CAP 
poem of the Principles of Things, Frankfort, i6^r, 8vo. 
with tolerable 1 'uccefs. ' Cardinal Bembo and Manucius 
placed this work on a level with his model. An edition, 
with an Italian translation, was given in Svo. at Venice, 
-in 1754. He alfo com poled elegies, epigrams, and a poem 
de Vate Maximo, which Gefner, doubtlefs a,great friend 
of the poet, equalled with the productions of antiquity. 
CA'PEL (Arthur lord), polfeffed almoft every virtue 
and accompli (Inneat that could gain him honour and re. 
fpedf in public'life. He at his own expence railed fe.veral 
troops of hoffe for Charles I. which he commanded in 
perfon. He defended Colchefler with invincible refolu. 
t'1011; but, when the garrifon was forced to furrender, lie 
yielded himfelf a prifoner, and was executed March 9, 
1649, in violation of a promile of quarter given him by 
the parliament general. He behaved upon the Scaffold 
with all the dignity of confcious virtue, and met death 
with the fame intrepidity with which he had been accuf- 
tomed to face the enemy. 
CA'PEL, a town of Germany, in the duchy of Carin- 
thia, on the Fella: ten miles Couth of Volkemarck. 
CA'PELL (Edward), a gentleman diftinguillied by his 
indefatigable attention to the works of Shakefpeare, was'a 
native of the county of Suffolk, and received his educa¬ 
tion at the School of St. Edmund’s Bury. In the dedica¬ 
tion of his edition of Shakefpeare, in 1768, to the duke of 
-Grafton, he obferves, that “his father and the grandfa¬ 
ther of his grace were friends, and to the patronage of the 
•deceafed nobleman he owed the lei fare which enabled him 
tg beftow the attention of twenty years on that work.” 
The office which his grace bellowed on Mr. Capell Was 
that of deputy infpeftor of the plays, to which a Salary 
is annexed of 200I. per annum. So early as the year 1745, 
os Mr. Capell himfelf informs 11s, (hocked at the licen- 
tioufnefs of Hanmer’s plan, he firlf projected an edition of 
Shakefpeare, of the drifted accuracy, to be collated and 
-publillied, in due time, rx jide codicum. He. immediately 
proceeded to coUedt and compare the elded and fcarcelt 
■-copies ; noting the original excellencies and defeats of the 
<rared quartos, and diffinguidiing the improvements or va¬ 
riations of the firlf, fecond, and third, folios : and, after 
many years labour, produced a very beautiful Svo. edi¬ 
tion, in ten volumes, with an introdudlion. There is not, 
.among the various publications of the.prefent literary era, 
a more lingular competition than that introduction. In 
the title-page .of “ Mr. Wm. Shakefpeare his Comedies, 
Hiltories, and Tragedies,” it was alfo announced and pro¬ 
mulgated, “ Whereunto will be added, m lome other vo¬ 
lumes, notes critical and explanatory, aud a body of va¬ 
rious readings entire.” The introduction likewife declared, 
■that thefe notes and various readings would be accompa¬ 
nied with another work, difclofing the fources from which 
tShakefpeare “drew' the greater part of his knowledge in 
mythological and clafikal matters, his fable, his hi (lory, 
and even the feemigg peculiarities of his languageto 
■which (fays Mr. Capell) we leave given for title. The 
-School of Shakefpeare.” Nothing finely could be more 
■properly conceived than finch defigns, nor have we ever 
met with any thing better grounded on the ('object of the 
“learning of Shakefpeare'” than what may be found in the 
long note to this part of Mr. Capell’s introduflion. It is 
more folid than even the popular eflay on this topic. Cer¬ 
tain quaintnefles of flyle, and peculiarities of printing and 
j. unfluation, attended the whole of this publication. The 
outline, however, was correct; and the critic, with unre¬ 
mitting toil, proceeded in his undertaking. But, white 
.he ua&diving into the dallies of Caxton, and, working 
his way underground, like the river Mole, in order to 
-emerge u ith all his glories ; while he was lobking forward 
to his triumphs; certain other adlive lpiritswent t-o work 
upon his plan, and, digging out the promifed treafures, 
laid (heni prematurely-before the public, defeating theef- 
’fed of our critic’s dticovsries by anticipation. Steevens, 
Malone, Fanner, Percy, ‘Reed, and a whole hod of lite¬ 
rary ferrets, burrowed into every hole and coi'ner of the 
Vol. III. No. 160. 
