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PUBLISHED BY HARRISON HALL, 133, CHESNUT-STREET,

AND IN LONDON,

BY JOHN SOUTER, 2, PATERNOSTER ROW;

And to be had of all the booksellers in the United States.
J. Maxwell, Printer.

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TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

SOLOMON Gundy is no doubt a very good angler—in catching gulls! his dream is admirably described by Bottom in the play:

I have had a dream,-past the wit of man to say what dream it was: Man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was-there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had-but man is but a patch'd fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen; man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall be called Bottom's dream, because it hath no bottom, and I will sing it in the latter end of a play. So much for Bully Bottom's dream.

"The Fair Inscrutable" is still incomprehensible.

The zeal which "Amicus" evinces is very flattering: but a contest with petty and harmless malice offers no ovation: Bid me for honour plunge into a war;

Then thou shalt see that Marcus is not slow.

In her rural retreat, we hope that "Victoire" will be usefully employed in the vernal months:

The liquid drops of tears that you have shed,
Shall come again transform'd to orient pearl,
Advantaging their loan with interest,
Oftentimes double gain of happiness.

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We have not forgotten a promise which was made to our

"lake poet," he is one who knows how to live, for he has studied Shakspeare. He can

Keep house and ply his book, welcome his friends,

Visit his countrymen, and banquet them.

Mr. Gummere's reply to the review of his book is under consideration. It was too late for insertion in the present number. ❝ Silvio's” timidity is natural, but he must not be dismayed by scornful looks.

Prick thy face and over-red thy fear
Thou lily-liver'd boy-

THE PORT FOLIO.

FOURTH SERIES.

CONDUCTED BY OLIVER OLDSCHOOL, ESQ.

Various; that the mind

Of desultory man, studious of change

And pleased with novelty, may be indulged.-CowPER.

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation, as to the posterity that are yet unborn.

SPECTATOR.

VOL. III.

MAY, 1817.

NO. V.

MEMOIRS OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN was the third son of Mr. Thomas Sheridan, an eminent actor, a lecturer on elocution, and one who has left behind him, if not any productions of a very high order of excellence, at least some very useful and creditable works. His mother, Mrs. Frances Sheridan, was a lady of considerable talent, and all accounts agree in stating her to have been a very interesting and amiable woman. Her maiden name was Chamberlaine, and she was a granddaughter of sir Thomas Chamberlaine. She wrote the well-known and admired novel, called, "Sydney Biddulph," and two comedies, "The Discovery," and "The Dupe." Thus it appears that Mr. Sheridan was sprung from a truly literary stock, which he was destined to adorn and

From an incident in this novel it is probable that Mr. Sheridan took the hint of sir Oliver's return in the "School for Scandal."

distinguish by his own superior genius. Richard Brinsley was born in Dorset Street, Dublin, in October 1751. Having been placed first of all in private tuition with his elder brother Charles Francis, late secretary at war, in Ireland, under the care of Mr. Samuel Whyte, of Dublin; they were sent by that gentleman, after a residence of eighteen months, to their parents at Windsor, and Richard Brinsley was placed in his eleventh or twelfth year, at Harrow School. He does not appear to have evinced any extraordinary talents or early ambition at school; and it was not till within a short time of his leaving Harrow, that a retentive memory, a sound judgment, and a powerful comprehension, began to display themselves with any effect, and to conquer that unaccountable propensity to indolence, which characterized his youthful days, and which was never completely surmounted. To recount all the facetious and witty sayings of Mr. Sheridan, would exceed the limits of this article:-to enumerate all that are attributed to him would fill the press;-but there is an anecdote of his boyish days, which the writer knows to be true, and which shows at once his readiness and his good nature. The boys were joking each other, as was common enough among them, upon the subject of their fathers, and their various situations in life. One of them whose father was a physician, taunted young Sheridan with the circumstance of his father being a player. "Ah!" replied he, " your father kills people, mine amuses them."

He was a classical scholar for the purposes of enlarging his knowledge, and improving his taste, the only true end and aim of classical acquirements; but he did not feel that pedantic attachment to the learned languages which too often distracts the attention from better pursuits, and gives to a comparatively useless and cumbersome branch of education, the monopoly of time, talents, and attention. Upon leaving Harrow, he was entered of the Middle Temple. The next step of importance in the life of Mr. Sheridan, was his marriage with miss Linley; and to some it appears strange, that from the period of his entry at the Middle Temple, till his marriage, nothing should have occurred in his life worthy of remark, for he certainly was not at this time the votary of fashion or dissipation. But retirement is not always obscurity, and of the lives of those who are destined to enlighten

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