In the speech of Marcella,' a lady of the queen's bed-chamber, announcing to the king the death of Porrex' by the hand of his own mother, we are reminded of some passages of Shakspeare. rushing to the king, exclaims :

'OH! where is ruth? or where is pity now?
Whither is gentle heart and mercy fled?
Are they exiled out of our stony breasts,
Never to make return? Is all the world
Drowned in blood, and sunk in cruelty?
If not in women mercy may be found,
If not, alas! within the mother's breast,
To her own child, to her own flesh and blood?
If ruth be banished thence, if pity there
May have no place; if there no gentle heart

Do live and dwell, where should we seek it then?'

And then, her description of the death of the prince :

'ALAS! he liveth not! it is too true

That with these eyes, of him a peerless prince,
Son to a king, and in the flower of youth,

Even with a twink, a senseless stock I saw.

But hear his ruthful end:

The noble prince, pierced with the sudden wound,
Out of his wretched slumber blindly start,
Whose strength now failing, strait down he fell,
When in the fall, his eyes, even now unclos'd,
Beheld the queen, and cry'd to her for help.
We then, alas! the ladies which that time
Did there attend, seeing that heenous deed,
And hearing him oft call the wretched name
Of mother, and cry to her for aid,
Whose direful hand gave him the mortal wound,
Pitying (alas! for nought else could we do)
His ruthful end, ran to the woful bed,
Despoiled strait his breast, and all we might,
Wiped in vain, with napkins next at hand,
The sudden streams of blood that gushed fast
Out of the gaping wound. Oh! what a look!
Oh! what a ruthful, steadfast eye methought
He fix'd upon my face, which to my death
Will never part fro' me! When, with a shrink,
A deep-set sigh he gave, and there withal,
Clasping his hands to heav'n, he cast his sight;
And strait pale Death, pressing within his face,
Advanced his dread white flag upon him there.'

Marcella,'

Space will not permit any longer extracts from this first English tragedy. I have presented enough to show that it is no devoid of considerable merit, and one familiar with the plays of Shakspeare will recognize in the language, thoughts almost identical with those of the great dramatist. This play must certainly be regarded as a great improvement on preceding compositions. It was the first play in the English language in which heroic blank verse and moral sentiments in natural language were introduced into dramatic compositions.

About the year 1589, the Spanish Tragedy' was written by Kyd, to whom Ben Jonson gives the epithet of sporting. This play is supposed to have been the original of Shakspeare's Falstaff;' and, about ten years after, we find a sacred subject in a dramatic form the story of David and Absalon which was wrought into a tragedy by George Peele.

This piece abounds in luxurious descriptions and imagery, and the genius of the poet seems to have been enkindled by reading The Prophets and the Songs of Solomon.' He calls Lightning by a metaphor of whic Eschylus need not have been ashamed -The spouse of Thunde with bright and fiery wings.' His description of David, too, is worthy of admiration:

'BEAUTEOUS and bright he is among the tribes;

As when the sun, attired in glittering robe,
Comes dancing from his oriental gate,

And, bridegroom-like, hurls through the gloomy air

His radiant beams.'

A number of plays of differing merit followed — such as 'The Troublesome Reign of King John,' The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth,' The Chronicle History of Leir, King of England,' and many others, chiefly valuable as being the mine from which the incomparable Shakspeare found the rough ore, which he sublimated into the rich gold, by the subtle alchemy of his genius.

The theatres of this age were exceedingly rude in their construction, and almost entirely destitute of those modern contrivances, creating illusions of scenery. The actors of this period were generally dramatic authors, and associated themselves together in kind of joint-stock companies, travelling about the country, performing in the houses of the nobility, or performing on temporary stages in the court-yards of inns, as I have mentioned, or else they established themselves in some of the theatres then built in London. 'As the Elizabethan dramas (says Shaw) are remarkable for the supposed changes of scene which take place in them, the spot represented to the audience was indicated by the simplest expedient. A placard was fixed to one of the curtains bearing the name of the city or country supposed, and this placard was changed for another upon the change of scene. If, for example, the action was to be imagined at Padua, 'Padua' was suspended in view of the audience; should the scene be supposed to take place in a palace, a throne or canopy, called 'a state,' would be pushed forward; if in a tavern, the production of a table, with bottles and glasses upon it; if in a court, a combination of a throne with a table and pens and ink upon it, was all that was necessary to give a hint to the imaginative minds of an Elizabethan audience.'

