Head-piece.

THE HE induction to this play (which is dignified by the expofition of an accomplished critic) is a delightful frolic of the poet's fancy-It will furnish an excellent print for the head piece. It may be taken from page 408; where the fervants fhould be drawn as officiously running after Sly, with fack, conferves, and apparel-the Lord at a distance smiling—and Sly (a drunken-looking, careless, lounging, unthinking jolly tinker), as willing to get rid of, or avoid their attentions; yet intreatingly, though at the fame time fretfully crying out-For God's fake, a pot of fmall ale.

SHOULD the next page be preferred; he may appear as provoked at their attentions, and paffionately, or rather very fretfully telling them, If you give me any conferves, give me conferves of beef.

THERE are two other expreffions of Sly, in page 410 and page 412; either of which would fuit the prefent defign; fuch as, If fhe fay I am not fourteen-pence—and his catching at the name of Cicely Hacket. In the Gentleman's Magazine for June 1767, may be seen so very pleasing a figure from the happy pencil of M. De Loutherbourg, that we cannot but wish the figure of Sly might be given from his idea of it *.

* A VERY droll print of village fociality, might be taken by Mr. Bunbury, from p. 412. It might represent this worthy tinker, at Marian Hacket's of Wincot, with Stephen Sly, old John Naps 'oth' Green, Peter Turf and Henry Pimpernell, not as fmoking their pipes, (as scarce at that day introduced) but drinking their ale in fone-jugs.

Scene

Scene-Prints.

THE firft fcene-print that will occur in this play, is from page 439It will exhibit an admirable contraft of the two fifters. The father may be coming in at the moment after Katharine has ftruck her fifter. The figure of the Shrew fhould be commanding, and her features fhould bear the marks of haughty infolence and domineering paffion-and yet at the fame time young and beauteous-while thofe of her gentle fifter should be foftened with that beauteous modefty, that meek and inoffensive spirit, and thofe winning charms which caused her lover to cry out-Sacred and fweet was all I faw in her. Her attitude may be that of weeping modefty; and her father may be turning in amazement to her, and faying (with a look of pitying commiferation), Poor girl, fhe weeps.

Page 464.

THE moft proper ornament for this page (which is " a whimsical luxuriance of risible defcription," would be a coloured etching in the manner of Mr. Bunbury, and representing Petruchio and his trufty pleafant fervant on horfeback, as Biondello defcribes them. Mortimer's wild fancy fhould be joined to the humour and grotefque imagery of Mr. Bunbury. They may be galloping or plunging over a rough, or through marthy place-Petruchio looking wild and fierce-and poor Grumio paddling on a poney after him. To Mr. Bunbury it would be impertinent to fuggeft hints; otherwise, flashes of that grotesque wildness, so effential to this outré fcene, might be caught from Coypel's, Picart's, or fome of the other prints to Quixotte; or from Hogarth's quarto prints to Hudi

bras

bras. There are three horses in Mr. Bunbury's prints, which inftantly prefent themselves as proper for Grumio:-the fervants poney in Mofes which may either be on a canter or not)-that on which Dr. Dauble rides -and that whimfical one in the City Hunt, on which a butcher is mounted.

Page 474.

THIS is the only fcene where we fhall fee Katharine and Petruchio at high wrangling; and the characteristic paffions of each, fhould be expressed in a manner worthy of so spirited a page. There ought to be no lefs than nine figures in this fcene; yet even this should not weigh against the introduction of fome print; as there is only one other page where the parties are downright quarrelling, which is at page 499, (and a print of another kind will be there introduced)—for the scene of their courtship confifts more of the bullets of the brain than quarrelling.

SUPPOSE Katharine and Petruchio only are drawn, and the other characters left out (as they will appear elsewhere); if so, we may drefs Petruchio as Biondello describes him, (and a whip in his hand, like those the French postillions have, and which are frequently met with in Mr. Bunbury's prints), in the moment of grafping the injured and infulted Katharine firmly by the hand, and saying, with a look of stern determination,

But for my bonny Kate, he must with me.

THE fine countenance of Woodward, in Bell's first edition of Shakefpeare, will eafily be empaffioned with a more confirmed refolve. Katha

rine

SOME may prefer the scene described in page 479, where Katherine may be drawn with the horse tumbled on her; and Petruchio belabouring his man becaufe her horfe fumbled.

rine may be eying her furly groom with a big look, and as feeming willing, (if she could get loose from him) to ftamp, and flare, and fret ‡.

