terials for Geoffrey of Monmouth's history. He relates, that on Vortigern's first interview with the lady, she kneeled before him, and presenting a cup of wine, said to him," Lord king, wacht heil," or, in purer Saxon, was hal; literally, be health, or health be to you! As the king was unacquainted with the Saxon language, he inquired the meaning of these words; and being told that they wished him health, and that he should answer them by saying drinc heil, he did so, and commanded Rowena to drink. Then, taking the cup from her hand, he kissed the damsel and pledged her. The historian adds, that from that time to his own the custom remained in Britain, that whoever drank to another at a feast said wacht heil, and he that immediately after received the cup answered drinc heil.' II. 206, 207.

Befides the illuftrations of Shakspeare, which constitute about two thirds of the work before us, Mr Douce has favoured his readers with four feparate effays, one upon the Anachronisms of Shakspeare; another on the Fools and Clowns of the antient drama; a third on the Gesta Romanorum; and the last on the Morris-dancers.

The first does not pretend to originality, and is amufing and fatisfactory. In fpeaking, however, of the negligence of national coftume which exifted on our ftage even after the days of Garrick, Mr Douce has fallen into the common error of attributing to Mr Kemble the reformation of this folly. The fact is, that a great part of this reformation was effected by Macklin, long before Mr Kemble flourished: it was Macklin, in particular, who first dreffed the tragedy of Macbeth in the Scotish coftume; and even Mr Kemble himself has played Hamlet in a coat and waistcoat.

Not the leaft interefting part of the volumes before us, is the Differtation on the Clowns and Fools. It originated, ' fays the author, from the opinion of a late eminent critic and antiquary (Mr Ritfon), that the fubject was deferving of particular confideration.' Between the clowns and the fools of our old dramas Mr Douce makes the wideft diftinction, branching each out into the following varieties. I. The general domef tic fool; who was, 1. A mere natural, or idiot; 2. Silly by nature, yet cunning and farcaftical; 3. Artificial ;-all occafional fervants. II. The clown, who was, 1. A mere country booby; 2. A witty ruftic; 3. Any fervant of a fhrewd and witty difpofition, and who, like a fimilar character in our modern plays, was made to treat his master with great familiarity in order to produce stage effect.' Mr Douce has enumerated feven other fpecies of this very various animal; but the above are all that are to be found in Shakspeare's menagerie. Their dreffes are then described and illuftrated with much research, and afford a valuable Magasin dss Modes for our theatrical wardrobes. Speaking of the prevailing

colour

colour of yellow in the fool's drefs, Mr Douce obferves, that a manuscript note in the time of the Commonwealth, ftates yellow to have been the fool's colour.' If we are not very much mistaken, it is proverbially fo called to this day.

The next branch of Mr Douce's work is very elaborate dissertation on the monkish collection of Latin tales, called the Gesta Romanorum, to which Shakspeare's Merchant of Venice is so largely indebted, and from which Chaucer, Boccacio, and a long list of minor novelists, have so liberally copied. This work has always been considered of the greatest importance in the history of fiction. It has engaged the pens of Dr Farmer and Mr Tyrwhitt; and from Mr Warton it had before the honour of a separate dissertation. Mr Douce, however, seems now to have collected all the learning on the subject; and the result of his labours is the discovery of two works, under the title of Gesta Romanorum; the first, the original production of Bercheur, which is that treated of by Mr Warton, and of which,' according to Mr Douce, no MS. has been yet described;' and the second, an imitation of the first by an Englishman, of which there exist several MSS. in different English cathedrals and private collections, but of which there never was a complete copy printed. Mr Douce's reasons for thinking that there are two different works called Gesta Romanorum, are, the great variations that exist between the printed copies of what he calls the original Gesta,' and the MS. ones of what he terms the English Gesta;' the latter possessing no less than forty stories out of one hundred and two that are not in the former; that no MS. of the English Gesta exists in any of the Continental libraries; and that it contains English verses, English proper names, and English idioms. The additional stories of this Gesta are then analyzed by Mr Douce, in the same manner as Mr Warton has analyzed the stories of the original Gesta; and the dissertation is completed by accounts of the printed copies of one Gesta, of the MSS. of the other, and of the translations of both.

Mr Douce's last dissertation is on the antient English MorrisDance, an amusement of which he has described the origin, progress and disuse, with his usual learning and minuteness. The principal novelty he has brought forward, in elucidation of this once popular amusement, is a copy from an exceedingly scarce engraving on copper, by Israel Von Mecheln or Meckenen, so named from the place of his nativity, a German village on the confines of Flanders.' The design,' Mr Douce adds, seems to have been intended as pattern for goldsmiths' work, probably for a cup or tankard. The artist, in a fancy representation

a

of foliage, has introduced several figures belonging to a Flemish May-game morris, consisting of the lady of the May, the fool, the piper, two morris-dancers with bells and streamers, and four other dancing characters, for which appropriate names will not easily be found. The similitude between some of the figures in this print, and others in Mr Tollett's window, is very striking, and shows that the period of execution, as to both, was nearly the same. II. 446-7.

