LINES ON THE MAGNIFICENT EDITION OF SHAKSPEARE,

RECENTLY COMPLETED BY THE BOYDELLS.

THOUGH many a bard and critic fage intwine

How

Their votive wreaths round Shakspeare's honour'd fhrine,
poor fuch homage to a poet's name,

Whofe peerless works fecure eternal fame!
Lo! of those peerlefs works a fplendid pile,
An off'ring worthy of his native Ifle;
Defign'd by lib'ral Zeal and claffic Tafte,
In fimple grandeur elegantly chaste;
Where, nably fir'd with emulative rage,
Painting illumes her tuneful fifter's page,
And gives a vivid omen of the day,
When British arts full luftre fhall display,
Nor longer humbly yield to ages past,
But fpread a richer radiance that shall last.
The patriot impulfe from the Boydells came,
Whofe foft'ring aid fuftain'd the rifing flame;
And hence with Shakspeare fhall they proudly ftand,
Protected by the Genius of the land.

ON PAPER.

[From the London Chronicle.]

SOME wit of old, (fuch wits of old there were,
Whose hints fhew'd meaning, whose allufious care,)
By one grave ftroke to mark all human kind,
Call'd clear blank paper every infant mind;
When ftill as opening Senfe her dictates wrote,
Fair Virtue put a feal, or Vice a blot.

The thought was happy, pertinent, and true;
Methinks a Genius might the plan pursue.
I-can you pardon my prefumption?-I,
No Wit, no Genius, yet for once will try.
#

Various the papers various wants produce,
The wants of Fafhion, Elegance, and Ufe:
Men are as various, and (if right I fcan)
Each fort of paper reprefents fome man.
Pray note the fop, half powder and half lace,
Nice as a bandbox were his dwelling-place;

He's

He's the gilt paper, which apart you store,
And lock from vulgar hands in the fcrutore.
Mechanics, farmers, fervants, and fo forth,
Are copy paper of inferior worth;

Lefs priz'd, more useful, for your desk decreed,
Free to all pens, and prompt at ev'ry need.

The wretch whom av'rice bids to pinch and spare,
Starve, cheat, and pilfer, to enrich-an heir,
Is coarse brown paper, fuch as pedlars choose,
To wrap up wares, which better men will use.
Take next the mifer's contraft, who deftroys
Health, fame, and fortune, in a round of joys:
Will any paper match him?-Yes-throughout
He's a true finking paper, past all doubt.

The retail politician's anxious thought.

Deems this fide always right, and that stark naught.
He foams with cenfure; with applause he raves;
A dupe of rumours, and a tool of knaves;
He'll want no type his weakness to proclaim,
While fuch a thing as fool's-cap hás a name.
The hafty gentleman, whofe blood runs high,
Who picks a quarrel if you step awry;
Who can't a jeft, or hint, or look endure,
What is

he?What?-Touch-paper, to be fure. What are our poets, take 'em as they fall,

Good, bad, rich, poor, much read, not read at all?
Them and their works in the fame clafs you'll find;
They are the mere waße paper of mankind.
Obferve the maiden, innocently fweet!
She's fair white paper, an unfullied sheet:
On which the happy man, whom fate ordains,
May write his name, and take her for his pains.
One inftance more, and only one I'll bring,
"Tis-the great man, who fcorns a little thing:
Whofe thoughts, whofe deeds, whofe maxims are his own,
Form'd on the feelings of his heart alone:

True genuine royal paper is his breast,

Of all the kinds moft precious, pureft, beft.

NATURE

IN

NATURE THE BEST PHYSICIAN.

Bladud's old city furrounded by hills,"

Where the fount always heals, but the phyfic oft kills, Liv'd a medical Doctor of excellent fame,

Whofe wife was a Jewefs-a fat, jolly dame;

And fo well were they match'd, that if rightly I ween,
Like a couple of rabbits-one fat, and one lean.
The law and levitical rites, it is faid,

Enjoin the femmes couvertes to fhave all the head.
To a beautiful Jewefs how hard is the fate,
For her long flowing ringlets to wear a falfe tête !

