ment and observation than the dramatic productions of Shakespeare. No author whatever has been more freely criticised or more eloquently praised: his peculiar faults have been a thousand and a thousand times repeated, and his many excellencies as frequently pourtrayed and set forth in their brightest and most dazzling array. Critics, poets, and philosophers,-moralists and divines, have all concurred in bearing testimony to the talents and genius of Shakespeare.-The tragedy of King John, though certainly not the first, in point of excellence, of Shakespeare's plays, is a noble and highly poetical composition. The most prominent characters are drawn with the hand of a master: they are finely discriminated, and strongly marked. Lady Constance, though but a sketch, is one of the grandest and most interesting of the heroines of this mighty bard. King John is a fine historic picture-every lineament is true to nature; had this mean, cruel, and contemptible monarch sat to Shakespeare for his portrait, he could not have depicted him in truer colours. Falconbridge is a truly original character, full of high chivalrous spirit and noble daring—his fidelity to John-his high sense of honour, and the bravery and fearlessness of his nature, all combine to render the newly knighted Sir Richard Falconbridge one of the most interesting personages in the whole range of Shakespeare's characters. Prince Arthur is a delightful emanation of the genius of our great dramatic bard. The language put into the mouth of this royal youth is as beautiful as poet ever conceived, or as the ear of man ever listened to with delight. The scene between the Prince and Hubert has never been surpassed in sweetness and pathos-perhaps never equalled by any man who ever wrote.

EDR.

FIFTH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE

SHAKESPEARE CLUB,

November 19, 1823.

B. J. WAKE, ESQ. IN THE CHAIR.

THE annual Dinner of this Club was held at the Tontine Inn, on Wednesday, November 19, 1823,-B. J. Wake, Esq. President; Michael Ellison, Esq. and James Sorby, Esq. Vice Presidents: George C. Brown, M. D., and Henry Wheat, Esq. Stewards. About five o'clock, upwards of seventy gentlemen sat down to a sumptuous and elegant dinner, arranged with Mrs. Lambert's accustomed taste. After the cloth was drawn, "Non nobis, Domine!" was sung. The Chairman then gave—

The King." Pray heaven the King may find no hearts with less allegiance in them than in ours."-Three times three.

The Ladies-"Whose red and white Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on."

Mr. Wake then said:-"Gentlemen,-Having filled a bumper to the health of his Majesty, whose right it is to be our master, and whose duty it is to govern us for our prosperity; and having pledged our affections to the fairer part of the creation, whose right it is to be mistresses of our hearts, and whose duty it is to govern them for our happiness, I trust that we have in this respect

performed our obligations towards them with the same zeal and alacrity that their's will, in all respects, ever be discharged towards us.

are

Next in succession to these toasts, to which I believe we shall be all willing to yield the precedence, we called upon on this day to pay a tribute of recollection to a man, now long since departed from his terrestrial abode, but whose memory has, by the common consent, not only of his own country, but I may say of all Europe, been distinguished by the powerful epithet immortal. Vain, indeed, would that epithet have been, had it been applied to the ephemeral existence of the man; but whenever it is used, either with or without the word, it is always used with reference to his memory. The im mortal memory of William Shakespeare' is an expression chaste and just, and it is deserved and true; for his memory has already survived the effluxion of more than two hundred years, and it will survive us, and those who have to come after us, ad infinitum, until the arrival of that event, which, of all others amidst the mysteries of our existence, is the most portentous-the dissolution of the world.-(Bursts of applause.)

6

When we reflect upon the writings of this extraordinary man, either with reference to the diversity of amusement, instruction, or edification afforded by them, we must always admit that we should have felt as much disgrace, had his memory been suffered supinely to pass into oblivion, as we may now feel rational exultation at its durability.-(Applause.) The fund of his genius was as vast and inexhaustible as its quality was rare and transcendant:

"He was a man, take him for all in all,

We ne'er shall look upon his like again."

Born in but an humble sphere of life, we find him, at one time, stealing away, like a timid deer, from his paternal home, for stealing one of those poor dappled fools,' as he expressively called them, from its assigned and native dwelling-place,' the peaceful shades of the Forest of Arden.-(Applause.)

'How,' says a trans-atlantic writer, whose pen has lately engaged, as it well merited, much public attention-the author of the Sketch Book- How would it have cheered the spirit of the youthful bard, when wandering forth in disgrace upon the world, he cast back a heavy look on his paternal home, could he have foreseen, that before many years he should return to it, covered with renown, that his name should become the boast and glory of his native place; that his ashes should be religiously guarded as its most precious treasure; and that its lessening spire, on which his eyes were fixed in tearful contemplation, should one day become the beacon, towering amidst the gentle landscape, to guide the literary pilgrim of every nation to his tomb.'—(Applause.)

Afterwards rising from his obscurity, we recognize in him the author of those works which have found, more universally than any other temporal production, a standard place in every well-selected library, and which have proved a most permanent fund for dramatic entertain

ment."

"Soul of the Stage,

My Shakespeare, rise: I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie

A little further, to make thee room;

Thou art a monument without a tomb,

And art alive still while thy works do live,

And we have wit to read, and praise to give." — (Applause.)

The Chairman then animadverted on the repeated

condemnation of the Stage by the Rev. T. Best, of this town, in late and former annual sermons. He thus pro

ceeded:

"Against this dramatic entertainment there has been lately raised, from the pulpit of one of our own churches, a voice strong in invective and illiberality as it is feeble in reason and common sense, and therefore superlatively strong. We have been told, Gentlemen, to quote some of the language to which I peculiarly allude, that it is the decided judgment of the Preacher, that no real Christian can or will frequent the Theatre, and therefore that none who do frequent it can be real Christians.' This is the position; and an attempt has been made to defend it by language as bold as the position is itself.

Now, my band of brother Christians, for such I call you in spite of the Best authority against the appellation, ye who are thus denounced, ye who contribute to support the man who thus uncharitably anathematizes us all, permit me for a few moments to occupy your time, whilst I pass upon this doctrine the compliment of my own, and I hope I may say, of our united opinion. I call it a compliment, because the doctrine itself is really too absurd to deserve any notice, and the only claim it has to have any bestowed upon it, is derived from the respectability and talents of the Divine who thus launches it out indiscriminately, as an annual gauntlet of provocation and defiance to the public.-(Applause.)

To be told from a public forum, where no answer is allowable, and where, to quote the words of Hudibras, "The parsons ever use their right

Against all such as cannot fight,"

To be told that the majority of civilized society are not Christians, because they frequent an entertainment sanc

H