child's coming fo recently out of the hands of its Creator, ferve alfo to imprefs an additional awe on the mind of the malefactor, at fuch a time? If fuperftition can ever be excused for its weakness, it muft furely be in fuch an instance as this.

Shakespeare has wrought up an horrid and affecting picture, in this fcene, upon the latter part of this fubject, where he makes one of the murderers give an account of the maffacre of Edward's two chil dren.

Tirrel. The tyrannous and bloody act is done!
The most arch deed of piteous maffacre,
That ever yet this land was guilty of!
Dighton and Forrest, whom I did fuborn
To do this piece of ruthlefs butchery,
(Albeit they were flefht villains, bloody dogs),
Melting with tendernefs and mild compaflion,
Wept like two children in their deaths' fad ftory.
O thus, quoth Dighton, lay the gentle babes-
Thus, thus, quoth Forrest, girdling one another
Within their innocent alabafter arms;

Their lips were four red roses on a stalk,
And in their fummer beauty kissed each other.
A book of prayers on their pillow lay,

Which once, quoth Forreft, almoft changed my mind-
But, oh! the devil-There the villain ftopt,
When Dighton thus told on-We fmothered

The most replenished fweet work of nature,
That from the prime creation e'er fhe framed-

Hence both are gone. With confcience and remorfe
They could not speak.

In the latter part of the fame Scene is expreffed a juft and fpirited maxim, which, I believe, will be fufficiently vouched by experience, That in difficult matters, quick refolves and brifk actions generally fucceed better than flow counfels and circumfpect conduct.

Richard, on hearing of the defection of his forces: Come, I have learned that fearful commenting

Is leaden fervitor to dull delay.

Delay leads impotent and fnail-paced beggary-
Then fiery expedition be my wing,

Jove's Mercury, and herald for a king.
Go, mufter men, my council is my shield,
We must be brief, when traitors brave the field.

SCENE

SCENE IV.

The temporary relief which an opportunity of expreffing its forrows affords to the mind of a perfon in affliction, is poetically defcribed in a paffage here.

The Queen and Duchess of York.

Duchefs. Why fhould calamity be full of words?
Queen. Windy attornies to their client-woes,
Airy fucceeders of inteftare joys,

Poor breathing orators of miferies!

Let them have fcope, though what they do impart,
Help nothing elfe, yet they do eafe the heart.

ACT V. SCENE V.

In this Scene, the adverfe camps are fuppofed to be pitched near each other at night, ready to join battle in the morning; and in the space between, the fpirits of all the perfons murdered by Richard arise, threatening destruction to him, and promifing fuc cefs to Richmond. But the ghofts here are not to be taken literally; they are to be understood only as an allegorical reprefentation of thofe images or ideas which naturally occur to the minds of men during their fleep, referring to the actions of their lives, whether good or bad.

"Sweet are the flumbers of the virtuous man," fays Addison, in his Cato; and a modern writer, in a poem on the fubject of dreams, moft emphatically expreffes himself thus:

"Nor are the oppreffor's crimes in fleep forgot ;

"He ftarts appalled, for confcience flumbers not ↑."

That this is the fenfe in which our Poet meant this scene to be accepted, is fully evident from his representing both Richard and Richmond to have been afleep during the apparition, and therefore capable

Inteftate joys. This expreffion is difficult. The only editor who has taken notice of it, is Theobald; but his comment is ae obfcure as the text, 1 fhall not attempt it. ↑ Something New, Chap. XLIX.

of

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 closed, though so strongly marked, is nothing more than might be fuppofed natural, in the circumftances and fituation of the fpeaker, 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 affli&t me?
The lights burn blue-is it not dead midnight?
Cold fearful drops ftand on my trembling flesh-
What! do I fear myfelf? there's none else by.
My confcience hath a thoufand feveral tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several 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 fhould they? Since even I myself
Find in myfelf 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.

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

Such is the nature of man, that the flightest alarm arifing from within, difcomfits him more than the greatest dangers prefenting themselves from without. Body may be overcome by body, but the mind only can conquer itself. Notions of religion are natural to all men, in fome fort or other. The good are infpired by devotion, the bad terrified by fuperftition. The admonitions of confcience are taken for fupernatural emotions, and this awes us more than any dif ficulty in the common courfe of things. Man has been feverally defined a rifible, a rational, a religious, and a bafhful animal. May I take the liberty of adding the farther criterion of his being a confcientious one? And this diftinction, I fhall venture to fay, is lefs equivocal than any of the others,

HENRY the EIGHTH.