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but cultivated the new art himfelf. It had not been long in vogue before Hugh da Carpi tried the fame experiment with wood, and even added a variety of tints by ufing different ftamps, for the graduations of lights and fhades; a method revived here fome years ago with much fuccefs by Kirkall, and fince at Venice by Jackfon, though very imperfectly.

From Italy engraving foon travelled into Flanders, where it was first practifed by one Martin of Antwerp. He was followed by Albert Durer, who carried the art to a great height confidering how Bad the tafte was of the age and country in which he lived. His fidelity to what he faw, was at once his fame and misfortune; he was happy in copying nature, but it was nature difguifed and hid under angraceful forms. With neither choice of fubje&ts nor beaury, his industry gave merit even to uglinefs and abfurdity. Confioing his labours almoft wholly to religious and legendary hiftories, he turned the Teftament into the Hiftory of a Flemish Village; the habits of Herod, Pilate, Jo feph, &c. their dwellings, their utenfils, and their cuftoms, were all Gothic and European; his Virgin Mary was the heroine of a Kermis. Lucas of Leyden imitated him in all his faults, and was ftill more burlefque in his reprefentations. It was not till Raphael had formed Marc-Antonio, that engraving placed itfelf with dignity by the fide of painting.

"When the art reached England does not appear. It is a notorious blunder in Chambers to fay it was first brought from Antwerp by Speed in the reign of

James the It. In fome degree we had it almoft as foon as printing : the printers themselves uling fmall plates for their devices and rebuses. Caxton's Golden Legend has in the beginning a group of faints, and many other cuts difperfed through the body of the work. It was printed in 1483. The fecond edition of his Game at Chefs had cuts too: So has his Le Morte de Arthur. Wynkyn de Worde, Caxton's fucceffor, prefixed to his title of the Statutes, in the fixth year of Henry VII. a plate with the king's arms, crefts, &c. a copy of which is given in the Life of Wynkyn, by Ames in his Typographical Antiquities, p. 79. The fame printer exhibited feveral books adorned with cuts, fome of which are particularly defcribed by his biographer, in pages 87, 68, 89, & fequentibus.

"The fubfequent printers continued to ornament their books with wooden cuts. One confiderable work, published by John Raftell, was diftinguifhed by prints of uncommon merit for that age. It was called The Poftime of the People, and by Bishop Nicholson, in his Hiftorical Library, Raftell's Chronicle. This fcarce book, of a very large fize, I faw at the auction of Mr. Ames's library; it had many cuts, eighteen of which were in great folio, reprefenting the kings of England, fo well defign. ed and boldly executed as to be attributed to Holbein, though I think they were not of his hand. I fhall mention one more book with wooden cats (though feveral are recorded by Ames); it is Grafton's Chronicle, printed in 1569, and containing many heads, as of William the Conqueror, Henry

VIII, and Queen Elizabeth, &c.
Yet even though portraits were
ufed in books, I find no trace of
fingle prints being wrought off in
that age.
Those I have mentioned
in a former volume as compofing
part of the collection of Henry
VIII, were probably the produc-
tions of foreign artists. The first
book that appeared with cuts from
copper-plates, at least the first that
fo induftrious an enquirer as Mr.
Ames had obferved, was, "The
Birth of Mankind, otherwife
called, The Woman's Book,"
dedicated to Queen Catharine,
and published by Thomas Rolande
in 1540, with many small copper
cuts, but to these no name was
affixed."

An Effay on Hiftory, in three Epiftles to Edward Gibbon, Efq. with Notes. By William Hayley, Efq.

T has been the fortune of few

IT

ing marked by any ftrong caft of original genius, are of that fort, which is well qualified to adorn philofophy, and illuminate the dictates of reafon and good fenfe. He poffeffes a confiderable command of figurative language: his verfification, though it has no great compafs or variety, is easy, flowing, and harmonious: his invention is quick and fertile: his imagery new and various: his fimi lies are novel, frequent, and happily applied.

The poem now before us is divided into three parts. In the firft, after fome general reflections on his fubje&t, the author traces the progrefs of history from

-the rude fymbol on the artless fone

to thofe models of historical com,

pofition which we owe to the genius of Athens. The following reflections on the fcarcity of great hiftorians, and the impoffibility of attaining to perfection, are equally juft and beautiful.

Pure, faultlefs writing, like transmuted
gold,

Mortals may wish, but never shall behold:
Let genius still this glorious object own,
And feek Perfection's philofophic ftone!
For while the mind, in fudy's toilfome
Tries on the long research her latent

hours,

powers,

potts to begin their career with fuch univerfal, and, we may add, undivided applaufe, as the author of the effay now before us. It is no fmall part of his merit, that in times, not perhaps fo very deficient in poetic abilities, as remarkable for countenancing the most frivolous and licentious abuse of them, he has made choice of fubjects which the English mufe need not blush to decorate. The Effay on Painting is a convincing proof of his talents in that mixed kind of poetry which is partly didactic, partly defcriptive; and his Epistle on the Death of Mr. Thornton, and the Ode to Mr. Howard, fhew that he is no weak mafter of the pathetic. His poetical talents, without be- As the fair figure of his favour'd queen,

New wonders rife, to pay her patient
Inferior only to the prize she sought.
thought,

Nor are thofe lines les poetical in which he introduces Herodotus

at the head of his hiftoric wor
thies.

