CHRONIC EE 
convention has resolved to present 
to his widow ; and to give her, at 
the same time, the national scarf 
with which he was decorated at 
the opening of the convention. 
At his house in Norton-Street, 
sir William Chambers, knight of 
the polar star, surveyor-general 
of his majesty’s board of works, 
treasurer of the royal academy, 
and fellow of the royal and ann- 
quarian societies. A further ac- 
count of this architect shall be giv- 
en under the head of characters. 
APRIL. 
ed The intimation of the first 
* performance of a piece ascrib- 
ed to the pen of Shakspeare pro- 
duced this night the effect which 
might naturally have been expected 
in a metropolis filled with his ad- 
mirers. At four o’clock the doors 
of the theatre were besieged, and, 
a few minutes after they were open- 
ed, the pit was crowded solely with 
gentlemen. Before six not a place 
was to be found in the boxes, and 
the passages were filled. The play 
of Vortigern was announced for 
representation as the production of 
our immortal bard; but the tale 
of its long concealment and happy 
recovery was not heard without 
_ Suspicion; which his votaries wish- 
ed to heighten into immediate in- 
credulity. The town, however, re- 
tained its candour; and, we be- 
lieye, the predominant  sentitnent 
in the audience, on this* evening, 
was a wish to welcome with rapture 
the recovered offspring of their 
beloyed Shakspeare. A play was 
therefore performed, founded in 
some degree on the historical ac- 
count of the ambition of Vorti- 
4 
fi 
gern, the usurper cf Britain; his 
murder of Constantius ; his alliance 
with the Saxons; and his passion 
for Rowena, the daughter of the 
Saxon chief. The events are warp= 
ed into a resemblance to those of 
Macbeth, Richard III. &c. with 
the inadvertency of a copyist, who 
was more intent on imitating the 
language than the genius of Shak- 
speare. The characters are such as 
would not have been drawn by that 
astonishing writer in the excercise 
of his usual faculties. He is re- 
markable in seldom borrowing from 
himself. The play is destitute of 
all those gigantic metaphors, and 
bold allusions, which, approaching 
the limits of possibility, astonish and 
vlarm our imaginations into a Sym- 
pathy with his sublime concep- 
tions. he language, though eviq 
dently an imitation, is infinitely 
beneath the original, which posses_ 
ses an aptitude, a facility, and har- 
mony, which has never been ‘sur- 
passed. The audience betrayed 
symptoms of impatience early in 
the representation ; bat finding its 
taste insulted by bloated terms, 
which heightened the general in- 
sipidity, its reason puzzled by dis 
cordant images, false ornaments, 
and abortive efforts to elevate and 
astonish ; pronounced its sentence 
of condemnation, at the conclusion 
of the play ; and we have no doubt 
that Vortigern, if it be published, 
will rank in character, though not 
in merit, with the perverted and 
surprising labours of the unfortunate 
Chatterton, 
This most gross and impudent 
imposition had, however, its sup- 
porters, as the following attesta- 
tion, drawn up by therev, Dr. Parr, 
shews. 
We whose names are hereunto 
subscribed, 
