added, with advantage probably, vinegar, or any kind of acid: or purgatives might be diffolved in it, to facilitate the poifon's paffing off by the intestines. A pipe of this kind too would afford the beft method of introducing fubftances into the ftomach to promote vomiting.

Putting the body into a warm bath, or the legs and feet in warm water, will be of ufe, by leffening the quantity of blood accumulated in the head and in the larger veffels and fome of the water may perhaps be abforbed. With a view to relieve the oppreffion, bleeding, and opening the temporal artery, are advifeable. If the pulfe is found to become freer and fuller on lofing fome blood, more may be taken away. Blifters may also be applied with advantage.

The coldness of the extremities, and the evident difficulty with which the circulation is kept up, point out the propriety of affifting it by warmth and friction applied to the fkin (as in recovering drowned perfons.) Motion, to prevent feep, may probably be ferviceable in fuch cafes. Great care fhould be taken to loofen the neckband, garters, and every kind of bandage, and that the body fhould lie in a natural, eafy posture; on the fide is perhaps better than on the belly, though that has been recommended, that the ftomach might the eafier difcharge its contents. The breathing fhould not be obftructed nor the neck lie low, or in a bent pofition.

Hints for the General Improvement of Commons, recommended to the Confideration of every Perfon concerned

in them, by the Author of "Hints to Gentlemen of Lauded Property."

A

MONG the number' of re

fources which this country is fuppofed to have in store, none is perhaps pregnant with more benefit to the ftate, and to individuals, than our commons, or wafte land. Every man who has turned his thoughts this way, perceives the lofs fuftained in the neglect of fo ftriking an object; but the brighteft jewel cannot give luftre, till it be polished; nor can these rude tracts of land yield their due profit to fociety, till they are cultivated. Some perfons, from mere indolence and inattention, fome through imidity, and others, perhaps, from a commendable perfuafion that the inclofing of them would tend to the prejudice of the pooreft clafs of mankind, continue to overlock the advantage they might acquire from them; and thus fociety lofes the advantages it ought to derive from this fruitful fource. refpect to the latter objection, it is indeed more than fpecious; there is, it must be allowed, fomething invidious in the very idea of wretting from the poor, the only inheritance they have; in which too they have that belt of titleLong Poffeffion. Therefore, from equal motives of humanity, and found policy, their property and intereft in commons ought to remain inviolate; and the more fo. as they hold it by a tenure that does not admit of alienation.-Let commons then remain in their prefent ftate, as to owners and poffeffors, but let the fenfe of this country be fhewn, in adopting fome methed for their improve

With

ment,

ment, which will be of infinite advantage to the nation at large.To promote fo laudable a project then, it were to be wifhed that a bill in parliament might be procured, not for the inclofing, but, for the improvement and better regulation of all the commons in England; which is the more earnestly recommended to the attention of the landed intereft, left the neceffity of the times fhould hereafter happen to justify government, in ftriving to grafp at an influence over this object, in a manner which may be lefs palatable, and yet not more beneficial to the public.This bill fhould be fo framed, as to enforce fomething like the following practice:-The overfeers of the poor, or rather fome able furveyor or furveyors, to be employed for that purpose, fhould first exactly afcertain, in every parish, where there is any confiderable tract of common, what flock that common will fairly fupport.-This done, if the proportion of common be large in proportion to the number of inhabitants, let every houfe, from the largest manfion to the meanest cottage that is inhabited, have an equal right of keeping one cow, or fix fheep, or any other proper ftock in the like proportion.-After this allotment, let every eftate have a right to flock the furplufage in proportion to what. it pays to the poor rates. Let every cottager, and every proprietor of an eltate, have a right to ftock his propor. tion, or to let it to any other perfon at his option; but let no perfon prefume to overstock, under fuch penalty as the wisdom of the legiflature fhall think proper to inflict. Let the overfeers of the poor have

a power to oblige every perfon interested in the common, to labour himself, or to fend a labourer in his lead, four days in the year; or elfe pay fix fhillings in money for every cow, or proportional stock he has a right to keep; provided he be not called upon in time of corn or hay harvest, or feed feafons. Let the money given in lieu of labour, and the perfonal labour of others, be employed, under proper direction, in extirpating brakes, bushes, furze, fern, and other rubbish, in draining wet parts, levelling and filling up broken ground and rutts, in making baulks to confine the roads to narrower compafs, in erecting flood-gates, and ftops, and making trenches, for the purpose of watering and flooding fuch parts as admit of that moft valuable of all improvements; in fhort, in doing every thing to the common, which a good husbandman would do to his farm, or a gentleman to his park.

Where the commons are so fmall as not to admit of a cow, or the like proportion of ftock, to every house, then let the overfeers of the poor have a power to let them to any proper tenant; and, after deducting out of the rent what may be necessary towards their yearly improvement, diftribute the remainder, among fuch induftrious parishioners as have nothing to truft to but their labour, and who are not relieved by the poor rates.

Much improvement may doubtedly be made upon this plan.

But it is to be prefumed that no perfon, unless he be blinded by prejudice, can make any objection to a

fcheme, which appears to be productive of fo much advantage;

for

for the good effect of fuch an act must be obvious to every common understanding. A great many commons, under this regulation, will be as beneficial to fociety as though they were inclofed :-they will, in the first place, fupport nearly double the flock they now do, to fay nothing about mending the breed, which, by the way, will be no inconfiderable object; the rot in fheep, and many other diforders in cattle, will be greatly diminished, as they have frequently their rife from unfound commons: the face of the country will be very much improved; for many commons, now offenfive to the eye, and comfortless to the foot, will be as pleasant, as fmooth, and firm as a fine lawn or park. -The cottagers can advance no just plea against this project; for where commons are large they will have their full proportion,

and where they are fmall, they will have the whole. Owners of eftates cannot object to it, because they will, in the former cafe, have their juft proportion fecured t them; and in the latter, the little they give up will be fo strong an incentive to industry, that it will operate ultimately, though not immediately, in their favour.

Thefe particulars are fuggefted from mere motives of public fpirit, and are addreffed to every man of landed property, from a full perfuafion, that fuch a fcheme will greatly tend to private emolument, and be of more national advantage than mankind are in general aware of. If it be thought too crude or futile, it is to be hoped, that it will at leaft lead fome abler perfon, to offer a plan better digefted, and of more importance in its operation.

VOL. XXIII,

L

ANTI

Supplemental Obfervations to Steevens's Edition of Shakspeare, by Mr. Malone.

THE

HE drama, before the time of Shakspeare, was fo little cultivated, or fo ill understood, that it is unneceffary to carry our researches higher than that period. Dryden has truly obferved, that he found not, but created first the ftage;" of which no one can doubt, who confiders, that of all the plays iffued from the prefs antecedent to the year 1592, when there is good reason to believe he commenced a dramatick writer, the titles are fcarcely known, except to antiquarians; nor is there one of them that will bear a fecond perufal. Yet thefe, con. temptible and few as they are, we may fuppofe to have been the molt popular productions of the time, and the best that had been exhibited before the appearance of Shakspeare.

The most ancient English playhoufes of which I have met any accounts, are the Curtain in Shoreditch, and the Theatre.

In the time of our author, there were no less than ten thea'res open; four private houses, viz. that in Black-friars, the Cockpit or Phenix in Drury Lane, a theatre

lisbury Court; and fix that were called public theatres, viz. the Globe, the Swan, the Rofe, and the Hope, on the Bank-fide; the Red Bull at the upper end of St. John's ftreet, and the Fortune in White-crofs ftreet. The two laft were chiefly frequented by citi zens.

my

Molt, if not all of Shakspeare's plays were performed either at the Globe, or at the theatre in Blackfriars. I fhall therefore confine enquiries chiefly to thefe two. It appears that they both belonged to the fame company of comedians, viz, his majefty's fervants, which title they affumed, after a licence had been granted to them by King James in 1603; having before that time been called the fervants of the lord chamberlain.

The theatre in Black-friars was, as has been mentioned, a private houfe; but what were the peculiar and diftinguishing marks of a private play-houfe, it is not easy to afcertain. We know only that it was very small; and that plays were there ufually reprefented by candle. light.

The Globe, which was fituated on the fouthern fide of the river Thames, was an hexagonal building, partly open to the weather, partly covered with reeds. It was a public

a public theatre, and of confiderable fize; and there they always afted by day light. On the roof of the Globe, and the other public theatres, a pole was erected, to which a flag was affixed. Thefe flags were probably displayed only during the hours of exhibition; and it fhould feem, from a paffage in one of the old comedies, that they were taken down during Lent, in which feafon no plays were prefented.

The Globe, though hexagonal at the outfide, was probably a rotunda within, and perhaps had its name from its circular form. It might, however, have been denominated only from its fign; which was a figure of Hercules fupporting the globe. This theatre was burnt down in 1613; but it was rebuilt in the following year, and decorated with more ornament than had been originally bestowed upon it.

The exhibitions at the Globe seem to have been calculated chiefly for the lower clafs of people; thofe at Black-friars for a more felect and judicious audience. This appears from the following prologue to Shirley's Doubtful Heir, which is inferted among his poems, printed in 1646, with this title:

Prologue at the Globe, to his comedy called the Doubtful Heir, which fhould have been prefented at the Black friars.

"Gentlemen, I am only fent to fay,
Our author did not calculate his play
For this meridian. The Bank-fide, he knows,
Is far more skilful at the ebbs and flows

L 2

they