a successful play. Till the year 1722 farces were not given after plays till the eighth or ninth representation. This leading to the opinion that a farce was a symptom that the main piece was on the decline, La Mothe desired that a farce might be given after the first representation of his Romulus. The example became universal. Whatever Pope's opinion may have been of Lintot, it is evident that Lintot and his son increased in respectability, and rose to great eminence as booksellers as the foregoing will testify. The talented and venerable Mr. Nichols, who has given so excellent an account of Lintot, says that many months after the article in his Literary Anecdotes on the Lintots was printed off, the unwearied researches of Mr. D'Israeli brought to light a small memorandum book of those enter prizing booksellers, entituled, "Copies, when purchased;" and, from this document, his Quarrels of Authors" are illustrated by some very interesting particulars respecting Pope and other writers. But the plan of his publication not admitting of minutia, which may be pardonable in his desultory pages, Mr. Nichols then, from a MS. from which he obtained permission, from the late 66 Mr. James Nunn, bookseller, to copy the particulars of Lintot's purchases of copyright from authors and brethren in trade, enumerates the whole of them, alphabetically, for a period of twenty-five years. They form about a dozen pages, with notes on two hundred and fifty different works, the purchases of which, by Lintot, amounted to about 10,000l., out of which he paid 4,2717. 6s. 74d. to Pope for his various productions, besides the rights that Pope retained in copies and in subscriptions, while poor Broom appears to have received only 357. from Lintot for his Miscellany Poems! Surely, then, Pope seems to have had little cause of complaint against his bookseller; particularly as it has always been stated that he received upwards of 5000l. in the year that his Homer was completed, from the right he retained in the quarto and other editions. Poor Broom appears to have deserved more consideration, from the too frequently quoted lines of Dr. Johnson : Broom went before, and gently swept the way." "Pope translated Homer, but they say I AM, &C., AN OLD BOOkseller. POINTS OF THE MONTH. APRIL. The Easter holidays commence on Monday, the first of April; and that many a fool, of both sexes, will be made on that day, in addition to those who were born fools, there cannot be a doubt. Three naval victories are intitled to commemoration this month: that of Blake, over the Spanish fleet, on the 20th, in 1657 ; that of Rodney, over the French, on the 12th, in 1782; and that of Nelson, at Copenhagen, on the 2nd, in 1801. FROM the intelligent pages of a contempo- numerous other birds of song, rendering rary, we transcribe an account of some of the air vocal. "Friend Howitt could the numerous derivations which have been write a charming volume on this subject adduced of the name of the generally alone. lovely, soul-inspiring, life-invigorating month of April.—"From the verb aperire, 'to open,' because, at this time, the earth seems to be opening and preparing to enrich us with its gifts; according to Varro, from Aphrodite, because April is consecrated especially to this goddess; or (which is much the same) according to Macrobius, from a Greek word signifying aphrilis, or descended from Venus, or born of the foam of the sea, because Romulus is said to have dedicated the month to Venus. The first of these derivations appears the best, for April is truly the spring of the year, in which the earth is nourished by alternate rains and sunshine. The temperature advances this month; and, upon an average, April is considered to have not more than six frosty nights. Its mean temperature is 49° 9'; highest, 74°; lowest, 29°." This year, indeed, throughout the whole month, friend Murphy says not one word about frost at all. On the contrary, he assigns us sixteen days fair; six, rain; three, rain, with wind; two, rain, with storm; and only three changeable, in the entire changeable month of April. Very civil of you, indeed, Master Murphy. Blake had been a distinguished soldier not only in his youth, but in his manhood; and he was more than fifty years of age when, relinquishing land-fighting for seafighting, he took an admiral's command, and, under Cromwell, carried the naval power of Britain to a greater height than it had ever reached before-to a greater height than naval power had ever before been carried, in any age or nation. Blake shrank from no attempt howsoever desperate: the very temerity of his enterprises struck terror into the enemy, and more than half achieved the victory. Nelson-the great, the glorious, the immortal Nelson-was the Blake of the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries. Nelson, the victor of a hundred fights, has been dead more than three-and-thirty years; and yet—" Oh, Shame, where is thy blush?"