-Behold the hiftoric fire!
Ionic rofes mark his foft attire;
Bold in his air, but graceful in his mien,

03

When

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The poet next addreffes himself to Biography, of which he feems to confider Plutarch as the father. This must be done rather on the account of his excellency, than the priority of his claim; fince Diogenes Laertius has left us a valuable work of the fame kind. But probably the author has omitted this latter writer, as having compiled rather the hiftory of philofophical opinions, than of the actions of mankind. The characters of Marcel linus and Anna Comnena conclude this part.

The fecond epistle commences with the Moskih hiftorians, to whofe merits and defects the author has done juftice in a manner much to the credit toth of his can dour and di cernment The principal Italian, Spanish, and French writers follow, and thefe are fucceeded by the later historians of our own country. The numerous extracts we have already given from this part of the poem, in our poetical article, makes it unnecef. fary to add more here, and will in a great meature enable our readers to judge for themfelves of our author's abilities both as a poet and a critic.

The fources of the principal de fects in hittory, and its general laws, are the fubjects of the third epiftle. This, as our author feems to have been well aware, is the

most important and difficult part of his defign.

It has been well obferved of the Fay on tranflated Verje," that Rofcommon has indeed deferved his praifes, had they been given with difcernment, and beftowed not on the rules themfelves, but the art with which they are introduced, and the decorations with w ich they are adorned." A to Mr. Hayley, though we cannot allow that he deferves no praife as the legiflator of hiftory, yet we must confefs that he is very far from having given us a complete code. In enumerating the detects of hiftorians, he has confined himself to what relates to the fubject-matter of hiftory, and has no. entered at all into thofe which arife from faults in the style and manner. The rules which he afterwards lays down on that fubject, are too general and indefinite to be capable of useful application.

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Vanity, national and private, flattery, party-fpirit, fuperftition, and falfe philofophy, are the fources from which he derives the principal faults in hiftory. Thefe topics he has touched with great fpirit, and illustrated with a varie y of poetical images. Speaking of flattery, he fays:

But arts of deeper guile, and bafer wrong,
They oft, their prefent idols to exalt,
To Adulation's fubtle feribes belong :
Protanely burft the confecrated vault;
Steal from the buried Chief bright Honour's
plume,

Or ftain with Slander's gall the Statesman's
tomb:
Stay, facrilegious flaves! with reverence

tread

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"Go! gild with Adulation's feeble ray "Th' imperial pageant of your paffing day!

"Nor hope to ftain, on bafe Detraction's "fcroll,

"A TULLY's morals, or a SIDNEY'S. "foul !"

Juft Nature will abhor, and Virtue fcern, That Pen, tho' cloquence its page adorn, Which, brib'd by Intereft, or from vain pretence

Το fubtler Wit, and deep-difcerning Senfe,

Would blot the praife on public toils beftow'd,

And Patriot paffions, as a jeft, explode.

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hints for improvement, or fubjects for compariton.-The author appears to be every way well quali fied for the task he has undertakin. A long acquaintance with the flage, as he himself informs us, and an earnest inclination to excel in the profeffion of acting, to which he was for many years attached, afforded him an opportunity to know much of plays and theatrical hiftory. To this account of himself we must in juftice add, that the many proofs of candour and good fenfe, which he has given throughout his performance, leave no room to fulpect, that he has wilfully mifreprefented either facts or characters.

As we have already given our readers an account of the Life of Mr. Garrick, which we do not find to differ materially from what is related of him in thefe memoirs, we fhall felect for their entertainment, fuch parts of the work before us, as relate to the most celebrated of his cotemporaries.

Of Mr. Fleetwood, the patentee, and the revolt of the comedians of Drury-lane, in 1743, he gives the following account.

"Charles Fleetwood, Efq; was a gentleman of an ancient and refpectable family, poffeffed of a large paternal eftate. His perfon was genteel, and his manner elegant. His acquaintance, in the early part of life, with certain perfons of rank and diftinction, proved fatal to him; they drew him into many fashionable irregularities and exceffes; they gave him an unlucky and extravagant habit for play. Amongst those who are addicted to gaming, there are many young men of family and fortune, who are imprudent and

undefigning; they generally fall a prey to the artful, the avaricious, and fraudulent; the betrayed, in their turns, become the betrayers; nor from this cenfure was Mr. Fleetwood exempted.

With the remains of his fortune he was perfuaded, by fome of his acquaintance, to purchase the greatest part of Drury-lane patent. He fortunately bought at a time when the proprietors, by a run of ill fuccefs, were become weary of their bargain, and willing to fell cheap what they had bought at a high price. They had weakly fallen out with the molt efteemed of their players, on account of a small advance in falary, which they had demanded; the fum in difpute did not, I be. lieve, much exceed 400l. per annum. The actors revolted, and opened the little theatre in the Hay-market with fome appearance of fuccefs.

Fleetwood brought back the fe. ceders, and united the two com. panies of Drury-lane and Hay-market. When this was accomplished, he tried all methods to ftrengthen his troop, by gaining fome actors of merit from Covent-garden theatre, with large and unufual offers. Mr. Quin was perfuaded to leave his old mafter Rich, under whofe theatrical banners he had fought twenty years, for the advantageous income of 500l. a falary till then unknown in any English theatre. This was, indeed, to him an annual increase of 2001. but it must be confeffed that Quin offered to remain in his old ftation for a lefs fum than that which Fleetwood offered to give him; but Rich refufed the proposal, and declared

that

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