ftill depended on foreigners for daily bread; that there was a regular import from the Baltic, as well as from France, and if it ever ftopped, the bad confequences were fenfibly felt by the nation? We will not carry Mr. W. a century farther back. 3. That the LEGISLATURE, in fuch an emergency, has always thought it expedient and fit, to prohibit, for a certain time, all exportation, even without a bounty.' And very prudently as there is one price of corn which limits the bounty, it would be well if another price was fixed, beyond which exportation should ceafe. 4. That the LEGISLATURE, in cafes of great exigence, hath not only prohibited all exportation, but hath opened our PORTS, and given free permiffion for importation.' And with good reason; the advantage of commerce is the mutual fupply of national wants. 5. That exportation has been fo far carried beyond its due bounds, by the bounty, that what has been exported one year, with a bounty of 20 per cent. we have fometimes been obliged to buy again the next, at an advance of 100 per cent.' That too much corn may be fometimes carried abroad, may be determined by a fubsequent bad crop, but what has the bounty to do with that? The bounty having a limitation, cannot be charged with occafioning a scarcity: this mu be owing to exportation beyond or without the bounty, when it is fent abroad to better markets. Perhaps we may fometimes purchafe corn in again at a dearer rate. than we before fold it at. Inconveniencies attend all human affairs; here is a temporary inconvenience, which, though it may play fome money into the hands of corn. jobbers at critical times, and make the confumer difcon tented, yet preferves the corn trade alive, by buying in when we can no longer fell out. 6. That thefe occurrences have not only happened once, as if by chance, but from the commencement of the bounty to the prefent time, fcarcity and high prices have regularly and conftantly followed a large and extenfive exportation, as certain effects from an infallible caufe; though they have been fometimes longer, according as the following feafons proved, ere they were felt or perceived.' We here beg leave to doubt the regularity and conftancy which Mr. W. allerts. Confidering how many variable cir Hume. App. to James I. REV. Mar. 1771. R cumftances cumftances must be taken into the examination, we imagine he will find it a difficult matter to give a clear proof of it: and furely Mr. W. will not seriously fuppofe a fcarcity occafioned this year, to operate after the intervention of a plentiful feafon or two, during which it was not perceived! Indeed, if fuch an indefinite latitude is affumed in affigning causes, it will be difficult to fay what may not be proved. To conclude, we would recommend the following points to Mr. W.'s private confideration, without wifhing to engage him in a farther controverfy, for which neither he nor the Reviewers may have leifure or inclination : 1. Whether it is not expedient that corn, as a neceffary of life and an article of commerce, fhould be kept as nearly as poffible at a regular medium price? 2. Whether the bounty with its attendant restriction, does not tend to keep corn at a medium price? 3. Whether this expedient, by preventing corn from ftagnating on the farmer's hands, has not encouraged the growth of corn, and caused more land to be tilled than was applied to that purpose before the bounty existed? 4. Whether, if the bounty was difcontinued, the first plentiful season would not ruin many of our farmers, and hence difcouraging the growth of wheat, render us again dependent on other countries for bread? Without the bounty our merchants could only export corn when the price is fo much advanced at foreign markets as to pay the freight and gratify them for the trouble of negociation; but by aid of the bounty they are now enabled to export it when foreign markets are as much below that standard as the bounty amounts to; hence a ftagnation of corn at home is prevented and when the price of corn at home exceeds the medium price established between the raiser and consumer by the Legislature, the operation of the bounty ceases. Hence any confequent fcarcity is not fairly chargeable on the bounty, which only affifts in carrying off the fuperfluity it gave rife to But when a fcarcity happens, from whatever caufe, either abroad or at home, we have a certain fecurity against famine, by fhutting up our ports outward, and, if needful, by opening them inward, till the feafons come round again. Thus, though corn may rife in price, it will always be to be had. A happy circumftance, which the records of history inform us we could not always boaft, N. ART. XII. ART. XII, King Lear; a Tragedy. Written by William Shakefpeare. Collated with the old and modern Editions. 8vo. 3 s. fewed. White. 1770. HE plays generally afcribed to Shakespeare are forty-two TH in number. If the Editor lives to fulfil his declared intention of publishing all the dramatic works of this voluminous Bard, in a manner conformable to this fpecimen, the public are to expect an edition of Shakespeare's plays in forty-two oavs volumes! an edition which, in the bookfeller's phrase, may, with, good reason, be styled a library book. Perhaps, however, he may propose to bind two plays in one volume. This may be done, provided they do not exceed the fize of the prefent specimen, which confifts of 192 pages, befides 26 of Preface, &c.