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In the notes on the Penseroso some

remarks are made on the word cy

press.

Meed.

Recompence,

Collins claims the meed of tragedy, because Fear, to whom he addresses himself, is one of the great sources of tragic pathos. Aristotle says, that the moral end of tragedy is to purify the soul by pity and terror.

And I, O Fear, will dwell with thee. This conclusion is imitated from L'Allegro, and Il Penseroso of Milton.

THE

SPEECHES OF HENRY THE FIFTH

AND THE

CHIEF JUSTICE.

Taken from Act V, Scene III, of Shakspeare's Second Part of King Henry the Fourth.

THOUGH Shakspeare's poetry is the delight and pride of our nation, it is in general too abstruse and difficult for foreigners and children.

It exhibits the most lively pictures of external nature, and the most perfect representation of human passions. His language is frequently obscure, from its containing many words and phrases which are now out of common use; besides, his writings relate

so much to the passions of men, and the concerns of princes and politicians, that a person must have what is called a knowledge of the world, and must have had some experience of the effects of human passions, before he can perceive the beauties, or have a relish for the excellencies of Shakspeare. The Speech of the Chief Justice, in the Second Part of Henry the Fourth, is in some measure free from these difficulties ; and it is selected for the purpose of introducing the style and manner of Shakspeare to our young readers. Shakspeare wrote dramatic pieces upon the history of England; they are now called plays, though formerly they were called histories; each of them takes in several years;

and they carry the imagination of the spectator from England to France, and back again, many times in the space of one night. Henry the Fourth is one of these dramas; it includes a great part of his reign, and concludes with his death, and with the coronation of his son Henry the Fifth.

Henry the Fifth, when prince of Wales, was wild, and, in the disgraceful society of Sir John Falstaff, Poins, and other idlers, committed several offences against the laws; some of his attendants had been taken up by the officers of justice, for a riot, and were brought before the chief justice, Sir William Gascoigne. -While they were in court, prince Henry came, and rudely demanded

that they should be released. The chief justice refused. The prince insulted, and, it is supposed, even struck the judge. The chief justice with great dignity kept his seat upon the bench, and in the authoritative tone of a man, to whom the execution of the laws is intrusted, he rebuked the prince, and ordered him to be taken into custody. To this the prince, recollecting his duty, becomingly submitted. After the death of his father, when he became king, the nation expected he would give himself up to amusement and intemperance; but on the contrary, he immediately assumed the deportment and conduct of a wise monarch, and, dismissing from his presence his former companions, instead of disgrac

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