Yet if our author's rival pieces (the diftinct prope y of their fubjects confidered) are written with equal force, it must still be admitted that the latter has more of originality. A novel of confiderable length (perhaps amplified and embellished by the English tranflator of it) fupplied a regular and circumftantial outline for Othello; while a few flight hints collected from feparate narratives of Holinfhed, were expanded into the fublime and awful tragedy of Macbeth.

Should readers, who are alike converfant with the appropriate excellencies of poetry and painting, pronounce on the reciprocal

Vol. XIX, merits of thefe great productions, I muft fuppofe they would defcribe them as of different pedigrees. They would add, that

one was of the school of Raphael, the other from that of

Mm.-529.Michael Angelo; and that if the fteady Sophocles and Virgil fhould

have decided in favour of Othello, the remonftrances of the daring Æfchylus and Homer would have claimed the laurel for Macbeth.

To the fentiments of Dr. Lowth refpecting the tragedy of Othello, a general elogium on the dramatick works of Shakspeare, imputed by a judicious and amiable critick to Milton, may be not improperly fubjoined:

"There is good reafon to fuppofe (fays my late friend the Rev. Thomas Warton, in a note on L'Allegro,) that Milton threw many additions and corrections into the THEATRUM POETARUM, a book published by his nephew Edward Philips, in 1675. It contains criticifms far above the taste of that period. Among these is the following judgement on Shakspeare, which was not then, I believe, the general opinion."-" In tragedy, never any expreffed a more lofty and tragick heighth, never any reprefented nature more purely to the life and where the polishments of art are moft wanting, as probably his learning was not extraordinary, he pleases with a certain wILD and NATIVE elegance." P. 194.

What greater praife can any poet have received, than that of the author of Paradife Left? STEEVENS.

THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH VOLUME.

ADDENDA, &c.

421

Vol. II. P. 80. Add to Lift of detached Pieces of Criticifm:

82. Remarks on Shakspeare. By Edward Dubois. Printed in "The Wreath, compofed of Selections from Sappho, Theocritus, Bion, and Mofchus," &c. Svo. 1802.

83. An Attempt to illuftrate a few Paffages, in Shakespeare's Works. By J. T. Finegan. 8vo. 1802.

IBID. Plays altered from Shakspeare, add:

P. 152. The Merchant of Venice, a Comedy, altered from Shakspeare, by Dr. Valpy, and acted at Reading School, October, 1802. 8vo.

P. 161. King John, an hiftorical Tragedy, altered from Shakfpeare, by Dr. Valpy, and acted at Reading School, 8vo. 1800.

IBID. The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, altered from Shakspeare, by Dr. Valpy, and acted at Reading School. 8vo. 1801.

IBID. P. 197. Add to " England's Mourning Garment," &c. the name of the author, viz. HENRY CHETTLE.

Vol. IV. P. 442. MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. Add to Mr. Steevens's note:

At a banquet given by Ralph Freman, Lord Mayor of London, to the King and Queen, 9 Car. I. 1633, at Merchant Taylors' hall, the ceremonial of which is fet forth in Chauncy's Hertfordshire, p. 123, the mufick of the tongs is introduced; and from the manner in which it is mentioned, could not be of very agreeable found, though well adapted to the delicacy of Bottom's ears. In the proceflion it is faid, "These horsemen had for their mufick about a dozen of the beft trumpeters in their liveries founding before them; after whom came the antimafkers, representing cripples and beggars, on the pooreft leanest jades the dirt carts could afford, who had their musick of keys

and tongs, and the like fnaping, and yet playing in a confort before them; the variety and change from fuch noble mufick and gallant horfes as went before unto the proper mufick and pitiful horfes of these cripples made the greater divertisement." REED.

Vol. V. P. 351. TWELFTH NIGHT.

the bed of Ware in England.] This enormous piece of furniture which, as well as the bells of St. Bennet's, cannot be faid to be introduced with much propriety in Illyria, is still exifting, and as much an object of curiofity as it was two centuries ago. It is also mentioned at the conclufion of Decker and Webster's Northward Hoe, 1607. REED.

