terior they conceal burning hearts; and their exterior is cold only to conceal their hearts. Love, jealoufy, and revenge are their ruling paffions; as they think only of the fenfual part of love, and know well the conftitutions of their women, and wiles of rivals, their jealouty is always awake, and their revenge is implacable. As to understanding, it is nearly the fame; men of talents form the large clafs; there are few fools; and middling men are very rare. "Why then, you will afk, do these men produce nothing excellent?" Because they have ungoverned imaginations, and no philofophy; and because good tafte has not yet penetrated into their country. And why has not good tafte entered Italy? Becaufe Italy has neither a London nor a Paris; and because she never had a Lewis the fourteenth, Travellers are often mistaken in judging of the Italian, efpecially the Neapolitan. They think he has no fenfe, because he wants ideas. A man can have but few ideas when he has never been out of his own country, and when he has read nothing; but examine the Neapolitan on all the fubjects with which he is acquainted, and you will fee whether he wants natural capacity. He refembles the foil of his own country: a field well tilled in Naples produces the moft plentiful crops; neglected, it yields but briars and thistles. It is the fame with the genius of the inhabitants: cultivated, it is capable of every thing; untilled, it produces only folly vice. VOL. XXIV. and Sketch of the Life and Character of the famous Poet Lope de Vega; from a Book entitled "Letters from an English Traveller in Spain, &c." Madrid, August 15, 1778. HOUGH perfectly agree with you in opinion relating to our immortal Shakespeare, yet I cannot refrain from doing that juftice to his contemporary Lope de Vega which his moft extraordinary talents deferve; I fhall therefore attempt to give you the character of this great poet, which is no easy task when his amazing abilities are confidered; however, I fhall venture to proceed, as this will be the laft letter I fhall write to you from hence. Lope Felix de Vega Carpio, born the 25th of November 1562, was the fon of Felix Vega de Carpio, a gentleman of Madrid, who had the reputation of being a very good poet, a turn which he obferved with rapture in his child from its infancy, and which the fond parent cherished with the greateft delight. At five years of age young Lope could read Spanifh, and Latin fluently, and even make verfes, which he exchanged with his fchool-fellows for pictures and other trifles. His father, charmed with this furprizing dawn of genius, fpared no pains to cultivate a darling plant, that seemed to encourage the most flattering expectations. At the age of twelve, Lope was mafter of the Latin tongue and the art of rhetoric; could dance and fence with eafe and dexterity, and fing with a tolerable tafte.-Endowed with these accomplishments, he became D an an orphan at his first entrance into the world, with every preffure of distress, and was taken into the ferv ce of the bishop of Avila, in whose praise he wrote feveral paftorals, and made his first drama tic effay, with a comedy entitled La Paftoral de Jacinto. He foon after quitted his patron, went to the university of Alcala, where he ftudied philofophy, and took a degree, then returned to Madrid, and became fecretary to the duke of Alva, who entrusted him with his moft weighty concerns. Encouraged by his new Mecenas, he again tuned his lyre, and fung his praife in a poem entitled Arcadia, About, this time he married Dona ifabella de Urbina, a lady of fashion, on account of whofe gallantries he foon after fought a duel, and having grievoufly wounded his antagonist, fled to Valencia, where he lived fome years; after which he returned again to Madrid, where lofing his wife, he felt himself animated with a military ardour, and repaired to Cadiz to embark on board the great armada, fitting out by Philip the fecond, against Queen Eliz beth. In this fleet he failed for Lisbon in company with his brother, a lieutenant in the Spanish navy, who loft his life in that expedition. Our poet had his fhare of the misfortunes of that disappointed fleet, and appeared at Madrid without a fingle friend, became fecretary to the marquis of Malpica, and afterwards to the count of Lemos. Though his first marriage was fo unfuccefsful, he was in hopes of being more fortunate in that late with Dona Juana de Guardia, a lady of rank, whom he foon after loft. Inconfolable at thefe repeated afflictions, he entered into the ecclesiastic. ftate, was ordained a priest, and appointed head chaplain to a congregation of priests at Madrid, though he ftill courted the mufes, making this the chief relaxation that foftened his forrows. He was now in the zenith of his poetic glory, and his reputation became fo univerfal, that Pope Urban the eighth fent him the degree of doctor in divinity, and the cross of the order of Malta, added to a lucrative poft in the apoftolic exchequer, which Lope held to his death, which happened in his feventy-third year, to the great regret of the court, and every learned man in the kingdom. The duke of Sefa, who was his patron and executor, caufed him to be interred at his own expence, with fuch pomp and magnificence as had never been feen before for a private perfon; the duke invited all the grandees of the kingdom, who attended in perfon, in token of their concern at the lofs of fo diftinguished a character. The funeral obfequies lafted three days, all the clergy of the king's chapel affifted, three bishops officiated pontifically, and three of the most eloquent ora ors exertedthemfelves in praife of the deceafed, adding new laurels to the fame of Lope de Vega, with whom, when living, many princes gloried in being acquainted. Pope Urban wrote him a letter in anfwer to a dedication of his poem in favour of Mary queen of Scots, entitled Corona tragica de Maria Stuardo. Cardinai Barba ini held a very intimate correfpondence with him, as did many many other cardinals and noblemen, who courted his friendship. When he walked in the streets, he was gazed upon and followed as a prodigy; he was, moreover, loaded with prefents, and by the rapid fale of his numerous works, foon amaffed a confiderable fortune, and acquired a capital of 150,000 ducats, befides his annual income of fifteen hundred ducats, arifing out of his benefices and employments; fo great was the fertility of his genius, the amazing readinefs of his wit and rapidity of thought, added to his animated expreffion, that perhaps there never was a poet in the world, either ancient or modern, that