of cruelty. He possessed a soul, which, in every hazardous enterprise, overlooked all dangers and difficulties; and which was so firmly attached to his paramours, that his shameful end must be imputed to their extravagances: he was fond of elegance in dress, and of being thought handsome.

He suffered before he arrived at the age of twenty-one; and behaved with great intrepidity at the gallows, preparing his neck for the rope, putting it on, and then throwing himself off the ladder, without giving the executioner the signal agreed on to turn him off.

The character of Macheath was his delight, and with it he diverted himself while in Oxford Gaol.

DR. JOHNSON AND r DOUGLAS."

WHILST Johnson was sitting in one of the coffee houses at Oxford, about the time when he had a Doctor's degree conferred on him by the University, some young men approached him with a view to entertainment. They knew the subject of Scotch poetry and Scotch literature would call him forth. They talked of "Ossian" and Home's tragedy of "Douglas ;" and one of them repeated, from th latter,

"Ere a sword was drawn,

An arrow from my bow had pierc'd their chief,
Who wore that day the arms which now I wear.
Returning home in triumph, I disdain'd

The shepherd's slothful life, and having heard
That our good king had summon'd his bold peers
To lead their warriors to the Carron side,

I left my father's house, and took with me
A chosen servant to conduct my steps."

After which he called out, "there's imagery for you, Dr. Johnson! there's description! did you ever know any man write like that?" Johnson replied, with that tone of voice for which he was so remarkable, and which it is said Garrick used to mimic most inimitably, "Yes, Sir, many a man, many a woman, and many a child !"

VOL. III.

Ꮮ

Cooke, the translator of " Hesiod," used to say that Johnson was "half a madman, half a scholar, three parts a Roman Catholic, and a complete Jacobite."

SHAKSPEARE, AND GERARD BRANDT.

GERARD BRANDT, a Dutch Poet of some eminence, was born at Amsterdam in 1626, and intended to pursue the business of his father, who was a watchmaker; but the love of song had taken possession of his mind, and caused him to turn his thoughts to that difficult, but, in those days, much-esteemed branch of literature -the Tragic Drama. At the age of seventeen, he produced a piece entitled “The Dissembling Torquatus;" the scene of which is laid at Rome, without, however, any other adherence to history, or even to the original names. We copy from Mr. Bowring's delightful work, the "Batavian Anthology," the following observations of a Dutch Critic, Van Kampen, on this singular production.

"There is in this piece a remarkable resemblance to Hamlet: Shakspeare has drawn from an old Northern tradition preserved by Saxo Grammaticus: Brandt's idea seems to be entirely