CAP 76-r 
warren of modern antiquity, and over-ran all the country 
whole map had been delineated'by Edward Capell. Such 
a contingency nearly daggered tlie deady and unfliaken 
perfeverance of our critic, at the very eve of the comple¬ 
tion of his labours, and, as his editor informs us, (for alas! 
at the end of near forty years, the publication was podhu- 
mous, and the critic himfelf no more 1) he was aimed de¬ 
termined to lay the work wholly adde. He perl'evered, 
however, by the encouragement of fome noble and worthy 
perfons: and to fit c-h their encouragement, and his perfe¬ 
verance, the public was, in 1783, indebted for three large 
volumes in 4to. under the title of “ Notes and various 
Readings of Shakefpeare; together with the School of 
Shakefpeare, or Extracts from divers Englilh Books that 
were in print in the Author’s time; evidently (hewing from 
whence liis feveral Fables were taken, aud fome parcel of 
his Dialogue. Alfo farther'Extradfs, which contribute to 
a due underdanding of his Writings, or give alight to the 
Hiflory of his Life, or to the Dramatic Hi dory of his 
Time. By Ed ward-Capell.” Beddes the works already 
mentioned, Mr. Capell was the editor of a volume of an¬ 
cient poems called “ Prolufions; and the alteration of An- 
thony and Cleopatra,” 1 as adted at Dntry-lane in 1758. He 
died January 24, 1781. 
CA'PELL, a town of Germany, in the duchy of Stiria, 
three miles north of Muertznfchlag. 
CAPEL'LA, an elegiac poet, in the age of Julius Cat- 
far. Ovid. 
CAPEL'LA (Marcianus Milieus Felix), a Latin poet, 
lived about the year 490. He is thought to have been an 
African and proconfui. We have a poem of his, in titled, 
De Nuptiis Philologite et Mercurii, et de feptem Artibus 
Liberalibus. Grotius, at tHe age of only fourteen years, 
gave a good edition of this production, in 1399, in 8vo. 
with notes and corrections. He rebored numberlefs cor¬ 
rupted palfages, with a fagacity truly wonderful in a boy 
of his age. 
CAPEL'I.A, f. a bright darof the fird magnitude, in 
the left (boulder of the cendellation Auriga. 
CAPEL'I.E, a town of France, in the department of 
the Straits of Calais, and chief place of a canton, in the 
didriCt of Montreuil : one league foutli .of Hefdin. 
CAPEL'LE (La), a town of France, in the department 
of Aifne, and chief place of a canton, in the didriCt of 
Vervin: four leagues north-ead of Guile. 
CAPEL'LE LA MARIVAL'LE, a town of France, 
in the department of the I.ot, and chief place of a canton, 
in the didrict of Figeac : eight miles N. N. W. of Figeac. 
C APEL'LEN, a town of Germany, in the duchy of 
Stiria, eight miles wed of Luttenburg, 
CAPEL'LUS (Lewis), an eminent French Protedant, 
born at Sedan in Champagne, about 1.579. He was P ro - 
feiTov of divinity and of file Oriental languages in the uni- 
verfity of Saunnir ; and fo deeply (killed in the Hebrew, 
that bilhop Hall calls him Magvuki Hebraizantium oraculum 
in 'Gallia., the ‘great oracle of all who dudied Hebrew in 
France.’ He was the author of fome very learned works; 
but is chiefly memorable for the oontroverly lie had with 
the younger Buxtcrf concerning the antiquity of the He¬ 
brew points. Two opinions have prevailed concerning the 
true date and origin of thefe points ; both of which have 
been very warmly elpoufed. The fird is, that the points 
are coeval with the language, and were always in ufe among' 
the Jews: the fecond, that the points were not known to 
the Jews before their difperdon from Jerufalem, but were 
invented afterwards by modern rabbis to prevent the lan¬ 
guage, which was every day decaying, from being utterly 
lod, viz. that they were invented by the Maforeth Jews of 
Tiberias, about 600 years after Chrid. This opinion was 
taken up by Capelins, who defended it in a very excellent 
and learned treatife, intitled, Arcanum Punefuationis Re- 
velatum, &c. which work, beins printed in Holland, can- 
fed a great clamour among the Protefiants, as.if i,t had a 
tendency to hurt their caufc. Meantime it is certain, that 
Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius, and others, had dpotjfed the 
9 H lame 
