sive stanzas, and the opening of the fourth is an address by the authoress to the Muse, entreating aid for the completion of the tragic story. Romeo, having repeatedly kissed the pale cheek of Giulia, declares he will not survive her. "Trahe di seno il mortifero liquore: Poi senza indugio, ah misero, chi giugne Ne di morte il terror gia lo smarisce." Romeo is on the point of expiring of the strong poison he has taken, when Giulia awakes; and, finding a man by her side, at first suspects that she has been betrayed by the Friar. Romeo, in a transport of joy, imagines that the poison he supposed Giulia to have taken had not proved mortal. "Onde a lei che da se gridando intanto A voi morir anch' io mi son risolto E pero prima non mi sono ucciso Per morir vostro, e non da voi diviso."1 Finding that Romeo has poisoned himself, she declares that she will not survive him, but he conjures her to live: 1 The meaning, I apprehend, is this: He uttered a loud scream, and she him eyed "Deh vivete potendo, e dio pregate Qua giu, si unisca in ciel la sua pietate !" She replies, “Ahi, gridea, ahi hassa me, vivro dunq'io Romeo, no longer able to maintain the struggle against the poison, expires in Giulia's arms-spiraca l'alma il misero. The anxious Friar comes to the churchyard, in hopes of being in time, and, hearing a low moaning in the tomb, apprehends that Giulia has waked rather earlier than he had calculated. He descends into the vault, and, as soon as Giulia sees him, she accuses him of being the cause of all, and especially of Romeo's death: "Ecco il meschino, ecco Romeo qui meco; Voi l'uccideste, e la sua Giulia seco." She falls senseless on the body of her husband, but afterwards, reviving a little, Tricastro endeavours to induce her to quit the place, and dedicate herself to God. All his entreaties are vain, for, Di "ella, ch' e priva speme, furibonda tutta via Pur cerca al suo morir trovar via:" and then we come rapidly to the conclusion of the tragedy. "Mentre accoppiar i bassi ultimi finge Et al frate tutt hor le spalle volta, Il suo Romeo con la sinistra cinge E tutta in se tien l'anima raccolta, La via di star per troppo spirto in vita Scoppia, e da insieme al duol fine, e alla vita.” This seems rather an awkward mode of dying; and it is much better managed in Shakespeare, and in some of his authorities. This stanza is in fact the termination of the main poem, but it is followed by thirty-five others, headed "Rime d'Ardeo in morte di Clitia sua," so that the poetess died before the person to whom she addressed the story, which has appeared in so many shapes in all languages. In England it is quite certain that it had assumed a dramatic form at least thirty years before the incidents were adopted by Shakespeare. London, July 1, 1848. A MEMBER FROM THE FIRST. 1 She feign'd a cause, and, stooping to the ground, ART. III.-Some account of the popular tracts which composed the Library of Captain Cox, a humourist, who took a part in the Hock Tuesday Play performed before Queen Elizabeth, at Kenilworth, in 1575. It is difficult for those who have not had the opportunity of searching for the sources of illustration which are chiefly necessary in any minute criticisms on our early dramatists, to understand the vast degree of importance attached to those frivolous pieces which may not inaptly be styled our early vernacular domestic literature. Yet the subject is one of very easy explanation. The more popular, the more frivolous the contents of a pamphlet may be, the more likely is it to contain allusions to the manners, and scraps of the colloquial language of the period; and these of course are fundamental in many dramatic compositions. Books of tales, especially, are often replete with references of this nature, and hence their value in elucidating the obscurity in which Time has enveloped the "humours" of the early comic drama. Viewed in this light alone, without any reference to the history of romance, our early fugitive literature is of vast importance. To the dramatic critic, a black letter edition of Tom Thumb would be a treasure far superior to a hundredweight of more serious books. Tom Thumb's "fading ghost" reminds us of a similar passage in Henry VI., and is a good illustration of what was then a common phrase, not peculiar to Shakespeare. When the miller swallows in Tom Thumb, he exclaims in agony "Ah! woe is me, the miller cryed; Alack and well-a-day; Some spiteful imp does in me hide, Which does the antic play." VOL. IV. Does not the reader at once fix the meaning of the term antic, or buffoon, with more certainty than the learned reasonings or the commentators afford? "Behold, distraction, frenzy, and amazement, Like witless antics, one another meet." Troilus and Cressida, v. 3. Instances of this kind could be almost indefinitely multiplied, but the present will be sufficient to illustrate the truth of the preceding remarks. Nearly three hundred years ago, Captain Cox, of Coventry, was a diligent collector of such pieces. His library and old black-letter ballads, "fair wrapt up in parchment and bound with a whipcord," have excited the envy of succeeding antiquaries: if such a collection could now be formed, it would realize the purchase-money of a small estate. But, alas! gone are the days when "ryght merrie histories" in bright black-letter were to be picked up on stalls, and Caxtons purchased in Holland for pence. Laneham, clerk of the CouncilChamber door, and also keeper of the same, in giving an account of Queen Elizabeth's entertainments at Kenilworth, introduces Captain Cox as "an odd man," and gives a jocose description of his library, evidently meaning to raise a smile at the Captain's expence : "But aware, keep bak, make room noow, heer they cum. And fyrst Captin Cox, an od man, I promiz yoo: by profession a mason, and that right skilfull, very cunning in fens, and hardy az Gawin, for hiz tonsword hangs at his tablz eend; great oversight hath he in matters of storie; for az for King Arthurz book, Huon of Burdeaus, The Foour sons of Aymon, Bevys of Hampton, the Squyre of Lo Degree, the Knight of Courtesy and the Lady Faguell, Frederick of Gene, Sir Eglamoour, Syr Tryamoour, Syr Lamwell, Syr Isenbras, Syr Gawyn, Olyver of the Castl, Lucres and Eurialus, |