Mr Douce then proceeds to describe and illustrate all the dramatis persona of these facetious performances,-Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian, the Piper, the Hobbyhorse, the Dragon, and the Morris-Dancers. Almost the whole of this merry group has vanished long ago. Dancers indeed are mentioned by Mr Ritson as existing in 1782 in Norfolk and Lancashire; and a very few years since,' adds Mr Douce, a company of this kind was seen at Usk in Monmouthshire, which was attended by a boy-Maid-Marian, a hobby-horse, and a fool.' The writer of this article recollects to have seen a Morris-dance at Brighton as lately as the year 1789; and he is informed that morris-dancers and their fool are yet annually seen in Gloucestershire about Whitsuntide. It may be added, in illustration of this momentous subject, that at Norwich, the figure of a large dragon, designated Snap, is still preserved in the town-hall; whence he annually issues to join the Mayor's procession on the guildday.

There are undoubtedly many little items of information in these volumes; but they have in general no pretension to the title of Illustrations of Shakspeare, nor any right to the popularity which such a title may procure for them. With reference to Shakspeare, they are an overwhelming and confounding mass of heavy, trifling, and bewildering interpretation; and, considered as detailed notices of antient books, manners and language, no arrangement could be more preposterous than that of the acts and scenes of Shakspeare's plays. Upon the whole, we remain confirmed in our opinion that the commentators are a feeble folk; 'and that they have no business to make their houses in the rocks which support the everlasting monument of Shakspeare.

ART,

ART. XIII. Propositions for amending the Constitution of the United States of America, submitted by Mr Hillhouse to the Senate of the United States, on the 12th Day of April 1808, with his explanatory Remarks. 12mo. pp. 60. Washington and New York,

1808.

THIS HIS is one of the works which marks, in a striking manner, the difference between a new and an established government. Mr Hillhouse, a sober-minded and experienced senator, representing the most sagacious and least revolutionary state in the Union (Connecticut), comes forward with a series of proposi tions for new-modelling the general government, and changing the functions both of the executive, and of the higher branch of the legislature; and those propositions are deliberately canvassed, and ordered to be printed, by authority of the Senate, for the general information of the country. Such discussions would be regarded on this side of the Atlantic as the immediate precursors of a radical revolution; while, in America, they are universally considered, not only as perfectly innocent, but as laudable and salutary. The contemplation of these things may teach us some lessons; and at a time when the foreign relations of these rising communities excite so general an interest in Europe, we think it our duty to lay before our readers whatever may tend to throw light on their internal condition. With this view, we shall present them with a slight analysis of the little pamphlet before us, premising a short account of the constitution which it is intended to reform.

At the close of that unfortunate contest, which terminated in the independence of the British colonies, the first object that engaged the attention of the citizens of the newly created empire, was the government they were in future to live under. The body, under whose auspices the war had been conducted, was nothing more than an assembly denominated the Congress, composed of delegates from the several states, who, without pretending to any authority over the individual citizens, or even over the states in their collective capacity, issued recommendations to the different legislatures, which, being the suggestions of wisdom and patriotism, and given at a period of alarm and danger, were in most instances implicitly obeyed. The functions of this government, however, naturally ceased with the conjuncture which gave it birth. On the return of peace, its recommendations were disregarded; and it was soon discovered, that if the union of the states was to be preserved, a more efficacious government was indispensably necessary.

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In the organization of the state governments, no great difficulty was experienced. Under the old regime, the greater part of the colonies had been governed by a House of Assembly chosen by the people, together with a Governor and Council appointed by the King. The only alteration, therefore, that was required by the revolution, was to transfer to the people that portion of authority which had hitherto been exercised by the Sovereign. In addition to the House of Assembly which they had always chosen, they elected, in most of the states, a council, under the name of a Senate, and an executive, denominated the Governor and with these alterations the state governments resumed their functions.

The establishment of a national government, however, was obviously a much more arduous undertaking. Their separation from the mother country having deprived the States of the common prop on which they had hitherto rested, they were naturally led to lean towards each other; but not having, as in the case of the state governments, any model to direct them, it became a matter of much uncertainty how the connexion of the states was in future to be maintained. The state governments were buildings already erected, which, in consequence of the revolution, merely changed their inhabitants; but the fabric of the national government was to be built from the foundation, on a plan which was yet to be devised and considered. Some common government seemed necessary to the welfare of the Union; but how this government was to be constructed,-how far its powers were to encroach on the separate sovereignty of the states, and to what objects these powers were to be directed,-were all matters of very nice and difficult arrangement. The opinions of the citizens of the United States, on this momentous subject, were as various as might be expected from the variety of interests, of prejudices and passions, which must necessarily exist in such a community. Some called in question even the necessity of union; others, admitting the necessity of a common government, maintained that this government ought to be purely federal, and in no respect national; that is to say, that its ordinances should be binding only on the state legislatures, and not on the citizens individually considered. A third party asserted the expediency of a government exercising authority over the whole mass of the population. With respect to the nature and constitution of the organs, by which the powers of the general government were to be discharged, the difference of sentiment was equally great. In order to reconcile their discordant opinions, and obtain some form of goverument, without which it was apparent that the United States, as a nation, could no longer exist, a convention was held at Phi

ladelphia