In such passages as the following, "If your highness' heart be not kingdom-proof, every pelting prince will batter it," that of Measure for Measure, "Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, Would use his heaven for thunder," and the word marked in italics has evidently its true and appropriate meaning, and needs not be pared down to the insignifi cant interpretation here given to it. In Pan's ridiculous speech, there can be no doubt that the author meant to substitute a goose for Leda's swan. When Coryn makes the following poor pun, "for my part, if I may enjoy the fleece of my silly flock with quietness, I will never care three flocks for his ambition," instead of being gravely told that flock has here a more confined sense than the preceding, meaning a single flock of wool,' (which is nevertheless very true,) if the editor had referred us to our Latin grammar for the proverbial expression, "Flocci pendere," he would have done every thing that was needful on the occasion. We will not weary ourselves and our readers with further remarks of this nature, but will flatter ourselves with the hope that we have said enough to insure a little more attention to the direct and obvious duties of editorship in the portions which are yet to come of the present work. Our observations will have produced a still more desirable effect, if they contribute in any degree to awaken the vigilance and spur the industry of those who (if we have not been misinformed) either are or are about to be engaged in the labour of preparing a new edition of the plays collected by Dodsley, together with some considerable additions to the number of them. At the same time, we desire to throw no unnecessary difficulties in the way of such undertakings; and, contemptuously as we may have spoken of some of the worthies of our early drama whom it has been the fashion among certain critics to extol beyond all bounds of good sense and sound discrimination, we should be much gratified if we could see all the existing dramatic productions of that interesting period brought forwards in a readable shape, This will only be done, however, by means of successive detachments; and, while we are forced to be content with selections, it is earnestly to be wished that those selections may be made with judgment. Of the occasional poetic beauties to be found in almost all these productions, the specimens published some years ago by Mr. Lamb are well calculated to inform those readers who are not sufficiently imbued with "the love of ancient lore" to wade wade through the heterogeneous masses which encompass them: but they often start forth so unexpectedly as to baffle the most sagacious hunter; and we shall perhaps obtain more than excuse, if, before we conclude, we vary this unentertaining morsel of criticism with a few scraps of quotation. Goethe's Faustus appears greatly to excell the play of old Marlowe in the merits of invention and terrible interest. We are not now speaking of the correctness of that taste which can delight itself in such wild and revolting fictions: but the distorted phraseology of the Teutonic drama must not pretend to compare with the strength and purity of our Elizabethian period. "Where," asks the necromancer of his attendant dæmon, ❝ tell me, where is the place that men call hell ?” "Mephostophilis. - Within the bowels of these elements, Where we are tortur'd and remain for ever. Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed All places shall be hell that are not heaven." "This description' the editor most justly notices as being both morally and poetically beautiful.' To gratify his master's love of antiquarian research, the accommodating spirit conjures up the resemblance of "Helen of Greece," and Faustus bursts out into the following poetical rhapsody : "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen! make me immortal with a kiss Her lips suck forth my soul see where it flies! Come, Helen, come! give me my soul again! I will be Paris, and for love of thee Instead of Troy shall Wittenberg be sack'd; And none but thou shalt be my paramour !" (P. 79.) (For sky read sea, however, Mr. Editor; or, sfoot!" you will confound our mythology.) The hardy boldness of metaphor, that genuine stamp of an unfettered age, which delights and astonishes us in Shakspeare, belongs in a scarcely inferior degree to several of his contemporaries : "Heart, wilt not break? and thou, abhorred life, In which the sea hath swoln with Genoa's blood, * Have I outlived the death of all these hopes? Antonio and Mellida. A. 1. Sc. 1. "Oh, calm, hush'd, rich content, Is there a being blessed without thee? How soft thou down'st the couch where thou dost rest, "Why, man," says Feliche the humourist, For when I view, with an attentive thought, That creature fair, but proud; him rich, but sot; Id. p.149. Thus erroneously printed in the old quartos, and so retained by the present editor: Veins, sinews, arteries, why crack ye not? Printed, bast thou.. Printed blessedness. The The other witty, but unmeasur'd arrogant; Him great, yet boundless in ambition; Him high-born, but of base fe; t'other fear'd, Lord! how I clap my hands, and smooth my brow, A grateful spirit to Omnipotence!" Id. p. 151. "As, having clasp'd a rose Id. p. 162. "Amazed, even lost in wond'ring, I rest full Parasitaster, P. 3$9. In turning over this last-mentioned play, we remark two striking instances of carelessness which had before escaped us. In p. 308. the speeches of Dulcimel and Tiberio are printed as vulgar prose, which are in truth as good well-measured verse as was ever written; and again, in p. 318. "these court feasts' are to us Servitor's court fasts;" evidently meaning, “these feasts are fasts to us servitors." We might suspect an error in this line, which the editor seems to think requires no comment: but, the relative who being understood, (a licence by no means unusual,) the passage will construe as it stands, and may have been so written; or, more probably, thus, "yet feared, fears, and most where he most loved," or, by a still slighter correction, yet feared, fears, and fears most where most loved. † Printed with a full stop. ART. ART. II. The Transactions of the Linnéan Society of London, Vol. XI. Part the First. 4to. pp. 182. Il. Is. Boards. White and Co. &c. 1814. IT T happens, we think, that the Transactions of most of the scientific associations in this country make their appearance at first in the form of entire volumes, and afterward in parts of volumes; and to the latter mode the public must be partial on one account, viz. that it enables them to peruse the communications of learned men in a more recent state. We have heard it slyly surmized, however, that the portions of an erudite tome are far more saleable than its aggregate amount. Whether either of these motives, or any other, may have induced the gentlemen of the Linnéan Society to send their lucubrations to the press by more partial instalments than they did formerly, we pretend not to divine: but, at least, we may confidently assert that, if any diminution of the accustomed demand for their papers has really taken place, it cannot fairly be imputed to an abatement of zeal on the part of the members, or to any inferiority in the value of their researches.-Their present delivery consists of twelve articles, which we shall notice with our usual brevity. Description of several new or rare Animals, principally marine, discovered on the south Coast of Devonshire, by George Montagu, Esq. F.L.S.-This veteran and successful contributor to the British Fauna here presents us with not fewer than twentyone species, of rare or hitherto unknown occurrence on our shores. Their designations are, Cancer hippa septemdentatus,-biaculeatus,-gammarus spinosus,gammarus galba,gammarus monoculoides,-gammarus obtusátus, gammarus pedatus, Phalangium acaroides, Nycteribia vespertilionis, Monoculus rostratus, Oniscus cœruleatus, Doris papillose,—quadricornis,—pennigera, Aphrodita viridis, Amphitrite vesiculosa, Nereis sanguinea, -maculosa, Holothuria digitata, Tholassina mutatoria, and Planaria vittata. The author's accurate and perspicuous descriptions are well illustrated by engravings, and enriched with valuable critical remarks. The first in the list of crabs is, apparently, a non-descript, upwards of an inch and a quarter in diameter, and characterized by seven denticulations on each side, besides those which guard the eyes. All the specimens that were taken were males, and procured in deep water.-The biaculeatus, of which a solitary specimen was caught in the trawl, somewhat approaches to the tetraodon, but is narrower, more gibbous, destitute of the lateral spines, &c.-The monoculoides chiefly deserves attention as forming a link between Cancer and Monoculus. It is thus |