Whether it was to distinguish these literary effusions from those of the puritanical school which had preceded them, and which might be truly said to be bound, is uncertain; but it is certain that the works of the Cavaliers were remarkable for their looseness. Waiving any observations upon these productions, which have indeed been most laudably exposed and censured by others, not only for their general tenor, but for a species of humour, which, whatsoever vices and follies we may have at present, would not now be for a moment endured, I shall only observe, that even this subject, prolific as it certainly was, was at length exhausted, and the writers, in order to be as near the mark as possible, were obliged to have recourse to bargains, of which I conceive the rude answer of Lord Rochester to the man that was supposed to have seen many things, was the first of that period, but which, when this ingenious vein was set abroach, flowed through every rank of society, and infected every mode of conversation.

Had we not known this compendious and elegant species of wit to have been practised in the theatre, as well before as behind the curtain, we should have learned it from Dryden's Prologue to the Prophetess, in which we find these lines :

"Then think on that bare bench my servant sat,

I see him ogle still, and hear him chat,

Selling facetious bargains, and propounding
That witty recreation, call'd Dumfounding."

The absurdity of this kind of bargains attracted the attention of Sir Richard Steel, who, in the 504th Spec

tator, seems so well to have exposed them, that I have no doubt but the bite of hanging in chains, than which it was impossible to carry the wit and humour of the practice further, put an entire stop to this mode of traffic; nay, even the original method of selling bargains, in the vicissitude of human affairs, it has been observed, exceedingly declined, as the great merchants in this way either found their stock fail them, died, or left off business. The trade, upon a contracted scale, was indeed revived by Fielding, who put Squire Western into the shop where the greatest bargains were sold at that time. Dr. Smollett, too, was fond of dabbling a little in this way: but the last, though by no means the least, dealer in bargains and other articles of that nature, but still more contraband, was the author of Tristram Shandy. I have lately seen a copy of this work, which, from some circumstances, is conjectured to be the one he kept for his private use, which I have great hope will be properly disposed of, as it does appear to be one of the greatest bargains that the united efforts of the rolling and printing presses could have produced.

DISPERSION OF ANCIENT RECORDS.

Among the many learned observations which I have heard in the Court of Exchequer, a court in which, from the nature of the subjects frequently discussed, it is necessary both for the judges and advocates more particularly to advert to the ancient state of the kingdom than perhaps in any other, I was once struck with

some observations upon the dispersion of manuscripts at the fall of the abbeys, which seemed to me, as I was then considering the subject, so curious, that I retained them in my memory until I had an opportunity, which a crowded court would not afford, of committing them to paper, and believe the quotation that follows is generally correct.

"When the lesser abbeys were dissolved, an event that happened in the 27th year of Henry the VIIIth, the priests, who still retained hopes of better times, although they were commanded to send their papers to the Augmentation Office, generally disobeyed those orders, and endeavoured to secure the most valuable of their deeds and records, either by consigning them to the care of private persons, or by sending them to Rome, where they were deposited in the Vatican or in other places of security. Of those that remained in the kingdom, many have been discovered in the archives of private families, and some were reclaimed when better times for their owners did arrive. But the reign of Mary being too short a period for restoring the establishments which had been so violently overturned, the writings and records of monasteries have, like the estates which they described, conveyed or adapted to peculiar uses, to a considerable degree remained in the hands of lay possessors, who seem, while they grasped them with avidity, to have, with a more than religious tenacity, adhered to them. Those that are preserved in the Vatican, or dispersed over Italy, are now of little use, and indeed, when found and referred to, are considered only as objects of curiosity."

UBI ANIMUS REQUIEVIT ET MIHI RELIQUAM ÆTATEM A REPUBLICA PROCUL HABENDUM DECREVI; NON FUIT CONSILIUM SOCORDIA DESIDIA BONUM OTIUM CONTERERE.

SALLUST.

Dramatic Literature.

Theatrical representations, however rude, have been among the amusements of all nations, even in their original state.

During the government of the Anglo-Romans, the pleasures arising from the stage seem to have been pursued with avidity, and if we may be allowed to judge from the remains of theatres that have been discovered, or from their representations still extant upon medals, to have been very generally adopted.

In Rome, we know that they were at the same period the delight of the people; and we also know that there are vestiges of them still to be traced in the colonies of Gaul and Iberia.*

The Roman actors, that either visited or were settled in Britain, it is probable, as in Gaul, derived assistance from the Bards, an inferior order of the Druids, long known in both countries, who, when they engaged in secular entertainment, were denominated scalds. These scalds, who were the true fathers of the minstrels, or, indeed, minstrels under another appellation, were unquestionably the original composers and representers of performances that were, in our apprehension, entirely dramatic in this island.

In the general wreck of affairs in this country after the recession of those people, that the histrionic art fell with their theatres is certain: how far it was revived by the Anglo-Saxons we shall now briefly inquire.

Before the conversion of these to Christianity, their religion, like the paganism of the ancient Britons, was distinguished by numerous circumstances of rude pomp and barbaric grandeur.

In the decoration of their temples, and in all the

*The amphitheatre at Nismes, which is not only the most beautiful, but also the most perfect specimen of this kind of buildings in France. Such were erected in every colonial city and military station. At Toledo there is still the remains of an ancient Roman theatre, which is now converted into a Christian church, as in England we have seen this order of things reversed, and a Romish chapel diverted into a theatre.

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