quifition wholly unneceffary. "The cion. That the orthography of all outworks being all demolished, the the papers and deeds is not only not fort muft furrender of courfe." If the orthography of that time, but the tragedy of Kynge Lear, and all the orthography of no period whatthe other manufcripts which have foever. That the language is not the been produced, in some of which this language of that age, but is in varimatchless play is mentioned, have ous inftances the language of a cenbeen proved not to be genuine, Vor- tury afterward. That the dates, tygern, which affects, like all the reft, where there are dates either exprefsto be of and in the hand of Shak- ed or implied, and almost all the facts fpeare, and is iffued from the fame mentioned, are repugnant to truth, repofitory, cannot but be a forgery and are refuted by indifputable docualfo. If it had exhibited any other ments. That the theatrical contracts hand-writing but the pretended hand- are wholly inconfiftent with the ufawriting of Shakspeare, it might have ges of the theatres in the age of been fuppofed a genuine old play, Shakspeare; and that the law of the though it could not boaft of fo high legal inftruments is as falfe as the a parentage as his dramas; but the fpelling and phrafcology are abfurd writer of it having "affumed the and fenfelefs. And, laftly, that the perfon of the noble father" of the hand-writing of all the miscellaneous ftage, it can be no other than a mo- papers, and the fignatures of all the dern fiction; and whether it is a good deeds, wherever genuine autographs or a bad fiction, I shall leave to others have been obtained, are wholly diffito determine." milar to the hand-writing of the perfons by whom they are faid to have been written and executed; and where autographs have not been found, to the general mode of writing in that age. If any additional proof of forgery is wanting, I confefs I am at a lofs to conceive of what nature it should be. Impostures of this kind, (Mr Malonne fays,) are no novelties in the hiftory of letters, to elucidate which he quotes various inftances of literary forgeries, which have been fuccessfully practifed; and, after dwelling with fuch ability on the numerous topics relating to the papers in queftion, he gives the following brief analyfis: "In the courfe of this inquiry, it has been fhewn that the artifice or artificers of this clumfy and daring fraud, whatever other qualifications. they may poffefs, know nothing of the hiftory of Shakspeare, nothing of the hiftory of the ftage, or the history of the English language. It has been proved, that there is no external evidence whatfoever that can give any credebility to the manufcripts which have been now examined, or even entitle them to a ferious confideration. That the manner in which they have been produced, near two centuries after the death of their pretended author, is fraught with the ftrongest circumstances of fufpi "I have now done; and I truft I have vindicated Shakspeare from all this "imputed trafh," and refcued him from the hands of a bungling impoftor, by proving all thefe manufcripts to be the offspring of confummate ignorance and unparalleled audacity." Mr Malonne concludes the fubje& of his inquiry with the following fanciful effusion: While I was employed in this inveftigation, I fometimes fancied that I was pleading the caufe of our great, dramatic poet before the ever-blooming god of melody and fong. Poffeffed with this idea, and having after a very reflefs night closed my eyes at an early hour of the morning, I imagined myfelf transported to Par naffus, naffus, where Apollo and his nine female affeffors were trying this queftion, and were pleafed to call on me to deliver my fentiments, as counfel for Shakspeare, before they fhould proceed further in the caufe. The various poets of all times and countries were amufing themfelves with their lyres on this celebrated hill, which was richly ftored with a profufion of bay trees and ivy, interfperfed with a great variety of aromatic thrubs, which perfumed the air with the most delightful fragrance. I immediately knew our author by his ftrong refemblance to the only authentic portrait of him, which belonged to the late Duke of Chandos, and of which I have three copies by eminent mafters. He appeared to be a very handfome man, above the middle fize, and extremely well made. The upper part of his head was almost entirely denuded of hair; his eyes were uncommonly vivid, and his countenance was ftrongly marked by that frankness of air, and gentle benignity, which all his contemporaries have attributed to him. At the top of the hill he had found out a pleafant even lawn, where he was playing at bowls with Spencer, Sir John Suckling, little John Hales, and two other friends; wholJy inattentive to what was going forward in the court, though Apollo was feated but a few paces from him. -He had been hunting at an early hour of the morning (as I learned from his converfation) in the adjoining plains of Phocis, with Diana, (who was then on a vifit to her brother) and a bevy of her nymphs, who were now fpectators of the game in which he was engaged. Recollect ing the numerous proofs which his writings (corroborated by the teftimony of his contemporaries) exhibit of the tenderness of his heart and his paffionate admiration of the fairer part of the creation, whofe innumerable graces add a zeft to all the pleafures, and footh and alleviate all the cares of life, I was not furprised to hear him tell one of his female affociates in the chafe, that his fport that day had far exceeded any amufement of the fame kind he had ever partaken of in his fublunary ftate.His old and furly antagonist, Ben Johnson, was feated on an empty cafk, looking on the game, in which, from the great curpulency and unwieldinefs of his frame, he was unable to join. Being now unfurnished with his beloved fack, he was obliged to betake