This is sublime teaching. The charitable touch lurking in the self-willed heart of royalty, prompting it to feel for the sufferings of another, preserves for that heart the sole thought of gentleness amid its tempest of grief and distraction.

None but a genuis like Shakspeare's, bold in its conscious power, would have ventured to place the fool's levity of speech, with its quaint inuendo, and grotesque irrelevance, close by the side of Lear's magniloquence of rage and sorrow; but how wonderfully fine the effect is, as he has contrived the contrast!

Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness,]
I never gave you kingdom, called you children,
You owe me no subscription; why then let fall
Your horrible pleasure; here I stand, your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak and despised old man :-
But yet I call you servile ministers,
That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
Your high engender'd battles, 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul!

"Fool. He that has a house to put his head in,

has a good head-piece."

Afterwards, when the old king frantically tears off his clothes, his hand is held by his faithful friend, still "laboring to out-jest his heart-struck injuries," with a voice that we can fancy choked with sobs, while he struggles to smile with lips that are tremulous with cold and pity:

"Lear. Off, off, you lendings:-Come; unbutton here. (Tearing off his clothes.) "Fool. Prythee, nuncle, be contented; this is a naughty night to swim in."

In that terrible scene where Lear's madness has reached its height, and his frenzied arraignment of his daughters is fiercely companioned by Edgar's assumed insanity, the discord of their joint ravings is fearfully increased by the jarring incoherences and still more startling literalities of the Fool.

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Edgar. Pur! the cat is gray. "Lear. Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my oath before this honorable assembly, she kicked the poor king her father. "Fool. Come hither, mistress; is your name Goneril?

"Come, help to bear thy master; thou must not stay behind."

Shakspeare, true to his method of bearing testimony to the moral excellences of his characters through the mouths of surrounding personages, makes Kent-himself a mirror of fidelity and true friendship-yield this casual but emphatic tribute to the worth of the gentle lad; the fondly attached servant, the petted playfellow of his royal master; the poor Fool, whose twilight wits shone yet radiant in grateful affection, and lent him sense enough to cling to the hand that had once fostered him, striving to bestow responding support and consolation in the hour of affliction, desertion, and madness.

Singularly in contrast with the Fool in Lear, is the one in Twelfth Night. He is styled Clown, servant to Olivia," but he is spoken of as the "Fool" throughout the play itself; and when the duke inquires after him, asking who sang the song that pleased him last night, he is answered, "Feste, the jester, my lord; a fool that the Lady Olivia's father took much delight in."

formerly occupied a post in the train of dependThe licensed jester, fool, or clown, always ents that swelled the retinue of a royal or a noble household, contributing greatly to the delight and amusement of their entertainers, by whom they were treated like privileged familiars; and in times when reading was a less frequent accomplishment to afford relaxation from the graver or more active pursuits of life, this bandying of jests and ready repartee was a fruitful source of mirth and enjoyment, and became almost a necessary among luxuries, to the rich and the luxurious. Shakspeare has described the craft of the fool, or jester, in the words he has put into Viola's mouth, where she says of the clown in this play:

"This fellow 's wise enough to play the fool;
And, to do that well, craves a kind of wit:
He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
The quality of persons, and the time;
And, like the haggard, check at every feather
That comes before his eye. This is a practice
As full of labor as a wise man's art:
For folly, that he wisely shows, is fit;
But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit."

This Clown is the merriest of the merry, the most good-humored of good-humored fellows. Nothing seems to disturb his equanimity, or to dispossess him of his gaiety. His pleasant temperament is proof against all anxiety, and his confidence in his own powers of pleasing bears him fearless through all cas ualties. In the first scene, where Maria teases him with hints of Olivia's displeasure, see how lightly his fancy takes refuge in the bright sky of an Italian summer, in case of

And we find immediately afterwards, that his dependence upon the power which his wit and good fooling" possess over Olivia's favor is nothing misplaced, from the smiling partiality with which she turns to Malvolio, and takes her favorite jester's part against the steward, when he, in his petulence and conceit, seeks to lower the other in her opinion. Shakspeare's own sympathy with good humored mirth, and his intolerance of the assumption of merit on the ground of an affected gravity, both shine through Olivia's rebuke: "O, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a distempered appetite. To be generous, guiltless, and of free disposition, is to take those things for bird-bolts, that you deem cannon-bullets: there is no slander in an allowed fool, though he do nothing but rail; nor no railing in a known discreet man, though he do nothing but reprove," But the Clown's cheerfulness and good-humor render him a general favorite; everybody likes him, and almost everybody in the play lavishes favor on him, and gives him money, the Duke, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Viola-even Sebastian, though perplexed by his suddenly addressing him, a stranger, in the street, only says:

"I prythee, foolish Greek, depart from me;
There's money for you; if you tarry longer,
I shall give you worse payment."

