ed, that in a pleasant conversation amongst their common friends, Mr. Combe told Shakspeare in a laughing manner, that he fancied he intended to write his epitaph, if he happened to outlive him; and since he could not know what might be said of him when he was dead, he desired it might be done immediately, upon which Shakspeare gave him these four verses:

"Ten in the hundred lies here ingrav'd,
"Tis a hundred to ten his soul is not sav'd:
If any man ask, who lies in this tomb?

Oh! ho! quoth the devil, 'tis my John-a-Combe."

But the sharpness of the satire is said to have stung the man so severely, that he never forgave it. The commentators have taken laudable pains to disprove this miserable story, and to clear Shakpeare's reputation from the charge of malignant wit. They have accordingly found a similar inscription, in a piece entituled, "The More the Merrier, by H. P. &c. 1608."

"FENERATORIS EPITAPHIUM.

Ten in the hundred lies under this stone,
And a hundred to ten to the devil he's gone."

And in the Remains, &c. of Richard Brathwaite, printed in 1618, is the following:

66

Upon one John Combe of Stratford-uponAvon a notable usurer, fastened upon a tomb

that

that he had caused to be built in his life

time:

"Ten in the hundred lies in this grave,

But a hundred to ten whether God will him have,

Who then must be interred in this tombe,

Oh! (quoth the devill), my John-a-Combe."

Mr. Steevens took the trouble to examine Combe's will, by which it appears that so far from erecting a tomb in his life time, he directed that one should be raised within one year after his decease, which happened in 1614, two years before the death of Shakspeare. And instead of any thing like animosity between him and Shakspeare, Mr. Combe bequeathed to him five pounds; and Shakspeare left to Combe's nephew his sword, as a legacy.

It were to be wished that Shakspeare could be as successfully cleared from the charge of being the author of the vile and unchristian doggrel which disgraces his own grave stone.

"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust inclosed here,

Blest be the man that spares these stones
And curst be he that moves my bones."

Mr. Malone thinks that the last line was suggested by an apprehension that our author's remains might share the same fate with those of the

rest of his countrymen, and be added to an immense pile of human bones deposited in the char nel house at Stratford. But though this may account for the oddness of the injunction, it is no apology for the harshness of the sentiment or the meanness of the verse.

EDWARD and GEORGE HERBERT.

THE history of the human mind can hardly ex

hibit a more eccentric and unaccountable character than the celebrated lord Herbert, of Cherbury, who served as ambassador in France, with great reputation, under James the First, and was created a knight of the Bath, and made a peer ; but in the rebellion he sided with the parliament. He died in 1648, aged 69. He was at the same time a deist and an enthusiast; a man of high courage and a knight errant; he professed the most refined principles, while he acted by the falsest maxims of morality.

When he was in France, and was on a visit at the duke of Montmorency's, it happened one evening, that a daughter of the duchess de Ventadour, of about ten or eleven years of age, went to walk in the meadows with his lordship, and several other ladies and gentlemen. The young lady wore a knot of ribband on her head, which a French chevalier snatched away, and fastened to his hatband. He was desired to return it, but refused. The lady then requested lord Herbert to recover it for her. A race ensued A race ensued; and the chevalier finding himself likely to be overtaken, made a sudden turn, and was about to deliver his

prize to the young lady, when lord Herbert seized his arm, and cried, 'I give it to you.' 'Pardon me,' said the lady, it is he who gives it me.'Madam,' replied lord Herbert, I will not contradict you; but if the chevalier do not acknowledge, that I constrain him to give you the ribband, I will fight with him.' And the next day he sent him a challenge, being bound thereunto,' says he, by the oath taken when I was made Knight of the Bath.'

But what is most extraordinary in the life and character of this nobleman is that, while he endeavoured to destroy the reality and evidence of the Christian revelation, he was actuated by a spirit of fanaticism and superstition which has not been exceeded by the fervid imagination of the most credulous devotee.

After he had written his celebrated book against revealed religion, under the title ' De Veritate, prout distinguitur à revelatione,' being justly apprehensive that it would meet with much opposition, he continued some time in doubt whether he should venture upon the publication. In this perplexity, he had recourse to a measure which would have become George Fox, Jacob Behmen, or any other wild enthusiast; but certainly was not to have been expected in one who was setting himself against the authority of the scriptures.But let his lordship speak for himself.

"Being thus doubtful in my chamber, one fair day in the sunmer, my casement being opened towards