600. 
isan elegant cut of the Prorins rose, with 
a good account of it, in the frst edition 
of Pomet Hist. des drogues, 1694, foiio, 
p- 174. | 
Remarks of a still more important na- 
ture will, however, be found, on the sto- 
ry and construction of Measure for Mea- 
sure, on the sources from which the story 
ef the Merchant of Venice was derived, 
on the story of Troilus and Cressida, on - 
the story of Pericles, and on Wassed and 
Valentines in Hamlet. 
The Memoir, toward the close of the se- 
cond volume, on the Anachronisms and 
- some other Incongruities of Shakspeare,” 
displays not only research but sound 
judgment. ‘Nor is Shakspeare’ always 
held ‘ responsible for sucl: whimsicalities, 
for they are occasionally to be traced in 
the materials whereof bis plays are con- 
structed ; and others belong to those au- 
thors whom he had oniy assisted im dra- 
mas, the whole composition of which had 
been improperly ascribed to him,’ 
The dissertations, on. the Clowns and 
Fools of Shakspear, on. the Gesta Roima- 
nerum, and the Morris Dance, are too 
curious and too copious for an abridy- 
ment here. oa 
The work is adorned with a variety of 
engravings, both on wood and copper.— 
Mr. Douce deserves the thanks of every 
lover of the works of Shakspeare. 
“A few short Noteson Shakspeare, by 
way of Supplement to Johnson, Steevens, 
Malone, und Douce,” have also appeared 
from the pen of Mr. Strepnen Weston. 
They contain some classical allusions and 
a few references to old hooks, but are 
not of great consideration. 
The idea of Mr. Burnet1’s “ Specimens 
of English prose Writers,” appears to have 
been sugvested by the well known work 
of Mr. Ellis. They begin with Sir John 
“Mandeville in the reign of Edward the 
Third; and end with Bishop Burnet in 
the reign of James the Second. 
Among the more curicus extracts in 
the first volume may be reckoned those 
from Trevisa, Wickliffe, Sir Thomas 
Moore, and Latimer. The last of whom 
affords some of the most amusing exam- 
ples of composition. 
The second volume opens with Bishop 
Gardiner, ahd gives a specimen of style 
from his long letter to Ridley. ‘ The 
Complaynt of Scotland,” shews the con- 
tempory state, in oie shert extract, of the 
Scottish Dralect.. Other principal wri- 
ters whose work§ are cited chronalogi- 
cally for specimens of composition, are, 
Grafton, Holinshed, Sir Philip Sidney, 
Retrospect of Domestic Literature—Miscellanies. 
Spencer, Lord Burleigh, Knolles, Hooker, 
Eacon, Sir Henry Spelman, Bishop An- 
drews, Donne, Ben Jonson, Burton, Sel- 
dex, and Kinc JaMEs. 
In the third volume the writers are 
more numerous, opening with Bishop 
Hall, Hobbes, Jeremy Taylor, Sir Thomas 
Brown, Fuller, Milion, Lord Clarendon, 
Howel, Cowley, Walion, and L’ Estrange, - 
follow; with an extract from a curious 
work somewhat in the manner of Sterne, 
intitled “ France painted to the Life,” 
1657. Boyle, Barrow, Bunyan, Tillot- 
son, Sherlock, Barclay, Tom Brown, Lady 
Russe’, and Locke, complete the speci- 
mens, 
For various literary sketches and re- 
marks, particularly in the first volume, 
Mr. Burnett confesses himself indebted 
to Mr.’ Warton’s History of English 
Poetry; and in a slight degree to Mr. 
Godwin’s Life of Chaucer. His general’ 
source of the biographical details pre- 
fixed, has been the Biographia Britannica. 
The lists of the different productions 
of the several authors, have so far, at 
least their use, that they indicate the sub- 
jects which have interested the curiosity 
and exercised the talents of different 
ages. . 
For what it purports toe be, Mr. Bur- 
nett’s *€ Specimens” will be found a cre-— 
ditable work to its compiler. Had Mr, 
B. pretended -to have given examples 
from unpublished manuscripts, we should 
have blamed him for not going back with 
his subject farther than the reign of Ed- 
ward the Third. 
Mr. Woon’s* Essay on National and Se- 
pulchral Monuments” bears more particu- 
larly on the erection of a Mausoleum. 
for the interment of such officers as have 
died or distinguished themselves in the 
service of their country. It is accompas 
nied by a. design which represents a py- 
ramid, with portals of entrance at the 
four corners. i 
We had formed a faint, though it seems | 
a fallacious hope, that the ‘ Miseries of 
human life” were at an end. We have - 
since seen Professional Characteristics : 
consisting of nuval squalls, military broils, 
physical disusters, legal flaws, and clericaé 
lumentations uttered by an admiral; a 
colonel, « lawyer, a doctor, and & parson, 
inthe coffee room at Bath. Perhaps the 
world is now sufficiently stocked with 
such productions. | 
The twenty. fifth volume of the “ Trans- 
actions of the Society for the Encourage- 
ment of Arts,, Manufactures, and Com-= 
merce, has for a frontispiece the new — 
imedah 
