Testis mearum centimanus Gyas

Sententiarumr!

After the murder of his sovereign, Macbeth is in blood stepped in so far, that he hires assassins to cut off Banquo, and, such is the force of an avenging conscience, that in the banquetting-scene, he sees the ghost of Banquo, and starts from his seat in wild amazement. It may now be imagined, that the poet could add no more to enforce his great moral doctrine. But Lady Macbeth had hitherto triumphed in her guilt; and it was still to be seen how her conscience dealt with her. It is well known, that many, even innocent persons, walk in their sleep. The French writers relate a long account of a man, to whom they have given the name of Somnambule. Shakespeare makes his guilty heroine walk in her sleep. Voltaire might censure this, as inconsistent

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with the dignity of tragedy, or, if he had
courage to hazard it on the stage, he would
in all probability, have given her a speech of
sixty lines, with all the studied graces of har-
monious versification. Our
Our great poet copied
from nature, and, in short broken sentences,
discovers the agitations of a distracted mind.
"Out damned spot!-Who would have

thought the old man could have had so

" much blood in him?-All the perfumes "in Arabia will not sweeten this little hand

"Oh!"

-Oh!" She heaves a sigh, as if her heart would break, and retires to bed, there to be tortured by thick-coming fancies.. It is not in the power of words to do justice to Mrs. Pritchard in this scene; but happily Mrs. Siddons can give an adequate idea of her excellence in the whole character.

THE speech, which Macbeth addresses to the physician, is one of the finest in all poetry, and it required a Garrick to deliver it,

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,

And, with some sweet oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the full bosom of that perilous stuff,
Which weighs upon the heart?

Macbeth, in a short time, hears of the Queen's death: His conscience forces from him several deep moral reflections. He shews on every occasion, that he lies on the torture of the mind in restless extacy; but we find no symptoms of contrition; his natural courage supports him under all his afflictions, till, at last, he has reason to curse the fiend, that paltered with him in a double sense. He resolves, however, to die with harness on his back; he

fights with desperate fury, and falls a victim to his crimes.

UPON the whole, the tragedy of Macbeth is the greatest moral lesson that ever. was presented on the stage. It displays the power of conscience in the strongest light; it shews the fatality that attends wild ambition, and the folly of believing the false predictions of vile impostors, who pretend to have præternatural communications. The Greek, the Roman, and the French theatres, have nothing to compare with it, and Garrick, to use Cibber's expression, “out-did his usual out-doings."

CHAP. VIII.

REGULUS, a Tragedy, by Mr. WILLIAM HAVARD-Some Account of the Author, and his Play, as also of GARRICK in the Part of REGULUS-The Tragedy of MAHOMET, by the Rev. JAMES MILLER-It is taken from the MAHOMET of VOLTAIRE The great Importance of the Subject-The Moral enforces the Cause of Benevolence and Humanity-Bigotry, I Superstition, and Enthusiasm, the Cause of Religious Murder, Massacres, and terrible Effusion of Blood-The Play not well received in France, but in time revived with great Applause-GARRICK in the Part of ZAPHNA,

BEFORE the end of January 1744, that worthy man, who was universally respected for the integrity of his character, and his polished manners, Mr. William Havard, brought forward, a tragedy, intitled Regulus. This

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play