Vol. VI. P. 23. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

Baldrick.] "A belt, from the old French word baudrier, a piece of dreffed leather girdle, or belt, made of fuch leather; and that comes from the word baudroyer, to dress leather, curry or make belts. Monfieur Menage fays, this comes from the Italian baldringus, and that from the Latin balteus, from whence the Baltick fea has its name, because it goes round as a belt. This word baudrier among the French fometimes fignified a girdle, in which people used to put their money. See Rabelais, III. 37. Menag. Orig. Franc. Somn. Dict. Sax. Nicot. Dict." Fortefcue Aland's note on Fortefcue, on the Difference between an abfolute and limited Monarchy, 8vo. 1724, p. 52. REED.

Vol. IX. P. 386. WINTER'S TALE. Add to note 5 : One of the almanacks of Shakspeare's time is now before me. It is entitled, "Buckmynfter, 1598. A prognoftication for the yeare of our Lorde God MD.XCVIII. Conteyning certaine rules and notes for divers ufes, and alfo a description of the three eclipfes, and a declaration of the ftate of the foure quarters of this yeare, and dayly difpofition of the wether for every day in the fame. Done by Thomas Buckmynfter. Anno etatis fuæ 66. Imprinted at London by Richard Watkins and James Roberts." REED.

Vol. XI. P. 82. KING RICHARD II. Add to note 8:

Evelyn fays, " Amongst other things, it has of old been obferved, that the buy is ominous of fome funeft accident, if that be fo accounted which Suetonius (in Galba) affirms to have happened before the death of the monfter Nero, when thefe trees generally withered to the very roots in a very mild winter:

and much later; that in the year 1629, when at Padua, preceding a great peftilence almost all the Bay trees about that famous univerfity grew fick and perifhed: Certo quafi præfagio, fays my author, Apollinem Mufafque, fubfequenti anno urbe illa bonarum literarum domicilio exceffuras." (Sylva, 4to. 1776, p. 396.) REED.

IBID. P. 432. FIRST PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH. Line 4, Mr. Ritfon's note. For contradiction read contrac tion.

I take this opportunity of expreffing my concurrence with Mr. Ritfon's fentiments on this fubject, and of declaring my opinion that the tradition of Falstaff having been originally Oldcastle is by no means difproved. The weight of real evidence appears to me to be on the fide of Fuller, who lived near enough to the time of Shakspeare to be accurately informed, and had no temptation to falfify the real fact. To avoid fatiguing the reader with a long train of facts and arguments, it may be fufficient to rely on two authorities which have been too flightly attended to, if they may be faid to be noticed at all. The first is Weever, writing at the very period, who defcribes Oldcastle as Shakspeare does Falftaff, as the page of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, (fee Vol. XII. p. 123,) a circumftance which could hardly have happened if Falftaff had not originally been Oldcastle. The other is Nathaniel Field, a player in Shakspeare's company, who might have acted in the play himself, who could not be mistaken, and who exprefsly refers to Falstaff by the name of Oldcastle. (See p. 95.) Against these teftimonies and others what has been opposed? May I not fay, conjecture and inference alone? Conjecture, I admit, very ingenioufly fuggefted, and inference very fubtilly extracted; but weighing nothing against what is equivalent to pofitive evidence. REED.

Vol. XII. P. 184. SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.

-for thin drink doth fo over-cool their blood, and making many fish meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-ficknefs, and then when they marry, they get wenches.] This ludicrous remark is gravely and seriously introduced by Hippocrates in his Treatife on Diet, (Lib. I. § 20,) "and it is obferved," fays Dr. Falconer," in many parts of the Eaft Indies at this day, where they drink no wine, that the number of women exceeds that of men very confiderably." Falconer on the Influ◄ ence of Climate, &c. 4to. p. 248. REED,

Vol. XVI. P. 267. JULIUS CÆSAR.

He had a fever when he was in Spain.] This paffage Dr. Falconer obferves is a true copy from nature, and thows how an ague may produce cowardice, even in Cæfar himself. Falconer on the Influence of Climate, &c. 4to. p. 163. REED.

IBID. P. 352. Add to note 2:

Since writing this note I have met with feveral instances which fatisfy me of the truth of Mr. Malone's obfervation. I therefore retract my doubt on this subject. REED.

Vol. XIX. P. 296. OTHELLO. Add to note 4:

"Coloquyntida," fays Bullein, in his Bulwark of Defence, 1579, " is most bitter, white like a baule, full of feedes, leaves lyke to cucummers, hoat in the fecond, dry in the third degree." He then gives directions for the application of it, and concludes, " and thus I do end of coloquyntida, which is moft bitter, and must be taken with discretion. The Arabians do call it chandell."

REED.