"Hark! from the depths beneath the proud saloon Smiles on the arch that nobly spans the flood. The banks where Avon's lingering fountains flow." P. 222, 1. 15. Mightiest of mighty Bards. What commentators and eulogists, English or German, can do justice to Shakspeare? And he was born at Stratford in this county; "Think of that, my masters," and on this day (April 23rd). Seven cities laid claim to Homer; Stratford claims Shakspeare, and no town or city in the world can dispute that claim. Let us feast on his works to-day; and if they want any garnish, let it be the garnish of Mrs. Jameson's admirable "Characteristics of Women." How beautiful (perhaps a little too ornamented) is the chapter on "Juliet!" Mrs. Jameson has sprung a new mine; she has discovered unsuspected beauties in Shakspeare, inexhaustible as his foster-mother Nature. In Drake's "Memorials of Shakspeare," there are some admirable delineations of the characters of the great poet by the most distinguished writers of the present day, -Schlegel, Göthe, Campbell, Coleridge. Perhaps the finest of the sketches, all of which are excellent in their way, is that taken from Blackwood's Magazine (p. 93). But no description of Shakspeare's genius by a writer of talent and taste can convey to the reader what the writer himself must feel. To attempt such a description is Oh Shakspeare! "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, "Each year brings forth its millions; but how long And not the whole combined and countless throng Compose a mind like thine !-though all in one Condensed their scattered rays, they would not form a sun." BYRON. This note may seem impertinent; but surely a Warwickshire man is privileged to be garrulous about his Shakspeare. P. 223, 1. 1. And Warwickshire of Somerville can boast. "A greater than Somerville," Michael Drayton, was born at Hartshill in Warwickshire, 1563. See his Life in the Biographia Britannica, vol. iii. page 1744, folio edition. In the thirteenth song of his Poly-Olbion, Drayton gives us a lively description of a stag-hunt in the forest of Arden, in Warwickshire. "The comprehensive largeness which this Ardene once extended (before ruine of her woods) makes the Author limit her with Severne and Trent."-Illustrations to the thirteenth song in the Poly-Olbion, folio edit. 1613, page 216. ON THE BIRTH OF DRAYTON AT HARTSHILL. "Lux Haresulla tibi (Warwici villa tenebris Arma, viros, veneres, Patriam modulamine dixti: P. 223, 1. 8. Yet Warton offered up, as was most meet, SONNET WRITTEN IN A BLANK LEAF OF DUGDALE'S 66 MONASTICON." Who turns of these proud domes the historic page, Her mouldering roll; the piercing eye surveys P. 224, 1. 7. Cloud-compelling Parr. Dr. Parr loved his pipe-no man was more happy than he was with "His calumet of peace and cup of joy." I had the pleasure for many years of an intimate acquaintance with the late Dr. Parr, who was as distinguished for his benevolence and hospitality, as for his great talents and extraordinary erudition. What Lord Grey, in his fine classical language, said of Windham, may be applied to Parr:-" He was a man of a great, original, and commanding genius, with a mind cultivated with the richest stores of intellectual wealth, and a fancy winged to the highest flights of a most captivating imagery." And here may be added, as applicable to Parr, the concluding part of Lord Grey's eulogium on the same distinguished statesman. "He had indeed his faults; but they served, like the skilful disposition of shade in works of art, to make the impression of his virtues more striking, and give additional grandeur to the great outline of his character."-See "Life of Windham," prefixed to his Speeches, vol. i. page 160; and Hansard's Debates, June 6, 1810. Parr was no great admirer of modern poetry, but he always spoke with enthusiasm of Lord Byron's poetical genius, and when his name was mentioned often exclaimed, "Irritat, mulcet, falsis terroribus implet, Ut magus, et modò me Thebis, modò ponit Athenis." Dryden was a great favourite with Parr, who used to quote with delight the paraphrase of the 29th Ode of the third Book of Horace, so admirably executed by Dryden as, in the opinion of such a scholar as Parr, to be equal to the original. High praise indeed! Dr. Parr's opinion of Warburton is well known: he particularly admired that celebrated writer's character of Bayle; but thought that in delineating Bayle's, he drew the character of Bishop Warburton! His favourites among our English divines were, Butler, Jeremy Taylor, and Paley. He rather underrated Horsley, who, he said, was indebted for the great theological erudition displayed in his controversy with Priestley, to Bishop Bull. P. 224, 1. 15. His feasts were sumptuous on his natal day. Dr. Parr never appeared to such advantage as when he was presiding, in all the pride of honest hospitality, at his own table in his parsonagehouse at Hatton; he overflowed with kindness towards all around him. At that table have I met Magee, and Maltby, and Basil Montagu, and several of the most distinguished wits and scholars of the present day. The most substantial fare was added to "The feast of reason and the flow of soul." Then our host "Vehemens et liquidus, puroque simillimus amni, Parr literally chuckled with delight, when one of the select, whom he had never, to use his own phrase, "banished to Siberia," said 66 a good thing." He was was then the "apricus senex of Persius, or the "Bon Vieillard" of Béranger; and when we consider the great events that have taken place in this country and elsewhere since his death, he might have exclaimed in the spirit of prophecy, like the Bon Vieillard, "La liberté va rajeunir le monde : Sur mon tombeau brilleront d'heureux jours." Dr. The character of Parr is finely drawn by Archdeacon Butler, in his funeral sermon on that great scholar and benevolent man. Butler did not "daub" the memory of his friend "with undiscerning praise;" but while he did ample justice to his numerous virtues and various attainments, hesitated not to point out his faults. I know by experience that Dr. Parr was a warm friend, a good neighbour, a most instructive and delightful companion : "His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani |