do; and that this nation are awake, and we are afleep. On board the fhip I worked like a failor; and afterwards, when I came here, was fo reduced, that I was forced by hunger, to offer myfelf to fale upon the Exchange, to be fent into the new world. Oh! my king, do not pity me; no, not even at that time when you hear, or fee me facrificed in your fervice; but pity thofe fervants of Chrift who deferve pity; but the omnipotent God faved me by the hands of an Englishman; and the fame God who heard the crying of my heart, did put it into the heart of a generous nobleman, who is one of the pillars of the throne of England, to affift me. He made me right in the counsel of my heart; he made me known to the fon of the king of England; he fent me to in your own country, no kingdom in the eaft would be like your kingdom, for riches and glory. May the eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, sharpen your feymitar upon all your enemies, and ftrengthen the wrist of your majefty's right hand, to protect our diftreffed nation, according to the wishes and labours of your fervant. It is not certainly known whether this letter came to Heraclius's hand. The letter to the D. of N is printed from the original, in Emin's own hand writing; the character remarkably fair, and even mercantile. From Voltaire's Ignorant Philofopher. Ythagoras, duringhis refidence the place of education, where I Pin odia, learnt, as all the learnt the art of war, according to wifdom. My ambition is to lay my knowledge at the feet of your majefty, and to ferve you in the beft of my ability. For know, O my king, that what is not built on know. ledge, though it is very strong and lofty, is as if it were built upon fand; therefore, my purpofe is, to go well inftructed into your majefty's fervice, and to carry with me men fkilful in all things, (if you give me encouragement,) to ftrengthen and polish your kingdom, like the kingdoms of Eu rope : for you have a good country, and command over many brave men; and if you could gather the Armenians, a rich and trading people, who are fcattered to the east, and the weft, and the north, and the fouth, under the protection of your majefty's arms world knows, at the fchool of the Gymnofophifts, the language of beafts and that of plants. Walking one day in a field near the fea-fhores he heard thefe words: How unhappy am I to be born an herb! Scarce have I attained two inches in height, before a devour. ing monfter, a horrid animal, tramples me under his feet; his jaw is armed with a row of fharp fcythes, with which he cuts me, tears me, and then fwallows me. Man calls this monfter a fheep. I do not think there is in the whole creation a more abominable creature. Pythagoras advanced a few fteps; he met with an oyfter that was yawning upon a fmall rock. He had not yet embraced that admirable law by which we are forbidden to eat our own likeness. He 1 He was going to fwallow the oyster,' when it uttered thefe foothing words: O, nature, how happy is the herb, which is like thy work! when it is cut it regenerates and is immortal; and we poor oyiters, in vain are we defended by a double buckler; villians eat us by dozens at their breakfaft; and it is over with us for ever. What a dreadful deftiny is that of an oyfter, and how barbarous is man! Pythagoras fhuddered; he felt the enormity of the crime he was going to commit; he, weeping, afked pardon of the oyster, and replaced him very fnug upon the rock. Whilft he was returning to the city, in a profound meditation at this adventure, he obferved fome fpiders that were eating flies, fwallows that were eating fpiders, fparrow-hawks that were eating fwallows.. None of thefe folks, faid he, are philofophers. Pythagoras, upon his entrance, was hurted, bruifed, and thrown down by a multitude of beggars and bunters, who ran in crying, Well done, he deferved it. Who? what? faid Pythagoras, getting up; whilft the people continued tunning and crying, We shall have high fun in feeing them broil. Pythagoras imagined they were fpeaking of lentiles, or fome other kind of vegetable-but he was quite mistaken-they meant two poor Indians. O! faid Pythagoras, thefe are doubtlefs two great philofophers, who are tired of their lives; they are defirous of regenerating under another form; there is a pleafure in changing the place of one's abode, though one may be badly lodged-there is no difputing tafte, He went on with the mob as far as the public fquare, where he faw the great pile of wood lighted, and oppofite to it a bench, which was called a tribunal; upon this bench judges were feated, each of whom held a