Though comely, yet beauty our dame could not boast, Few glaffes were crown'd with her name as a toast ;

Though no charms her hard features were form'd to express,
Yet her head was a proverb in luftre of dress,

And when frizz'd to extent, with her jewels adorning,
Appear'd like a bufh in a dew-fpangled morning.
Thus dizen'd and stiffen'd, flie came from a ball,

Where lords, rogues, and pimps, from the great to the small,
With a fmall fquad of virgins, and many a h,
Met to dance, play, and chatter, in honour of Charlotte*.
The poppy-crown'd god had not long clos'd their eyes,
Ere the Doctor's profeffion oblig'd him to rife;
"Poor old Sir John Dory is at his last breath,

If your skill, my good Doctor, can't bail him from death.”
In great hafte and darkness he cover'd his pate,

Not with his own bag, but his wife's fhining tete,

And thus fallied forth: Oh! I fear 't is all hollow,"
Quoth the Doctor, "good nurfe! for Sir Dory can't fwallow."
At a found fo terrific, Sir John rais'd his eyes,
And view' with amazement the opening skies:
Bold Fancy foon led him from matter terrestrial
Through regions of space, to the archives celestial.
Here were funs, mouns, and comets--the lacteal way;
And the zodiac arrang'd in the brightest array;
But here the forfook him-th' illufion was fled
And he found his eyes fix'd on the Doctor's droll head.
Convulfions of laughter the dying Knight feiz'd-
The quinfy was broken-the patient was eas'd.

"Good morn," quoth the Knight; "fee how Nature furpasses All the skill of your college, and proves you but affes.”

ON THE WORD ADDRESS.

MR. EDITOR,

[From the Oracle.]

HERE is a particular propenfity inherent in us all, the effects of which are the fame, but the mode of application extremely diffimilar, and which may be known by the general term of Addrefs. The addrefs of an old man confifts in perfuading his miftrefs that he is young; and that of a youth, in infinuating that he has arrived at the age of maturity and fecrecy. A fharper has attained the height of his wishes if he has the addrefs to pafs, in the opinion of the world, for an honeft man; and the latter is often fufpected of being otherwife, if he difplays too much address: modelt women frequently are mistaken for courtczans, by affecting their addrefs; neither is a Cyprian qualified to fucceed in her profeffion till fhe has acquired the feeming addrefs of innocence. A creditor difplays his addrefs in difcovering the addrefs of his debtors and the addrefs of a debtor confifts in cautiously concealing his addrefs from his creditor.

YOUR DEBTor.

FASHIONS.

MR. EDITOR,

[From the fame.]

WHATEVER be the manners of a beloved object, they are always thofe with which we are best pleafed. When Fashion is that object, it is natural that we should find its forms agreeable, whatever they may be. Thus even the most ridiculous and extravagant ones always find a multitude of coxcombs and women ready to extol and defend them. In their eftimation

the

the very name of Fashion anfwers all objections, juftifies and adorns every thing. It pleafes them by its ficklenefs, it enchants them by its caprices, and confoles them for the ridicule which it beftows upon them. When morofenefs or reafon would examine its conveniences and advantages, after the example of the Gaul, who threw his fword into the fcale, they throw in their dreffes and toys: the most impartial will employ artifice to make the inconveniencies kick the beam."

There is but one thing that is capable of curing a coquette of her paffion for the modes; and ftill that recipé is not very certain of fuccefs. Champfort gives an inftance of a lady who quarrelled with her lover because he put on a flocking awry.

A young and handfome woman who is only a demicoquette, and is but half infatuated with fashion, paffes for reasonable; a man who comes within the fame degree paffes for a fop; from which it may be concluded, that to be a woman, and handfome, is to have the privilege of being foppifh with impunity.

It is the fashion of fome people not to follow the fashion; they profefs to difdain and criticife it. Thefe are as ridiculous in the eyes of people of fashion as the latter are in theirs. Thus is there a compenfation for epigrams and farcafms, and it is to be prefumed that both fides are quit. Neither of them ever examine what the fashion is; it matters nothing whether real tafte would condemn or approve it; it is fufficient that it be the fashion, in order to obtain the fuffrages of the one, and incur the cenfure of the other. It appears fo amiable in the eyes of fome, that it even feduces thofe whom it does not become; and others are fo ftrongly prejudiced against it, that they would fcruple to adopt it even if it were becoming, agreeable, and useful to them. Be that as it may, the rule will hold good, almost generally, that

the