Mr. George Burges has written a new Greek play, which he entitles the SUPPLICES. As it does not fall within our plan to criticise the classical compositions of modern authors, we shall abstain from any remarks upon this ingenious production, and content ourselves with giving one specimen of his successful imitation of Eschylus.

We rather think, however, that Æschylus would have preferred σὺ γενοῦ το σὺ γενέσθω: but perhaps Mr. Burges recollected the precept nec desilies imitator in arctum &c. The notes are equally remarkable for sound criticism, good feeling, and elegant Latinity.

We understand that Professor Hermann has at length put his Eschylus to press. The long time which he has bestowed upon the revision of that noble tragedian leads us to expect that he will produce a work not unworthy of his high reputation for sagacity and learning.

Aristophanis Nubes, fabula nobilissima, integrior edita auctore Carolo Reisigio Thuringio: accedit Syntagma Criticum cum additamentis et commentatio de vi et usu av particule. Lipsiæ, 1820. This is the Gentleman who is so severe upon Porso, as he calls him.

Aristophanis Pax. ex recensione Gulielmi Dindorfii. Lipsiæ,

1820.

A sixth volume of Matthia's Euripides has just appeared, containing his notes upon the first four plays.

Bekker's Thucydides is almost completed. His edition of the Greek Orators will be published by the University of Oxford.

Our readers will hear with interest, that a very important journey has been performed in Ethiopia and Nubia by two gentlemen of this University, Mr. George Waddington, fellow of Trinity College, and Mr. Hanbury of Jesus College. They left the second Cataract of the Nile in the beginning of last November, and proceeded 430 miles up the country, over ground hitherto untrodden by European travellers, making drawings of the ruins of temples and other antiquities; and directing their attention to the formation of an accurate chart of the unexplored country through which they passed. Many of their observations. tend to illustrate the accounts of Strabo and of Ptolemy. These gentlemen are returned to England, and it is the intention of one of them to publish an account of their travels, as far as they embrace matters which are new and interesting to the public.

C

Professor Monk has been occupied for three or four years in preparing a Life of Doctor Bentley; a work which, it is expected, will be sent to the press early in the ensuing spring. The biography of this scholar, the most celebrated of those who ever established a reputation in the department of classical learning, is intimately connected with the history of the University of Cambridge for above 40 years, a period of unusual interest, and with the literary history of this country for a still longer time. It has been frequently remarked, that such a work is a desideratum in English literature and this it is the author's endeavour to supply. He has industriously sought for documents which may throw a light upon the events of those days, or tend to illucidate the character, the conduct, and the writings of Bentley. For this purpose he has searched the voluminous manuscript collections of Baker, of Cole, and of Hearne, as well as other records preserved in the British Museum, the Bodleian, the Lambeth Library, &c. He has been indulged with an unreserved access to all the registers and other documents belonging both to the University and to Trinity College; which in conjunction with various letters and private papers, and a full assemblage of legal records, have enabled him to unravel and explain the curious conflicts which Bentley went

through in the course of his long academical life; and which, no less than in his writings, brought him in contact with many of the most illustrious characters who were his contemporaries. Professor Monk has also availed himself of that very important correspondence between Bentley and the first scholars of his age, which has been spoken of in p. 403 of the Museum Criticum; as well as of a still more extensive assortment of papers, comprising letters of Bishop Atterbury, Bishop Sherlock, Bishop Greene, Dr. Conyers Middleton, Dr. Andrew Snape, Bishop Hare, Bishop Zachary Pearce, and many other highly distinguished characters, who were intimately connected with the leading events of Bentley's history; also the whole of the manuscripts left by Dr. Colbatch, his principal opponent in Trinity College. He has omitted no means in his power of obtaining a sight of Bentley's letters, which are in private hands, having made applications to all quarters where he thought that such deposits were likely to be found. In several of these cases he has been successful: still he is persuaded that there exist other specimens of his correspondence in quarters to which he has not been able to discover any clue. Should this notice meet the eye of persons who possess such papers, or who can afford intelligence respecting them, the author will feel highly obliged by a communication upon the subject.

We are informed by our publisher, that the greater part of our preceding Numbers are out of print: and we have accordingly directed them to be reprinted without delay.

LETTERS

OF

Mr. RICHARD BENTLEY

AND

Dr. EDWARD BERNARD.

THE following Correspondence of Bentley with his friend Dr. Edward Bernard, the Savilian Professor at Oxford, a person justly celebrated as a Scholar, a Philosopher, and an Antiquarian, is now for the first time given to the public. It is copied from the original Letters, which with the rest of Dr. Bernard's papers, are preserved in the Bodleian Library. A transcript of them has been most obligingly made for us by Mr. Bandinel, the late Librarian of that noble Collection in decyphering the hand of Dr. Bernard, which is in some places not very legible, he was assisted by Mr. Elmsley.

At the time of writing all these letters, Bernard was resident at Oxford, and Bentley was in the family of Dr. Stillingfleet, the Bishop of Worcester, to whose second son, James Stillingfleet (afterwards Dean of Worcester) he had long been tutor. The greater part of these letters being without dates, it is only by attention to their subjects, that the real order of them. can be ascertained. The three first letters in this Collection were written about the end of the year 1689 or beginning of 1690, and relate to a scheme for the purchase of the noble Library of Dr. Isaac Vossius,

Canon of Windsor, who was then lately dead, for the Bodleian to effect which Bentley, who had been residing with his pupil at Wadham College, received a commission from some leading Heads in the University, to open a negotiation with Adrian Beverland, the executor of Vossius. The plan failed for reasons which may be deduced from these letters; and the Library was conveyed to the University of Leyden. This is the transaction to which allusion is made in 'Boyle's Examination,' where an uncandid attempt is made to throw blame upon Bentley's management.

All the Latin Letters relate to Bentley's celebrated work, his Appendix to Joannes Malelas, then printing at the Sheldon Press, in the form of an Epistle to Dr. Mill; the proof sheets of which passed through Dr. Bernard's hands. The critical matter in these letters is highly curious, and forms an interesting commentary upon the Appendix.

The last letter in this correspondence, No. 17. was written by Bentley while he was in the midst of his first course of Boyle's Lectures, known by the name of his Sermons on Atheism,' the three first of which Discourses had been already printed, and had been read by his friend Bernard, who wished, it seems, that in the remainder of his Course, he would reply to objections brought against the Christian Religion by the Jews.

The Letters forming this correspondence were inserted in the splendid volume entitled BENTLEII EPISTOLÆ, printed (but not published) at the expense of the late Dr. Burney. But the transcript which he procured from the originals was so incorrectly made, and the Letters are so entirely misplaced, that the possessors of this rare volume find it difficult to comprehend the drift of the correspondence. It is right to say that this part