Here Fancy fat, (her dewy finger's cold

Decking with flowret's fresh th'unfullied fod,)
And bath'd with tears the fad fepulchral mold,

Her fav'rite offspring's long and laft abode.*

[See the whole of Cooper's Poem of the Tomb of Shakespeare, in Dodfley's Collect.

Far from the fun and fummer gale,

In thy green lap was Nature's darling laid,
What time, where lucid Avon ftray'd,
To him the mighty mother did unveil
Her awful face. The dauntless child
Stretch'd forth his little arms, and smil'd.

This pencil take (fhe faid) whofe colours clear,
Richly paint the vernal year :

This can unlock the gates of joy;

Of horror that, and thrilling fears,

Or ope the facred fource of fympathetic tears.

Gray

Methinks I fee, with Fancy's magic eye,
The shade of Shakespeare in yon azure sky?
On yon high cloud, behold the bard advance,
Piercing all nature with a fingle glance!

In various attitudes around him ftand

The Paffions, waiting for his dread command

Smart's Prologue to Othello.

Above controul, above each claffic rule,
His tutrefs Nature, and the World his fchool,

On daring pinions borne, to him was giv'n

Th' aerial range of Fancy's brightest Heav'n;

Το

IN a defcription of Wilton, there is mention made of a fmall ancient Tomb, fuppofed for Children,

in these words" At the ends of the front are two more Cupids; they look very forrowful with one

hand upon their breaft, the other hand holding a torch with the lighted end downwards,

A ftatue of Cupid lying afleep upon the aforefaid Tomb."

To bid rapt Thought o'er nobleft heights afpire,
And wake each Paffion with a Mufe of Fire.-
Revere his Genius-To the Dead be juft,

And fpare the Laurels that oe'rfhade the Duft-
Low fleeps the bard, in cold obftruction laid,
Nor afks the chaplet from a rival's head.
O'er the drear Vault, Ambition's utmoft bound,
Unheard fhall Fame her airy Trumpet found!
Unheard alike, nor Grief, nor Tranfport raife,
Thy blaft of Cenfure, or thy Note of Praise !
As Raphael's own Creation grac'd his Hearse,
And fham'd the pomp of oftentatious verfe,
Shall Shakespeare's Honours by himself be paid,
And Nature perifh ere his Pictures fade.

Keate's Epifle to Voltaire.

What a portrait of Shakespeare might Sir Joshua Reynolds draw fron some of the foregoing lines! Whoever will caft his eye on the portrait of young Edwin; and obferve how wonderfully well Sir Joshua has caught the spirit of Beatie's poem; will not only join with me in this opinion, but may apply to him part of an expreffion which has often been applied to Mr. Burke-that he poffeffes all the grace of cultivated fancy.*

A pleafing fubject might be formed from Mr. Warton's poem; of Fancy mufing o'er the tomb of Shakespeare.

SOME few sketches might be taken from an Ode to the Genius of Shakespeare, in Ogilvie's poems. In one part he says:

O'er yon bleak defert's unfrequented round

Sce'ft thou where Nature treads the deepening gloom,

Sits on yon hoary tow'r with ivy crown'd,

Or wildly wails o'er thy lamented tomb.

AND

"A knowledge boundlefs as fcience, with all the fplendour of learning, and all the grace of culti

vated fancy." Letters on England, 1772.

AND see the conclusion (and indeed the whole) of this Ode. See alfo the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th ftanzas of Lloyd's Progress of Envy. Page 53, of the Art of rifing on the Stage, quarto edition. quarto edition. And the fable of Genius, Virtue and Reputation, in Dodfley's Fables. See alfo fome of those Prints, propofed for Vignettes-and above all fee that fweetly expreffive figure of the Genius of Liberty, in the Memoirs of Hollis. Many will recollect the Apotheofis of Cooke, exhibited last winter at Covent-garden.

The following are the only Prints I have feen, directly relative to our prefent fubject.

1. The Birth of Shakespeare. By Kauffman.

2. The Tomb of Shakespeare. By Kauffman.

3. Mrs. Abingdon as Thalia, crowning the Buft of Shakespeare. By R. Cofway; engraved by Bartolozzi.

4. Mr. Garrick leaning on the Buft of Shakespeare. By Gainsborough.

5. Pine's grand, but imperfect and unfinished print of Mr. Garrick reciting his Ode; in which are one or two expreflive figures furrounding the Statue of the Poet.

6. The reader may as well look at an imperfect Design in Wilkes's View of the Stage. 7. And the poor Sketch or Frontispicce in each volume of Rowe.

8. A Metzotinto by Martin, from after Carpentiers, of Roubiliac modelling a Statue of Shakespeare. The original, (or at leaft a very fine copy) is at Tong Caftle in Shropshire.

9. No. 362, of the Exhibition of 1784, was Shakespeare, Milton and Spencer, with Nature dictating to Shakespeare. I have not feen this.

10. A Head-piece in vol. 1, of Piercy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry. It represents Shakespeare at full length, with his arm refting on a pedestal, and attentively listening to the melody of a minstrell's harp, which accompanies a boy's chaunting some rude carol or ancient ballad. The ballad of the Jew, with fome others (familiar in his day) are before

mhis pen is in his hand, and the uplifting of his left hand, has a pleafing effect. This Defign is not meant to be capital-it is prefixed to those Ballads that illuftrate Shakespeare ; but it certainly ferves as a most pleasing little ornament to them.

11. A ticket for the benefit night of Bonnor, a comedian at Bath, about the year 1782. The fubject is Shakespeare catching a thought from Nature. This print poffeffes no merit in the execution. It was meant however (which it certainly is) as an honest compliment to the Poet.

12. The Nymph of Immortality, attended by the Loves, crowning the Buft of Shakefpeare; by Cypriani, engraved by Bartolozzi. Three of the Loves have very little to captivate; and the crowding in, and conceit of the stream, is unworthy of Cypriani. If the whole of this design, had equalled the happy thought of the weeping child, it would have been a masterly performance. The Buft and the Nymph of Immortality are charmingly conceived. Part of the lines under this print are :

His trump of Fame fo loud, that Time's laft date
The deathless echo fhall as loud repeat.

MESSRS. BOYDELLS and NICHOLS, may apply to themselves the words of Sir Thomas Hanmer-" Since therefore, other nations have taken care to dignify the works of their most celebrated poets, with the fairest impres

ons,

*THOSE who have the fuccefs at heart of the edition now coming out, will think it unfortunate that this good man fhould have been cut off, ere his genius had produced more tributary offerings to Shakespeare. The Poet himself would have applied his own words to him:

His life was gentle, and the elements

So mixt in him, that nature might stand up,
And fay to all the world: This was a man.

And what Cowley has fo nobly faid of Vandyck, will not be inapplicable to Mr. Cypriani :

Nor was his life lefs perfect than his art,
Nor was his hand lefs erring than his heart.
There was no falfe or fading colour there.-

fions, beautified with the ornaments of fculpture, well may our Shakespeare be thought to deferve no lefs confideration: and as a fresh acknowledgment hath lately been paid to his merit, and a high regard to his name and memory, by erecting his ftatue at a public expence; so it is defired that this new edition of his works, which hath coft some attention and care, may be looked upon as another fmall monument defigned and dedicated to his honour."

TITUS