Olivia's regard for him, we see to be partly the result of her own sweetness of disposition, which leads her to seek a refuge from her sorrow in his cheerfulness and playful sallies; and partly we feel it to be habitual liking and indulgence towards an old retainer who was a favorite with her father.

He is a dear companion and crony of the two knights, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, who dote on his social qualities, his hilarity, his good fellowship, his jests, and his songs, that enhance the festivity of their carousals.

The Duke likes to have him at his house, partly, it may be, for his fair mistress' sake, and evidently for the sake of his beautiful voice, and his accomplished manner of singing old songs; these soothe and relieve that fanciful lover's passion, which solaces itself.

in the enjoyment of music, and the volup tuous thoughts it engenders. We are several times in the course of the play reminded that the Clown is distinguished for the excellence of his singing, which, together with his goodtemper, tends doubtless to render him so popular. When he resumes his own person, after having assumed the disguise of Sir Topaz the Curate, he announces himself characteristically by singing, as he approaches the imprisoned Malvolio. Viola herself, as the page, disdains not to linger and bandy gay words with this universal favorite, when she meets him in Olivia's garden; she seems to take pleasure in his good-humored merriment, while the fool's replies are pregnant enough to make her utter the encomium before quoted, and to bestow a gratuity on him for his ready wit. He says:

"Words are very rascals, since bonds disgraced them.

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Viola. Thy reason, man?

"Clown. Troth, sir, I can yield you none without words; and words are grown so false, I am loth to prove reason with them.

"Viola. I warrant, thou art a merry fellow, and carest for nothing.

"Clown. Not so, sir, I do care for something: but in my conscience, sir, I do not care for you; if that be to care for nothing, sir, I would it would make you invisible. "Viola. Art thou not the Lady Olivia's fool?

"Clown. No, indeed, sir; the Lady Olivia has no folly: she will keep no fool, sir, till she be married; and fools are as like husbands, as pilchards are to herrings, the husband's the bigger; I am, indeed, not her fool, but her corrupter of words.

"Viola. I saw thee late at the Count Orsino's.

"Clown. Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb, like the sun; it shines everywhere. I would be sorry, sir, but the fool should be as oft with your master, as with my mistress: I think I saw your wisdom there.

"Viola. Nay, an thou pass upon me, I'll no more with thee. Hold, there's expenses for thee."

Touchstone, the jester in As you like it, is a still greater favorite of our own, than even his brother clown in Twelfth Night. He is as light-hearted as the other, with a touch of sentiment and good-feeling superadded. His estimable qualities are intimated by Rosalind's proposal to her cousin, when they are preparing for exile:

"Ros. But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal The clownish fool out of your father's court? Would he not be a comfort to our travel?

And Celia's reply speaks no less highly for the faithful attachment of which he is capable: :

me: Leave me alone to woo him."

His right feeling is well displayed in his rebuke to Le Beau, the courtier who comes to announce the wrestling match to the princesses, to assure them they have "lost much good sport," and proceeds to describe the rib-breaking and sufferings of the three young men already overthrown, and the lamentation of the poor old man, their father.

"Touch. But what is the sport, monsieur, that the ladies have lost?

"Le Beau. Why, this I speak of. "Touch. Thus men may grow wiser every day! It is the first time that ever I heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies."

He is a loyal-hearted fellow, too; though he has a slight qualm at the near approach of the who is to wed him with Audrey parson "A man may, if he were of a fearful heart, stagger in this attempt," and for an instant gives way to an unworthy thought upon Jaques' suggestion of the insufficiency of Sir Oliver Martext to marry them, saying, aside, "I am not in the mind, but I were better to be married of him than of another: for he is not like to marry me well; and not being well married, it will be a good excuse for me hereafter to leave my wife." Yet it is but a passing roguery, a remnant of his courtly manners and worldly teaching; for the next time we see him, we find him still faithful to his intention of marrying Audrey, and going to be wedded with the rest of the loving couples. The reliance the wandering princesses placed on his social merits, and on his proving comfort to their travel," is fully warranted by his behavior when they reach the forest. He keeps up their spirits by his gay jests, teaching them fortitude by the example of his own cheerfulness. "Now am I in Arden: the more fool I; when I was at home, I was in a better place; but travellers must be content."

a

Touchstone's companionable qualities render him a privileged person with his two young lady mistresses, who indulge his loquacity, and tolerate his flippancy, for the sake of his light heart and his pleasant nature. Rosalind only checks him when he addresses Corin pertly; and she once calls him a dull fool," when he turns her lover's verses into ridicule.

