and original event. The latter was most probably the case, although the edition by Rowe had been published but the year before; and, indeed, if we set aside two or three notices in the Spectator by Hughes and Addison during the years 1711 and 1712,' we shall not find it an easy matter to discover, in the popular and periodical literature of our country, any observations on the bard of Avon worth preserving, until the appearance of the Rambler and Adventurer of Johnson and Hawksworth in the years 1750 and 1753. From this period, however, not only has Shakspeare been the object of unceasing editorship and formal voluminous criticism, but the periodical and miscellaneous productions of the press, rapidly and even prodigiously as they have encreased of late, have been fertile in casual essays and remarks on his genius and writings; whilst upon the continent too, numerous translations of, and occasional remarks on the poet, have made their appearance. It is, I trust, scarcely necessary to add that, in culling from so wide a field, I have been almost fastidiously careful in my choice of specimens. Indeed, as a warrant for this, it may be sufficient merely to mention the names of Dryden, Warton, Mackenzie, Cumberland, Beattie, Godwin, Lamb, Coleridge, Campbell, and Sir Walter Scott, as • Vide Drake's Essays, Biographical, Critical, and Historical, illustrative of the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, vol. 1. p. 216. Vide Spectator, nos. 141 and 419. those who, from our native stores, with the exception of a few anonymous contributions of great excellence, have furnished me with materials. And, if we turn to the continent, scarcely a less rich prospect, during a nearly equal period of time, would seem to meet our view. In Germany, for instance, as translators of or occasional critics on Shakspeare, we can enumerate Wieland, Eschenburg, Lessing, Voss, Herder, Goethe, Tieck, and the two Schlegels; in Italy, Michele Leoni; in Spain, Fernandez Moratin; and in France, Le Mercier, Le Tourneur, Ducis, Madame De Stael Holstein, and Villemain. I have only farther to remark that, from the abundance of materials, and from the wish of not spreading them beyond the compass of a single volume, I have found it necessary to restrict my selections from foreign sources to a few general Eschenburgh continued and completed the translation of Shakspeare commenced by Wieland. It was published between the years 1775 and 1782, and consists of thirteen volumes 8vo. Eschenburg was a man of great learning and considerable taste and genius, and a supplementary volume to his version, which he printed in 1787, contains, for a foreigner, a very extraordinary degree of information concerning Shakspeare and his writings, his editors, commentators, critics, and translators. It is arranged under ten heads; namely, 1. Of Shakspeare's life; 2. His learning; 3. His genius; 4. His defects; 5. State of the English Stage during his time; 6. Order of his plays; 7. English editions of his plays; 8. Criticisms on the author and his editors; 9. Catalogue of the foreign translations and imitations of Shakspeare; and 10. Of his other poems, with specimens. portraitures of Shakspeare from the two Schlegels, and to a few extracts from Lessing, Goethe, Madame De Stael Holstein, and, lastly, Villemain, of whose Essay on the Bard, as given in the second edition of his Nouveaux Mélanges Historiques et Littéraires, published but a few months ago, I have ventured to insert an entire translation, containing, as it does, the latest and most interesting exposée of the estimation in which Shakspeare is at present held in the land of Corneille and Voltaire. |