6 * From · Brand's History of New- had applied before ; & thing as moncastle,' we find that there was a branch strous as strange.' Notwithstanding this, of the fraternity in that place, as, at a it began to decline. Oliver Cromwell meeting, 1742, of the barber - chirur tried in vain to exercise this royal prerogeons, it was ordered, that they should gative; and in 1684, Thomas Rosewell not shave on a Sunday, and that no bro. was tried for high-treason, because he ther shave John Robinson till he pays spoke with contempt of King Charles's what he owes to Robert Shafts. Speak- pretensions to the cure of Scrofula. ing of the 'grosse ignorance of the bar. Charles Bernard, who had made this bers,' a facetious author says, “This puts touching the subject of raillery all his lifeme in minde of a barber, who, after he time, till he became serjeant-surgeon, and had cupped me (as the physitian had found it a good perquisite, solved all diffprescribed) to turne away a catarrhe, culties by saying with a jeer, 'Really one asked me if I would be sacrificed.' could not have thought it, if one had not * Scarified,' said I,' did the physitian tell seen it.' you any such thing ?'— No, quoth he, 6 The Hon. Daines Barrington, in his .but I have sacrificed many, who have • Observations on our Ancient Statutes,' been the better for it.' Then musing a p. 107, tells us of an old man, a witness little with myselfe, I told him, . Surely, in a cause, who averred, that when Queen sir, you mistake yourself ; you mean Anne was at Oxford, she touched him, scarified.'— O, sir, by your favour,' quoth when a child, for the evil. Mr Barringhe, I have ever heard it called sacrifi ton, when he had finished his evidence, cing; and as for scarifying, I never heard Sasked him whether he was really cured ?' of it before.' In a word, I could by no Upon which, he answered, with a signifimeans persuade him, but that it was the cant smile, that he believed himself never barber's office to sacrifice men,since which to have had a complaint that deserved time I never saw any man in a barber's to be considered as the evil, but that his hands, but that sacrificing barber came parents were poor, and had no objection to into my mind.”-Nuge, p. 192-194. the bit of GOLD. “ This new exploded royal gift is thus We shall conclude with a notice of described by Shakespeare :-Valentine Greatrakes. Strangely visited people, All swollen and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, " This singular person, according to The mere despair of surgery, he cures; Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, Mr Boyle, was of great honesty and ex- Put on with holy prayers.' emplary sobriety ;' taking no gratuity for Macbeth. his performances, and curing a prodigious “ The obsolete practice of Greatrakes number of cases where King Charles II, has in a degree appeared again in the had failed, as testified by Boyle, Cud- shape of friction, and has revived in full worth, Bishop Wilkins, and the wisest of force in the process of thumbing and ruball surgeons, Surgeon Wiseman, who af bing, as applied by certain adepts to disfirms that the King's touch had cured tortions, who have not the same scrupumore in one year than all the surgeons in lous difficulties that Greatrakes and the London had done in an age !- An here. Macdonald had about the Honorarium." ditary race of Machaons, in Scotland, of -Nugæ, p. 213-215. the name of Macdonald, have subse Valentine Greatrakes was a young, quently performed the same operation, tall man, of a most respectable family. calling it Glacath, which is, handling the He verily believed in his power, and part affected, and muttering certain sometimes succeeded strangely enough. words. They also were of great ho It is odd that it continued in him only nesty,' and never accepted of a fee on any about five years. One of his family entreaty. “ After the Restoration, great multi was the William Greatrakes, who was tudes flocked to receive the benefit of the absurdly enough set up as the author royal touch ; insomuch, that 'six or se of Junius, on the strength of his epiven persons were crushed to death, press- taph being the same as the motto to ing at the chirurgeon's doore for tickets.' the letters-Stat nominis umbra. -EVELYN'S Journal, Vol. II. p. 571. In We must add, that Wadd has a ca1682, the King touched 8577; and pital taste in drawing droll caricature Browne remarks, that notwithstanding figures. Nothing can be better than the numbers