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low that infamous employment, as you are
able to work? Sir, replied the beggar
I ask your charity, and not your advice;
and immediately turned his back u-
pon him with all the dignity of a
Caftilian. This beggar was as proud
as a grandee; his vanity was easily
hurt. Self Love prompted him to beg, A
and by another kind of Self Love he
could brook no reproof.

A miffionary travelling in India, faw a faquir loaded with chains, as naked as an ape, lying on his belly, and fcourging himself for the fins of his countrymen, the Indians, who had B given him fome farthings of their coin. What Self denial is this? faid one of the fpectators. Self denial? replied the faquir, Let me tell you that I whip myfelf in this world for no other purpose but to whip you in the next, when you will be a horse, and I your rider.

Thofe therefore who maintain that C Self-Love is the fource of all our fentiments and all our actions, liave great reafon for it in India, Spain, and in all the known world, and as no one undertakes to convince men that they have a face, fo there is as little occafion to prove that they have Self-D

Love.

Character of Henry V, &c. From M. Villaret's Hiftory of France, lately published at Paris.

HE

gave the judge on his tribunal a bos on the ear. The magistrate immediately ordered him to be committed to prifon. The prince coming to himself obeyed without replying. This reparation of his fault and his fubmiffion to the laws did him great honour. After his father's death he refufed the homage which the nobles would have paid him before his coronation, by faying, that it was not 1ight that they should oblige themfelves to be faithful to him before he had engaged himself by a folemn oath to govern them equitably and accord. ing to law. When he was fettled on the throne, he fent for all who had been concerned with him in his diforders, and who already depended on his favours; he publickly exhorted thofe accomplices of his youthful follies to acknowledge their faults and reform their conduct; he made them prefents, and forbad them ever again to appear before him.

All the nation rejoiced at seeing on the throne a Prince who gave at his acceffion fuch promiffing expectations, adorned with every accomplishment both of mind and body, a majeftic flature, a noble figure, ftrength, addrefs, incomparable valour, genius, activity, he proved himself the greateft politician in Europe: This laft quality feems to exclude exact honefty, but princes then did not pretend to a fcrupulous, fidelity. Some hiftorians have celebrated his piety; an elogium which was probably due to his regard for the ecclefiaftics, to whom he abandoned the Lollards or Wickliffites, many of whom were delivered to the flames. In the rest of his character, he was inclined to fe verity, which he contracted perhaps in the licentioufnefs of his youth; feldom pardoning, prodigal of human blood; daring in his projects, which be conducted with prudence, and purfued with an indefatigable ardor, an inflexible obferver of military discip Gline, a warrior by choice as well as by neceflity, he was at once the best counsellor, the ablest general, and the moft intrepid foldier in his kingdom, What an enemy for France in the state to which he was then reduced!

F

ENRY, furnamed of Monmouth, from his very infancy signalised his valour against the French; two E victories which he gained over them excited his father's jealoufy to fuch a degree, that from that time he remov ed him from all public affairs, and from the command of the army. The young Prince, left to himself, without employment, conformed to his own active and fiery difpofition: He gave himself up without fcruple, or difcretion to the greatest exceffes: Nothing was talked of but his debaucheries: He waylaid the receivers of his father's revenue, in order to fob them of their treasure: Defigned by nature for a conqueror, or a robber on the highway, he feemed to acknowledge no other rights but those which were given by force and courage. His outrages and the abandoned extravagance in which he lived had loft him the efteem of the nation: H A remarkable accident reftored it to him. Having entered a court of juf tice in order to fungert by his presence the cause of one disfavourites, who, Momach, he

The battle of Agincourt, gained by the King of England, in 1415, was a grievous blow to France, who there loft her principal nobility, and the whole flower of her troops, From that time ry V. found no refiftange sufistance

