him to the throne, would one day revolt from him, as to add, Though then, heaven knows, I had no fuch intent; But that neceffity fo bow'd the ftate, That I and Greatnefs were compell'd to kifs. To his fucceffor he expreffes himself differently, when he says, very Heaven knows, my fon, By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways I met this crown. Thefe delicacies of conduct lie hardly within the poet's province, but have their fource in that great and univerfal capacity, which the attentive reader will find to belong to our author, beyond any other writer. He alone, perhaps, would have perceived the decorum and fitnefs of making fo wife a man referved even with his friends, and truft a confeffion of the iniquities, by which he obtained the crown, only to his fucceffor, whose interest it was not to difgrace what ever could authorize his attainment of it. Let tragedy-writers who make princes prate with pages and waiting-women of their murders and treafons, learn for once, from rude and illiterate Shakespear, how averse pride is coolly to confefs, and prudence to betray, what the fever and deliriums of ambition have prompted us to do, Falstaffe appears with his former difpofitions, but in new fituations; and entertains us in a variety of scenes. Hotspur is as it were revived to the fpectator, in the following character given of him by his lady, when the diffuades Northumberland from joining the forces of the archbishop. Lady PERCY. Oh, yet for heav'n's fake, go not to these wars. Who then perfuaded you to stay at home? In the grey vault of heav'n; and by his light To do brave acts. He was indeed the glass, For those, that could speak low and tardily, To feem like him: So that in fpeech, in gait, In military rules, humours of blood, He was the mark and glafs, copy and book, That fashion'd others. And him, wond'rous him! O miracle of men! him did you leave To look upon the hideous god of war In difadvantage; to abide a field Where nothing but the found of Hotspur's name Never, O, never do his ghoft the wrong, To hold your honour more precife and nice With others, than with Him. Let them alone: Had my fweet Harry had but half their numbers, Juftice Shallow is an admirably well drawn comic character, but he never appears better, than by reflection in the mirror of Falstaffe's wit, in whofe defcriptions he is most strongly exhibited.-It is faid by fome, that the Juftice was meant for a particular gentleman, who had profecuted the author for deer-ftealing. I know not whether that ftory be well grounded. The Shallows are to be found every where, in every age: but they who have least character of their own, are most formed and modified by the fashion of the times, and by their peculiar profeffion or calling. So though we often meet with a refemblance to this Juftice, we shall never find an exact parallel to him, now manners are fo much changed.-Hiftory or Philofophy cannot better fet forth the superior dan ger of a rebellion fanctified by the Church, than by the following words of Morton :. MORTON. The gentle Archbishop of York is up But now, the bishop Turns infurrection to religion: Suppos'd fincere and holy in his thoughts, He's follow'd both with body and with mind, Nor |