The audiences of that day appear to have been forced to

'Piece out the stage's imperfections with their thoughts.'

Of movable painted scenes, the theatres of the Shaksperean era, properly so-called, were not deficient. But in the period just preceding it they had (says Sir Philip Sydney) Thebes' written in great letters on an old door, when the audience were desired to understand that the scene lay in Thebes. Some of the stage-directions in the old plays are exceedingly curious. Hence, in the play of Selimus, the Emperor of the Turks, composed in 1594, when the hero is conveying his father's dead body in solemn state to the temple of Mohammed, all parties are told, very gravely, to suppose the temple of Mohammed.' In the directions to Greene's play of 'Alphonsus,' we read: 'After you have sounded

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thrice, let' Venus' be let down from the top of the stage, and when she is down, say again in another part, exit Venus; or, if you conveniently can, let a chair come down from the top of the stage, and draw her up.'

But in the dresses and properties the Shaksperean stage seems to have been rich enough. In The Antipodes,' a play brought upon the stage in the year 1640, we have a poetic inventory of some of those stage-properties. 'Bye-Play,' speaking of Peregrine,' says:

'He has got into our tiring house amongst us,
And ta'en a strict survey of all our properties,
Our statues, and our images of gods,

Our planets, and our constellations,

Our giants, monsters, furies, beasts, and bug-bears,
Our helmets, shields, and visors, hair, and beards,
Our paste-board march-panes, and our wooden pies.
Whether he thought 't was some enchanted castle,
Or temple, hung and piled with monuments
Of uncouth and various aspects,

I dive not to his thoughts. Wonder he did
Awhile, it seemed, but yet undaunted stood;
When, on a sudden, with thrice knightly force,
And thrice puissant arm, he snatcheth down
The sword and shield that I played BEVIS with,
Rushed among the 'foresaid properties,
Killed monster after monster, takes the puppets
Prisoners, knocks down the CYCLOPS, tumbles all
Our Jigamogs and trinkets to the wall.
Spying at last the crown and royal robes
I' the upper-wardrobe, next to which, by chance,
The devil's visor hung, and their flame-painted
Skin-coats, these he removed with greater fury;
And (having cut the infernal ugly faces
All into mammocks,) with a reverend hand
He takes the imperial diadem, and crowns
Himself King of the Antipodes,' and believes

He has justly gained the kingdom by his conquest.'

Between the year 1570, to the year 1629, no less than seventeen play-houses were built in London. Queen Elizabeth, at the request of Sir Francis Walsingham, established with handsome salaries twelve of the principal players of that time, who went under the name of 'Her Majesty's Comedians and Servants.' But, beside, many noblemen appear to have retained companies of players, who acted not only privately, in the Lords' houses, but publicly, under their license and pro

tection.

In 1603, the first year of King James' reign, a license was granted, under the privy seal, to Shakspeare, Burbage, Hemmings. Condel, and others, authorizing them to act plays, not only at their usual house' the Globe,' on Bankside, but in any other parts of the kingdom.

This Hemmings, and Condel are well known as the earliest editors of Shakspeare's works, in folios, and Burbage was renowned as the great tragic actor of his day, and attained great celebrity in the character of Richard Third.

Actresses in these days there were none, after the fashion of the ancient theatrical companies among the Greeks. The female parts in the days of Shakspeare were performed by boys. A reference is made to this by Flute,' in Shakspeare's Midsummer Night's Dream,' where

6

he says, 'Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.'