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defigns; he had only to march thro' the provinces of the kingdom in order to fubdue them. The terrified people fled before him, and all France faw herself on the brink of total ruin. Befides the calamities infeparable from fuch a destructive war, they faw on every fide from the borders of the ocean to the Pyrenees, gangs of mifcreants, wandering without allegiance, who, in the general deftruction, thought they had no lefs right than the regular troops to partake the fpoils of the nation. They formed B

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numerous bands who cantoned themfelves in the forefts, and murdered and pillaged without diftinction, both friends and foes. The priests abandoned the altars, the religious deferted the monasteries, put on the warriors armour, became foldiers, and in their turn were chiefs of banditti, murderers, robbers, incendiaries. Too deferving of the yoke which the Englih were preparing for them, the French, without diftinction, whether royalifts, or partizans of the dauphin, or of the duke of Burgundy's faction,or attached to the houfe of Orleans, and D to the Armagnacs, all united in gangs of robbers, highwaymen, equally exafperated against each other, seemed to have loft all fentiments of humanity, and to have confpired the utter deftruction of the kingdom." It "might have been faid," fays our author "that our blind ancestors had E "determined to bury themselves un"der the ruins of their country."

The city of Paris was the chief fcene of civil diforders. By turns a prey to the viclence of the Armagnacs, and to the fury of the duke of Burgundy, the groaned under the most dreadful defolation; fhe was deluged with the blood of her citizens inhumanely masacred, or publicly executed. It was during thefe troubles that a (Swiss) foldier of the duke of Burgundy's troops, coming out of a tavern where he had loft his money, ftabbed several times with his dagger an image of the Virgin. Several spectators afferted that they faw the blood fpurt out; nothing more was wanting to infiame the people: The foldier was feized and put to death. The ftatue was carried to St Martin in the Fields, where it became the object of public veneration under the name of Notre dame de la Carolle. Another image was placed on the very spot where the crime had been committed, and to this very day the custom is con

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H

tinued of burning every year on the third of July the wicked effigy of a man armed with a poignard, in memory of that event.

The English purfued their conquests with rapidity. France was divided into four parties, who endeavoured to Arengthen themselves, either by uniting together, or by relying on the protection of the king of England, and by treating with him. The dauphin and the duke of Burgundy feemed to be reconciled by a treaty concluded at Poilly-le-fort, by which they were jointly to govern the kingdom, and to unite all their forces in order to drive out the English. But,notwithstanding this, the unfaithful Burgundian negociated privately another treaty with the king of England, and delayed, by various pretences, the conference which he had promised to hold with the dauphin at Montereau. Neverthelefs he at length repaired to that fatal interview, where he was affaffinated, together with the Lord of Noailles, by the partizans of the dauphin. It cannot with certainty be affirmed, that this enormous outrage, differently related by hiftorians, was committed by that prince's orders, but it cannot be denied that he was greatly fufpected, and that the apologies which he caufed to be publifhed were little credited. Even Queen Ifabella, his mother, addressed, in the king's name, a thundering declaration to all the cities in the kingdom against the Dauphin, and bis accomplices, and the Duke of Burgundy's murderers. In these > letters, the monarch ordered all his fubjects, under the pain of being guilty of high treafon, to withdraw from the fervice of his fon Charles. She did ftill more, in order to haften the deftruction of this fon, now be come an object of implacable hatred ; the implored the alliance of the Englib, at the fame time intreated the Duke of Burgundy's fon to unite their common resentment, and Philip, Count of Charolais, entered with ardor into all the projects which tended to revenge the tragical death of his father. At length, the Queen and the young duke of Burgundy, liftening to nothing but the rage of their refentment, went fo far as to conclude the treaty of Arras, ratified afterwards at Troys, by virtue of a full power,which they had drawn up in the king's name, whole faculties were more impaired than ever. By this treaty Henry, king of England, by efpouting the Princess