-But, ftill, the Price, SIX POUNDS SIX SHILLINGS unbound! Tibbald, at one-fixth of the money, will continue to ftand the best chance in the market; notwithstanding the beautiful mezzotinto print of Shakespeare, here prefixed, by way of frontispiece: which is, indeed, a very fine one, from an original picture, by Cornelius Janffen, in the collection of Charles Jennens, Efq; of Gopfal, Leicefterfhire, to whom the work is dedicated. The public will naturally expect fomething extraordinary in the notes, as an equivalent for the extraordinary purchase. But if we are to judge from the sample before us, this, of all the numerous editions that have been given of Shakespeare, with annotations, will be the moft tediously trivial; the greatest number of the notes confifting merely of verbal variations in the feveral readings of the various impreffions: many of them of no other confequence than to fhew the Editor's amazing industry, and to fwell the fize of the book.Here and there indeed, but not very frequently, we obferve the annotator venturing out into the higher road of commentary, and reafoning on the true meaning of his Author, where it is obfcured by errors of the prefs, the mistakes of a tranfcriber, or the whimfies of an Editor; but, for the most part, he contents himself with barely telling us that the fo's read fo, the qu's thus, P. this way, and R. that; with regard to the omiffion, infertion, or variation, perhaps, of fome paltry expletive. As a fpecimen of his more important annotations, let us take the firft that occurs, on cafually opening the book -AA 4. Sc. 2. we obferve his illuftration of two very doubtful words, in Albany's fine reflection on Gonerill's unnatural behaviour to her father: "She that herfelf will filver, and dif-branch, On the first of the words printed in italic, our Editor's note is P. reads fbiver;' but he takes no notice of Hanmer's reading, fiver which we wonder at, in fo minute a collector! On the word material he has the following note: T. H. and I. read maternal for material; to fupport which latter reading, in the ufual fense of the word, W. has a long note; but after all confeffes that material may fignify maternal; and quotes the title of an old English book to prove that material has been used in that fenfe the title is as follows-" Syr John Froiffart's Chronicle tranflated out of the Frenche into our material English tongue by John Bouchier, printed 1525." But a few words, says our Editor, will determine the reading to be material in the ufual fenfe; for the force of Albany's argument to prove that a branch torn from a tree muft infallibly wither and die, lies in this, that it is feparated from a communication with that which fupplies it with the very identical matter + by which it (the branch) lives, and of which it is compofed.' We fhall conclude this article in the Editor's own words, as they will ferve to remind the public, what acknowledgment is due to the undertaker of a work which demands fo much patience and perfeverance; to fay nothing of the other requifites for the execution of such a defign: Tis no doubt a slavish bufinefs to proceed through fo voluminous a writer, in the flow and exact manner this Editor hath done in King Lear, and proposes to do in the rest of Shakespeare's plays: and though it is a work that feemed abfolutely neceffary, yet nothing but the merit of the Author, and the approbation of his admirers, could inspire one with patience to undergo fo laborious a task.' G. ART. XIII. Clementina; a Tragedy: As performed, with univerfal Applaufe, at the Theatre in Covent Garden. 8vo. 1 s. 6 d. Dilly, & 1771. HIS piece does not languifh in narrative and declamation; it is full of action, and event; but the events are brought about not improbably only, but inconfiftently: they * If we may be allowed to add one conjecture to the thousands that have been offered by the expounders of this dramatic Bible, we think it moft probable that fever is the word that Shakespeare wrote; for it is the word that makes the best fenfe of the paffage: and, furely, it is no affront to the memory of this admirable poet, to fuppofe him to have chosen the best. † Here, too, we differ from the Editor; maternal, we think, is most likely to be the word ufed by Shakespeare, as being not only more poetical than material, but more expreffive of the intended allufion to the cafe of Gonerill, who had fo unnaturally eftranged (Jever'd) herself from her parent. arife from perpetual violation of character, and extravagance of conduct. The fame perfon is reprefented as wife and foolish, as kind and cruel, candid and arbitrary, to produce incidents of distress which could not arife from nature and uniformity; and though it is true that the fame perfon may, in different fituations, appear to act from different principles, it is also true that these apparent inconfiftencies are always refolvable into that predominant paffion, or difpofition, that marks the character, into which the inconfiftencies of conduct in this performance cannot be refolved. Clementina, the daughter of Anfelmo, Duke of Venice, having privately married Rinaldo, between whofe houfe and her father's there was an irreconcilable enmity, fuppofes him to have been flain in the defence of his country againft Ferdinand, the fucceffor of Charles the Fifth. Six months after this fuppofed death, her father infifts that the fhould marry Palermo: this fhe obftinately refufes: but neither feems to have a fufficient motive for fuch conduct. She, indeed, calls upon the fpirit of her husband to fee How, faithful to her vows, She braves a fure deltruction for his fake. But it is prefumed that she had not vowed to be his wife after he was dead; and the father implores the daughter to confent, that he might not, in the clofe of life, be expofed to dishonour, and urges her Nobly to fave him from the guilt of falsehood. But whatever may be the cause of guilt and dishonour in Tragedy, it is certain that a daughter's refufing to take for a husband, a man to whom a father has promifed her, can bring neither guilt nor difhonour upon him in life. Anfelmo is represented as a man of kind and liberal fentiments, as inflexibly juft, and maintaining the point of honour even to fuperftition; yet he perfifts in a refolution of fubjecting his daughter to a legal rape, after the following expoftulation: · Venerable Sir, if e'er my peace, My foul's dear peace, was tender to your thoughts, Let the brave youth, fo honour'd with your friendship, Doom me to certain wretchedness for ever! I have an equal claim upon your heart, That fuch claim fhould not be admitted by fuch a father, is certainly very improbable, fuppofing Palermo's happiness to be equal to the lady's mifery; but the father is thus determined to R 3 make |