one was either projected, or perhaps executed, in the vast town of Adrianople, as a central edifice for all those fixed in the environs of that country. For the execution of this vast project, independently of the disciplined troops in barracks at Constantinople, there were more than 12,000 effective men, in the above towns of Natolia; and had the design continued, there was no doubt that there might be obtained with the greatest facility, disciplined troops beyond even the exigency of the case. Besides that, the corps of artillery, grenadiers, and miners, were complete, and perfectly disciplined. The marine was placed in a similar state of improvement. Levendtziftilik and Scutari were to be the two cardinal points, one for Romelia, the other for Asia; from which depôts they could draw enlightened officers, to train and exercise the new recruits in the respective establishments. [Such were the wise projects of the unfortunate Selim: and deeply is it to be regretted, that innovations, however excellent, cannot with safety be executed rapidly, until the public mind is fully prepared to receive them. Those ruffians, the Janissaries, however, undoubtedly saw the future extinction of their power, in regulations imperiously demanded by the tottering state of the Ottoman empire.] To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. elegant mechanical illustration of that line, taken from the works* of John Bernouilli: I believe it has never yet appeared in any English publication. Let A E be a lever indefinitely long, P a weight suspended from the point A, CA equal to € B; and BFG a catenary whose vertex is B, axis BE, and cen tre C. If from any point D of the part of the lever BE, a weight Q equal to the weight P be hung, so that its direction may be in the tangent (RS) to the point F of the curve, where a line at right angles to the axis let fall from D would cut it: the weight Q in this situation will counterbalance the weight P. I cannot help remarking, that it would have been more satisfactory, if the commentator on the letter of Lapicida (Monthly Mag. Nov. 1809) had, instead of indulging a flippancy of wit, shewn some marks of that "reputation which he says he has acquired in his college," in confuting the clear and positive opinion given by Dr. Robison of the fal lacy of the Emerson theory of arches, confirmed as that opinion was by nume rous experiments, and repeated observa tion. (Art. Arch, Ency. Brit. Sup. Sd edit.) To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous HAKESPEARE affords an inexhausS' tible field of criticism, and although too large a proportion of the remarks made by the succession of commentators upon the works of this great poet, may be thought minute, verbal, and perhaps false or frivolous, it must be acknowledged that great light has been thrown upon the obscure and obsolete phraseology, the dark allusions, and perverted passages of this wonderful writer, by the taste, skill, and sagacity, of the very same description of annotators in their happier moments. If in your opinion the obser vations now transmitted to you, will answer the purpose of amusing the public as well as the author, they may serve, when you have room for their insertion, to occupy a niche in your useful and entertaining miscellany. M. M. London, October 13, 1810. TEMPEST.-Act. II. Scene 1. ANTON.-Claribel! she that is queen of Tunis! She that dwells ten leagues beyond man's life! SHAKESPEARE'S extreme neglect, for it could scarcely be ignorance so gross of geographical propriety, is observable in the strange ideas he makes -Antonio and Sebastian to entertain of the prodigious distance between the kingdoms of Naples and Tunis, which are in fact but a few day's sail asunder. This is upon a par with his making Bohemia a maritime country, in his Winter's Tale. Mr. Stevens remarks, that Apollonius Rhodius is chargeable with an equal impropriety, in representing the Rhone and the Po as forming a junc tion, and emptying themselves into the gulph of Venice. But the voyage of Jason, as described in the Argonautics, from Colchis to Greece, is evidently mere poetic fiction. The idea of the marriage itself may be accounted among Shakespeare's "roving flights;" for an alliance between a princess of Naples and a king of Tunis, is an event for which it would assuredly be in vain to search the genealogical records of Europe or of Africa. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves, -By whose aid, winds. The revisal reads, "weak ministers;" and, as Dr. Johnson thinks, with probability, but without necessity, as the meaning may be," Though you are but inferior masters of these supernatural powers." "By whose aid weak masters though ye be," &c. that is, says Sir William Black stone, ye are powerful auxiliaries, but ployment is then to make green ringlets weak if left to yourselves. Your emand midnight mushrooms.” Both these interpretations may safely be pronounced erroneous. The term "weak," refers to the slightness and delicacy of their frame. Thus Prospero styles Ariel, "fine appa rition, my quaint Ariel, my delicate Ariel." And "masters" is used here, as in many other places, in a very general and indefinite sense, and no more stands opposed to agents or agency, than when Falstaff says, "Hear ye, my masters, was it for me to rob the true prince?" Prospero was far from intending to intimate that the preternatural powers these airy beings possessed would be diminished by the restoration of liberty. The pas sage from Spencer, quoted by Mr. Stevens, in corroboration of Dr. Johnson's interpretation, is not in point. masters of her art," evidently means those who had attained to superior skill and proficiency in it. "The This noble speech, undoubtedly imi, tated from that of Medea in Ovid, has been alleged as a proof of the learning of Shakespeare; but the successful industry of Dr. Farmer has reversed the argument. The old translation by Golding is as follows: "Ye ayres and windes, ye elves of hills, of brookes, of woods alone, Of standing lakes, and of the night, approche ye everych one." 