were so great as to amount the fat fellow, with a chapeau bras and to a considerable portion of the whole a cane perpendicularly rivetted in the nation, yet, upon any new declaration of ground, which faces the 108th page of healing, they were again as fast as if none our illustrated copy. Vol. XVII. K 6 REMARKS CONNECTED WITH THE CRITICISM OF POETRY. Perhaps it has not been conceived, of intelligence instructed ;-hidden, nor ever may be, what power is possia than visible ;-comprehending the long ble to be exerted over the spirit of a subsequent, with the present ;-and people by woRDS. with those of which the mind first inWe understand imperfectly the ef- terested is the seat, the most widely fects of knowledge:-those less, which diffused from it into others? follow from the impressions made, by Yet one part of such inquiry is supthe positive and explicit meanings de- posed in the Theory of the Fine Arts : clared in language, upon imagination the other in the determination of and sensibility. But if there be also, their Utility. as doubtless there is, a not immomen- Whence is Poetry the great cultivatous influence, which must be allowed tor of language ?-From-1. its toas distinctly proper to the words them- pics, in which it is unlimited and uniselves of discourse, this, especially, we versal:-2. its passions, which are free, find it difficult to measure, or conceive. intense, entire :-3. its peculiar, quick An Age, rejoicing, like our own, in and deep sensibility for the properties intellectual proficiency, hardly believes of language.-The knowledge, or use, that which hitherto it has not explain- by a poet, of his native speech, is, ed. An age, triumphing, like ours, in therefore, extended,-inventive,-skilapplications of Intellect to gross uti- ful. lity, and to knowledge of evident de- I. EXTENDED-since what is there monstration, is slow to comprehend, -known or thought—that he must and reluctant to avow, the moment not delineate and express ?-II. INand power of Forms. Yet is it just VENTIVE—not only as Language, to in such an age, in which the imagina- Passion, asking its utmost expression, tion of life declines, that the imagina- usually yields more than it had seemtion adhering to—inhabiting-intel- ed to possess; but as Intellect, unlectual forms may become inestimably der Passion, conceives in new modes, important. which Language is changed in followWords are—or in them is given- ing.—III. This head might be referthe external form of Poetry. If the de- red higher.- Poetry is, throughout, light of Poetry is useful, a part of that ART. T'he bold Art, which constructUtility is to be ascribed, not to the ed metre, has influenced in every way substance,-to the meanings which the the language of Poetry. By severing words expound,—but to the exquisite it to Art, it justifies, if it does not allabour which the Art of Poetry has most exact pains more elaborate, and bestowed on consummating its exter- less disguisedly so, employed in franal form-on the WORDS. ming it, than might else become the medium of men's natural communica tion :- And by laying the ground in Power, in words, is either of the Poetry of an otherwise unknown harmatter which they deliver, or their mony of words, it induces in the spiown :-and of the understanding, or rit, awake and susceptible with that of imagination and feeling:-outward- delight, a more observant and feeling ly, or internally manifested :-if with- apprehension of their other properties: in the mind, in the first influenced, -In both ways, rendering the lanor, through it, in others :-immediate- guage of Poetry SKILFUL. ly, or ultimately. That is scanned more easily, which is proper to the matter, than to the The following observations may words :-of the understanding, than shew that there is, acknowledged by of impression and affection :-the ex- us, a proper influence, action, or power ternally, than the inwardly,--the ori- of Words :-that is to say, distinct ginally than the derivatively,--the im- from any which is to be regarded as med ately, than the ultimately manispecifically and necessarily inherent in fested. the Ideas denoted by them. What dare we hope from Specula- 1. The word, divided—or conceived tion, which should, in the most instan- in division from the idea which it ces, prefer the more difficult question: represents, is not solely indifferent to -attaching itself to investigate ef- us. An unknown language has a chafects, rather of the language, than the racter to our ear,--almost to our imamatter ;-of feeling impressed, than gination. And in known language, some part--one element-of the pow- origin, of derivation from one or anerful harmony of verse, is of the sound, other source:-of dialects :-of inunreferred to the sense. novation, or invention in language. 