ee a ee 
eS 
204 Benefit Clubs.—Sir John Falstaff. 
the die, and received the impression ; 
the fractures on the edges would be a 
sufficient proof of this, if there were not 
another still more incontrovertible. This 
is, the circumstance of M. Waxell’s hav-- 
ing in his own collection two plated me- 
dals, one of Domitian and the other of 
the Legion XV. which exhibit reverses 
tncuse or struck tm, as intaglos: this 
may be ascribed to the carelessness of 
the comer, who too precipitately substi- 
tuted the ‘piece that was to be struck, 
without removing that which had just 
been coined; and which, adhering to the 
hammer by ‘the force of the descending 
blow, left the reversed impression on the 
new piece, This proves that the pla- 
ted coins of the ancients were struck in 
the same manner as their denarii. 
To this curious little work, which is 
well worthy the notice of antiquaries and 
medallists, M, Waxell has subjoined an 
engraved plate of several coins described 
in the course of his essay. 
Se 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
if HAVE been much interested by the 
letters of your correspondent from 
Dunbartonshire, signed J. M, on the sub- 
ject of benefit-clubs; and still more with 
the spirit of benevolence in which they 
originate. There can be no doubt that, 
among all the methods devised of assist- 
ing the lower classes in an hour of sick- 
ness and sorrow, no one can be compared 
to these, when formed upon just and 
accurate principles, and rightly con- 
ducted; taking also into the account, 
their tendency at once to relieve the dis- 
tresses, and to improve the character, of 
the persons assisted by them. 
That gentleman has favoured me with 
a letter, inclosing a well-written paper 
from the Glasgow Herald of the 15th of 
December last, signed A.B. on the best 
mode of making provision for funerals; a 
subject hitherto very imperfectly under- 
stood. This paper,in my opinion, merits 
more general circulation; but as J. M. 
has not favoured me with his name, [ 
have no method of addressing him or his 
friend, to request they would. adopt mea- 
sures to this end, but throngh the mediuin 
of your va sae Magazine. Will you 
then, sir, have the goodness to insert 
this letter; which may lead to the further 
discussion of a subject in which the wel- 
fare of many is concerned, and which 
will much eblige an Gecasional eorré- 
spondent? Catn. Carpe. 
York, Feb. 10, 1810. 
[April 1, 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On SHAKSPEARE’S CHARACTER Of SIR 
JOHN FALSTAFF. 
‘¢] have much tosay in behalf of that Fale 
staft.”*-——-Henry IV. Part 1, Act 2, Seene 4. 
Fever genius “ held the mirror up: to 
Nature,” it surely was in the produe- 
tion of this character. He is a personage 
the best known, the most conspicuous, 
and the most original, in all the compos 
sitions of Shakspeare, or of any of our 
other dramatic writers, The critic who de. 
lights in the motes that trouble the mind’s 
eye, and in the search after difficulties 
which adinit not of a solution, may find a 
wide field for his lucubrations in that im- 
portant question, What gave rise to that 
admirable character? and to him we 
leave the decision of a point equally im- 
portant, namely, Whether the name of 
Oldcastle was that which was first as~ 
signed to him by his illustrious godfather 
the poet? For my own part, ‘ Davus 
sum, non (idipus.” Heaven avert such 
disquisitions from an epistolary quill} 
Those who are not thorough-bred black- + 
letter dogs, may content themselves with 
the account left us by the profound and 
erudite “ Master R obert Shallow, justice 
of the peace and coram,” that he had been 
page to Thomas Mowbray, duke of Nor- 
folk; but as we believe little to he 
known of his birth, parentage, and edu- 
cation, we may without regret leave such 
considerations to the descendants of 
Aristarchus. 
To reduce the conduct of mankind to 
some fixed principles, and to bring the 
thousand shades of human character to 
one standard, has long since occupied 
men of speculative habits and confined 
experience, Every one however who 
has examined his own actions and their 
respective motives, can readily perceive 
that the aim of such theorists isa shadow 
of their own creating; and that they are, 
as Falstatf himself expresses it, “ essen- 
tially mad. without seeming so.” Can. 
itbe any thing but infatuation, to endea- 
vour to prescribe limits to that which is 
ever changing, and to fix the most vola- 
tile of ail things? What naturalists 
afirm of a certain species of shells, 
that there are not two alike, may be in 
an unqualified manner asserted of the 
characters of men. The reason of this 
must be, that the infinite number of im- 
pressions from contingent and external 
circumstances, which tend more imme- 
diately to constitute individual character, 
cannot be the same in any two possible 
instances, . 
These 
