1809.] 
Tom Davies’s, and paid the most respectful 
attention to his conversation. Some of his 
opinions and remarks, which had impressed 
themselves deeply upon his memory, he used 
to take pleasure in repeating. Revering 
‘Tillotson, he was surprised, tu hear the doctor 
call him ¢* a pitiful fellow.”* But-he was - 
still more astonished to hear him acknow- 
ledge, ** long atter he’ had been employed 
in preparing his Shakespeare for the public 
eve, indeed a very short time before it issued 
frum the press, that he had never yet read 
the plays. of Beaumont and Fletcher.” Pre- 
face to the plays, Lear and Cymbeline, Dub. 
1795. During his residence in London, the 
theatre engaged much of his attention, and 
his passion for that elegant amusement grew 
with his years. 
formers from theatre to theatfe, and studied 
the best dramatic writers. From an admirer 
he became a critic. Idolising Shakespeare, 
he ojten lamented that. his dramas had sus- 
fered in their structure, from the ignorance 
or carelessness of the first editors. ‘his de- 
termined him to attempt a transposition of 
the scenes, ina few places, from the order 
in which they have been handed down by 
Successive editions. ‘* This,” he continues 
in the modest preface to his edition of Lear, 
** will doubtiess be thought by many a hardy. 
innovation, but if it be considered in what a 
disorderly and neglected state this author’s 
picces are reported to have been left by him, 
and how little certainty there is that the 
scenes have hithertu preserved their original 
arrangement 5 the presumption with which 
this attempt is chargeable, will admit of 
much extenuation, and it were, at least, to 
be wished that no privilege of alteration 
more injurious to Shakespeare, had ever been 
assumed by any of his editors.” What he 
attempted, he has accomplished with great 
ingenuity and much taste in his editions of 
the icllowing plays :—Lear and Cymbeline, 
Dub. 1793, and the Merchant of Veaice, 
Dub. 1805.* ‘Yo each play he has assigned 
a separate volume, containing, net only notes 
and illustraticns of various commentators, 
with remarks by the editor, but the several 
cr.tical and historical essays that have ap- 
peared at different times, respecting each 
piece. ‘lo Cymbeline he has added a new 
tr-nsiation of the ninth’ story of Second Day 
of the Decamerone, and an original air, which 
accompanies the words of the elegy on Fi- 
dele’s death, composed on purpose for his 
pu lication, by Sig Giordani. ‘1 hese editions 
will yet be considered as a valuable accession 
to the critical labours of the commentators of 
our immortal bard. According as they are 
better known, they will rise in estimation. 
* Ali tncse pubdilzat.ons -ppeared anony- 
mously. They were published in London by 
Lackington and Allen, and Longmen and 
Rees. 
MonTuiry Mage, No. 186. 
Deaths Abroad. 
‘© He followed the best per-_ 
639 
The praise bestowed on them,” by the author 
of an Essay on the revival of the drama in 
Italy, note 8, p. 270, is only justice to their 
merit. **As you like it,” was prepared for the 
press upon the same plan, but it sleeps with 
the editor, to whom we shall now return. 
His person was tall, well proportioned, aud 
majestic.. His countenance beamed benevo- 
lence. His manners were soft, easy, ande 
polite... His anind was richly stored with 
classié lore, and every moral virtue. His 
conversation was a. stream of elegant infor- 
mation, vccasionally enriched with Just critic 
cism and solid argument. Graced withevery 
accomplishment himself, his family became 
highly accomplished under his direction. OF 
the fine arts, music, (which he has so ably de- 
f-nded in a note on the‘‘Merchant of Venice, * 
p. 236-259, was his favourite. Accordingly 
it was particularly cultivated in his family, 
who seems to inherit not only his accom- 
plishments, but his virtues. ‘To this slight 
sketch of his. character, we. shall only-add, — 
that he closed an useful life at an advanced 
age, at his beautiful seat of Cronroe, where 
he had long resided in elegant hospitality, 
ministering tothe comforts of his surrounding 
tenantry, and exhibiting in his public and 
private conduct, in his ‘studies and in his 
amusements, a model worthy the imitation 
of every country gentleman. 
At Philadelphia, on the 9th of February | 
last, aged about 86 years, James Pemberton, | 
esq. of the society called Quakers; by which, 
no less than by the community at large, he 
was eminently distinguished for the upright 
discharge of his religious and civil duticse 
He was long the colleague of Dr. Benj.min » 
Franklin, in representing that (his native) 
city, in the general legislature of Pennsyl- 
vania, previous tothe revolution; and aiter 
it, he succegded the philosopher as president 
of the society, instituted for promoting the 
imterests of the enslaved Africans; which, 
with various other benevolent objects, en- 
gaged a large proportion of his time more 
than half a century. On the i3th, at the 
interment of his remains, the respect felt for 
his memory was manifested by a very nume- 
rous aitendance of his fellow citizens, of all 
ranks and denominations. His temperature, 
and regular habits, contributed to. preserve, 
almost to the last, the unimpaired enjoyment 
of his intellectual faculties, with a capacity 
for exerting them; and his closing moments 
evinced the peaceful retrospect of a well- 
spent life.——‘¢ Mark the perfect man, and 
behold the upright 5 f 
is peace.” : 
On board his Majesty’s Ship Wanderer, in 
the West Indies, in the 21st year of his 
age, Lieutenant William White, of the 
royal navy, eldest son of A. W. White, esq. 
of Surinam, 
ap PRICES 
or the end of that man - 