—the metropolis of the first naval nation that ever existed remains without a monument to record his name! This is the more offensive-disgusting is the more suitable word-when it is remembered that, within that period, Britain has honoured a Sailor King upon his throne. At length there is an understanding, that, in Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, there is to be a something erected-not, we fear, to honour the name of Nelson, but rather to disgrace the country. A pitiful sum has been collected,-a committee has been appointed for the management of the business-competition of artists has been invited-swarm of pitiful models and drawings has -a been submitted for inspection-and, from the multitude, one has been selected by the committee of taste (!!!) a post, with an image on the top of it, which, should it unfortunately be erected, will remain for ever-so long, at least, as it may last-" a fixed figure for the hand of Scorn to point his slow unmoving finger at." In architecture and sculpture, how much longer are we doomed to remain the laughing stock of the nations ? * Five-and-twenty years will have elapsed on the 6th of this month, since Buonaparte's first abdication; and, to this moment, in the reign of the third king of the restoration, France is a divided kingdom--a kingdom split into half a dozen factions: those of Louis Philippe, the young Buonaparte, the Republicans, Henry V., Louis XIX., and Louis XVII. Volumes, as it has been observed, "might be written on the exploits of St. George of Cappadocia, the patron saint of England, whose festival is held on the 23rd *Since the above was written, the committee of noblemen and gentlemen appointed to examine the various models and designs for the Nelson monument, have had the good sense to reject them all, in their present form-to order them to be returned to their respective authors --and to direct that they, in an amended state, may, with such new ones as may be produced in the interim, be again submitted to the consideration of the committee on or before the last Saturday in May. The feeling of the public has evidently been aroused upon the subject; and thus a hope of escape from the grasp of ignorance, barbarism, and jobbery, may yet be indulged. of April; but the leading events of his life, especially his triumphant conflict with the dragon of Sylene, stamped on the golden coin of our realm, are familiar even in the nursery. The fullest and the most favourable account of St. George-who perhaps, like many other saints, was no better than he should be-is to be found, we believe, in the celebrated golden legend (Legenda Aurea) written in Latin by Jacobus de Voraigne, archbishop of Genoa, about the year 1260. This curious production was, in the fourteenth century, translated into French by Jean de Vigney; and from the French it was transferred to our language by the industrious and indefatigable Caxton, in 1493. Gibbon, also, in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has amused us on the subject; and St. George has not wanted biographers of every possible class and description." Three or four seasons ago, through the genius of Stanfield, and the talents of Ducrow and his horses, we had a capital scenic illustration of his prowess at one of the winter theatres. Retzch's Outlines, also, exhibit a noble graphic record of his story. In its birth-days, April may be deemed sacred to the memory of genius, science, literature, and art. Shakspeare, the world's wonder, was born on St. George's day, the 23rd of April, 1564; and he died on the 23rd of April, the anniversary of his birth, in 1616. And it deserves to be mentioned, that Cervantes, second to none but Shakspeare in the lofty aspirations of mind, died also on the 23rd of April, 1616. Thumb ! Some of our readers will recollect, that, on Henry Fielding, another "bright and the approach of the first opening of Drury particular star" amongst the literary worthies Lane Theatre, many years ago, the managing of Britain, was born on the 22nd of April, committee offered, by public advertisement, a 1707. Distinguished as was Fielding by his premium for the best poetical address that knowledge of human nature, and by his skill might be submitted for the occasion. Numbers in her portraiture-distinguished also by the were, of course, sent; but the committee, be- number of dramatic pieces which he wrote— lieving, or assuming them to be all BAD, reject-eight-and-twenty-the only one ever heard ed them all-in disgraceful violation of their pledge, to give a premium for the best, awarded of now is the sublime tragedy of Tom no premium—and wisely set Lord Byron to work to write an address, which