Page 482.

AMIDST the numberlefs paffages from this wonderful poet, which continually present themselves as objects for our prefent defign, we find it every difficult to determine which shall be chofen, and which rejected; as many of them muft unavoidably be, from their becoming too numerous. such is the arch and imprudent waggery of Biondello (page 424), when he asks his master, whether he has stolen his cloaths-(Edwin, with these words, would fet an audience in a roar)—such the gibing courtship of Petruchio and Katharine in act the fecond-fuch, the droll figures that might be taken from page 479, where Grumio ftrikes his fellow fervant on the car-fuch the ludicrous impertinence of Grumio (page 405), when he offers his miftrefs the mustard without the beef;-and the rich lines in the last page but one, would furely furnish a fine representation of the humbled Katharine. Thus are we fituated in the prefent page, being at a lofs whether to felect the fubject here prefented, or that in page 484.

IF the former is preferred, we may draw Petruchio in a boisterous attitude and ftorm of paffion, as having juft fmacked his whip; and in the fame drefs Biondello defcribes-with the draggled Katharine, fcarce recovered from her fall; yet bearing ftill the marks of stubborn peevishnessand Grumio in the attitude of faying: Here, Sir; as foolish as I was before. Strokes of humour may be thrown into the fearful countenances of the amazed fervants; but Curtis may be advancing a little forwards, as archly enjoying the fcrape poor Grumio is in; who is not now quite fo pert and courageous as when he ftruck Curtis on the car. To those who have feen Woodward in Petruchio, Clive in Katharine, and Yates in Grumio, additi

Ir is impoffible to recommend the unmeaning Vignette, in Bell's last edition.

onal

onal strokes of character must present themselves. I have a faint recollection of Baddely in this last character-his figure feemed an incomparable one—it was the very picture of a little pot. To do justice to Grumio will well exercise the pencil of commicallity.

SHOULD the preference be given to the latter page, the wild fantastic Petruchio may be drawn in the moment of dashing the mutton at their heads; and it will confiderably heighten this scene, to introduce as much confufion as poffible. The table may be on the point of tumbling over; the trenchers, cups, &c. falling down; Katharine leaning back on her chair, as wishing to get fafe out of the way; the fervants scampering off, and one of them knocked down by another running against him, or tumbling over the Spaniel Troilus; and Grumio fhould be pourtrayed in fuch a manner as will beft defcribe the peculiar dry archness of so droll a creature §.

§ IN one of Petruchio's mad fits, when he and his bride were at fupper, Woodward stuck a fork, it is faid, in Mrs. Clive's finger; and in pushing her off the age, he was fo much in earnest, that he threw her down. This inimitable comic actress (who for more than forty years was the delight of the town) was a perfect miftrefs of Katharine's humour.

THERE is another character of Shakespeare's; in the performance of which the acquired uncommon applause; though he certainly performed it in a manner very different from what the author intended—it was Portia-for that fine fcene in which the appeal to mercy is introduced, was no doubt defigned by Shakespeare to be folemn, pathetic and affecting:-" the comic finishing, therefore, (fays Victor) which Mrs. Clive gave to the different parts of the pleadings, (though marked with her delightful fpirit of humour,) was very far from being in character: yet fuch were the fascinating charms of this darling of the public, that the forced the town to follow, and bestow on her the loudest plaudits." I do not know that any of Shakespeare's other characters were graced by her pre-eminent powers; or whether the ever appeared in Audrey-in Juliet's nurfe-in Tearsheet, or in dame Quickley—in Maria in Twelfth Night-or in Margaret in Much Ado. I cannot find any mention of her having appeared in these parts; or even in that of the sprightly Beatrice; and yet the writers on the stage have been particularly fond of dwelling on Clive's excellencies: fhe having been highly complimented, not only by Churchill, but by thofc-pleafing biographers Wilks, Victor, and Davies. "Happy was that author, (fays Davies) who could write a part equal to her abilities! fhe not only in general, exceeded the writer's expectation; but all that the most enlightened fpectator could conceive. -I fhall as foon expect to fee another Butler, Rabelais, or Swift, as a Clive." I quote this from the Dramatic Mifcellanies; but in the life of Garrick, her excellencies and merit, are recorded with the pen of a Cibber.