ing a human being in each stage. But, whereever the general idea was to be found, who but Shakspere could have created the wonderful individualisation of the several changes?

13 SCENE II.-" Helen's cheek, but not her heart; Cleopatra's majesty j Atalanta's better part; Sad Lucretia's modesty." MR. WHITER'S explanation of this passage, in illustration of his theory of the Association of Ideas, is very ingenious. We are compelled to abridge it, by which process the chain of reasoning may be somewhat impaired :—

"I have always been firmly persuaded that the imagery which our poet has selected to discriminate the more prominent perfections of Helen, Cleopatra, Atalanta, and Lucretia, was not derived from the abstract consideration of their general qualities; but was caught from those peculiar traits of beauty and character which are impressed on the mind of him who contemplates their portraits. It is well known that these celebrated heroines of romance were in the days of our poet the favourite subjects of popular representation, and were alike visible in the coarse hangings of the poor and the magnificent arras of the rich. In the portraits of Helen, whether they were produced by the skilful artist or his ruder imitator, though her face would certainly be delineated as eminently beautiful, yet she appears not to have been adorned with any of those charms which are allied to modesty; and we accordingly find that she was generally depicted with a loose and insidious countenance, which but too manifestly betrayed the inward wantonness and perfidy of her heart. * With respect to the majesty of Cleopatra, it may be observed that this notion is not derived from classical authority, but from the more popular storehouse of legend and romance. * * * * I infer there fore that the familiarity of this image was impressed both on the poet and his reader from

pictures or representations in tapestry, which were the lively and faithful mirrors of popular romances.-Atalanta, we know, was considered likewise by our ancient poets as a celebrated beauty; and we may be assured therefore that her portraits were everywhere to be found. ✦✦✦✦ Since the story of Atalanta represents that heroine as possessed of singular beauty, zealous to preserve her virginity, even with the death of her lovers, and accomplishing her purposes by extraordinary swiftness in running, we may be assured that the skill of the artist would be employed in displaying the most perfect expressions of virgin purity, and in delineating the fine proportions and elegant symmetry of her person.-'Lucretia' (we know) 'was the grand example of conjugal fidelity throughout the Gothic ages;' and it is this spirit of unshaken chastity which is here celebrated under the title of modesty. Such, then, are the wishes of the lover in the formation of his mistress, that the ripe and brilliant beauties of Helen should be united to the elegant symmetry and virgin graces of Atalanta; and that this union of charms should be still dignified and ennobled by the majestic mien of Cleopatra and the matron modesty of Lucretia."

14 SCENE II.-"I was never so berhymed since Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat." How rats were rhymed, and rhymed to death it should seem, in Ireland, does not very distinctly appear; but the allusion was very common. Sydney, Jonson, Randolph, and Donne, each mention this remarkable property of Irish poetry. The rats have suffered more from the orators in modern times.

a perfect specimen of foppery. He holds up one hand in terror at the sight of Death, who approaches him in a shroud, and has a coffin at his feet. The dialogue between them is painted on the labels over their heads, and runs thus:Over the Gentleman:

"Alasse, Dethe, alasse, a blessful thing yo were
Yf thow woldyst spare us in our lustynesse
And hi to wretches yt bethe of hevy chere
When they ye clepe to slake there dystresse.
But owte alasse thyne owne sely selfwyldnesse
Crewelly werieth them yt seyghe wayle and wepe
To close there yen yt after ye doth clepe."
Over Death:

"Grasles galante in all thy luste and pryde
Reme byr, yt thow ones schalte dye.
Deth shold fro thy body thy sowle devyde
Thou mayst him not ascape certaynly.
To ye dede bodys cast doune thyne ye
Behold thaym well, consydere and see
For such as thay ar, such shalt yow be."

18 SCENE V.

"Dead shepherd! now I find thy saw of might; 'Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?""

The "dead shepherd" is Marlowe; the "saw of might" is in the 'Hero and Leander,' first published in 1598:

"It lies not in our power to love or hate,

For will in us is overrul'd by fate.

When two are stripp'd, long ere the course begin

We wish that one should lose, the other win;

And one especially do we affect

Of two gold ingots, like in each respect :
The reason no man knows; let it suffice,
What we behold is censur'd by our eyes.
Where both deliberate the love is slight:
Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?"

19 SCENE 1.-"Good youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont, and, being taken with the cramp, was drowned."

THIS pretty banter of Rosalind is but a thin disguise of her real feelings. She thinks of the "good youth," and of "Hero of Sestos," much more in the spirit of the following beautiful lines of Byron :

"The winds are high on Helle's wave,

As on that night of stormy water
When Love, who sent, forgot to save
The young, the beautiful, the brave,

The lonely hope of Sestos' daughter.
Oh! when alone along the sky
Her turret-torch was blazing high,
Though rising gale, and breaking foam,
And shrieking sea-birds warn'd him home;
And clouds aloft and tides below,
With signs and sounds, forbade to go,
He could not see, he would not hear,
Or sound or sign foreboding fear;
His eye but saw that light of love,

The only star it hail'd above;

His ear but rang with Hero's song,

Ye waves, divide not lovers long!'

That tale is old, but love anew

May nerve young hearts to prove as true."
('Bride of Abydos.")

20 SCENE II.-"What shall he have that kill'd

the deer?"

The music to this "song" is from a curious and very rare work, entitled 'CATCH THAT CATCH

CAN; or, a Choice Collection of Catches, Rounds, &c., collected and published by John Hilton, Batch. in Musicke, 1652;' and is there called a catch, though, as in the case of many other compositions of the kind so denominated, it is a round, having no catch, or play upon the words, to give it any claim to the former designation. It is written for four bases, but by transposition for other voices would be rather improved than damaged. John Hilton, one of the best and most active composers of his day, was organist of St. Margaret's, Westminster. His name is affixed to one of the madrigals in "The Triumphs of Oriana,' a work published in 1601, previously to which he was admitted, by the University of Cambridge, as a Bachelor in Music. Hence he was of Shakspere's time, and it is as reasonable to presume as agreeable to believe that a piece of vocal harmony so good and so pleasing, its age considered, formed a part of one of the most delightful of the great poet's dramas. In Hilton's round, the brief line, "Then sing him home," is rejected. The omission was unavoidable in a round for four

voices, because in a composition of such limit, and so arranged, it was necessary to give one couplet, and neither more nor less, to each part. But it is doubtful whether that line really forms

we have,

"Then sing him home, the rest shall bear thiş burthen," without any variation of type. Is the whole of the line a stage-direction? "Then sing him

sion. Mr. Oliphant, in his useful and entertaining 'Musa Madrigalesca' (1837), doubts whether the John Hilton, the author of the 'Oriana' madrigal, could have been the same that subse