1 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 lefs 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 himfelf; 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 taste, 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 cloisters, and worked miracles on the stage. The fcene is tranfported from Italy to Flanders, and as eafily fhifted from Valencia to Mexico. Footmen discourse like 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 twenty fix volumes more; exclufive of four hundred fcriptural dramatic pieces, called in Spain Autos Sacramentales, all which were fuce ceffively brought on the ftage; and what is ftill more extraordinary, fpeaking of his printed works, in one of his paftorals to Claudio, he fays, they form the leaft part of what ftill 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 21,316,000 verfes, an unheard of exertion and facility of verfification! Our author poffeffing an inexhaustible fund, which, like the fire of Vefuvius, continually affordednew mat D 2 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 must 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 sported 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 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, respecting this great man; were I to speak to you of his perfonal 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, notwithftanding his confiderable fortune and income, not more than fix thousand ducats were found at his death. O illustrious 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 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 EWtribes of quadrupeds have in Africa more reprefentatives of their different fpecies than that of the cat. The genus of antelopes 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 species 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 increates 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 first 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 jubatæ ; the fecond 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 leo. pard, 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 Peterfburg, 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 Since it is quite foreign to my purpose to speak of thofe fpecies which are known already to the naturalifts, I confine myself to that fpecies only which hitherto has been imperfectly known to naturalifts. The first notice we had of the Cape cat is, in my opinion, to be met with in Labat's Relation Hiftorique de l'Ethiopie occidentale, tom. I p. 177. taken as is fuppofed from Father Carazzi. Labat mentions there the 'nfuffi, a kind of wild cat of the fize of a dog, with a coat as much ftriped and varied as that of a tyger. Its appearance befpeaks cruelty, and its eyes fierceness; but it is cowardly, and gets its prey only by cunning and infidious arts. All these characters are perfectly applicable to the Cape cat, and it feems the animal is found in all parts of Africa, from Congo to the Cape of Good Hope, in an extent of country of about eleven degrees of latitude. Kolbe, in his Prefent State of the Cape of Good Hope, vol. II. p. 127. (of the English edition) fpeaks of a tyger bufhcat, which he defcribes as the largest of all the wild cats of the Cape countries, and is fpotted fomething like a tyger. A skin of this animal was feen by Mr. Pennant in a furrier's fhop in London, who thought it came from the Cape of Good Hope; from this fkin Mr. Pennant gave the first defcription which could be of any utility to a natural hiftorian. All the other authors mention this animal in a vague manner. When I and my fon touched the fecond time at the Cape of Good Hope in the year 1775, an animal of this fpecies was offered me to purchase; but I refufed buying it because it had a broken leg, which made me apprehenfive of lofing it by death during the paffage from the Cape to London. It was very gentle and tame. It was brought in a basket to my apartment, where I kept it above four and twenty hours, which gave me the opportunity of defcribing it, and of obferving its manners and economy; as it did to my fon that of making a very accurate drawing of it. After a moft minute examination, I found its manners and economy perfectly analogous to thofe of our domeftic cats. It ate fresh raw meat, and was very much attached to its feeders and benefactors: though it had broke the fore-leg by accident, it neverthelefs was very cafy. After it had been several times fed by me, it foon followed me like a tame favourite cat. It liked to be ftroked and careffed; it rubbed its head and back always against the perfon's clothes who fed it, and defired to be made much of. It purred as our domeftic cats do when they are pleased. It had been taken when quite young in the woods, and was not above eight or nine months old; I can, however, pofitively aver, having feen many fkins of full-grown tyger-cats, that it had already very nearly, if not quite, attained its full-growth. I was told, that the tyger-cats live in mountainous and woody tracts, and that in their wild ftate they are very great deftroyers of hares, rabbits, yerbuas, young antelopes, lambkins, and of all the feathered tribe. DESCRIPTIO DESCRIPTIO FELIS CAPENSIS. Felis cauda fub-elongata, annu. lata; corpore fulvo, fupra maculis virgatis infra orbicularibus, auriculis nigris, macula lunata alba. 'Nfui. Labat Ethiopic. occident. tom. I. p. 177 Tyger Bofch katten. Kolbe Cape of Good Hope, vol. II. p. 127. (Engl. edit.) Cape-cat. Pennant Syn. Quadrup. p. 181. (1ft edit) Corpus magnitudine Felis Cati fylveftris vel paulo majus. In genere fupra colore pallide fulvo, fubtus e cinereo albo, maculis atris. (Pil apice pallide fulvi, bafi albi.) Caput Roftro magis acuto, quam F. Cati, albo; in labio fuperiore prope angulum ricus macula orbiculata, nigra. Nares nude, atræ. Myfaces plurium ordinum in labio fuperiore et fupra oculos validæ, albæ et fulvæ. Oculi figura fere trianguli fphærici, latere anteriore perpendiculari; Irides flava. Pupilla orbicularis, diurna (nec ut in F. Cato perpendiculari rima lemnifcata.) Lingua retrofum aculeata. Dentes acuti ut in cogeneribus. Linea albida utrinque nafo parallela, ad interiora oculorum latera. Linea nigra pauliulum convergens a cantho anteriore græ, macula lunata, traniversa alba Margo exterior facculo membranaceo nudo lobato. Corpus ovatum, elegans. Lined atra longitudinales quatuor in cervice inter aurium bafes orfæ, in Dorfo interruptæ ; S periora Iterum obtinent maculæ oblongæ, lineares, obliquæ Inferior a laterum maculis rotundis fpa fis. · Abdomen e cinereo album, ma culis rotundis parvis, fparfis, nigris. Pedes omnes fuperne fubfafciati, extremitatibus punctis numerofis, nigris confperfi. Digiti quinque felini. Ungues modici, retractiles, nigri. Cauda attingit batin tarf annulis cerciter octo vel decem nigris cincta. An Account of the Ganges and Burrampooter Rivers. By James Rennell, Ef. F.R.S. communicated by Jofeph Banks, Efq. P.R. S. from Vol. LXXI. of the Philofophical Tranfactions. HE Ganges and Burram oculorum defcendit in nafum; T pooter rivers, together with alia due nigra fupra oculos infra convergentes, inque frontem afcendentes; præterea in capite puncta et lineola nigræ plures fparfæ. Auricula ample, longitudine fere capitis, ovatæ, fuberectæ, intus villofæ, ochroleucæ; extus ni their numerous branches and adjuncts, interfect the country of Bengal in fuch a variety of directions, as to form the most complete and eafy inland navigation that can be conceived. So equally and admirably diffufed are thofe D 4 natural |