was nut infahible. Having promised not to visit the reader with any special argumentation on the possible chance of the -poet having, in these sonnets to his lady mistress, exaggerated the nature of then intercourse, I will keep my wo d with hint ; for it is difficult to prove a negative, and try to dwell on matter of pule conjecture, though I may leave a mere hint to his charity nut to lose all sight of such a possibility. Doctor Drake. I know, is by no means so iedifferent on this subject, as to trust the above hypothesis in the post's favour to fortuitous candour, but flies to smog:hen the defensive pass wish a host of arguments, tending to prove that .Shakspeare, having been then a father and a married man, the amour must base been all coterie and chimera. Tue Doctor, at the same time, laments that the sonnets ever made their appearance. Bat if we treat the whole matter as imaginary, why lament the testimonies of a verbal amour? and if the fact was others/ix, I e.ri see no great benefit that cou:d result to the world from believing any one man that ever existed to have been more immaculate than be really was But Dr. Dtake goes farther, and. not very consistently with his oven system, abuses the lady, calling bar profligate, and the worst woman (we must suppose Juvenars heroines included) that was ever described by the pea of a poet. Tiber* i. reason in roasting eggs, Dr. Drake ; and let there be reason also before you seer& to blackness the memory of a poor female. If the affair was unreal, where was the guilt of this anonyoutis lady? and if it was not unreal, Shakspeare. in as far as they were both concerned, must have been as profligate as herself, and, apparently, less excusable, since he was, according to Ms own account, as elderly personage, who ought to Ita“'edilleskand not assailed her with his" sugared" sonnets. As to his accusations of her, they go, with me, far isoildni on either supposition. In the caw of the matter hiving born Mere coquetry. we know not what the lady might have bad to say for herself ; or supposing she bad nothing to say, her offence was venial. •If k was otherwise. Shakspeare, with reverence be it splice, yes. the wet Sharpen., 'man, only in the light of a kiss-and-tell who, Weed, .bielisgrAlogs i s warning that be a est shirrs to bS believed. Aulielil tiitdtiMabet be says— • ' l .l ‘ • 'Mil l t iamlif eyebA n L W : Now skis illwrouleg beirtile Own is bag, Mad deedevere by teed can believed be." If I 3) I, i