With some few notable exceptions, the dramatic authors and actors of this age (usually the same persons) were a dissolute and degraded class. Nor was it without just cause that the Puritans, who were a butt for the satire and wit of the comedians and comic writers, directed their satires against the stage.

A universal eagerness after theatrical diversions continued during the whole reign of King James, and great part of the first Charles', until Puritanism, which had gathered great strength, openly opposed them as wicked and diabolical. Prynne, one of the leading Puritans, and whose ears were cropped, to answer for the wagging of his tongue, put out his famous Players' Scourge;' this was published in 1633. The players answered it by publishing the best old plays they could find, and, of course, many of Shakspeare's; and for a short time the players prevailed. Prynne's book was deemed an infamous libel against church and state, against peers, bishops, and magistrates, and, finally, against the king and queen. This fierce and bitter old Puritan, in this famous pamphlet, says, 'That English ladies had become shorn and frizzled madams, and had lost their modesty. That plays were the chief delight of the devil, and all that frequented them were damned.' To all music he had an utter antipathy, and to church-music in particular, which he calls the bleating of brute beasts,' and says, 'The choristers bellow the tenor, as if they were oxen; bark a counter-point, like a kennel of hounds; roar a treble, as if they were bulls; and grunt out a base, like a parcel of hogs.' For this, and many other passages, the book was ordered to be burnt by the common hangman, and he himself to stand in the pillory, have both his ears cut off, and to pay a fine of five thousand pounds, beside to suffer perpetual imprisonment; all of which, but the last, was carried into execution. But Puritanism day by day gathered strength, and finally the play-houses were leveled to the dust, but only to arise, in another age, with renewed vigor and strength.

LITERARY NOTICES

THE LOST PRINCE: Facts tending to prove the Identity of Louis the Seventeenth of France, and the Rev. ELEAZAR WILLIAMS, Missionary among the Indians of North America. By JOHN H. HANSON. In one volume: pp. 479. New-York: GEORGE P. PUTNAM, Number Ten, Park-Place.

LOUIS THE SEVENTEENTH: His Life, Sufferings, and Death. By M. BEAUCHESNE. In one volume: pp. 289. New-York: HARPER AND BROTHERS.

THE COURT, thanking the Jury for the patient hearing which they awarded to the first division of the 'Charge to the Jury of the Public in the Dauphin Case,' would now call their especial and earnest attention to the remaining unconsidered arguments involved in the case:

'A FARTHER and curious fact, strongly telling against the government, is that the death of the child was reported to the Committee of General Safety, before it had actually occurred. LASNE, it seems, noted the precise time, as is customary on such occasions, and GOMIN afterward went to inform the committee of the occurrence. He reached the Tuileries, and found the committee had adjourned. He, however, states that he saw SERESTRE, a member, who told him to keep the secret till the next day; and he adds that he did so. The next day, it was reported to the Convention that LOUIS CAPET was dead, and that the committee had been informed of it at two o'clock on the preceding day. Generally, evidence as to the time is little to be relied on. But here, it is so interwoven with facts, as to leave little doubt as to its correctness. The fact that GOMIN proceeded after the death of the child, that he found the assembly adjourned, and that he kept the secret until the following day, show both the time and order of events. The statement made to the convention might be regarded as an error, were it not that GOMIN alone should have reported it, which he did not. Moreover, as little was known and little thought of the child, it is not probable that rumor could have reported it before it had happened, as it has indeed been the case with many of our own distinguished men.

"This ends those facts of which the jury are to judge, and the effect of which they are to determine.

But there is another class of facts also bearing upon the case, which will require careful consideration. This case is properly an action brought by the Rev. ELEAZAR WILLIAMS against the late possessor of the French throne. Now, although hearsay is not evidence, admissions are; and admissions may, in such a case as this, be made not only by the parties but their privies. LOUIS PHILIPPE is, in effect, a privy of Louis Eighteenth. The Duchess d'ANGOULEME was, in our view, a partner of, or joint tenant with, Louis Eighteenth. She was at least his avowed supporter and the possessor of