"himself and escape from the hands of justice; "to bring this about, he begins a story about his killing a man in Aleppo, which he illuftrates par example by ftabbing himself, and fo winds

up his story and his life in the fame moment. "The author made his appearance in the perfon "of one Brabantio an old man, who makes his "first entry from a window; this occafioned "fome rifibility in the audience: The part is of "an inferior kind, and Mr. Shakespear was "more indebted to the exertions of his brethren, "than to his own, for carrying his play through. "Upon the whole, we do not think the paffion "of jealoufy, on which the plot turns, fo proper "for tragedy as comedy, and we would recom"mend to the author, if his piece furvives its "nine nights, to cut it down to a farce and "ferve it up to the public cum micâ falis in that "fhape. After this fpecimen of Mr. William "Shakespear's tragic powers, we cannot encou

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rage him to purfue his attempts upon MelBC pomene; for there is a good old proverb, which we would advise him to bear in mind—ne futor "ultra crepidam-If he applies to his friend Ben, "he will turn it into English for him.”

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N° LXXXI.

N° LXXXI.

HE conduct of a young lady, who is

THE

the only daughter of a very worthy father, and fome alarming particulars respecting her fituation which had come to my knowledge, gave occafion to me for writing my Paper, N⚫ XLVI. in which I endeavour to point out the confequences parents have to apprehend from novels, which, though written upon moral plans, may be apt to take too ftrong a hold upon young and susceptible minds, especially in the fofter fex, and produce an affected character, where we wish to find a natural one.

As the young perfon in queftion is now happily extricated from all danger, and has feen her error, I fhall relate her ftory, not only as it contains fome incidents which are amufing, but as it tends to illuftrate by example the feveral inftructions, which in my Paper before mentioned I endeavoured to convey.

Sappho is the only child of Clemens, who is a widower; a paffionate fondness for this daughter, tempered with a very fmall fhare of obfervation or knowledge of the world, determined Clemens to an attempt (which has feldom been found to fucceed)

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fucceed) of rendering Sappho a miracle of accomplishments, by putting her under the inftructions of mafters in almost every art and fcience at one and the fame time: His house now became an academy of musicians, dancing-masters, language-masters, drawing-masters, geographers, hiftorians, and a variety of inferior artists male and female; all thefe ftudies appeared the more defirable to Clemens, from his own ignorance of them, having devoted his life to bufinefs of a very different nature. Sappho made juft as much progrefs in each, as is usual with young ladies fo attended; fhe could do a little of moft of them, and talk of all: She could play a concerto by heart with every grace her mafter had taught her, note for note, with the precife repetition of a barrelorgan: She had ftuck the room round with drawings, which Clemens praised to the skies, and which Sappho affured him had been only touched up a little by her mafter: She could tell the capital of every country, when he questioned her out of the newspaper, and would point out the very spot upon the terreftrial globe, where Paris, Madrid, Naples and Conftantinople actually were to be found: She had as much French as puzzled Clemens, and would have ferved her to buy blonde-lace and Paris netting

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at a French milliner's; nay, fhe had gone fo far as to pen a letter in that language to a young lady of her acquaintance, which her mafter, who stood over her whilft fhe wrote it, declared to be little inferior in ftile to Madame Sevigné's: In hiftory, both antient and modern, her progrefs was proportionable; for fhe could run through the twelve Cæfars in a breath, and reckon up all the kings from the conqueft upon her fingers without putting one out of place; this appeared a prodigy to Clemens, and in the warmth of his heart he fairly told her she was one of the world's wonders; Sappho aptly fet him right in this mistake, by affuring him that there were but seven wonders in the world, all of which fhe repeated to him, and only left him more convinced that the herself was defervedly the eighth.

There was a gentleman about fifty years old, a friend of Clemens, who came frequently to his houfe, and, being a man of talents and leifure, was fo kind as to take great pains in directing and bringing Sappho forward in her ftudies: This was a very acceptable service to Clemens, and the vifits of Mufidorus were always joyfully welcomed both by him and Sappho herself: Mufidorus declared himself overpaid by the delight it gave him to contem03

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plate the opening talents of fo promifing a young lady; and as Sappho was now of years. to establish her pretenfions to tafte and fentiment, Mufidorus made fuch a felection of authors for her reading, as were beft calculated to accomplish her in thofe particulars: In fettling this important choice, he was careful to put none but writers of delicacy and fenfibility into her hands; interefting and affecting tales or novels were the books he chiefly recommended, which by exhibiting the faireft patterns of female purity (fuffering diftrefs and even death itself from the attacks of licentious paffion in the groffer fex) might infpire her fympathetic heart with pity, and guard it from feduction by difplaying profligacy in its moft odious colours.

Sappho's propenfity to thefe ftudies fully anfwered the intentions of her kind director, and fhe became more and more attached to works of fentiment and pathos. Mufidorus's next folicitude was to form her stile, and with this view he took upon himfelf the trouble of carrying on a kind of probationary correfpondence with her; this happy expedient fucceeded beyond expectation, for as two people, who faw each other every day, could have very little matter to write upon, there was fo much the more exercife for invention; and fuch was

the