turned out to be far worse than most of those which had been rejected! The Nelson monument committee have acted very differently, and very honourably they offered three premiums, and three premiums have been awarded and paid: the 1st to Mr. Railton, for a Corinthian column of 174 feet in height, surmounted by a statue of 17 feet; the 2nd to E. H. Baily, Esq., R. A., for an allegorical monument in bronze; the 3rd to Messrs. Fowler and Sievier, for a sepulchral monument, partly architectural, partly sculptural. : The writer of these notes remembers holding a brief conversation, several years ago, with Mr. Fielding, one of the police magistrates of the Queen Square office, and a nephew of the great Fielding; the only material point of which was, the inveterate prejudice that the worthy magistrate entertained against, and the utter contempt in which he held, all modern literature. There had not been a book written, since the days of his uncle, that the truth of his doctrine respecting the was worth reading! Raffaello Sanzio, the prince of painters,"so called, because he possessed the greatest of requisites for the art of painting, in their highest characters, particularly that of expression, or the power of exhibiting the thoughts and emotions of men in the face and figure”—was born on the 7th of April, 1483. Within that lapse of time356 years-what progress, it may be asked, has been made in the art of painting? What do our artists of the present day know, or what have they performed, beyond what Raffaello knew and performed? Nothing! With the exception of here and there a bright spirit, they have retrograded rather than advanced. Socrates, who has been justly designated as "the founder of the philosophy of good sense, who taught us what to do in our houses and social intercourse, not forgetting the hopes to which Nature herself, and a sense of the invisible world, incline the aspirations of men," was born at a village near Athens, on the 6th of April, B. C., 468, now 2307 years ago. It is no less remarkable than true, that minds of the loftiest and sublimest power have often been superstitiously inclined. Such was the case of Socrates, who, with all his philosophy, insisted that an invisible genius constantly attended him, warning him of danger, and directing him in the course of life he should pursue. René Descartes, a philosopher of a different stamp, was born at La Haye, in Touraine, on the 1st of April, 1596. Descartes, unintentionally, laid the foundation of modern scepticism. It has been remarked, that, while Descartes created a world of his own, Newton explained the laws of the universe as it came from the hands of the great Creator. Descartes, who visited England in the reign of Charles I., and was invited by that sovereign to remain, established a correspondence with Mr. Cavendish, Hobbes, Sir Kenelm Digby, Dr. Henry More, &c. Dr. William Harvey, a contemporary of Descartes, was born on the 2nd of April, 1578. Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, was the friend of Cowley, the poet; and so enraptured was he with Virgil, that, at times, whilst reading him, he would start up and exclaim-"He had a devil!" Descartes contributed greatly to the fame of Harvey, by asserting circulation of the blood. Harvey was a man equally pleasing in manners and generous in sentiment. Though suffering dreadfully from gout, he lived till nearly the age of ninety. Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher of Malmsbury, another of the contemporaries of Descartes, was born on the 5th of April, 1588. A man of much learning, more thinking, and some knowledge of the world, he was desirous of striking out new paths of science, government, and religion, and of removing the landmarks of former ages. His translation of Homer was a ridiculous mistake. His numerous metaphysical and philosophical works have generally been regarded as eminently pernicious, morally, religiously, and politically. Evidently a vain man, Hobbes was much pleased with the following epitaph, which was written for him a considerable time before his death :— This is the Philosopher's Stone." Hume and Gibbon, two other mischievous philosophers, and the chief historians of the eighteenth century, were born in the month of April: the former on the 26th, in 1717; the latter on the 27th, in 1737. April has been extensively the grave as well as the cradle of genius; many, especially of our own poets, philosophers, artists, &c., having paid the great debt of nature in this month. Goldsmith, the sweet, the gentle bard of "Auburn," died on the 4th, in 1774. Young, the poet of death and the grave, who is said to have written his "Night Thoughts" by the light of flambeaux, in an apartment hung with black, gave back his spirit to its Creator on the 12th, in 1765. Byron, the great