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Fair, in which he gives a fly glance at Shakefpear-And then a fubftantial watch to have ftolen in upon them, and taken them away with mistaking words, as the fashion is in the stage practice.—It is plain he has Dogberry and Verges in his eye, and no less fo in the following, that he points his ridicule againft Caliban and the romance of The Tempeft-If there be never a fervant-monster in the fair who can help it, he fays, nor a nest of anticks? He is loth to make nature afraid in his plays, like thofe that beget tales, Tempests and fuch like drolleries, to mix his head with other mens heels.-If any of our commentators upon Shakespear have anticipated my remark upon these instances of Jonfon's propensities to carp at their favorite poet, I have overlooked the annotation, but when I find him recommending to his audience fuch a farago of vulgar ribaldry as Bartholomew Fair, by pretending to exalt it above fuch exquifite productions as The Tempest and Much Ado about Nothing, it is an act of warrantable retaliation to expose his vanity.

It is not always however that he betakes himfelf to these masked attacks upon that fublime genius, which he profeffed to admire almost to idolatry, it must be owned he fometimes meets him upon equal ground, and nobly contends with laudable emulation for the chaplet of vic

tory:

tory: What I now particularly have in my eye is his Mafque of the Queens.

Many ingenious obfervations have been given to the public upon Shakespear's Imaginary Beings; his Caliban, Ariel and all his family of witches, ghofts and fairies have been referred to as examples of his creative fancy, and with reafon has his fuperiority been afferted in the fabrication of these præternatural machines, and as to the art, with which he has woven them into the fables of his dramas, and the incidents he has produced by their agency, he is in these particulars ftill more indifputably unrivalled; the language he has given to Caliban, and no lefs characteristically to his Ariel, is fo original, so inimitable, that it is more like magic than invention, and his fairy poetry is as happy as it can be: It were a jest to compare Æschylus's ghoft of Darius, or any ghoft that ever walked with the perturbed spirit of Hamlet: Great and merited encomiums have also been paffed upon the weird fifters in that wonderful drama, and a decided preference given them over the famous Erichtho of Lucan: Preferable they doubtless are, if we contemplate them in their dramatic characters, and take into our account the grand and awful commiffion, which they bear in that kene of tragic terror; but of their poetical fu

periority,

periority, fimply confidered, I have some doubts; let me add to this, that when the learned commentator was inftancing Lucan's Erichtho, it is matter of fome wonder with me, how he came to overlook Jonfon's witches in the Masque of the Queens.

As he has not however prevented me of the honour of bringing these two poetic champions together into the lifts, I will avail myself of the occafion, and leave it with the fpectators to decide upon the conteft. I will only, as their herald, give notice that the combatants are enchanters, and he that has no taste for necromancy, nor any science in the terms of the art, has no right to give his voice upon the trial of

skill.

SHAKESPEAR.

"At Witch. Where has thou been, fifter?

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Killing fwine.

A failor's wife had chefnuts in her lap,

"And mouncht, and mouncht, and mouncht-Give

66 me, quoth I!;

"Aromt thee, witch, the rump-fed ronyon cries.

"Her husband's to Aleppo gone, mafter o' th' Tyger;

"But in a fieve I'll thither fail,

"And like a cat without a tail,

"I'll do I'll do~I'll do.

"ad Witch. I'll give thee a wind.
-Thou art kind.

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And I another.

"3d Witch.

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-Wreckt as homeward he did come:

"At Witch. A drum, a drum!

" Macbeth doth come.

"All. The weird fifters hand in hand, "Pofters of the sea and land,

"Thus do go about, about,

"Thrice to thine and thrice to mine,

"And thrice again to make up nine.

"Peace! the charm's wound up."

JONSON.

"Dame. Well done, my hags!

"But firft relate me what you have fought,

"Where you have been and what you have brought.

"If Hag. I have been all day-looking after

"A raven feeding upon a quarter;

"And foon as the turn'd her beak to the fouth,

"I fnatcht this morfel out of lier mouth.

"2d Hag.

"ad Hag. I last night lay all alone

"O'th' ground to hear the mandrake grone, "And pluckt him up, tho' he gew full low,

"And as I had done the cock did crow.

"6th Hag. I had a dagger; what did I with that? "Kill'd an infant, to have his fat;

"A piper it got at a church-ale,

"I bade him again blow wind in it's tail.

"7th Hag. A murderer yonder was hung in "chains,

The fun and the wind had fhrunk his veins ; "I bit off a finew, I clipt his hair,

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"I brought off, his rags that danc'd'in the air. "8th Hag. The fcrich owl's eggs and the feathers "black,

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"The blood of the frog, and the bone in his back, "I have been getting, and made of his skin

"A purset to keep Sir Cranion in. te to loo

"9th Hag. And I ha' been plucking (plants among) "Hemlock, henbane, adder's tongue, "Night-fhade, moon-wort, libbard's-bane,

"And twice by the dogs was like to be ta en...

"11th Hag. I went to the toad, breeds under the

wall,

"I charm'd him out, and he came at my call,

"I fcratcht out the eyes of the owl before,

"I tore the bat's wing-What wou'd you have more ?” Dame. Yes, I have brought (to help our vows) Horned poppy, cypress boughs,

*་་

The fig-tree wild, that grows on tombs,
And juice that from the larch-tree comes,
The bafilifk's blood, and the viper's skin→→→
And now our orgies let's begin!) edd)
lo Dav

"SHAKE.

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