ROMEO AND JULIET.

Scenes, from which a hermit may estimate the tranfactions of the world, and a confeffor predict the progress of the paffions.

Dr. JOHNSON.

Milton is not more the pride, than Shakespeare the love of his country. When Milton appeared, the pride of Greece was humbled. It is therefore equally judicious to diffuse a tenderness and a grace through the praise of Shakespeare: as to extoll in a strain more elevated and fonorous, the boundless foarings of Milton's epic imagination. ANON.

When Ben Jonson wrote, it was from his head-when Shakespeare wrote, he fat down, and dipt his pen in his own heart. Mr. GARRICK.

Vignette.

So infinite are the variety of Designs that might be sketched for a Vignette to this tragedy; and fo unlimitedly various and different are the ideas that would predominate in the mind of each artist: that I fhall no longer detain my reader than briefly to point out, a very few of those subjects that would best accord with the nature or spirit of this drama.

1. A genii tenderly furveying a medallion of Mrs. Cibber, and thus conveying to pofterity (in the page of Shakespeare) the exact features of the darling actress of his

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Juliet.

Juliet. In the back-ground of which defign might be lightly sketched the monaftery of friar Lawrence-the dagger which ended Juliet's woes (and with which Mrs. Cibber gave herself a ftab which fhuddered the whole audience)-and the fombre and picturesque scenery of the moonlight and tomb-and round this might be twined thofe bridal flowers, which ferved for her bury'd corfe-interfperfed with funeral torches, and with the ufual decorative ornaments of mafques. Or there might be introduced more than one genii-and fomewhat fimilar to that small groupe in the theatre of Bath, where they are fupporting with the most fond care the portrait of Shakespeare. Might not the mournful cupid be introduced in this Vignette, which we fee in Cypriani's print of the Nymph of Immortality? And the happily conceived figure of Memory in the Hiftorical Rhapsody on Pope by Mr. Tyers, might suggest fome fimilar idea.

2. Or, in lieu of the above, might be designed Trophies of Love-and for which, fee that richly engraved one, at p. 10. of Idylles de Saint-Cyr, ou l'hommage du cœur; which are poems attributed to Monf. Dorat-they were printed at Amfterdam and Paris, in 1771. The genius of Peters, might now fupply the loft pencil of Cypriani.

3. Some of the following lines would furnish a Vignette:

FANCY! warm enthufiaftic maid,
O hear our prayer, O hither come
From thy lamented Shakespeare's tomb,
On which thou lov'ft to fit at eve,
Mufing o'er thy darling's grave.

Jos. WARTON.

Here FANCY fat, (her dewy fingers cold,
Decking with flow'rets fresh the unsullied fod,)
And bath'd with tears the fad fepulchral mould,
Her fav'rite's offspring's long and laft abode.

COOPER'S POEM OF THE TOMB OF SHAKESPEARE,

4. Or an artist might strike out fome idea from the following invocation to the genius of Shakespeare. It might be a female figure of celestial appearance pointing to his tomb as if repeating the words of, there fleeps the Bard!-Indeed thefe lines. (to the last degree affecting) would give rife to various graceful ideas or creations of the fancy—and may no artist disgrace fuch lines by cold conception; or attempt to design from them, if his breast has not been often warmed with the holy flame of Painting

But ah! on Sorrow's cyprefs bough,

Can Beauty breathe her genial bloom?
On Death's cold cheek will Paffion glow?
Or Mufic warble from the tomb?

There fleeps the Bard, whofe tuneful tongue
Pour'd the full ftream of mazy fong.
Young Spring with lip of ruby, here
Showers from her lap the blushing year;
While along the turf reclin'd,

The loofe wing fwimming on the wind,
The Loves with forward gesture bold,
Sprinkle the fod with spangling gold;
And oft the blue-ey'd Graces trim
Dance lightly round on downy limb;
Oft too, when Eve' demure and ftill
Chequers the green dale's purling rill,

Sweet Fancy pours the plaintive ftrain;

*Shakespeare's fpirit would have breathed the fame humble wifh as is expreffed in the Minstrel of

Beattie :

Let vanity adorn the marble tomb

With trophies, rhymes, and fcutcheons of renown,

In the deep dungeon of fome gothic dome,

Where night and defolation ever frown.

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Mine

How calculated is fome of the above imagery, to entrance the minds of Sir Joshua Reynolds, or Mr. Gainsborough !

Mine be the breezy hill that skirts the down;
Where a green graffy turf is all I crave,
With here and there a violet beftrown,

Faft by a brook, or fountain's murmuring wave;
And many an evening fun shine fweetly on my grave.

And thither let the village fwain repair;

And, light of heart, the village maiden gay,
To deck with flowers her half-dishevel'd hair,
And celebrate the merry morn of May.
There let the shepherd's pipe the live-long day
Fill all the grove with love's bewitching woe;
And when mild evening comes with mantle grey,
Let not the blooming band make hafte to go;
No ghoft nor spell my long and laft abode shall know.

Head

Head-Piece.

Many have told Juliet's tale: but none have told it like Shakespeare.‡ Crowded theatres fit enraptured at the tenderness of that Poet, who (as was faid of Beaumont)

made the theatre fo fovereign

With his rare fcenes

and they give unbounded applause at the wildness of his more terrifying conceptions. We may learn (fays Mr. Warton) from the fatires of Marston, how popular a tale Juliet's was in those days—he is speaking to a wit of the town:

Lufcus, what's play'd to-day ?-faith, now I know
I fet thy lips abroach, from whence doth flow
Nought but pure Juliet and Romeo.

There are scenes of terror and diftrefs in this play, which certainly require the exertions of a fuperior pencil-and an artist would have to record the merit of tragedians, whofe masterly difplay of the paf

Monf. Mercier, a very few years ago, fabricated a tragedy upon this ftory. He tranflated many paffages from our English poet; and has introduced many hiftorical facts. It is now frequently performed at Paris, with great fuccefs, under the title of," The Fall of Verona, or Romeo and Juliet." fions,

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