to amuse themselves. Accordingly, a play at first was considered only as a supplement to religious duties, and was even acted in the church-yards, or burying grounds.

'What is now called the stage,' observes Mr. Strutt,* 'consisted of three several platforms, or stages raised one above another. On the uppermost, sat the Puter Cœlestis surrounded with his angels; on the secoud, appeared the holy saints, and glorified men; and the last and lowest, was occupied by mere men, who had not yet passed from this transitory life to the regions of eternity. On one side of this lowest platform, was the resemblance of a dark pitchy cavern, whence issued the appearance of fire and flames; and when it was necessary, the audience were treated with hideous yellings and noises, as imitative of the howlings and cries of wretched souls tormented by the relentless demons. From this yawning cave, the devils themselves constantly ascended to delight and instruct the spectators :-to delight, because they were usually the greatest jesters and buffoons that then appeared; and to instruct, for that they treated the wretched mortals who were delivered to them with the utmost cruelty, thereby warning all men, carefully to avoid falling into the clutches of such hardened and remorseless spirits.'

The mysteries were, in England, succeeded by another species of dramatic entertainment called the moralities, in which, the virtues and vices of mankind were personified, and introduced on the stage. In the sixteenth century, however, these mummeries were superseded by Nature's sweetest child, the bard of Avon; and by the productions of a Jonson, and a Fletcher.

The first royal licence for a theatre in England, was granted in 1574, to James Burbage, and four others, servants to the earl of Leicester, to act plays at the Globe, Bankside, or any other part of England. Plays were op posed by the Puritans in the year 1633, and suspended till 1660, when Charles II. licensed two companies, Killigrew's and Davenant's. Till this time, boys performed the parts of women. Sir William Davenant introduced operas, and both companies united, 1684, and continued together till 1694; when, from the reduced salaries given to the per

* Manners and Customs of the English.

formers, the principal of them, under Betterton, obtained a licence, and withdrew to Portugal street, Lincoln's-innfields, in 1695. Plays in Shakspeare's time, began at one o'clock p. m. and continued for two hours. Even in 1667, they commenced at three. Dramatic entertainments were usually exhibited on Sundays, a practice which was not abolished till the third year of Charles I.

5. The progress of the French stage toward perfection, was very similar, and the same revolution in scenic representation, was effected by Corneille, Rotrou, Mairet, and others.

6. We shall not here express any opinion of the character and tendency of theatrical entertainments;-it must, therefore, be distinctly understood, that when the following plays are considered worthy of perusal, they are noticed as literary compositions only.

Select English Dramas.

The dramatic works of Shakspeare.

Tragedies.-Congreve's Mourning Bride. Rowe's Fair Penitent, and Jane Shore. Addison's Cato. Young's Revenge. Moore's Gamester. Mason's Caractacus and Elfrida. Home's Douglas. Johnson's Irene. Murphy's Grecian Daughter. Miss More's Sacred Dramas.

Comedies.-Colman's Clandestine Marriage. Sheridan's School for Scandal, Rivals, and Critic. Cumberland's West Indian, and Wheel of Fortune. Miss Baillie's Series of Plays illustrative of the Passions, 2 vols. 8vo. and Miscellaneous Plays, 8vo.

Select Books on Rhetoric, and the Belles Lettres.

Priest

Smith's Translation of Longinus on the Sublime, 8vo. Melmoth's Letters of Fitzosborne, 8vo. or 12mo. Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, 2 vols. 8vo. Kaimes' Elements of Criticism, 2 vols. 8vo. Blair's Lectures, 3 vols. 8vo Barron's Lectures on Logic, and the Belles Lettres, 2 vols. 8vo. Stewart's Philosophical Essays, 4to. Rollin on Belles Lettres, 4 vols. 8vo. Brown's British Cicero, 3 vols. 8vo. Sheridan on Elocution, 8vo. ley on Oratory and Criticism, 4to. Johnson's Lives of the Poets, 3 vols. 8vo. or 12mo. a rich mine of criticism on the works of our standard poets. Irving's Scottish Poets, 2 vols. 8vo. Dryden's Prose Works, 4 vols. 8vo. Johnson's Fugitive Pieces, 2 vols. 12mo. Warton on Pope and Spenser, 4 vols. 8vo. Irving's Elements of Composition, 12mo. a very useful book for young persons. Scraggs on Composition, 12mo. "Enfield's Speaker,

Approved Translations of select Greek and Roman Writers.

