wife and conquerors, under the wifdom and courage of your majefty, to whom God grant long life, to trample your enemies like duft under your feet.

made me no anfwer, and my heart was grieved, and I had none to comfort me in my griefs; for I faid, the ants that creep upon the earth have a king, and we have not; and the nations of all countries make their laugh upon us, alfo perfecuting, faying to us, that you are masterlefs; you have no king of your own, and that you refemble the jews fcattered upon the face of the earth; you have no love for one another; you are without honour; and by the difunity of your nation, all the nations infult you; you are contemptible, and without zeal; and you are as great lovers of money, as the heathens did love their gods. I could not bear all these reflections, whilst I grieved, and found none to heal me. I obferved watchfully the Europeans, their wife cultoms, and their fhipping, far better both for failing and for war, than the fhips of the Indians and, above all, the practice of their foldiers, who, if they were thoufands of men, by one word of command from their officers, inftantly all together move and act, as if they were one man. Then I thought in my mind, that it was God that had put in my heart to think on all things. Therefore, I fpoke not to my father, but had hopes in my heart, that if I went to England, I should learn the art of war; and I was encouraged, for I then heard a little, and not much, of your majefty's name, until I came here, where I learned that your majefty was established in your kingdom, and had routed a great army of Perfians. See! O my king, what great thing the wisdom is, by which this nation know our country better than we

May it pleafe your majefty to know who your fervant is, that raifes his head to fpeak to you, and takes pains to know these things, with much labour, for your majefty's fervice, to whom God grant victory. The name of your fervant is Emin, the fon of Jofeph, the fon of Michael, the fon of Gregory, who is defcended from Emin, who, in the day when Armenia was broke under the battle-axe of Shaw Abbas, was Minbashby in his country; but he was made captive, with others, and was carried into Perfia, and placed at Hamadan; from him your majefty's fervant is come, and he is called of his name, being born at Hamadan; but our captivity was grievous under the Perfians, who, fince Mahometanifm, which is well known to your majefty, are grown quite barbarians, not being fo civilized as theywere in ancient times, (according to the hiftories I have read in this bleffed ifland) fo that my father flew from Hamadan, in the time of Shaw Thamas Kouly Kan, into India, to a place called Calcutta, where the English have a fort, and foldiers, and a great trade, though their country is feven months voyage from Bengal; there my father made himself a merchant to this day; and would have made me fuch as himself, but I did not fubmit to him, for I enquired of my fathers from my infancy, the reafon why we were perfecuted by infidels? and why we did refide fo contemptibly amongst lawless nations ? but they

VOL. X,

do; and that this nation are awake, and we are asleep. On board the fhip I worked like a failor; and afterwards, when I came here, was fo reduced, that I was forced by hunger, to offer myfelf to fale upon the Exchange, to be fent into the new world. Oh! my king, do not pity me; no, not even at that time when you hear, or fee me facrificed in your fervice; but pity thofe fervants of Christ who deferve pity; but the omnipotent God faved me, by the hands of an Englishman; and the fame God. who heard the crying of my heart, did put it into the heart of a generous nobleman, who is one of the pillars of the throne of England, to affift me. He made me right in the counfel of my heart; he made me known to the fon of the the place of education, where I king of England; he fent me to

learnt the art of war, according to wifdom.

My ambition is to lay my knowledge at the feet of your majefty, and to ferve you in the beft of my ability. For know, O my king, that what is not built on knowledge, though it is very ftrong and lofty, is as if it were built upon fand; therefore, my purpofe is, to go well inftructed into your majefty's fervice, and to carry with me men fkilful in all things, (if you give me encouragement,) to ftrengthen and polish your kingdom, like the kingdoms of Eu. rope for you have a good country, and command over many brave men; and if you could gather the Armenians, a rich and trading people, who are fcattered to the east, and the weft, and the north, and the fouth, under the protection of your majefty's arms

From Voltaire's Ignorant Philofopher.

india, learnt, as all the Ythagoras, duringhis refidence

world knows, at the fchool of the Gymnofophifts, the language of beafts and that of plants. Walking one day in a field near the fea-fhores he heard thefe words: How unhappy am I to be born an herb! Scarce have I attained two inches in height, before a devouring monfter, a horrid animal, tramples me under his feet; his jaw is armed with a row of sharp fcythes, with which he cuts me, tears me, and then fwallows me. Man calls this monfter a sheep. I do not think there is in the whole creation a more abominable creature.