cow's tail in his hand, and they had caps upon their heads, which greatly refembled the two ears of that animal which formerly carried Silenus, when he came into the country with Bacchus, after having croffed the Erythrean fea, dry-footed, and ftopped the courfe of the fun and moon, as it is very faithfully related in the Orphics. There was amongst thefe judges an honeft man well known to Py thagoras. The fage of India explained to the fage of Simos the nature of the festival the Indian people were going to aflit at. The two Indians, faid he, are not at all defirous of being burnt; mygrave brethren have condemned them to that punishment, one for having faid that the fubftance of Xaca is not the fubftance of Brama; and the other for having fufpected that we pleafe the Supreme Being by virtue, without holding, at the point of death, a cow by the tail, becaufe, faid he, we may be virtuous at all times, and becaufe one cannot always meet with a cow just as one may have occafion for her. The good women of the city were fo terrified with two fuch heretical propofitions, that they would not leave the judges in peace, till fuch time as they ordered the execution of these two unfortunate men.. Pythagoras judged that from the herb up to man there were many caufes of uneafinefs. He, how ever made the judges, and even 1 the devotees liften to reafon, which never happened but at that one time. He afterwards went andpreached toleration at Crotona; but one of his adverfaries fet fire to his houfe; he was burnt-the man who had faved two Indians from the flames. Let thofe efcape who can. Account of an Effay on the learning of Shakespeare. By Richard Farmer, M. A. THE HE queftion, whether Shake fpeare had any confiderable knowledge of the learned languages? has been long agitated among the critics. Mr. Farmer is of opinion with thofe who imagine that he had not; for which he brings feveral arguments. The teftimony of Ben Jonfon (fays our author) ftands foremost; and many have held it fufficient to decide the controverfy. In the warmeft panegyric that ever was written, he apologizes for what he fuppofed the only defect in his "beloved friend :" "Soul of the age! Th' applaufe, delight, and won der of our flage * ›› But Jonfon is by no means our only authority. Drayton, the countryman and acquaintance of Shakespeare, determines his excellence to the natural brain only. Digges, a wit of the town before Shakespeare left the ftage, is very ftrong to the purpofe Nature only helpt him, for look thorough This whole book, thou shalt find, Nor once from vulgar languages Suckling oppofes his easier ft rain to the fweets of learned Jonfon. Denham affures us, that all he had was from old mother-wit. His native wood-notes wild, every one remembers to be celebrated by Milton. that Fuller, a diligent and equal fearcher after truth and quibbles, declares pofitively, that his learning was very little, nature was all the art ufed upon him, as he himself, if alive, would confefs it, when he apologized for his untutored lines to his noble patron, the earl of Southampton. "Shakespeare however hath frequent allufions to the facts and fables of antiquity."I will endeavour to fhew how they came to his acquaintance, It is notorious, that much of his matter of fact knowledge is deduced from Plutarch; but in what language he read him, has yet been the question. Take a few inftances, which will elucidate this matter fufficiently. In the third act of Anthony and Cleopatra, Octavius reprefents to his courtiers the imperial pomp of thofe illuftrious lovers, and the arrangement of their dominion. "Unto her He gave the 'stablishment of Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia, Read Libya, fays Mr. Upton, Ben Jonfon, in this copy of verfes, fays that Shakespeare had "Small Latin and lefs Greek." Some read no Greek' which (fays Mr. Farmer) was adopted, above a century ago, by a panegyrift on Cartwright. autho authoritatively, as is plain from Plutarch. This is very true but turn to the tranflation, from the French of Amyot, by Thomas North, 1579, and you will at once fee the origin of the mistake. First of all, he did eftablish Cleopatra queene of Egypt, of Cyprus, of Lydia, and the lower Syria, Again in the fourth act; "My meffenger He hath whipt with rods, dares me to perfonal combat, Cæfar to Anthony. Let the old ruffian know I have many ways to die; mean time, Laugh at his challenge." "What a reply is this, cries Mr, Upton: 'tis acknowledging he fhould fall under the unequal combat. But if we read, Let th' old ruffian know He hath many other ways to die; mean time I laugh at his challenge." We have the poignancy and the very repartee of Cæfar inPlutarch." Moft indifputably it is the fenfe of Plutarch, and given fo in the modern tranflations: But Shakefpeare was misled by the ambi. guity of the old one, "Antonius fent again to challange Cæfar to fight him. Cæfar answered that he had many other ways to die than fo." In the third act of Julias Cæfar, Anthony, in his well-known harangue to the people, repeats a part of the emperor's will: "To every Roman citizen he gives To every fev'ral man, feventy. five drachmas.