Blow, blow, KcB—Paper Moneys 
12? 
1811 .] 
tures, in many instances, are to be pre¬ 
ferred, and ought to be substituted in the 
place of some dry and laboured attempts 
at explanation. And the acknowledged 
excellence of this writer is such, as to 
warrant the best and niost favourable 
construction, which may elucidate his 
wit and masterly productions. 
For when I contemplate indeed how 
negligent and bad a scribe he appears to 
have been, hy ihose fac similes whicly I 
have seen in Bell’s edition of his plays, 
I experience equal admiration and gra¬ 
titude to his first publishers, and his 
numerous learned editors jointly, for their 
indefatigable and persevering labours, 
which have happily etiabled me so 
highly to enjoy those marvellous effusions 
of his gifted pen, and those wondrous 
transcripts of life which he drew fwo 
centuries ago. And surely that merit 
must be transcendant indeed, which de¬ 
manded the applause of Elizabeth and of 
James, and now delights in a superior 
degree, our infinitely more intelligent and 
accomplished Regent!—as well also to 
hold so distinguished a situation in a 
London theatre at this day, amidst the 
confessedly more elegant productions of 
some modern dramatists. But I am 
likely to incur the censure of your ex- 
perieticed readers, by these seemingly 
foreign considerations. 
The passage which excites ray attention 
is in the pleasant comedy of “As You 
Like It”, and at the close of the second 
act, where the exiled duke requires some 
music and a song. Amiens then intro¬ 
duces these very beautiful ideas, perti¬ 
nently applicable to the scene, in the 
following lines; 
Blow, blow, thou winter wind, 
Tliou art not so unkind 
As man’s ingratitude j 
Thy tooth is not so keen. 
Because thoii art not seen, 
Altho’ thy breath be rude. 
To express at once my apprehension 
of the poet, is to say, that a man in 
whom we have been deceived in our 
apparently w'ell-founded hopes of friendly 
offices, is unspeakably painful, adding 
very poignantly - to our distress. But 
what disappointment can take place, 
where confidence was not reposed.? I 
formed no compact with the vagrant air, 
I held no fellowship with the winter 
wind, I had conferred no favours on 
that turbulent deity, I could not, as 
did Juno, win the affections of that God ; 
nor could I build on the active benevo¬ 
lence of that invincible element, in my 
Moajthly Mag. No. 217 . 
calamity; and therefore, thy tooth is not 
so keen, because thou art not seen, al¬ 
though thy breath be rude. Shakespeare 
then adds this truth in confirmation of 
his arguments, that “ most friendship is 
feigning; and most loving is folly.” And 
the other verse of this song seems to 
establish this sense of the fifth line of the 
first, by patlietically dwelling as it were, 
and renewing the strain on the ingrati* 
tude of this imposing semblance, man? 
Or if you refuse assent to this opinion, 
turn to the beginning of this same act 
which is opened by the exiled dukcj 
where he says; ' 
The churlish chiding of the winter’s wind. 
Which when it bites and blows upon my 
body, 
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say. 
This is no flattery. 
Or, indeed, the preceding song to that 
in question, will fully countenance this 
manifest interpretation; at least with 
your constant reader, W, 
MarcA 18 , 1811 . 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
ORD Stanhope’s work of egregious 
folly or desperation, has evidently 
no tendency besides that of locking up, or 
causing the melting, and exporting, of all 
the gold and silver in the nation.—Who 
will part with gold except for its value.? 
and by this comical law they are not al¬ 
lowed to fetch tlieir value.—Who then, 
1 say, will part with them for less than 
their value? 
Besides, unless his lordship had made 
some provision for the poor country- 
bankers, it is evident the traffic in gold 
and Bank notes may, through them, be 
carried on as heretofore. A country 
banker is liable to an action if lie does 
not find Bank notes, or gold, and silver, 
for his notes on demand; and there is 
no provision in this law to prevent country 
bankers’ notes to any amount being first 
sold for guineas, and, then exclmnged di¬ 
rectly at the bankers’for Bank of England 
notes ! 
Country hankers’ notes are therefore 
a direct medium for the exchange or bar¬ 
ter of guineas; but any other medium 
answers the purpose as well, provided it 
is as easily convertible into Bank of Eng¬ 
land notes. Stock in the Funds has al¬ 
ready been used for the purpose. 
This boasted measure will therefore, I 
fear, prove exceedingly mischievous, and 
there seems no practicable and safe plan 
but that of finding an independent stand- 
ard 
