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LONDON:

PRINTED BY D. S. MAURICE, FENCHURCH-STREET.

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IX.-Anecdotes and Speeches of the Earl of Chatham`.

X.-The Poems of Shakespeare.

THE

Retrospective Review.

VOL. VII. PART II.

ART. I.-Britain's Remembrancer; containing a Narrative of the Plague lately past, a Declaration of the Mischiefs present, and a Prediction of Judgements to come, (if Repentance prevent not.) It is dedicated (for the glory of God) to Posteritie, and to these times (if they please) by Geo. Wither.

Job xxxii. 8, 9, 10, 18, 21, 22.

Surely, there is a spirit in man; but the inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding.

Great men are not always wise, neither do the aged always understand judgement.

Therefore, I say, hear me, and I will shew also my opinion.

For I am full of matter; and the spirit within me compelleth me.
I will not accept the person of man, neither will I give flattering

titles to man.

For I may not give flattering titles, lest my Maker take me away suddenly.

READ ALL, OR CENSURE NOT.

For he that answereth a matter before he hear it, it is shame and folly to him. Prov. xviii. 13.

Imprinted for Great Britaine, and are to be sold by John Grismond, in Ivie Lane. 1628.

Relation Historique, de tout ce qui s'est passé en Marseilles pendant la dernière peste. 12mo. 1723.

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Histoire de la dernière peste de Marseilles, Ain, Arles, et Toulon, par Martin. 12mo. 1732.

A Historical Relation of the Plague at Marseilles in the year 1720; containing a circumstantial Account of the Rise and Progress of the Calamity, and the Ravages it occasioned; with many curious and interesting Particulars relative to that Period. Translated from the French Manuscript of M. Bertrand, Physician at Marseilles, who attended during the whole time of the Malady. By Anne Plumptre. London, 1805.

The Plague of Athens, which happened in the second year of the Peloponnesian War. First described in Greek by Thucydides, then in Latin by Lucretius, since attempted in English by the Right Reverend Father in God, Thomas (Sprat,) Lord Bishop of Rochester. 1709.

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In a former number, when we were attempting, with the aid of Defoe, to give a picture of London under the visitation of the Plague, we alluded to the writers who had considered this terrible malady a noble subject for the display of their poetic genius, and, at the same time, promised to examine its capabilities in this respect, in a future article, and to collect some specimens of the manner in which it had been treated by the principal poets who had made it their theme. There can be no doubt, that the gigantic and tremendous ravages of this disorder elevate it far above the rank of ordinary and ignoble maladies, and render it a fine field for the developement of poetical power. No scene in which man can be placed affords situations more awful or pathetic, or which call upon our common nature for a deeper sympathy. The plague is as a moral earthquake; it suddenly changes the face of man's nature, it dissolves the oldest and most sacred ties, it overturns the most established virtues, and, in an instant, fills a whole people with ruin and desolation. While the infliction lasts, there is a tragedy in every house; the city where it happens is a vast theatre, on which tens of thousands are acting the last fatal scenes; on one plagueday as many awful passions are roused, as occur in a century of healthful ages. Murder is vulgar; it is an unnecessary trouble; the great murderer is at work; wait a few seconds, and your victim will fall, plague-struck, under your hands. They who reckoned upon spending whole lives together are suddenly rent asunder; the lover sees his beloved die before him, or perhaps they die in each other's sight, each departing on different journies, or, what is worse, he who would have died the day before for the salvation of the one he adored, now loathes her; avoids, or, may be, forcibly drives her from him with

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