Pythagoras advanced a few fteps; he met with an oyster that was yawning upon a small rock. He had not yet embraced that ad. mirable law by which we are forbidden to eat our own likeness.

He

He was going to fwallow the oyster, when it uttered thefe foothing words: O, nature, how happy is the herb, which is like thy work! when it is cut it regenerates and is immortal; and we poor oyfters, in vain are we defended by a double buckler; villians eat us by dozens at their breakfaft; and it is over with us for ever. What a dreadful deftiny is that of an oyster, and how barbarous is man!

Pythagoras fhuddered; he felt the enormity of the crime he was going to commit; he, weeping, afked pardon of the oyster, and replaced him very fnug upon the rock.

Whilft he was returning to the city, in a profound meditation at this adventure, he obferved fome fpiders that were eating flies, fwallows that were eating fpiders, fparrow-hawks that were eating fwallows. None of these folks, faid he, are philofophers.

Pythagoras, upon his entrance, was hurted, bruifed, and thrown down by a multitude of beggars and bunters, who ran in crying, Well done, he deserved it. Who? what? faid Pythagoras, getting up; whilft the people continued running and crying, We shall have high fun in feeing them broil.

Pythagoras imagined they were fpeaking of lentiles, or fome other kind of vegetable-but he was quite miftaken they meant two poor Indians. O! faid Pythagoras, thefe are doubtlefs two great philofophers, who are tired of their lives; they are defirous of regene. rating under another form; there xis a pleasure in changing the place of one's abode, though one may be badly lodged-there is no dif. puting tafte,..

He went on with the mob as far as the public fquare, where he faw the great pile of wood lighted, and oppofite to it a bench, which was called a tribunal; upon this bench judges were feated, each of whom held a cow's tail in his hand, and they had caps upon their heads, which greatly refembled the two ears of that animal which formerly carried Silenus, when he came into the country with Bacchus, after having croffed the Erythrean fea, dry-footed, and stopped the courfe of the fun and moon, as it is very faithfully related in the Orphics.

There was amongst thefe judges an honeft man well known to Pythagoras. The fage of India explained to the fage of Samos the nature of the festival the Indian people were going to affift at.

The two Indians, faid he, are not at all defirous of being burnt; mygrave brethren have condemned them to that punishment, one for having faid that the fubftance of Xaca is not the fubftance of Brama; and the other for having fufpected that we please the Supreme Being by virtue, without holding, at the point of death, a cow by the tail, becaufe, faid he, we may be virtuous at all times, and because one cannot always meet with a cow juft as one may have occafion for her. The good women of the city were fo terrified with two fuch heretical propofitions, that they would not leave the judges in peace, till fuch time as they ordered the execution of these two unfortunate men.

Pythagoras judged that from the herb up to man there were many caufes of uneafinefs. He, however made the judges, and even

Pz

the

the devotees liften to reason, which never happened but at that one time.

He afterwards went andpreached toleration at Crotona; but one of his adverfaries fet fire to his houfe; he was burnt-the man who had faved two Indians from the flames.-Let those escape who

can.

>

Account of an Effay on the learning of Shakespeare. By Richard Farmer, M. A.

HE queftion, whether Shake

knowledge of the learned languages? has been long agitated among the critics. Mr. Farmer is of opinion with thofe who imagine that he had not; for which he brings feveral arguments."

The teftimony of Ben Jonfon (fays our author) ftands foremost; and many have held it fufficient to decide the controverfy. In the warmeft panegyric that ever was written, he apologizes for what he fappofed the only defect in his "beloved friend :"

"Soul of the age! Th' applaufe, delight, and won

der of our ftage * "" But Jonfon is by no means our only authority. Drayton, the countryman and acquaintance of Shakespeare, determines his excellence to the natural brain only. Digges, a wit of the town before Shakespeare left the ftage, is very ftrong to the purpofe

Nature only helpt him, for look thorough

* Ben Jonson, in this copy of verfes,

This whole book, thou fhalt find,

he doth not borrow One phrafe from Greeks, nor Latines imitate,

Nor once from vulgar languages. tranflate.''

