1810.] 
These remarks are fully illustrated in 
the character before us. Shakspeare, 
whose knowledge was derivedfrom that 
infallible source, the page of Nature, had 
not studied it sv much in vain, as to be 
ignorant of the principal feature in it— 
that ‘* foolish compounded clay, man.” 
Falstatf is represented by him, as teeming 
with the striking and prevalent imper- 
fections of his fellow- creatures; though 
they are so well adjusted and propor- 
tioned, as not to * outstep the modesty 
of nature,” or to injure the whole. It 
is this combination of features, this com- 
position of parts, which in poetry, as well 
as in the other fine arts, displays the ta- 
Jents of a master. Where there exists 
in the character some leading trait, \ or 
passion, to which all other affections are 
subordinate, the task 1s far Jess difficult 
to execute; since we have, as it were, a 
centre given to which inferior principles 
of action converge.,. Hence the hero of a 
play, to whom the poet has assigned some 
simple object, which must afiect every 
source of conduct, may be a character 
really much easier to delineate, than one 
whuse part appears to be of secondary 
consequence. Lago evinces more labour 
and genius than Othello; and Shylock 
than Antonio. In the same manner, 
Falstaff exhibits the talents of the poet 
more than any other personage introdu- 
ced. It may here be observed, that his- 
tory, Unless very remote or obscure, must 
cramp the faculties of the poet, and con- 
fine his range of invention. As it was 
often the fate of Shakspeare, to have no 
other model than the stiff forms afforded 
by the pencil of the historian, or fre. 
quently the bare outline of the annalist, 
so he ever considered them (as, to the 
poet they certainly should be) as the ba- 
sig on which imagination is at jiberty to 
raise a splendid superstructure. Itis from 
this consideration, that we learn to esti- 
mate the merit of Shakspeare in his his- 
torical plays; some of which show how 
much may be done by the poet, even 
where the subject and its particulars are 
neither distant rior obscure. In my next 
Jetter, I will continue my observations, 
and introduce you wore intimately to the 
compmny of our corpulent knight, voy 
peyav % Gavuaror. For the present, 
adieu, A, B. E. 
—a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
IIE, account of the opening of the 
organ at Aylsham, in the Extracts 
from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters, 
4 
Anecdote of an Organist. 205 
in your last Magazine, brings to my re- 
collection a story of a similar nature, 
that was once told me by Messrs. Orhman 
and Nutt, 
Messrs. Snetzler and Jones, organ-build- 
ers, in Stephen-street, Tottenham-court- 
road, 
About or nearly thirty years ago, a 
person came in great haste, between se- 
ven and eight in the evening, and knocks 
ing furiously at the door of Mr. Jones, 
(the then surviving partner) told him, ag 
svon as he pecauered his breath, that he 
must go immediately to the concert of 
ancient music (then mm Tottenham-street) g 
as the company was mostly assembled, 
as well as the musicians, who. wished.to 
tune their instruments previous to the 
entrance of their majesties; but althougla 
the gentleman at the organ had been pute 
ting down the keys, and he had himself 
been blowing with all his might, they 
could not, with their joint efforts, maka 
the organ ‘speak. 
Mr. Jones therefore immediately set 
out; and, thinking that some accident 
must have happened to the bellows, or 
wind-trunk, went first to the back of the 
organ without going into the room; when, 
finding the machinery apparently 4 In per= 
fect order, he entered the orchestra 
in his common working-dress, which 
he had not had me to change; where he 
found all the sprucely-dressed musicians, 
with their instraments in their hands, 
waiting for the spell to be taken off the 
organ, and the ‘ full chord of D” to set 
them going, 
Sitting down to the organ, Mr. Jones 
now put down the keys with one hand, 
having, as it were mechanically, with the 
other, first drawn out one of the stops; 
when lo! the organ uttered its harmo 
nious sounds as freely as ever it had done, 
to the astonishment of the gentleman who 
had before been at the keys; who ag 
length perceived that, far from having, 
like the organist of Nowwiel, drawn out 
the whole range of stops and wished for 
more, he had forgotten to draw any of 
them. 
Whether this absent gentleman was 
the celebrated Mr. Joah B Bates, who at 
that time used venerally to take the organ 
and conduct that coucert, I was not in- 
formed. And indeed, I should hardly 
suppose it could be he, were it not that, 
besides absence of mind being by no 
means an unusual concomitant of men 
of genius, he had an additional cause as 
well as excuse for such absence; for, 
being about that time sinitten. with the 
charms . 
who formerly worked for 
ee 
— 
ES ea 
—e 