The fact is, he considers Rosalind and Celia as his friends and equals; while he indemnifies his self-love for the deference which his

his address of his conscious general superiority, indeed, to all his new associates; and he treats them accordingly with a sort of generous forbearance, august toleration, and affable familiarity, together with a willingness to af ford them the benefit of his superior intelligence, by yielding them his countenance and society. He unbends in philosophic chit-chat with the old shepherd, Corin, and vouchsafes to banter the country fellow, William :- "It is meat and drink to me to see a clown: By my troth, we, that have good wits, have much to answer for; we shall be flouting; we cannot hold."

His consequential courtesy in granting them permission to wear their hats in his presence, is a delightful instance of his conceit, more than once repeated. To William he says:"Cover thy head, cover thy head; nay, prythee, be covered." He bids Jaques good evening with the like delicious self-complacency;

Good even, good Master What ye call't; how do you, sir? You are very well met: God 'ild you for my last company; I am very glad to see you: nay, pray be covered." And even when he comes into the presence of the banished Duke himself, he approaches the sylvan court easy and unabashed as ever, with, "Salutation and greeting to you all!" The light-hearted facility with which he adapts himself to his new mode of life, and the relish with which he avails himself of the open air enjoyments it presents, is a charming feature in his character. We hear, soon after his arrival in Arden, of his having " laid him down, and basked him in the sun;" and when he meets the Duke's two pages glade of the forest, he proposes that they shall all sit down upon the grass, and have some singing.

in a

His wish that Audrey were more poetical, shows that Touchstone often, as Rosalind says, speaks wiser than he's 'ware of." In it he discovers a subtile knowledge of that truth, that a woman's appreciation of her husband's genius is an invaluable quality in a wife. "When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room; - truly, I would the gods had made thee poetical." He feels that he is rather throwing himself away, but he is content to make a generous sacrifice; and he announces his determination to bestow "the very riches of him

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self" upon this rustic wench, in his own im- | portant style of flourish ; A poor virgin, sir, an ill-favored thing, sir, but mine own; a poor humor of mine, sir, to take that that no man else will. Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house, as your pearl in your foul oyster.'

His celebrated code for quarreling, summed up by "Your If is the only peacemaker; much virtue in If," is not only Touchstone's most admirable witticism, but is perhaps the best uttered by any one of all Shakspeare's jesters.

The Countess of Rousillon's clown in All's Well that Ends Well, is more malapert than witty, more saucy than sprightly. His best sentence is, "Though honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the surplice of humanity over the black gown of a big heart: "his best jest, where he announces Bertram's return from the wars: "O madam, yonder's my lord your son with a patch on's face; whether there be a scar under it or no, the velvet knows; but 'tis a goodly patch of velvet:" and his most fanciful conceit, his having "an answer will serve all men," and will fit any question," in the words "O Lord, sir."

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The noble lady, his mistress, when beguiling the period of her son's absence with the clown's jesting, thus chides herself for the idle unthrift:- -"I play the noble housewife with the time, to entertain it so merrily with a fool." And afterwards we find the secret of her indulgence towards him, in what she says to Lord Lafeu, "My Lord, that's gone, made himself much sport out of him; by his authority he remains here, which he thinks is a

patent for his sauciness; and indeed, he has no pace, but runs where he will."

Trinculo, in the play of the Tempest, though styled a jester, displays no great powers of humor. Indeed, it seems as if Shakspeare had intended him and his fellow-servant, Stephano, only as foils to Caliban; they the plebeian-natured of the civilized and material world, as he is of the uncultivated and ideal one.

Shakspeare gives the name of clown to some of his characters who are not jesters, but country fellows as the one in Antony and Cleopatra, the shepherd's son in the Winter's Tale, and Costard, in Love's Labor Lost; others signify merely servants, as the one in Othello, in Measure for Measure, &c.

Shakspeare, in the subject under consideration, has given proof of his own potent magic, by his success in investing with a surviving interest a character that is so obsolete in modern society as that of the fool, jester, or clown. He has depicted gentleness, wit, and faithful affection in Lear's fool; good-humored merriment in Feste, Olivia's clown; lighthearted good feeling in Touchstone; malapert sauciness in " good Monsieur Lavatch," the Countess of Rousillon's jester; worldly cunning (which too often passes for wit,) in Trinculo; with shrewd, lively diction in almost all of them. The poet has availed himself of this class of character for the discharge of various arrows of wit, humor, fancy, and satire, in the same way that he tells us a fool employs his jesting: He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under presentation of that he shoots his wit."