Suckling oppofes his eafier train to the fweets of learned Jonfon. Denham affures us, that all he had was from old mother-wit. His native wood-notes wild, every one remembers to be celebrated by Milton.

Fuller, a diligent and equal fearcher after truth and quibbles, declares pofitively, that his learning was very little, that nature was all the art ufed upon him, as he himself, if alive, would confefs it, when he apologized for his untutored lines to his noble pa tron, the earl of Southampton,

"Shakespeare however hath frequent allufions to the facts and fables of antiquity."-I will endea. vour to fhew how they came to his acquaintance,

It is notorious, that much of his matter of fact knowledge is deduced from Plutarch; but in what language he read him, has yet been the queftion. Take a few inftances, which will elucidate this matter fufficiently.

In the third act of Anthony and Cleopatra, Octavius reprefents to his courtiers the imperial pompof thofe illuftrious lovers, and the arrangement of their dominion.. "Unto her

He gave the 'tablishment of
Egypt, made her
Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,
Abfolute queen.'

Read Libya, fays Mr. Upton, fays that Shakespeare had

ago, by a panegyrift on Cartwright.

autho

authoritatively, as is plain from Plutarch.

This is very true; but turn to the tranflation, from the French of Amyot, by Thomas North, 1579, and you will at once fee the origin of the mistake.

First of all, he did establish Cleopatra queene of Egypt, of Cyprus, of Lydia, and the lower Syria,

Again in the fourth act;

"My meffenger He hath whipt with rods, dares me to perfonal combat, Cæfar to Anthony. Let the old

ruffian know

I have many ways to die; mean time,

Laugh at his challenge." "What a reply is this, cries Mr, Upton: 'tis acknowledging he fhould fall under the unequal combat. But if we read,

-Let th old ruffian know He hath many other ways to

die; mean time

I laugh at his challenge." We have the poignancy and the very repartee of Cæfar in Plutarch." Moft indifputably it is the fenfe of Plutarch, and given fo in the modern tranflations: But Shakefpeare was mifled by the ambiguity of the old one, "Antonius fent again to challange Cæfar to fight him. Cæfar anfwered that he had many other ways to die than fo."

In the third act of Julias Cæfar, Anthony, in his well-known harangue to the people, repeats a part of the emperor's will:

To every Roman citizen he gives To every fev'ral man, feventyfive drachmas.

Moreover he hath left you all his walks,

His private arbours, and new planted orchards,

On this fide Tyber."

"Our author certainly wrote, fays Mr. Theobald, on that fide Tyber.-Trans Tiberim-prope Casfaris hortos. And Plutarch, whom Shakespeare very diligently ftudi ed, exprefsly declares, that he left the public his gardens and walks beyond the Tyber."

But hear again the old tranflation, where Shakespeare's ftudy lay: "he bequeathed unto every citizen of Rome, feventy-five drachmas a man, and he left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this fide of the river Tyber.”

Mr. Farmer proceeds to fhow, that Shakefpeare took many of the fubjects for his plays from Englifh authors or tranflators, and not from books in the learned tongue.

But to come nearer to the purpofe, what will you fay, (fays he) if I can fhow you, that Shakespeare, when, in the favourite phrafe, he had a Latin claffic in his eye, moft affuredly made ufe of a tranflation.

Profpero, in the tempeft, begins the addrefs to his fpirits, "Ye elves of hills, of standing lakes and groves." This fpeech, Dr. Warburton rightly obferves to be borrowed from Medea's in Ovid; And it proves, fays Mr. Holt, beyond contradiction, that Shakespeare was perfectly acquainted with the fentiments of the ancients on the subject of inchantments. The original lines are thefe,

"Auræque, & venti montefque, amnefque, lacufque,

P 3

Diique