tleman, and was a bold and excellent rider. In my first attendances upon him to the field, the joys of hunting scarcely compensated for the terrors I sometimes felt in following him against my will upon a racing galloway, which he had purchased of old Panton, and whose attachment to her leader was such as left me no option as to the pace I would wish to go, or the leaps I would avoid to take. At length when age added strength and practice gave address, falls became familiar to me, and I left both fear and prudence behind me in the pleasures of the chace. It was in these intervals from school that my mother began to form both my taste and my ear for poetry, by employing me every evening to read to her, of which art she was a very able mistress. Our readings were with very few exceptions confined to the chosen plays of Shakespear, whom she both admired and understood in the true spirit and sense of the author. Under her instruction I became passionately fond of these our evening entertainments; in the mean time she was attentive to model my recitation, and correct my manner with exact precision. Her comments and illustrations were such aids and instructions to a pupil in poetry as few could have given What I could not else have understood she could aptly explain, and what I ought to admire and feel nobody could more happily se→ lect and recommend. I well remember the care she took to mark out for my observation the peculiar excellence of that unrivalled poet in the consistency and preservation of his characters, and wherever instances occurred amongst the starts and sallies of his unfettered fancy of the extravagant and false sublime, her discernment oftentimes prevented me from being so dazzled by the glitter of the period as to misapply my admiration, and betray my want of taste. With all her father's critical acumen she could trace, and teach me to unravel, all the meanders of his metaphor, and point out where it illuminated, or where it only loaded and obscured the meaning; these were happy hours and interesting lectures to me, whilst my beloved father, ever placid and complacent, sate beside us, and took part in our amusement: his voice was never heard but in the tone of approbation; his countenance never marked but with the natural traces of his indelible and hereditary benevolence. The effect of these readings was exactly that, which was naturally to be foreseen. I began to try my strength in several slight attempts towards the drama, and as Shakespear was most upon my tongue and nearest to my heart, I fitted and compiled a kind of cento, which I intitled Shakespear in the Shades, and formed into one act, selecting the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia, Romeo and Juliet, Lear and Cordelia, as the persons of my drama, and giving to Shakespear, who is present throughout the piece, Ariel as an attendant spirit, and taking for the motto to my title page— Ast alii sex, Et plures, uno conclamant ore— I should premise that I was now at the head of Bury School, though only in my twelfth year, and not very slightly grounded in the Greek and Latin classics, there taught. The scene is laid in Elysium, where the poet is discovered and opens the drama with the following address "Most fair and equal hearérs, know, that "whilst this soul inhabited its fleshly tabernacle, I was called Shakespear; a greater name ❝and more exalted honours have dignified its "dissolution. Blest with a liberal portion of "the divine spirit, as a tribute due to the bounty of the Gods, I left behind me an im"mortal monument of my fame. Think not "that I boast; the actions of departed beings may not be censured by any mortal wit, nor "are accountable to any earthly tribunal. Let "it suffice that in the grave When we have shuffled off this mortal coyle "All envy and detraction, all pride and vainglory are no more; still a grateful remem"brance of humanity and a tender regard for "our posterity on earth follow us to this hap"py seat; and it is in this regard I deign once more to salute with my you favoured presence, and am content to be again an actor "for your sakes. I have been attentive to your sufferings at my mournful scenes; guar"dian of that virtue, which I left in distress, "I come now, the instrument of Providence, "to compose your sorrows, and restore to it "the proportioned reward. Those bleeding "characters, those martyred worthies, whom "I have sent untimely to the shades, shall now "at length and in your sight be crowned with "their beloved retribution, and the justice, " which as their poet I with-held from them, "as the arbiter and disposer of their fate, I will "award to them; but for the villain and the "adulterer The perjured and the simular man of virtue― "the proud, the ambitious, and the murderer "I shall Leave such to heaven, And to those thorns, that in their bosoms lodge "But soft! I see one coming, that often hath beguiled you of your tears-the fair Ophe"lia-" The several parties now make their respec tive appeals, and Shakespear finally summons them all before him by his agent Ariel, for whose introduction he prepares the audience by the following soliloquy "Now comes the period of my high commission ; |