talents, but only fupplies the faculty of fhewing them; and this he could do, without any foreign affiftance.

The poor unhappy Prince of Wales, fucceffor to Edward the Fourth, makes a reflection here, fo becom ing the natural fpirit of a noble mind, that it muft raife a regret in the Reader, that he was not permitted to live and reign over a brave and a free people.

题

When his wicked uncle Richard appoints the Prince's refidence at the Tower, till his coronation, he asks who built that fortrefs? and being told it was Julius Cæfar, he says,

That Julius Cæfar was a famous man :
With what his valour did enrich his wit,
His wit fet down to make his valour live.
Death makes no conqueft of this conqueror;
For till he lives in fame, though not in life.

Richard. My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holbora,
I faw good strawberries in your garden there;

I do beseech you fend for fome of them.

3

Ely. Marry, and will, my lord, with all my heart. [Exit Ely.

Could any writer but Shakespeare have ever thought of fuch a circumftance, in the midst of a deep tragedy, as the fending an old grave Bishop on an errand for a leaf of strawberries? and this, in the most formal scene of the Play too, where the lords are met in council, to fettle about the day for the coronation ?

But could any writer but himself have attempted fuch a whim, without fetting the audience a-laughing at the ridiculousnefs and abfurdity of fuch an incident? And yet he contrives, fome-how or other, to hold us in awe, all the while; though he must be a very ingenious critic, indeed, who can fupply any fort of reafon for the introduction of fuch a familiar and comic stroke, upon fo ferious an occafion. And

what

what renders the folution of this paffage ftill more difficult, is, that the requeft is made by a perfon, too, whofe mind was deeply intent on murder and ufurpation, at the very time.

None of the editors have taken the least notice of this article, and the first notion that occurred to me upon it, was, that perhaps Richard wanted to get rid of old Ely, after any manner, however indecent or abrupt, in order to be at liberty to plot with Buckingham in private; for the moment the Bishop goes out on his errand, he says,

Coufin of Buckingham, a word with you.

But as he did not fend the reft of the Council-Board a-packing after him, and adjourn them from the bed of justice to the ftrawberry bed, but retires immediately himself with his complotter Buckingham, we cannot fuppofe this idea to have been the purpose intended by fo extraordinary a motion.

There is, then, no other way left us to refolve this text, than to impute it folely to the peculiar character that Shakespeare has given us all along of this extraordinary perfonage; whom he has reprefented throughout, as preferving a facetious humour, and exerting a fort of carelefs eafe, in the midst of all his crimes.

I am forry not to be able to give a better account of this particular, than what I have here offered, because, if it is to reft upon fuch a comment, our author muft, in this inftance, be thought to have betrayed a manifest ignorance in human nature, or the nature of guilt at leaft, as no vicious perfon, I do not mean thofe of profligate manners merely, but no defigning or determined villain was ever chearful, yet, or could poffibly be able to affume even the femblance of carelefinefs or cafe, upon any occafion whatsoever.

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lays Adon Is Co; and a modern writer, in
a part in se urent of dreams, moft emphatically
express 3:

kar je meter's crimes in fleep forgot ;

pyuta, for conscience flambers not †."

Turmas e fente in which our Poet meant
the excepted, is fully evident from his
Jeg burd and Richmond to have been
ring apparition, and therefore capable

The capresion is difficult. The only editor who has takea
mhusky mat has comment is a obfcure as the text, 1 fhall not
JA. IL:X

of

1

of receiving thofe notices in the mind's eye only, as Hamlet fays; which intirely removes the feeming abfurdity of fuch an exhibition.

The foliloquy of felf-accufation, which Richard enters upon alone, immediately after the spectral vifion is clofed, though so strongly marked, is nothing more than might be fuppofed natural, in the circumftances and fituation of the speaker, as there defcribed.,

Richard, ftarting from his couch.

Give me another horfe-bind up my wounds-
Have mercy, Jefu-Soft, I did but dream.
O coward confcience, how doft thou afflict me?
The lights burn blue-is it not dead midnight?
Cold fearful drops ftand on my trembling flesh-
What! do I fear myself? there's none else by.
My confcience hath a thousand feveral tongues,"
And every tongue brings in a feveral tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
All feveral fins, all used in each degree,
Throng to the bar, all crying, Guilty! guilty!
I fhall defpair-There is no creature loves me;
And if I die, no foul fhall pity me.

Nay, wherefore should they? Since even I myself
Find in myself no pity for myself.

Richard. Who's there?

Enter Ratcliff.

Ratcliff. My lord, the early village cock

Hath twice done falutation to the morn;

Your friends are up, and buckle on their armour.

Richard. Ratcliff, I fear, I fear.

Ratcliff. Nay, good my lord, he not afraid of shadows.
Richard. By the apostle Paul, fhadows, to-night,
Have ftruck more terror to the foul of Richard,
Than can the fubftance of ten thousand foldiers,
Armed in proof, and led by fhallow Richmond.

B

I fhall here clofe my obfervations on this Play, with a reflection upon the laft paragraph above.

In the latter part of this Scene, poor Haftings, juft before he mounts the fcaffold, makes a reflection, which too frequently occurs to thofe who put their truft in princes; or, indeed, in general, to all who reft their hope on any other stay but their own upright nefs and virtue.

Haftings. O momentary grace of mortal men,

Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!
Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks,
Lives like a drunken failor on a maft,
Ready with every nod to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

ACT IV. SCENE III.

Among the various crimes of man, murder ftands in a diftinct clafs above them all; except, perhaps, fuicide, as being of the fame species, may be allowed to rank with, or even to exceed, it. The latter par of this pofition, tho', has been difputed by fome moral cafuifts; but I fhall enter no further into the argument here, than just to observe, that one of these acts does not fhock the human mind fo much as the other. We are fenfible of a tendernefs and compaffion for the unhappy felf-devoted victim, but are impreffed both with an horror and detestation against the homicide.

But the circumftance which moft eminently diftinguishes both of thefe crimes from every other fpecies of guilt, is their being fo wholly repugnant to nature. In other vices, we may fuffer a temptation, and have only a moral ftruggle to conquer; but one muft be trained, be educated to thefe, muft ftifle fympathy, and overcome our first, by a fecond nature.

And of all murders, from the days of Herod to thefe, the killing a child muft furely raise a ftronger war in the moft hardened villain's breaft, than the flaughter of an adult. Its innocence, its engaging manners, even its very helpleffnefs, muft plead fo movingly in its defence, as to render the deed, one fhould think, impoffible! Might not the idea of a

child's