312: 
the cultivation of the intellect!” There 
are three circulating libraries in the town, 
eoinposed almost wholly of novels; but 
then the circulation of these novels is 
confined, with very few exceptions, to 
the lower classes, particularly of females, 
Totnes has no regular streets, no hand- 
some buildings, to boast of; nor are there 
any remains of the celebrated Roman 
foss-way, which Leland affirms, begun 
here; but the beauty of its situation is 
unrivalled. It is seated on the side of a 
hill inclining towards a fine country, and 
terminating in the transparent river Dart. 
From the bridge which crosses the Dart, 
the view, just before sunset, of an autum- 
nal evening, is uncommonly beautiful, 
On the south is an expanse of water, 
covered with pleasure-boats, barges, and 
coasting-vessels, and encircling a small 
island on which a number of fine elms 
display their dark-green foilage; then 
making a sudden turn the river disap- 
pears, and the hills which rise boldly from 
Its bed, terminate the view. On the 
north the river extends a considerable 
way, and is land-locked by slowly-rising 
fields, yellow with ripening ¢orn; while 
at adistance Haytor rocks, and the forest 
of Dartmoor appear, with their summits 
frequently above the light clouds which 
hover around their base. The town is 
seen on the western side, stretching up 
the ascent of the hill, with its tower sur- 
- rounded by trees, and the whole crowned 
by the ivy-covered keep of the castle. 
Such is Totnes, and it may not be im- 
proper to conclude these anecdotes, in 
the language of one of its most celebrated 
literati | 
“ Europe (says he) is the finest quar- 
ter of the globe; and no one can deny 
that England isthe finest part of Europe ; 
it is universally allowed too, that Devon- 
shire is the most beautiful county in 
England, and that Totnes is the prettiest 
town in Devonshire; and whoever has 
seen my little cottage will say, that there 
is no house in Totnes worthy to be com- 
pared with it!!” 
“Such is the patriot’s boast where’er we roam, 
His first, best country, ever is his home.” 
Your's, &c. 
Mitrorp Winpeair, Jun, 
Bridgetown, Sept. 27, 1808. 
———— t 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the QUESTION whether SHAKESPEARE 
was the autTuon of the rPisTLes (rans- 
lated from oyiD. 
HIOUGH I have little time to spare, 
B the question concerning the author- 
ship of the translations from Ovid, of the 
On the Question whether Shakespeare was the 
[Nov. 1 ’ 
two epistles, “ Paris to Helen, and He- 
len to Paris,” necessarily occupies a pore 
tion of that little. 
Had they never been claimed as being 
Shakespeare’s in his life-time, the ques- 
tion. would have been of no great mo- 
ment. Of all the epistles of that charm- 
ing writer, they were the least worthy 
of translation. And even for those days, 
when the principles of translating were 
little understood in England, their merit 
is not such as to make us anxious con- 
cerning the author. Bat it is of impor- 
tance as it respects the character of 
Shakespeare, 
It appears, that ainong his undisputed 
poems, these translations were published 
by Jaggard, in 1609. 
In the same year, Heywood makes his 
claim: supported, as far as I can find, 
neither in the quotation by your corre- 
Sad nor by that of Dr, Farmer, in 
the “ first Essay on the Learning of 
Shakespeare,” but by his assertion only. 
This he does in a book entitled, “ Bri- 
tain’s Glory,” published by the very same 
Jaggard, 
I do not find that he then accuses 
Jaggard. But in 1612 he publishes an 
“ Apology for Actors,” and there, in 
an Appendix directed to his new prin- 
ter, Nic. Okes, he accuses his old one, 
Jaggard, of taking the two epistles of 
Paris to Helen, and Helen to Paris,* and 
printing them under the name of an- 
other.” i 
This Britain’s Troy, in which he ad- 
vances his claim to these translations, 
seems to have been the earliest’ of the 
many volumés which he published. In 
1611, this voluminous writer published 
his “ Golden Age,” or the Lives of Ju- 
piter and Saturn, acted at the Red Bull, 
And in 1688, twenty*two years after the 
death of Shakespeare, the Rape of Lu- 
crece, also acted at the Red Bull. He is 
said to have been the author in part, or 
in the whele, of two hundred and twenty 
plays. ; 
Sometimes a question is not badly il- 
lustrated by supposing it to be the sub- 
ject of a trial at law: for although the 
rules of evidence as to admissibility, 
are, some of them, not such as to faci+ 
litate the general investigation of truth ; 
yet the general rules of the credibility of 
testimony, when admitted, are rules of 
plain justice and common sense. i 
‘Suppose an information for a libel 
in accusing Jaggard as having know- 
ingly, falsely, and maliciously, published 
that Shakespeare was the author of these 
Cea anne aaa ae aS 
 & See Farmer's Essay. i 
translations, 