I. GREEK.

Tytler's Essay on the Principles of Translation, 8vo.

Eschylus, by Potter, 8vo. Anacreon, by Moore, 2 vols. 12mo. Select Plays of Aristophanes, by Cumberland and others, 8vo.. Aristotle's Poetics, by Twining, 4to. Callimachus, by Dodd, 4to. Demosthenes, by Leland, 2 vols. 8vo. Dyonisius, by Spelman, 4 vols. 4to. Epictetus, by Mrs. Carter, 2 vols. 8vo. Euripides, by Potter, 2 vols. 8vo.; by Wodhull, 3 vols. 8vo. Herodian, by Hart, 8vo. Herodotus, by Beloe, 4 vols. 8vo. Hesiod, by Cooke, 8vo. Homer, by Pope, 8vo. and 12mo.; by Cowper, 4 vols. 8vo. Isocrates, by Dinsdale, 8vo. Longinus, by Smith, 8vo. Fragments of Menander, by Cumberland, in his Observer, 8vo. Pindar, by West, 2 vols. 12mo. Plutarch, by Langhorne, corrected by Wrangham, 6 vols. 8vo. Polybius, by Hampton, 3 vols. 8vo. Sophocles, by Francklin, 8vo.; by Potter, 8vo. Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, by Polwhele, 2 vols. 8vo. Thucydides, by Smith, 2 vols. 8vo. Xenophon's Cyropædia, by Ashley, 2 vols. 8vo. Affairs of Greece, by Smith, 4to. Memoirs of Socrates, by Fielding, 8vo. Banquet, by Welwood, 8vo.-Translations from the Greek Anthology, 8vo. From the Minor Greek Poets, by Morrit, 12mo.-Many beautiful fragments of the Greek Poets, elegantly and faithfully translated, will be found in the Observer of Mr. Cumberland.-Le Théâtre des Grecs, par Brumoy, 13 tom. 8vo. (Paris 1785-9) or, translated by Mrs. Lennox, 3 vols. 4to.

II. ROMAN.

Aulus Gellius, by Beloe, 3 vols. 8vo. Cæsar, by Duncan, 8vo. Cicero's Orations, by Guthrie, 2 vols. 8vo. Letters, by Melmoth, 3 vols. 8vo. Cato and Lælius, by Melmoth, 8vo. Offices, by Macartney, 8vo. Charaeter of an Orator, by Guthrie, 8vo. Horace, by Francis, 4 vols. 12mo. Juvenal, by Gifford, 8vo. Livy, by Baker, 6 vols. 8vo. Lucan, by Rowe, 8vo. Lucretius, by Good, 2 vols. 4to. Ovid's Metamorphoses, by Garth. Persius, by Drummond, 12mo. Pliny's Letters, by Melmoth, 2 vols. 8vo. Quinctilian, by Guthrie, 2 vols. 8vo. Sallust, by Murphy, 8vo. Suetonius, by Thomson, 8vo. Tacitts, by Murphy, 8 vols. 8vo. Terence, by Colman, 2 vols. 8vo. Tibullus, by Granger, 2 vols. 12mo. Vida, by Pitt, 8vo. Virgil, by Pitt and Warton, 4 vols. 8vo.; by Dryden, 8vo.--Translations from the antients (Juvenal, Horace, etc.) by Gilb. Wakefield, 12mo.

* Many of the poetical translations above specified, may be found appended to Chalmers', Anderson's, and Sharpe's (Park's) Collection of English Poetry, and may be purchased separately. The latter is both cheap and commodious. Dibdin's Introduction to the Classics, 2 vols. 12mo. is an excellent guide to the best editions of the

ORIGINALS.