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Sharpe's London Magazine.

"A brief tour," says Mr. Prentice, "needs but a brief record," and, contrary to the wont of writers and orators who are generally lengthy in proportion to their prefatory praise and promise of brevity, he gives a brief record. We made frequent quotations from this "Tour" when it appeared weekly in the Manchester Times. It is in the form of letters, and presents a clear account of trading, travelling, and political Brother Jonathan. Not that Mr. Prentice thinks only of his favorite free trade; he has an eye for the picturesque,

a dash of the poetical. Byron welcomed the roar of the waters, and so does Mr. Prentice, as he describes his feelings when he "felt the waves bound beneath him and the fresh breeze court his somewhat toil-worn and ageworn cheek." Halifax is first reached, and here the travellers (Mr. Prentice was accompanied by Mr. Brooks) met with a Scotch gentleman from Cape Breton, with whom they had some conversation on one of the many claims the Duke of York had to his country's gratitude and his Pall-mall monument. Cape Breton has great mineral wealth; wealth which adds little to the prosperity of the

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monopoly of a workable coal-field of one hundred and twenty square miles, was handed over to Messrs. Rundell and Bridges, the millionaire jewellers, in part payment of a debt by the illustrious prince, the bulwark of orthodox Toryism. In the hands of the present lessees the produce is some eighty thousand tons yearly; at a reduction of a few shillings a ton the demand would be fourfold, greatly to the advantage of the colony; but the monopolists, like the old-fashioned tradesmén, prefer a large profit on small, to a small profit on large returns. It has been said that Englishmen owed much to the Duke of York; there was reciprocity in the obligation anyhow.

Mr. Prentice's opinion of our lusty young kinsman, who has thriven in spite of the want of munificent princes like the Duke of York and Bishop of Osnaburg, is very favorable indeed; he quietly disposes of many stories of vulgarities and coarsnesses held by many people in the three kingdoms to be component parts of Brother Jonathan, whom he makes out a good fellow, shrewd and sensible, only he might spit rather less. It does seem a paltry characteristic of a great people-a spitting nation! New York is excellently well de

scribed. Mr. Prentice tells of what free trade

might be, but what assuredly it will not be until we attain monetary reform. He thus

moralizes on

THE WHARVES OF NEW YORK.

Here bright visions arise in the imagination of the utilitarian. He sees the farmer on the Hudson, the Mohawk, the Ohio, the Illinois, the Miami, and the lakes Michigan, Erie, and Ontario, cheerfully laboring in his own fields for the sustentation of the Manchester spinner and weaver; he sees the potter of Hanley, the cutler of Sheffield, the cloth manufacturer of Yorkshire, and the sewer and tambourer of Glasgow, in not hopeless or unrewarded toil, preparing additional comforts and enjoyments for the inhabitants of the American woods and prairies. He conjures

for the mutual benefit; and sees in the universal competition the universal good. He sees the individual and the general advantage combined, and the world as only one vast brother hood."

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The travellers visited Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, and other places. Though the book is entitled a Tour in the United States," Mr. Prentice tells of the St. Lawrence, as well as of the Hudson, the Delaware, the Schuylkill, and the Ohio. He visited Canada, and gazed on the falls of the Niagara, where he was less awestruck than tourists generally profess to be, and rather pooh-poohs all about the "hell of waters." "There was the majestic," he says, "softened by the beautiful; calm, gentle, tranquil, exceeding loveliness." There is not much said in the "Tour" about emigration. The following extract relative to settlement in Canada and the United States, shows how industry stimulates industry, and toils to little purpose, as regards good to the community amidst surrounding laziness :

SETTLEMENT IN CANADA.

amount of capital, industry, and enterprise, "A man settled in Canada, with a certain may be as successful as another under the same circumstances in the United States, so far as individual exertions go; but the man in the States profits not only by his own activity, but by the activity of all around him. His farm is not only improved by his own labor and skill, but it is increased in value by the rapidly increasing populousness of the district in which it is placed. It is probable that the as yet very thinly populated but fertile district on the lakes, may take great strides in advance of the rest of Canada; and a well-informed farmer, who is settled about twenty miles back from Toronto, told me that a British farmer, possess ing from £200 to £500, accustomed to work and plain living, could not fail to do well.”— Douglas Jerrold's Newspaper.

come to the conclusion I have arrived at by a process of reasoning more humiliating to my self than it can be to anybody else present. I judge from my own experience that our small progress arises from our want of duly appreci