[Sept. 
1 14 Critkal Rerdarks on Snakespeare. 
lias positively asserted ; but to point 
them out would be a task of no small dif¬ 
ficulty. The colour of tlie style and dic¬ 
tion, the condiict, language, and senti¬ 
ments, are radically dilterent trom those 
of the genuine plays ot Shakespeare. 
There is, as Mr. Steovens has well ob¬ 
served, no vein of iunnour. interwoven 
v/ith the business of the drama, it offers 
no interes'.ing situation, no natural cha- 
jacter, it neither commands our atten¬ 
tion nor moves our passions. T lie clas¬ 
sical allusions in this play are fur more 
numerous than in any ot the acknow¬ 
ledged productions of the great poet; 
and the auihor has studiously avoided, 
contrary to the practice of Shakespeare, 
all dissyllable and trissyllable termina¬ 
tions. In line, Titus Andronicus is men- 
tiored with d'scredit in the induction 
to Ben .Tonson’s “ Bartholomew Fair,” 
30 1614, as a tragedy that iiad then been 
cxliiihired tw/'nty-hve or thirty years, 
which carries its origin back to an earlier 
period than that at which Shakespeare is 
supposed to have commenced author, and 
it was never published with his name till 
after his death. The piece therefore 
ought to be e.sounged from all future edi- 
tions of his works. It iuys been assigned, 
-not without probability, to Christopher 
Marlowe. In Act Hr Scene 1. of this 
Ti-av, we have these lines, and they are 
terhacs the best which can be found in 
.i . i 
this, preposterous drama. 
She is a woman, therefore may be wco’dj 
.She is a woman, therefore may be won.” 
Tt is remarkable that in the spurious 
piay of Henry VI. Part I. we meet with 
the same lines a litlie varied. 
Site’s beautifid, and therefore to be W'oo’d ; 
She Is a woman, therefore to be won. 
Act V. Scene 4. 
Possibly the same play-wright might be 
the fabricator of both these wretched and 
despicable performances. 
Teoil o s AKD Cre ssiDA.—J, Scene 1» 
O that band ! 
In whose comparison all whites are ink 
V/riting- their owp reproach ; to whose soft 
seizuie 
The cygnet's' do'.vn is harsh, and spirit of 
sense 
• Plard asthepadm of ploughman. 
The spirif of sense is an expression wliich 
agciin occurs Act HI. Scene 3. “ The 
eye, that most pure spirit of sense.’’ The 
spirit of sense seems therefore the fa¬ 
culty of sense, or sensation in the ab¬ 
stract, which in comparison with the 
soft seizure of Cressid’s hand is said to be 
callous and insensible as the palm of 
ploughman. This is indeed extihivagant 
absurdity, hut then it niU't be remem¬ 
bered that the speaker is “ mad in Cres¬ 
sid’s love.’' ,Dr. Wariiurcon f-n- “ spirit 
of sense” reads “ spue of sense/’ but this 
is only changing poetical for unpoetical 
nonsense. 
Now princes for,the service 1 have done you. 
The advantage of the tin*e prompts me aloud 
To call for recompence. Act 111,. Scene'S. 
The service for which Calchas solicits a 
reward is plainly intimated to be liis pre¬ 
diction of the approaching downfal of 
Troy, which he argues may be securely 
relied upon, as, from his fore-knowledge 
of this catastrophe, he had actually 
abandoned Troy, exposing himself, fts he 
boasts,. 
From certain and possessed conveniences 
To doubtful fortunes. 
And notwithstanding Dr. Warburton’s 
smart observation, “ that Shakespeare 
Avould not draw his priest a knave in 
order to make him talk like a fool,” it is 
not difficult to believe that Calch.as would 
urge his claim upon the Greeks as 
founded injustice; the service pei formed, 
however, interested the motives, being in 
itself of the highest importance ; for when 
they were drooping under repeated dis- 
appoinDTienis, “when fresh kings vvere 
come to Troy, and when the hart Achillea 
kept thicket,” he brought them an assu^ 
ranee, such as bore tire marks of indfrbi- 
tabte sincerity and certainty, that, if they 
had but resolution to persist, Troy must 
inevitably full. 
This play is written with great poxver 
cf inleliect and sagacity of observation, 
and it exhibits many splendid and beau=» 
tiful passages; hut the general impression 
is not pleasing, and the skill and liumour 
with which some of the characters are 
delineated do not sufficiently compensate 
for the disgust produced by tiie grossness 
of their vices. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SIR , 
ERMIT me, through your exten¬ 
sively circulated Miscellany, to en¬ 
quire whether there is any easy and 
effiectual means of expelling or removing 
the large black beetles which infest bouses 
and out-buildings. These insects are de¬ 
scribed in Dr. Rees’s Cyclopiedia, under 
the article BJutta,” and the author 
