friendship, than (sinking his head, and losing his voice in tears.)—The same. I am so certain of the soul's being immortal, that I seem to feel it within me as if it were by intuition.—Mr. Pope. When a friend asked him whether he would not die as his father and mother had done, and whether he should send for a priest, he said, "I do not suppose that it is essential, but it will be very right, and I heartily thank you for putting me in mind of it."-The same. In the morning, after the priest had given him the last sacraments, he said, "there is nothing that is meritorious but virtue and friendship, and indeed friendship itself is only a part of virtue.” Mr. Pope died the 30th of May, 1744, in the evening; but they did not know the exact time, for his departure was so easy, that it was imperceptible even to the standers-by. May our end be like his ! THE ENGLISH POETS AND PROSE WRITERS. [AND A FEW FOREIGN WRITERS.] SHAKSPEARE. 1728. It was and is a general opinion, that Ben Jonson and Shakspeare lived in enmity with each other. Betterton has assured me often that there was nothing in it, and that such a supposition was founded only on the two parties, which in their lifetime listed under one, and endeavoured to lessen the character of the other mutually.-Mr. Pope. Dryden used to think that the verses Jonson made on Shakspeare's death had something of satire at the bottom: for my part, I cannot discover any thing like it in them.-The same. 1736. Shakspeare generally used to stiffen his style with high words and meta G phors for the speeches of kings and great men: he mistook it for a mark of greatness. This is strongest in his early plays; but in his very last, his Othello, what a forced language has he put into the mouth of the Duke of Venice! This was the way of Chapman, Massinger, and all the tragic writers of those days.-The same. It was mighty simple in Rowe to write a play professedly in Shakespeare's style; that is, professedly in the style of a bad age.-The same. D'AVENANT 1730. That notion of Sir William D'Avenant being more than a poetical child only of Shakspeare was common in town, and Sir William himself seemed fond of having it taken for truth.-The same. 1744. Shakspeare, in his frequent journeys between London and his native place, Stratford-upon-Avon, used to lie at D'Avenant's, at the Crown in Oxford. He was very well acquainted with Mrs. D'Avenant; and her son, afterwards Sir William, was |