2. To the word must be ascribed, 5. A fifth instance cî force proper further, whatsoever force of action or to words may be mentioned in the apimpression,-though drawn from the titude for expression, differing in difmeaning, --it adds to that which al- ferent languages, with the principle ready and unavoidably accompanies of their grammatical formation. the meaning.-We may therefore cite, - The most difficult, in truth the esin the second place, sential points of the argument remain; -The second part of harmony in and may be comprised in these two language,-relations of the material questions.--How much of the passion, elements of the word* to the idea, or lively power belonging to the idea, (-harmony by expression.) These is, by that habit of Association, which are manifold : more, and less obvious : collects and concentrates upon the sign regarding in the word, its properties, the affection proper to the thing signatural, as articulated sound, and ar- nified, effectually transferred upon the tificial, as a constituent of metre:- word ?—How much, in Style, univerin the signification, the essential idea, sally, of the manner of presenting the connexions of ideas with one an- thought, is of the words, and how much other, and specifically those modifica- is effected in the thought?tions of the single idea, which give These two questions answered, and the grammatical quality of the word. the preceding considerations followed 3. Other effects of the words require, out, might want not much of exhaustwithout being drawn from, their sig- ing the inquiry, which they serve to nificance. Such are, in the third place, propose. Simply stated, they may re -Certain more general (verbal) mind us, that the force, in composiqualities of Style :-As,-the purity tion, proper, distinctively from the ideas of idiom :-that use of a language annexed to them, to words, is not, nor which distinguishes degree in the by those who have endeavoured to fix speaker:-the exemption from, at some the canons of writing, has ever been times,-at others, the employment of accounted of as slightly efficacious. -its familiar, and homely, expression: The Inquiry, were it even somewhat -Lastly, Some part of what has been minutely and anxiously pursued, is , , accepted--whether rightly or not is not of nice and vain curiosity; but nenot now our question-with every cessary to the Criticism, as it is linkpeople, as a language of Poetry : ed with the advancement, or mainte-And, in the fourth place, nance--if any induction of their prin4. Certain more particular (also ver- ciples may avail to advance or mainbal) conditions of Style :-viz. the tain them of those Fine Arts, which effect in composition, of historically speak to the human Mind by words, known facts of a language :-princi- and which are usually comprehended pally, of its more ancient, and more by us under the denominations, Elomodern forms:– in tongues of mixed quence and Poetry. It re • CAMPBELL'S Philosophy of Rhetoric. Book III. ch. I. § 3. 6 Words consi“ dered as sounds. When I entered on the consideration of vivacity as depending on “ the choice of words, I observed that the words may be either proper terms, or “ rhetorical tropes; and whether the one or other, they may be regarded not only as “ signs, but as sounds, and consequently as capable in certain cases of bearing, in some “ degree, a natural resemblance or affinity to the tkings signified. The two first articles, proper terms and rhetorical tropes, I have discussed already, regarding only the sense and application of the words, whether used literally or figuratively. “ mains now to consider them in regard to the sound, and the affinity to the subject of which the sound is susceptible. When, as Pope expresseth it,' the sound is made an echo to “ the sense, there is added, in a certain degree, to the association arising from custom; “ the influence of resemblance between the signs and the things signified ; and this doubtless “ tends to strengthen the impression made by the discourse. This subject, I acknowledge, “ hath been very much canvassed by critics; I shall therefore be the briefer in my “ remarks, confining myself chiefly to the two following points. First, I shall in“quire what kinds of things language is capable of imitating by its sound, and in “ what degree it is capable; secondly, what rank ought to be assigned to this spe“ cies of excellence, and in what cases it ought to be attempted.” 