'Tis but her picture I have yet beheld, Weak masters though ye be, I have bedim- And that hath dazzled so my reason's light; But when I look on her perfections, &c. med Dr. Dr. Johnson strangely supposes this to be a slip of attention; yet he expressly notices, that in the preceding scene, Protheus had an interview with Sylvia, and in high terms offered her his service. This would indeed be an extraordinary inadvertence on the part of the poet. But the passage is justly explained by Mr. Stevens, as meaning only, that he had seen her outward form, without being long enough acquainted to judge of her mental accomplishments. The parallel quotation from Cymbeline, is a happy and decisive illustration of this sense of the words, if any doubt could reasonally be entertained: All of her that is out of doors most rich! Cease to persuade my loving Protheus, 3 I knew him as myself; for from our infancy. His years but young, but his experience old; Act. II. Scene 4 Much is the force of heaven-born poesy; sinews, Whose golden touch could soften steel and' Make tygers tame, and huge leviathans She in my judgment was as fair as you; How use doth breed a habit in a man, Act. V. Scene 3. MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. Act. III. Scene 2. He has eyes of youth; he writes verses, "What say you to young Mr. Fenton? May." "He speaks holiday," that is, he speaks holiday, he smells April and says Dr. Warburton, "in a high-flown fustian style." On the contrary the host means to compliment Mr. Fenton, by saying, that he expresses himself in choice and courtly language. Hotspur in his admirable description of a modish coxcomb, says, with many holiday and lady-terms he questioned me.” It may be observed that the Falstaff of the Merry Wives of Windsor, bears but a distant resemblance to the Falstaff of Henry IV. It is indeed a new delineation, skilfully adapted to the difference of situation and circumstances, rather than a modification of the original cha racter. Though the happiest and most diverting incident of this drama is introduced too early to give full effect to the interest of the fable, the plot is, upon the whole, excellent; the characters are very various; and, with the exception of the eccentric parts of Pistol and Nym, they are admirably discriminated, and exhibit genuine portraits of nature. MEASURE FOR MEASURE, I find it difficult altogether to accede to the opinion of Dr. Johnson, respect ing this play. He pronounces the light or comic part, to be very natural and pleasing, but censures the graver scenes as possessing more labour than elegance. It appears to me, that the chief merit of the play consists in the grave or tragic parts; and perhaps few of the dramas of Shakespeare can boast scenes of higher excellence than those between Angelo and Isabella in the second, and Claudio and Isabella in the third act. There is indeed much humour mingled with much indecorum, in the low parts; and the character of Lucio, when divested of its superfluities, is happily sus tained, and exhibits at times the best manner of the poet. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Pardon, Goddess of the Night, LOVE'S LABOUR LOST.-Act. 1. Seene 1. To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die, His eye begets occasion for his wit, So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not Act IV. Scene 4. The resemblance is of a very general kind, though sufficiently just. The dying strains of harmony to which the duke has been listening, afforded the same soft and soothing species of pleasure to one sense, that the south wind breathing apon a bank of violets did to another. The circumstances of its stealing and giving odour, are wholly adventitious. A thousand examples of the same poetical license might be adduced from Homer, Milton, and other poets of the first class, as well as from Shakespeare himself, e. g. As sweet as ditties highly penned, Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower, With ravishing division to her lute. How many circumstances are here enumerated which have nothing in the counter-part of the comparison to correspond with them! And the elegant simile in which Virgil compares the queen Carthage to the goddess Diana sur rounded by her nymphs, and far surpas sing them all in grace and beauty, concludes with the mention of a circum of stance wholly extrinsic indeed, but far. more touching and interesting than is exhibited, strictly speaking, by the simile itself: "Latona tacitum pertentant gaudia pectus." The attempts of the learned critic to discover and illustrate a perfect correspondence of circumstances in the present instance, are very unsuccessful. Soft and affecting music does not take away the natural tranquillity of the mind; the self-same strains have not a power of exciting pain or pleasure: and the quotations from Milton are obviously inapplicable. That great poet does not intimate that the self-same strains of Orpheus were proper to excite both mirth and melancholy. He only sup poses that the same effect might be pro "I believe," says Dr. Johnson," that the meaning is, I am not mistress of iny own actions. I am afraid that my eyes betray me, and flatter the youth without my consent with discoveries of love." But it is evident that Olivia was by no means desirous of concealing her passion from the object of it. The meaning of this obscure declaration, therefore, I suppose to be-I am taking a step of which I know not the consequence; and fear to find the flatteries of the eye at variance with the dictates of the understanding. She, however, appears to console herself with the reflection that "if weak women go astray, their stars are more in fault than they." Fate show thy foree; ourselves we do not owe, What is decreed must be, and be this so. 'Tis that miracle and queen of gems, That nature pranks her in, attracts my soul. Act II. Scene 6. We should read thus, Dr. Warburton tells us. "That nature pranks, her mind attracts my soul." This is a frigid criticism indeed. Shakespeare not being of "Magdalen's learned grove," had no idea of representing a lover as enraptured only, or chiefly, with the mental beauties of his mistress. (To be continued.) duced by different means, and that the To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. ear of Pluto might be won by notes warbled either in cheerful or in solemn strains. SIR, Ication signed N your last Number is a communiInquilinus," respecting certain defects in the arrangement of the British Museum, and proposing certain alterations in that esta blishment. With these proposals, taken in general, I perfectly agree with Inquilinus, but must beg leave to take notice of one or two of his statements, which appear to me incorrect, or imma. terial; and by way of premise, I would submit that Inquilinus seems to mention walking three miles in the rain, as if he classed that among the faults imputed to the directors of the establishment; but 2 U taking |