himself to the pure ftream of the Caf talian fpring, of which an immenfe flaggon ftood near him; and he appeared to have taken fuch large potations of it, that he was become perfectly bloated and dropfical. When I had urged the principal topics which have been enlarged upon in the prefent inquiry, and the counfel of the other fide had done pleading, Apollo proceeded to pronounce fentence. He began with obferving, that this was one of the most important caufes that had ever been argued in that court; not only as it concerned the history and reputation of the greatest poet that the world had feen fince the days of Homer, but also involved in it the hiftory of language, and of that fpecies of poetical compofition over which two of his affeffors on the bench particularly prefided. That the rights of authors were as facred as any other, and that the ftatute in this cafe made and provided had very wifely guarded their literary property from every kind of invafion, by fecuring to them for a certain period an exclufive privilege of printing and publifhing their works, for their own benefit. That the prefent, however, was entirely a new cafe, no mention being made in the act of the injury which might be done to the reputation of poets, long after their death, by attributing to them miferable trash printed from pretended ancient ma nufc ipts, nufcripts,made in fome obfcure corner for the nonce, and thus debafing and adulterating their genuine performances, which had been admired for ages, by the most impure and base alloy that this offence though not within the letter, was clearly within the fpirit and equity of the ftatute, and was a still greater injury than that expressly provided againft, inafmuch as that only affected the property of an author, whereas this robbed him of that good name and reputation which to all men of fenfibility is dear er than life itself. He added, that to remove all doubts in future, he thought it highly neceffary that the act on this fubject should be explained and amended, and he hoped a felect committee of poets would draw up a bill for that purpofe. Without however waiting for fuch an explanatory act, he thought himself fully justified on the ground before ftated, in pronouncing the fentence of the law in the prefent case, in which the whole court were unanimous. He therefore ordered, in the first place, that a continual hue and cry fhould be made for one year after the original contriver and fabricator of those Mifcellaneous Papers which had been recently published in a folio volume, and attributed to the illuftrious Shakspeare and others; that a perpetual injunction, fhould iffue to prevent the further fale of them, and that the whole impreffion now remaining in the hands of the editor fhould immediately be delivered up to the usher of the court; and when a proper fire had been made of the most baleful and noxious weeds, that all the copies should be burned by Dr Farmer, Mr Steevens, and myself, affifted by Mr Tyrwhitt, who I perceived was honoured with a feat on the bench, and whofe polite demeanour and thoughtful afpect difplayed all that urbanity and intelligence for which he was diftinguished in life: (for in this calenture of the brain, your Lordship cannot but have obferved that the imagination often unites the most difcordant circumftances, and without any difficulty brings together the future and the past, the living and the dead.) He should not, however, (the God of Verse added,) content himfelf with vindicating the reputation of this his favourite fon; but, as his court involved a criminal as well as a civil jurifdiction, should proceed to give fentence on those persons who had been arraigned at the bar, for giving a certain degree of countenance and fupport to this audacious fiction. As their offence was not of a very heinous kind, he fhould treat them with lenity; and the punishment, being wholly discretionary in the court, fhould be proportioned to the various degrees of guilt in the offenders. With refpect to the multitude of perfons of each sex and of all ages and denominations, who had flocked during the preceding year to fee thefe fpurious papers, and expreffed the higheft admiration of them, (they were fo' brown and fo yellow, fo vaftly old and fo vaftly curious!) the ring-leaders, who were then in cuftody, fhould be dismissed with only a gentle reproof, and an admonition never again to pronounce judgment on matters with which they were not converfant, without taking the advice of counfel learned in the laws — of Parnaffus:- but on a small group of hardened offenders *, who were placed at the bar by themselves, and did not appear to me to be more than *In this group I did not fee my friend, the learned and ingenious author of the "Eflay on the writings and genius of Pope," who, though he has paffed his feven-tieth year, retains all the ardour and vivacity of youth; nor a very refpe&table clergyman well known to the learned world, and eminently diftinguished for his love and knowledge of the fine arts, his literature, and fuavity of manners; nor another than feven or eight, he thought himself bound to inflict a much more fevere punishment. That if these gentlemen had modeftly and ingenioufly faid that they had too hastily given a judgment on a matter which they did not understand,-that they knew nothing of old hand-writing, and nothing of old language, (which he conceived they might have done without any impeachment of their understandings) he fhould have had great tenderness for them. But inaf, much as they had pertinaciously adhered to error after it had been made as manifeft as his own fun at noonday, and clung to an opinion because they had once given it, which they were unable to maintain and unwiling to retract, he thought they ought to be made a public example. That in every fentence he pronounced he kept in mind the rule of a great judge of their own nation," always remembering