Select English Classics.

Tatler, Spectator, Guardian, Rambler, Idler, Adventurer, Observer, and Gleaner. Bacon's Essays.-Drake's Essays on the Tatler, etc. 5 vols. 12mo.

CHAP. VII.-TASTE.

1. THE pleasures enjoyed by the man of true taste, (says a modern author) delight the mind without exhausting the spirits. For his gratification are displayed the various works of nature and art-the charms of poetry, the graces of painting, and the melodious strains of music. He whose mind is thus gifted by nature, and refined by education, has one faculty of enjoyment more than the illiterate and vulgar, and may be said to possess an additional sense. The cabinets-galleries-palaces-and parks of others administer to his pleasure; and he finds an agreeable companion in every picture, statue, and medal. An intimate acquaintance with the works of genius, nature, and art, as displayed in their most sublime and beautiful forms, bas an immediate tendency to expand the faculties of the mind, and to give the most engaging views of mankind, and of Providence.

2. There is no word used in a more undetermined sense than beauty. It is applied to almost every external object which pleases the eye or the ear; to many of the graces of writing; and to some dispositions of the mind; as, beautiful tree, or flower, a beautiful poem, a beautiful character. Among the different productions of nature, which give universal pleasure, are particular colours Colour af fords the simplest instance of beauty, and association of ideas, has, no doubt, considerable influence on the pleasure which we receive from colours. Green appears more beautiful by being connected in our ideas with rural scenes and prospects; white, with spotless innocence; blue, with the serenity of the sky. Akenside has beautifully described this disposition of the mind to identify the pleasures it enjoys, with the perceptions of seeing and hearing:

So, while we taste the fragrance of the rose,

Glows not her blush the fairer? while we view,
Amid the noon-tide walk, a limpid rill

Gush through the trickling herbage, to the thirst
Of summer yielding the delicious draught
Of cool refreshment; o'er the mossy brink
Shines not the surface clearer, and the waves
With sweeter music, murmur as they flow?

The colours given by Nature to her most striking works, ex

D

cite a high degree of pleasure, Of this kind, are the prismatic colours, displayed by the rainbow, and the fine variety of tints exhibited by the clouds, at the rising and set'ting of the sun.

3. Form, or figure, is the next source of beauty. Straight lines are best adapted to convenience in works of art; but, nature, ever graceful, delights in the flowing line with varied flexures: this, Hogarth has significantly termed, the line of beauty. Cabinets, doors, and windows, are made after a regular form, with an exact proportion of parts: these please the eye, because by their figure, they are better adapted to the purposes for which they were designed; and are rather convenient, than beautiful objects. Yet plants, flowers, and trees are full of diversity. A straight canal is an insipid figure, when compared with the meander of a river. The waves of the sea possess a very high degree of beauty. From this circumstance only, cones and pyramids are, in themselves, beautiful: but, when a tree is deprived of its native wildness, and is made to assume the adventitious form of a cone, or a pyramid; disgust, not pleasure, is the necessary consequence.

4. Motion is the third source of beauty. Gentle motion only belongs to the beautiful. The motion of a bird gliding through the air, is exquisitely beautiful, but the swiftness with which lightning darts through the sky, is magnificent and astonishing. Thus, a gently-running stream is one of the most beautiful objects in nature; but, as it swells gradually into a great river, or is forced by obstacles, into cascades and water-falls, the beautiful, by 'degrees, is lost in the sublime... A young tree is a beautiful object; a spreading antient oak is a venerable and sublime one. Colour, figure, and motion, though distinct principles of beauty, yet, they meet together in many beantiful objects, and thus render the beauty greater, and more complex as in flowers, trees, and animals, we are at the same time entertained with the delicacy of the colour, with the gracefulness of the figure, and, sometimes, with the motion of the object.

5. Beauty of writing is characterised by a certain grace and amenity, in the turn, either of style or sentiment. This sort of composition excites in the mind of the reader, an emotion of the gently pleasing kind, resembling that