3dly. If I am not gifted with a sufficient portion of modesty and politeness, virtues not glaring in Mr. J. H. V-y, his style being little fit to improve me in them, 1 let him know that I shall be silent if he were to answer me, whatever way he would take.

4thly and lastly. Such a specimen of censuring a language, combined with so much deficiency, can proceed but from the pen of a youth. I beg Mr. J. H. V-y to forgive me any thing in this answer which may hurt his feelings on account of my intention, which has been to give a friendly lesson of modesty, without which talents are useless; and of politeness that he may be a true Briton.

ANECDOTE AND WIT.

No. 13. THE REVIVAL OF THE DRAMA.

THE first glimmering of the restoration of the drama is discernable in some exhibitions which generally made a part of the national feasts of the Carlovingian monarchs. These feasts were opened by a grand highmass: the deliberation followed, and was succeeded by a sumptuous dinner. After dinner, shows of foreign beasts, and of animals, trained to do particular tricks and exercises, were exhibited; and balladsingers, harpers, and jugglers, the rude forefathers of the modern drama, also attended, and contributed their share to the festivities of the day.

Chivalry introduced into them magnificence, order, and refinement. It is probable, that the tilts and tournaments of the feudal ages excelled whatever ancient or modern times have produced, in the form of public spectacle; and to them we owe the revival of the scenic art. The provincial bards often appeared at them in companies, and recited tragic comic poems. By degrees, they formed them into dialogues, and, to make their dialogues more interesting, put on a dress and gait suitable to those of the persons whose characters they assumed. From this, The passage to an exhibition, possessing all the substantial requisites of a scenic entertainment, was

or

easy, and as nothing could be more congenial than these exhibitions, to the taste and manners of a chivalrous age, they soon attained a high degree of order. But there was more of pageantry in them than of dialogue, and every thing about them had a military air. Devotion, however, had some share in them; so that there were both secular and religious dramas. They were distinguished into mysteries, in which remark able events in the scriptures, or in the lives of the saints, were represented; allegories, in which Faith, Hope, Charity, Sin, and Death, and other mystic beings, were introduced to speak and act in personi, fication; and moralities, in which sometimes real, and sometimes fictitious characters were brought into scenic action, and a general moral was drawn from the exhibition. Of these entertainments, the mysteries were most popular: they were sometimes performed in churches.

A REASON FOR REPETITION.

66

A COUNTRYMAN once remarked to the minister of the parish, that the subjects of his discourse were frequently renewed, and the same exhortations and remonstrances again and again delivered: he confessed, indeed, that the lessons which were inculcated, were of the most serious and important nature, but complained, that they wanted variety. My friend,' said the clergyman, "for what purpose do you imagine, that precepts are given you?" "That we may obey them, I suppose," answered the other. "You. are right," said the priest. "And have you," he added, "learned to practice all those duties, which I have already recommended to you?" The rustic replied, that he had not. "When you have," rejoined the other," either my subjects and my admonitions. shall be novel, or I will be silent, till then taciturnity will become you better than reproof."

A CURIOUS DISEASE.

IT is related by Celius, a very ancient Latin author, that the following singular case came within his own knowledge. As his Latin is not the purest, the rea-der will doubtless prefer a translation. A company

of young men in Agrigentum, in Sicily, came into a tavern, and, according to the custom of the Sicilians, drank freely. Upon a sudden they were seized with such a malady of the brain, and such a confusion of imagination, that they thought themselves in a ship at sea, and about to be cast away by the violence of the tempest. To avoid shipwreck, and prevent drowning, they flung all the goods of the house out at the window into the street; or, as they supposed, into the sea. Having thus continued for some time, they were at length seized, and brought before a magistrate to account for their conduct. The magistrate sent for me to know whether such a disease was possible, for they still continued possessed of the same fancy, and imagined the magistrate to be their pilot, and implored him accordingly to steer aright, and watch the shifting of the wind. I was persuaded in my own mind that this singular malady could only arise from some adulteration of the wine, and, therefore, procured the landlord to be called into the presence of the magistrate. With some difficulty we compelled him to confess that he was in the habit of adulterating his wine with a mixture of benbane and mandrakes, which must thus doubtless be considered as the cause of this singular disease. It was not till after some period that the young men recovered their

senses.