could be compared to him. His lyric compofitions and fugitive pieces, with his profe effays, form a collection, of fifty volumes, befides his dramatic works, which make twentyfix volumes more; exclufive of four hundred fcriptural dramatic pieces, called in Spain Autos Sacramentales, all which were fuc ceffively brought on the ftage; and what is still more extraordinary, fpeaking of his printed works, in one of his paftorals to Claudio, he fays, they form the leaft part of what still remained in his closet. It appears from his own authority, that he ufed conftantly to write five fheets a day, which multiplied by the days of his life, would make 133,225 fheets; then reckoning the number of verses correfponding to each fheet, it will appear that, exclufive of profe, he wrote 2 1,3 16,000 verfes, an unheard of exertion and facility of verfification! Our author poffeffing an inexhaustible fund, which, like the fire of Vefuvius, continually affordednew mat ter, and blazed out inceffantly. So extraordinary was the rapidity of his genius, he would often finish a play in twenty-four hours, and fome comedies in less than five hours, with as much correctness and elegance in his verse, as the moft laboured pieces of other writers of his time. Such was the contemporary of Sir Philip Sidney, Shakespeare, and Spenfer; in his Laurel de Apollo he has celebrated all the good poets of his time, but none were more univerfally praised from all parts than himself; his furprising faculties were fuch, that in his dramatic pieces he broke through all rules of art, yet fuch was his fuccefs, that he was conftantly the favourite of the public, and drew perpetual burfts of applaufe. It was not his fault if his fucceffors had not his talents to conceal their defects, and only imitated his imperfections, rendering the Spanish drama infupportable when deprived of the beauties of Lope: this was forefeen by Cervantes, who reproaches our poet with destroying the rules of the drama, as laid down by the ancients, in order to court popular applaufe; to obtain which he loft fight of every idea of nature or good tafte, adding, that the probability of fable dwindled in his hands, and was wafted away by the enchanting magic of verfe; all unity of time and place was annihilated; his heroes came out of their cradles, and wandered from eaft or weft as lovers or combatants, put on the cowl of monks, died in cloifters, and worked miracles on the ftage. The fcene is tranfported from Italy to Flanders, and as eafily fhifted from Valencia to Mexico. Footmen discourse like courtiers, princes like bullies, and ladies like chambermaids. The actors appear in legions, often feventy at a time, and clofe with numerous proceffions, which are ftill kept up with us, as well as opening graves, and burying the dead, performing the most awful rites of mortality by way of amufement, which for my part I muft own makes my heart recoil at the difmal fight; nor can the most captivating language of Shakefpeare overcome my feelings at this glaring indecorum. So fenfible was Lope of the wildness of his imagination, and how wantonly he fported with the confidence of the public, that fpeaking of himself, he acknowledges his fault in the follwing words: Mas ninguno de todos Ilamar puedo Y efcrivo por el arte, que inventaron Porque como los paga el vulgo, es Jufto Hablarle en necio, para darle gufto. That is, "that he was fenfible of the reproaches Italy and France would make him for breaking through all rules to please the ignorant public, but fince it was they that paid for it, they had a right to be pleased in their own way." I have now given you both fides of the question, refpecting this great man; were I to speak to you of his personal virtues, they are yet fuperior to his literary talents. His benevolence and charity towards the indigent and diftreffed was fo great, that he always extended his hand to the needy, infomuch that, notwithstanding his confiderable fortune and income, not more than fix thousand ducats were found at his death. O illuftrious bard, if an Englishman is not capable of doing justice to thy poetical numbers, and the harmony of thy verse, accept at least of this tribute to the goodness of thy heart! NATURAL 1 NATURAL HISTORY. Natural History and Defcription of the Tyger Cat of the Cape of Good Hope, by John Reinhold Forfter. LL.D. F.R. and A. S. from Vol. 71 of the Philofophical Tranfactions. FE an EWtribes of quadrupeds have in Africa more reprefentatives of their different fpecies than that of the cat. The genus of telopes may perhaps be excepted, fince, to my knowledge, about twenty different ghazels and antelopes are to be met with in Africa; but no more than about eight or nine of the cat tribe have hitherto been discovered on that continent. However, I know about twentyone different fpecies of this great clafs; and, I fuppofe, these by no means exhauft this numerous tribe. The greater and more numerous the different genera of animals are, the more difficult it must be to the natural hiftorian properly to arrange the whole of fuch an extenfive divifion of animals, especially if they are not equally well known. To form new genera, in order to difpofe and arrange them under, is a remedy which increases the evil instead of curing it. The beft method, therefore, which can be devised, is to make great divifions in each genus, comprehending thofe fpecies which, on account of fome common relation or character have a great affinity to one another. The genus of cat, to which the animal belongs we are going to speak of more at large, offers three very easy and natural fubdivisions. The firft comprehends animals related to the cat tribe, with long hair or manes on their necks; fecondly, fuch as have remarkably long tails without any marks of a mane on their necks; laftly, fuch as have a brush of hair on the tips of their ears, and fhorter tails than the fecond fubdivifion. The first might be called in Latin Feles jubata ; the second fubdivifion fhould be named Alure; and the third and laft, Lynces. To the firft fubdivifion the lion and the hunting leopard or Indian chittah, belong. The fecond fubdivifion confifts of the tyger, the panther, the leopard, the ounce, the puma, the jaguar-ete, the jaguara, the ocelot, the gingy of Congo, the Marakaya, the tyger-cat of the Cape or the 'nfulli of Congo, the Tibetan tyger-cat which I faw at Peterburg, the common bush-cat of the Cape; and, laftly, the wild cat, and its domeftic varieties.— To the third divifion belong the lynx, the caracal, the ferval, the bay lynx, and the ghaus of Profeffor Guldenstedt. D 3 Since |