66 > a DIBDIN'S CRITICISM. No. I. It is known to the more curious of tion. The book not only damned my readers, (for, in truth, the affair Gilbert at once as an English critic; has long since passed totally into ob- but, in the event, utterly damned him livion, as concerns the reading pub- as a critic of anything, since people lic,) that Gilbert Wakefield, who cor- in general are not quite so stupid, but responded with Charles Fox upon that they can perceive the extreme verbal emendations of Euripides, and improbability of an Englishman being so forth, and who enjoyed in his day quite incapable of understanding one of considerable reputation as a classical the most correct of his own country's scholar-once published a volume of authors, and yet pretending to throw Pope's poems, adorned with notes by light upon the dark passages of auhimself, by way of specimen of a com- thors who wrote some thousands of plete edition of that great poet's works. years ago, in a dead and forgotten The undertaking went no further, but tongue. But to cut matters short at this volume having been almost entire- once-who does not remember the faly converted into trunk-lining, the few mous quizz on the poetry of folks of copies remaining acquire a high merit quality, which some ascribe to Pope, in the eyes of folks of a certain order; others to Swift, others to Arbuthnot, and accordingly, it is laid down at p: but which all agree in considering as 730, of this " Guide and Companion, one of the broadest, if not of the best, that “ Wakefield's volume is, so far as pieces of quizzification extant in the it goes, ONE OF THE MOST SATISFAC- English tongue? Well, only be pleaTORY PERFORMANCES OF ITS KIND; sed to see how the first verse of this and that it is TO BE REGRETTED, he jeu-d'esprit is introduced and comfelt himself deterred from its comple- mented on by the glorious emender tion by the promised edition of Joseph of Euripides, the keen-sighted peneWarton"!!! trator of the mysteries of old Greek How stands the fact ?-True, most choruses, the lynx-eyed hero of longs true it is, that this is “one of the and shorts, in this most satisfactory most SATISFACTORY PERFORMANCES performance, the non-completion of of its kind,” if, by “ its kind,” is which is, in the opinion of the Revemeant the great genus of Assery. rend Thomas Frognall Dibdin, so The work is certainly below all con- deeply to be “ regretted.” tempt-ignorant, stupid, asinine, bes- Read, benevolent reader, what I tially dull and degraded to the utmost transcribe from this great man's edipossible pitch of any man's satisfac- tion; read, and trust your eyes. • SONG BY A PERSON OF QUALITY. (1) Gentle Cupid, o'er my heart ; Notes by Gilbert Wakefield. “(1) This song is ascribed to Swift, in Sheridan's edition, vol. viii. p. 168. I am not able to ascertain the author, nor would it reflect much honour on the genius of either. It seems disjointed and obscure. “ (2) purple pinions. ]-Ovid speaks of purple Cupid, and Milton says, with inimi. table elegance, Par. Lost, iv. 763 : “ Here Love his golden shafts employs; here lights His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings. “ (3) Nature must give way to Art.]-What is the propriety of this observation ? and what its application to the present subject ?” Is it not a sweet thing, Christopher, to see one ass clawing another's ears in this amiable manner ? C. P. Certainly. Go on. C. N. ; MINUTA CANTABRIGIENSIA. Ψηγματα και αραιωματα.-A thing of shreds and patches. I. ON THE APPOINTMENT OF ONE WHO HAD NO MUSICAL POWERS, TO A CHORISTER'S PLACE AT CAMBRIDGE, MERELY BECAUSE HE WAS A FREEHOLDER OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRL. “A singing man, and yet not sing ! Come, justify your patron's bounty : II. To fast and pray we are by Scripture taught : III. When P-n-ng-n for female ills indites, - IV. ON THE MARRIAGE OF A VERY THIN COUPLE. St Paul has declared, that when persons, though twain, Had thy spouse, Dr Drumstick, been ta'en from thy side, bone." This little garden little Jowett made, a LATINE. Exiguum hunc hortum fecit Jowettulus iste Exiguus, vallo et muriit exiguo : Exiguus mentem prodidit exiguam. |
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