THE EARL OF CAERNARVON.

THE Earl of Caernarvon was a man of unimpeachable honour and integrity. He followed the declining fortunes of his royal master, and fell at Newbury, where he commanded the cavalry, after defeating that part of the parliamentary army to which he was opposed. In his last moments, says Fuller, as he lay on the field, a nobleman of the royal party desired to know if he had any request to make to the king, to whom he was deservedly dear, comforting him with the assurance that it would readily be granted. His reply was such as became a brave and conscientious soldier: "I will not dee with a suit in my mouth, but to the King of kings."

NAPOLEON.

LACLOS, the author of a well known novel, worthy of the rank it holds in a land of the grossest epicurean debasement, was possessed of general talents and great powers of conversation. About a year after the 18th of Brumaire, Bonaparte sent for him to the Thuilleries. The conversation ran on a great variety of subjects, and was extremely curious. After they had gone through the sciences, Laclos insisted on the moral advantages that liberty procured to man in ameliorating his nature, in answer to Bonaparte, - who maintained, that liberty was incompatible with the French character. Laclos replied, my countrymen, even were they more frivolous and immoral than they are, would be changed by education and good institutions." Try the experiment, you have the power, and you will find the French people as ductile in your hands as clay in those of a potter. Believe me, citizen consul, all men, and the French especially are men with excellent qualities, may be as easily fashioned to good as to evil." The consul rose up in his usual hurried manner, replying in these words, "Pooh! pooh! men! don't talk to me of men! Man is a vile race; and the French, above all-you know it better than any body else. Never did a Frenchman approach me without asking me for something. Interest, the most sordid interest is the spring of all their actions."

FREEDOM OF CONVERSATION, THE caliph Mottawakkel was sitting with one of his physicians, named Bactish, who was drest in a tunic of rich silk, which happened on the edge to have a small rent. The caliph, while in discourse, played with this rent, till he had made it reach up to the girdle. Among other things, the caliph asked' How he could determine, when a person was so mad as to require being bound? We bind him,' replies Bactish, when he is so far gone that he tears the tunic of his physician up to his girdle.' The caliph fell backwards in a fit of laughing, and ordered Bactish a present of rich garments and a donation in money.

6

TO THE EDITOR OF THE POCKET MAGAZINE. SIR,-Having been amused by the perusal of the following Tale, in a recent French periodical publication, I send it you in an English dress, and, if you should deem it worthy a place in your interesting Miscellany, you will oblige me by inserting it. E. W.

THE CALIPH ALMANZOR,

OR

HOW TO Judge of MEN,

A TALE.

FANA KOSROU, surnamed Adhad-Eddoulat, was one of the greatest men of the east. A renowned warrior, a noble and generous conqueror, a skilful politician, he united in his own person all those talents and virtues which cause the names of kings to descend to the remotest posterity. After having reduced Persia by the force of his arms, and taken possession of Bagdad, the residence of the caliphs, he had seated himself on the throne of those monarchs, ministers of one God and representatives of his prophet; and being desirous of promoting the happiness of the people whom Providence had confided to his care, he was one day conversing familiarly with his principal courtiers on the best means for attaining this desirable object, and he spoke of the artifices which a king must practise to avoid being deceived, and to be able to know the real worth of the men by whom he is surrounded.

The courtiers of Adhad-Eddoulat, each in his turn gave their advice. Adhad smiled whilst listening to them, for he clearly perceived that they were precisely prescribing the surest methods to be deceived. There was amongst them a learned doctor, held in much reverence in Bagdad, not only on account of his extensive knowledge, but still more for the noble frankness of his manners, and the probity of his principles. This sage was named Morad: he preserved a profound silence, whilst these selfish counsellors continued their fulsome discourses. Adhad-Eddoulat observed him and said to him, "and thou, Morad, why dost thon thou like the rest, give thy advice? Dost thou ima

D