of their subjects; on the heinous sin of taking tobacco; on witchcraft, &c., &c.

NOTE 3, PAGE 6.

See the collection of criminal trials for Scotland, pub. lished at Edinburgh, by the celebrated Hugo Arnot.

NOTE 4, PAGE 8.

"The Tempest, one of the most splendid efforts of human genius, was doubtless founded on some Italian novel, though that novel has eluded the research of the most diligent commentators. Some of the thoughts appear to have been taken from Greene's Alphonsus, and certainly the names of some among the characters are derived from other sources. But how insignificant the aggregate of all, compared with the noble work which Shakspere has left us! There is more invention in this piece, than in any other of his dramas."-Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia, 2 vol Biography.

NOTE 5, PAGE 17.

The red-plague, here alluded to by Caliban, has been by Steevens, and other commentators, considered the Erisepelas, a supposition, perhaps, altogether erroneous; as this disease seldom prevails in the form of an epidemic, and is always confined to a local part of the system. In all probability, the red-plague was that species of scarlatina, (scarlet fever) now classified, by nosologists, under the term cynanche maligna, a disease, which was never

well understood, among medical writers, till the middle of last century, when Dr. Fothergill first gave an accurate description of it. About the period (1748) when this excellent physician directed his attention to cynanche maligna, it prevailed to a great extent in London, as an epidemic, and proved fatal to many; among the number, were a portion of the family of the Duke of Newcastle, a circumstance, which gave to the disease, at that time, the term of the Pelham sore throat.

NOTE 6, PAGE 23.

This state of equality is, in our day, advocated by an extensive body in this country, who are denominated socialists ;—their doctrines are very widely promulgated, and have lately gained much notoriety, from the circumstance, of Mr. Robert Owen, their great leader, having been introduced to the Queen, through the auspices of Lord Melbourne; such a distinction conferred upon the Coryphoeus of this new system, has led some to consider, that his opinions have, indirectly, met with the sanction of royalty, while his schemes, being apparently patronized, by the prime mimister of her Majesty's whig cabinet, joined to the recollection, that they were confidentially approved of, by the late Sir Robert Peel, Bart., as also the Duke of Kent, and other distinguished individuals, have given an impetus, and importance, to the principles of the New Moral World, that have produced no small degree of excitement, through all classes of society. The bench of spiritual peers, in this state of affairs, have become alarmed;—and, under the dread which, it is said, these humble disciples of the primitive doctrines of Christianity experience, of losing hold of the revenues of a church, more rich and powerful, than all the other

ecclesiastical establishments in Europe, the pious Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, has very strenuously called upon the legislature, to check the progress of socialism ;denouncing its tenets as blasphemous and immoral; amidst such conflicting events, the calm observer, can only come to the conclusion-we live in strange times!

NOTE 7, PAGE 27.

In the edition of the works of Shakspere, printed at Edinburgh, 1769, the following observations are made on "The Winter's Tale," when alluding to Polixenes, King of Bithynia.

The country here called Bithynia hath, in former editions, been printed Bohemia, an inland kingdom, situated nearly in the centre of Europe; whereas many of the great incidents of the play turn upon its being a maritime country, of which Polixenes was the king. This is a blunder, and an absurdity, of which Shakspere in justice ought not to be thought capable: and as he hath turn'd quite anew, the story contained in the old paltry book of Dorastus and Faunia, [the book from which Shakspere is supposed to have taken the plot] changing most of the main circumstances, and all the names of the persons; it is probable he removed the impropriety, and placed the scene in Bithynia, which the ignorance and negligence of the first transcribers, or printers, might corrupt, and bring back again to Bohemia, by a less variation, in the letters, than they have been guilty of in numberless other places of this work.

NOTE 8, PAGE 27.

The first collection of Shakspere's plays was published, in 1623, seven years after the period of his death ;-Professor Porson and Mr. Upcott, however, in their examination of this edition, found three hundred and fortyseven literal mistakes.

NOTE 9, PAGE 29.

See various remarks, on the morality of Shakspere, in the Biography of early dramatic authors, volume 2nd of Dr. Lardner's Cyclopedia.

NOTE 10, PAGE 42.

An author, more than a century ago, commenting upon these words, "The front of Jove himself," says, that they are an allusion to the description of Phidias' Jupiter from Homer, a circumstance which proves that phrenology was known to the ancient sculptors, and which has not been overlooked by Shakspere.

66

NOTE 11, PAGE 49.

Thy dukedom I resign." -The duchy of Milan being, through the treachery of Anthonio, made feudatory to the crown of Naples, Alonzo promises to resign his claim of sovereignty for the future.-Steevens.

J. FELLOWES, PRINTER, 36, TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD.