"But now, for all this act, and for all the other statutes for the same purpose established since, how many parishes in England, how many in and about London, especially throughout all the suburbs, doe like ilands swim as it were in hot waters, strong beere, and headstrong ale! For to such a height is this sinne of drinking growne, that coblers, tinkers, pedlers, porters, all trades, all professions, sit tippling all day, all night, singing, dancing when they can stand--laughing, cursing, swearing, fighting.

A whole street is in some places but a continuous alehouse; not a shop to be seen between a red lattice and a red lattice; no workers but all drinkers; not a tradesman at his occupation, for every tradesman keeps in that place an ale-house. It is an easier life, a lazier life, a trade more gainful; no such commings in as those of the tap, insomuch that in most of the suburbian outroads the best men there that command the reste-the Grand Signors of the parish, as constables, head-boroughs, and other officers-are common ale-house keepers; and he that can lay in most guylest of beere, and be furnished

* That is, between ale-house and ale-house. Every reader of Shakspeare must recollect the way in which Falstaff's page describes the red nose of Bardolph." He called me even now, my Lord, through a red lattice, and I could see no part of his face from the window." The indefatigable Malone and Douce have multiplied instances of the use of lattices painted red in ale-houses, and hence it often came to signify the ale-house itself, from its being in a manner peculiar to them. The most explicit instance of this kind, that I remember to have met with, is in "The Christmas Ordinary," by W. R., a Private Show, as the author calls it, but in fact a sort of Masque. "Where Red Lattice doth shine,

'Tis an outward sign

Good Ale is a Traffic within ;'

It will drown your woe,

And thaw the old snow

That grows on a frosty chin." Scene 5.

"Guyles"-i. e. gills.

with the strongest ale, and headiest liquors, carryes the bucklers away from all his fellowes.*

"Now because the fashion of downright blowes in the ignoble schoole of drinking is growne stale, wickedness has invented new sorts of weapons to bewitch men—that love such kind of play—to goe reeling to destruction. In some places they have little Jacks† tipt with silver, and hung with small silver bells—these are called the Gyngle Boys-to ring peales of drunkenness. In other places they have shallow brown bowles, which they call Whiskins. Then you have another brewing, call'd Huff's Ale, at which, because no man must have but a pot at a sitting and so begone, the restraint makes men more eager to come on, so that by this policie one may huffe it foure or five times a day.

"These quaffings hurt thousands, and undoe many poore men, who would all follow their labours, but now live in beggary; their wives-unlesse they tipple hard too, as for the most part they doe by their evill examples, -starving at home, and their ragged children begging abroad. Then in some places instead of full quarts they have jugs of a pint and a halfe, with long necks embroydered, with froth cans not a wine pint for a penny; demycans, of draughts a piece; and a device of six earthen pipes, or hollow funnells, all into one, every funnell holding two spoonfulls." English Villanies, bl. 1. sig. J. 3.

It would appear from this allusion, as well as from so many others in the old dramatists, that in the fight with bucklers, the bucklers themselves were considered the prize of victory. Thus to "give up the bucklers" or to " lay down the bucklers," was to yield, as to "bear away the bucklers" was to win. Steevens in his notes on Shakspeare has accumulated a multitude of illustrative passages. ✦ Jack, or Black Jacks,-pitchers of leather so called.

i. e. containing as much as would be taken off at an ordinary draught.

CUPID AND PSYCHE.

ONE of the most beautiful tales of classic romance is that of Cupid and Psyche as narrated in the "Golden Ass of Apuleius." It has been borrowed by romancers of all times and countries, though without ever having been improved, and may in a measure be said to be the founda. tion of half the fairy tales. The prohibition of Cupid and the transgression of Psyche have suggested the serpentine vest of Madame D'Aulnoy, to say nothing of “Gracieuse and Percinet," which has evidently been derived from the The whole story has also been beautifully versified by Marino in his poem, "L'Adone," as well as been imitated by Fontaine, and dramatized by Moliere; at least a dramatic piece upon that subject appears in his works, being the same that was celebrated with so much magnificence at Paris in 1670, and which according to some was the joint production of Moliere, Corneille, Quinault, and Lulli, though the last in all probability had no farther share in it than setting the words to music.

same source.

But this story has yet earlier imitators, or else it was itself borrowed from the East, for we find something very like it in the "Three Calenders" and in others of the Persian Tales. The romancers too laid hands upon a fable

so much in harmony with this taste, and have left us a striking resemblance to it in the old fabliaux of " Partenopex de Blois." That the reader, who is unacquainted with the original, may be enabled to judge for himself how far these several assertions are correct, I will now give an abridgment of it, retaining as far as may be the peculiar tone and colouring, though not the precise la guage of Apuleius.

There was a certain king in the West, who had daughters, all remark

excelled her sisters, women. Such indee came from the farthe having once beheld shipped and reveren ing to the olden rite ples of Venus fell no worshippers vis grew indignant, and her son, Cupid, and dwelt, for so was entreated him that h the most wretched o While Venus wa Psyche, honoured as little advantage from been long wedded t noble, offered to ma to admire her as statue. The maid no less so, and sus usual at the botto sult the oracle of crifices being pa because of the I