when he found himself fwayed to pity, that there was alfo a pity due to the country;" and that be wished the tribunals of that nation, (which on account of the eminent poets it had produced was extremely dear to him,) whether confifting of one, or of one dozen, would always keep that just rule before their eyes. That the pity to the country, in the prefent inftance, was, by the punishment of thefe offenders, (who, though not fo guilty as the undifcovered principal, yet, as acceffories after the fact, had a confiderable degree of guilt) to maintain and establish truth and honefty, the best fupporters of all human dealings, and to prevent the propagation of error, and the fuccefs of forgery and im posture. The pains and penalties however of that court extending only to that kind of chastisement which men of wit beft know how to inflict, he ordered that Butler, Dryden, Swift, and Pope, fhould forthwith compofe four copies of verses on the fubject, either ballad, epigram, or fatire, as their feveral fancies might direct; and that, after he had affixed his fign-manual to them, they should be conveyed by Mercury to England, and inferted for one month in the Poets' Corner of all the loyal morning and evening news papers of London, to the end that each of thefe credulous partifans of folly and impofture should remain "Sacred to ridicule his whole life long, "And the fad burden of fome merry "fong." On this mild and just sentence being pronounced, all the poetic tribe who were within hearing gave a loud shout of applaufe, which drew Shakfpeare and his companions from their game, and awakened me from my dream, ACCOUNT OF THE INDIAN WOMEN. TAKE though there are some few of them, when young, who are tolerable; but the care of a family, added to their conftant ry worthy friend, who prefides at one of our revenue-boards, with great credit to himself and advantage to the public; a fcholar, a man of excellent tafte, and much various knowledge; all of whom, though at first, and on a curfory view, they were dazzled by the quantity and fpecious appearance of this mafs of impofture, always expreffed themfelves with great moderation and referve on the fubject, and never gave a decided opinion on hand-writing and pharafeology, to which the course of their ftudies had not led them to pay any particular attention. makes it fit light on those whofe lot it is to bear it. It is neceffary to obferve, that when the men kill any large beaft, the women are always fent to bring it to the tent: when it is brought there, every operation it undergoes, fuch as fplitting, drying, pounding, &c. is performed by the women. When any thing is to be prepared for eating, it is the women who cook it; and when it is done, the wives and daughters of the greatest captains in the country are never ferved, till all the males, even those who are in the capacity of fervants, have eaten what they think proper; and in times of fcarcity, it is frequently their lot to be left without a fingle morfel. It is, however, natural to think they take the liberty of helping themfelves in fecret; but this must be done with great prudence, as capital embezzlements of provifions in fuch times are looked on as affairs of real confequence, and fre quently fubject them to a very fevere beating. If they are practifed by a woman whofe youth and inattention to domeftic concerns cannot plead in ́ her favour, they will for ever be a blot in her character, and few men will chufe to have her for a wife. conftant hard labour, foon make the most beautiful among them look old and wrinkled, even before they are thirty; and feveral of the more ordinary ones at that age are perfect antidotes to love and gallantry. This, however, does not render them less dear and valuable to their own ers, which is a lucky circumftance for those women, and a certain proof that there is no fuch thing as any tule or standard for beauty. Afk a nor ́thern Indian, what is beauty? he will anfwer, A broad flat face, fmall eyes, high cheek bones, three or four broad black lines a-cross each cheek, a low forehead, a large broad chin, a clumsy hook nofe, a tawney hide, and breasts hanging down to the belt. Thofe beauties are greatly heightened, or at leaft rendered more valuable, when the poffeffor is capable of dreffing all kinds of skins, converting them into the different parts of their cloathing, and able to carry eight or ten tone in fummer, or haul a much greater weight in winThefe, and other fimilar accomplishments, are all that are fought after, or expected, of a northern Indian woman. As to their temper, it is of little confequence; for the men have a wonderful facility in making the most ftubborn comply with as much alacrity as could poffibly be expected from those of the mildest and most obliging turn of mind: fo that the only real difference is, the one obeys through fear, and the other complies cheerfully from a willing mind; both knowing that what is commanded must be done. They are, in fact, all kept at a great diftance, and the rank they hold in the opinion of the men cannot be better expreffed or explained, than by obferving the method of treating or ferving them at meals, which would appear very humiliating to an European woman, Ed. Mag. June 1796. though cuftom 3 M ter. It may appear ftrange, that while I am extolling the chastity of the northern Indian women, I should ac knowledge that it is a very common cuftom among the men of this coun try to exchange a night's lodging with each other's wives. But this is fo far from being confidered as an act which is criminal, that it is ef teemed by them as one of the strongeft ties of friendship between two fa milies; and in cafe of the death of either man, the other confiders himfelf bound to fupport the children of the deceafed. Those people are fo far from viewing this engagement as a mere ceremony, like most of our * The ftone here meant is fourteen pounds. chriftian |
