berlain, with other honourable persons of eminent faith, integrity, and understanding, upon a strict perusal of the papers, could find one syllable to countenance the calumny, up starts the defender of the charter, &c. opens his mouth, and says,— "what do ye talk of the King? he is abused, he is imposed upon. Is my Lord Chamberlain and the scrutineers that succeed him, to tell us when the King and the Duke of York are abused?" What says my Lord Chief Baron of Ireland' to the business? What says the liveryman templer? What says Og, the King of Basan, to it? "We are men that stand up for the King's supremacy in all causes, and over all persons, as well ecclesiastical as civil, next and immediately under GoD and the PEOPLE. We are for easing his Royal Highness of his title to the crown, and the cares that attend any such prospect; and shall we see the King and the Royal Family paralleled at this rate, and not reflect upon it?"

But to draw to an end.-Upon the laying of matters fairly together, what a King have these balderdash scribblers given us, under the resemblance of Henry the Third? How scandalous a character again of his Majesty, in telling the world that he is libelled and affronted to his face, told

5 Mr. Hunt was a lawyer, but could hardly have entertained any hopes of attaining this office, as parties were then circumstanced. Perhaps it had been promised to him by Shaftesbury, when he thought he should have been able to overturn the government.

on't, pointed to it, and neither he nor those about him can be brought to see or understand it. There needs no more to expound the meaning of these people than to compare them with themselves, when it will evidently appear, that their lives and conversations, their writings and their practices, do all take the same bias; and when they dare not any longer revile his Majesty or his government pointblank, they have an intention to play the libellers in masquerade, and do the same thing in a way of mystery and parable. This is truly the case of the pretended parallel. They lay their heads together, and compose the lewdest character of a prince that can be imagined, and then exhibit that monster to the people as the picture of the King, in the Duke of Guise; so that the libel passes for current with the multitude, whoever was the author of it: and it will be but common justice to give the devil his due. But the truth is, their contrivances are now so manifest, that their party moulders both in town and country; for I will not suspect that there are any of them left in court. Deluded wellmeaners come over out of honesty, and small offenders out of common discretion or fear. None will shortly remain with them but men of desperate fortunes, or enthusiasts; those who dare not ask pardon, because they have transgressed beyond it, and those who gain by confusion, as thieves do by fires; to whom forgiveness were as vain as a reprieve to condemned beggars, who must hang without it, or starve with it.

IF wit has truly been defined a propriety of thoughts and words," then that definition will extend to all sorts of poetry; and amongst the rest, to this present entertainment of an Opera. Propriety of thought is that fancy which arises

This Opera, which was performed at the Queen's Theatre in Dorset Gardens, (as that playhouse was called after the accession of King James II.) was first printed in folio, in 1685.

It appears from Mr. Bindley's copy of the Prologue,

that the first night of its representation was the third of th!

June, 1685. Unfortunately for its success, the Duke of Monmouth landed in the west on the eleventh of that snenth; which so occupied every one's attention, that the piece, after being represented six times, was discontinued, and probably the theatre was closed for the season. The six representations not having produced to the theatre half the charge which it occasioned, it involved the company (as Downes the prompter informs us) in a considerable debt.

↑ Our author has already given us this definition of wit, as he calls it, in the Preface to his STATE OF INNOCENCE;

an account of the Duke of Monmouths of Engla laading in the west, reached London the 13th of line (dee a letter will en by James 11 Dalrymple #cmoins vot. ii. p );

on

naturally from the subject, or which the poet adapts to it. Propriety of words is the clothing of those thoughts with such expressions as are naturally proper to them; and from both these, if they are judiciously performed, the delight of poetry results. An Opera is a poetical tale or fiction, represented by vocal and instrumental

and Pope, in one of his letters to Mr. Cromwell, has adopted it. It is however certainly not only no definition, but not even a description of wit." It may be expected,' says Addison, (SPECT. N° 62.)“ since I am upon this subject, that I should take notice of Mr. Dryden's definition of wit; which, with all the deference that is due to the judgment of so great a man, is not so properly a definition of wit, as of good writing in general. Wit, as he defines it, is a propriety of words and thoughts adapted to the subject. If this be a true definition of wit, I am apt to think that Euclid is the greatest wit that ever set pen to paper. It is certain, there never was a greater propriety of words and thoughts adapted to the subject, than what that author has made use of in his ELEMENTS. I shall only appeal to any reader, if this definition agrees with any notion he has of wit: if it be a true one, I am sure Mr. Dryden was not only a better poet, but a greater wit, than Mr. Cowley, and Virgil a much more facetious man than either Ovid or Martial."

Perhaps the following definition of wit by Mr. Corbyn Morris, is the best that has hitherto been given of this subtle exercise of the fancy:-"It is (says that writer) the lustre resulting from the quick elucidation of one subject, by a just and unexpected arrangement of it with another subject." ESSAY ON WIT, HUMOUR, RAILLERY, &c. 8vo. 1744.

Il No W p.32. and 378
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