poetic luminary of our own, and a writer "for all time," will have been dead fifteen years on the 19th. Sir William Jones, author of much graceful and elegant verse, and the finest oriental scholar of the past generation, on the 27th, in 1794. Otway, on the 14th, in 1685. Darwin, the author of that fantastical and dazzlingly splendid poem, the "Loves of the Plants," immortalised in its exquisite parody, the "Loves of the Triangles," by George Canning, on the 17th, in 1802. Farquhar, the most brilliant dramatist of the early part of the eighteenth century, on the 30th, in 1707. George Farquhar, who died at the early age of twenty-nine, was as gay in his character and conduct as in his dramatic productions. He commenced and finished his comedy of The Beaux' Stratagem in about six weeks, during his last illness; although he, for a great part of the time, was sensible of the approach of death, and even foretold what actually occurred-that he should die before the run of it was over. The vivacity and eccentricity of his character are further illustrated by one or two incidents, an account of which is worth transcribing. While the Beaux' Stratagem was in rehearsal, his friend Wilks observed to him, that Mrs. Oldfield thought he had dealt too freely with the character of Mrs. Sullen, in giving her to Archer without such a proper divorce as might be a security for her honour. "Oh!" replied Farquhar, "I will, if you please, salve that immediately, by getting a real divorce, marrying her myself, and giving her my bond that she shall be a real widow in less than a fortnight." Mr. Wilks, after his death, found amongst his papers the following laconic and very curious note, addressed to himself : should be mentioned "A Journal of the Plague in 1665," purporting to be from the pen of a supposed witness of it. Two or three years ago, Mr. Brayley, one of the ablest antiquaries of our own time, published a new edition of this work, with a vast mass of curious and valuable information. Numerous have been the imitations of "Robinson Crusoe;" but the only writer who ever caught the spirit of that noble fiction, is Miss Porter, in her exquisitely conceived and equally well composed "Adventures of Sir Edward Seaward," On the 3rd of April, 1617, died John Napier, laird of Merchiston, in Scotland, the inventor of logarithms, and, as a mathematician, one of the greatest men of his age. Lilly, the astrologer, states that Briggs, the famous mathematician, went into Scotland on purpose to visit the inventor of the logarithms; and that, at the interview between these great men, each was so overcome by the consciousness of the other's presence, that neither of them could speak for nearly a quarter of an hour! This must be taken, we imagine, cum grano salis. For once Napier's powers of calculation failed him: he bewildered himself in a commentary on the Apocalypse, and predicted that the world would last precisely ninety years! He ought to have had an opportunity of shaking hands with Burnett the geologist. John Opie, a protegé of Dr. Wolcot, alias Peter Pindar, and one of the ablest painters of his day, died on the 19th of April, 1807, His widow, Amelia Opie, the author of several attractive literary works, still survives, and has become a member of the John Stow, the celebrated historian of London, who was bred a tailor, died on the 5th of April, 1605. In his old age he was reduced to the necessity of soliciting charity" Society of Friends." Mrs. Opie is the by means of a brief. John Leland, another celebrated antiquary and poet, who was born in London about the end of the reign of Henry VII., died on the 18th of April, 1552. He was educated under the famous Lilye, and he studied successively at Cambridge, Oxford, and Paris. He was librarian to Henry VIII. Daniel Defoe, or Foe, the son of a butcher, the keeper of a hosier's shop in Cornhill, and the author of that glorious romance, "Robinson Crusoe❞—the delight of young and old, and a never-failing source of profit to the booksellers-died on the 24th of April, 1731. Defoe was the author of various other works; amongst which in particular daughter of the late Dr. Alderson, a physician of eminence in the city of Norwich. Thomas Stothard, R. A., who, if he had never produced any thing but the “ Pilgrimage to Canterbury," would have been immortalised as a painter, died on the 27th of April, 1834, at the age of 79. Independently of his larger performances, perhaps no artist ever lived who illustrated so many works for the booksellers: Shakspeare, Milton, Cervantes, Bunyan, Defoe, Bell's British Poets, Rogers's Italy, and hundreds of others, bear living testimony to his genius. In the aggregate, he is thought to have produced more than 5000 designs. The artistic character of Stothard is thus briefly but admirably summed up, in |