— Moreover he hath left you all his walks, His private arbours, and new planted orchards, On this fide Tyber." "Our author certainly wrote, fays Mr. Theobald, on that fide Tyber.-Trans Tiberim-prope Cafaris hortos. And Plutarch, whom Shakespeare very diligently ftudi. ed, exprefsly declares, that he left the public his gardens and walks beyond the Tyber." 66 But hear again the old tranflation, where Shakespeare's ftudy lay: he bequeathed unto every citizen of Rome, feventy-five drachmas a man, and he left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this fide of the river Tyber." Mr. Farmer proceeds to fhow, that Shakespeare took many of the fubjects for his plays from Englifh authors or tranflators, and not from books in the learned tongue. But to come nearer to the purpofe, what will you fay, (fays he) ifI can fhow you, that Shakespeare, when, in the favourite phrafe, he had a Latin claffic in his eye, moft affuredly made ufe of a tranflation. Profpero, in the tempeft, begins the addrefs to his fpirits, "Ye elves of hills, of ftanding lakes and groves." This fpeech, Dr. Warburton rightly obferves to be borrowed from Medea's in Ovid; And it proves, fays Mr. Holt, beyond contradiction, that Shakespeare was perfectly acquainted with the fentiments of the ancients on the fubject of inchantments. The ori ginal lines are thefe, Auraque, venti montefque, amnefque, lacufque, P 3 Diique Diique omnes nemorum, diique om nes notes ad fte." The tranflation of which, by Golding, is by no means literal, and Shakespeare hath clofely followed it ; "Yeayres and winds; ye elves of hills, of brookes, of woodes alone, Of ftanding lakes, and of the night, approche ye everych one. In the Merchant of Venice, the Jew, as an apology for his behaviour to Anthonio, rehearfes many fympathies and antipathies for which no reafon can be rendered. "Some love not a gaping pigAnd others, when a bagpipe fings i'th' nofe, Cannot contain their urine for affection." This incident, Dr. Warburton fuppofes to be taken from a paffage in Scaliger's Exercitations against Cardon. And, proceeds the Doctor, to make this jocular ftory ftill more ridiculous, Shakefpeare, I fuppofe, tranflated phorminx by bagpipes. Here we feem fairly caught; for Scaliger's work was never, as the term goes, done into English. But lackily in an old book, tranflated from the French of Peter le Loier, entitled, a Treatife of Spectres, or ftrange Sights, we have this identical itory from Scaliger; and what is ftill more, a marginal note gives us in all probability the very fact alluded to, as well as the word of Shakespeare, "Another gentleman of this quality liued of late in Deuon, neere Excefter, who could not endure the playing on a bag pipe." A word in Queen Catherine's character of Wolfey, in Henry the eighth, is brought by the doctor as another argument for the learning of Shakespeare. He was a man Of an unbounded ftomach, ever ranking Himself with princes; one that by fuggeftion Ty'd all the kingdom. Simony was fair play. His own opinion was his law, i'th' prefence He would fay untruths, and be Both in his words and meaning. But where he meant to ruin, His promises were, as he then was, mighty; But his performance, as he now is, nothing. Of his own body he was ill, and gave theclergyill example." The word fuggeftion, fays the critic, is here ufed with great propriety, and feeming knowledge of the Latin tongue. And he pro ceeds to fettle the fenfe of it from the late Roman writers and their gloffers: But Shakefpeare's knowledge was from Holingshed; he follows him verbatim. This cardinal was of a great ftomach, for he compted himself equal with princes, and by craftie fuggeftion got into his hands innumerable treafure: He forced little on fimonie, and was not pitiful, and flood affectionate in his own opinion: In open prefence he would lie and feie untruth, and was double both in fpeech and meaning; He would promife much and performe little: He was vicious of his bodie, and gaue the clergie euil example." And it is one of the articles of his impeachment |