Ca

A

Catherine, was acknowledged to be
heir to the crown of France, after the
death of Charles, and it was to be
poffeffed by him and his heirs, perpe-
tuaily and indivifibly united with that
of England. Charles, on account of
his incapacity to govern, from that
time refigned to the English monarch
the regency of the kingdom. All the
orders in the state were to take an
oath to him in that quality; he,on his
fide, promifed to obferve the laws, to
maintain the rights, privileges, pre-
rogatives, and franchifes of the tri-
bunals, cities, communities, as well
as of the Lords and individuals, who B
fubfcribed all the claufes expreffed in
the treaty, and fwore to the inviola-
ble obfervance of them. The dau-
phin Charles was abfolutely difinherit-
ed, Confidering, it is faid in article 29,
the enormous and horrible crimes and of-
fences perpetrated in the faid kingdom of
France, by Charles, Ayling himself the
Dauphin of Viennes, it is agreed that
neither we, nor our faid fon King Henry,
nor our most dear fon Philip Duke of
Burgundy, fail treat of any peace or
union with the faid Charles, or cause

proached each other, they gave intel-, ligence of it; then the moit refolute warriors on either fide prefented themselves to fupport them. They gave a mutualdefiance, and the rendezvous was appointed at the bottom of the mine. At the extremity of the befiegers mine, a barrier was placed breaft-high; as foon as the workmen of the befieged had reached it, and had made an opening, they retired, and were fucceeded by the knights. The combatants were equal, and they fought by the light of torches. An eftablished custom forbad their firiking any part of the body that was be

low the barrier. On both fides there were judges of the combat, who decreed the prize of courage, and named the conquerors. The vanquished commonly paid for their defeat a fum of money, or fome trinkets, by way of a ranfom; fometimes it cost them their liberty.

As to arms, befides that kind of Arquebuffes, called portable cannons, they had invented for fieges mortarpieces, which threw ftones of 150 and 200 lb. weight. The large cannons were of a very different form from

fuch peace or union to be treated, without D what they are now. Their figure was

the advice and consent of all and every of
us three, and of the three eftates of the
two aforesaid kingdoms. This agree
ment, which our author confiders as
null, whether on account of the in-
fanity of King Charles VI, in whose
name it was figned; or of the funda-
mental conftitution of the kingdom, E
which does not fuffer a monarch to
difinherit his fon, nor to annihilate
the rights of the other princes of the
blood, whom the laws call to the
throne for want of a fon; or on ac-
count of that conftant custom, which
has cftablished that a prince must be
of the blood royal, or born a French- F
man,in order to fucceed to the crown;
this agreement was nevertheless exe-
cuted, and France faw herself under
the dominion of England.

The operations of the war afford feveral particulars, which it will not be ufele fs to remark,in order to know in what manner fieges and battles were then carried on. On occafion

of the fiege of Melun by the Englib, G
our author fays, that they there dug
mines and counter-mines, in which
they bad many rencounters. The fe
kind of actions were then efteemed
the leaft equivocal proofs of courage:
They were thus conducted: As foon
as the miners on both fides apprehend-
ed by the noife that their works ap-

like that of hollow cylinders, ftrengthened from space to space by feveral emboffed circles; the breach terminated in a nob, and the match was placed between the first and fecond circles. These cannons resembled what our architects call ruftic columns. The artillery was ufually employed only for fieges; it does not appear that it was made use of in battles.

The principal ftrength of the army confifted in the Gendarmerie; they always fought on foot, and armed at all points. Every warrior carried with him archers, cross-bow-men, &c. The number of thefe inferior warriors not being limited, one man at arms might fometimes have 12 or 14, while his companion had but 5 or 6, an inequality which muft neceflarily occafion confufion.

Amid the tumults of difcord, and the diforders of war, it is evident that the fciences could not be usefully cultivated, or make any great progrefs. Nevertheless, there were fome fcholars who graced the reign of Charles VI. Such were Peter d'Ailly, an eloquent preacher, afterwards a car. dinal; Nicholas Clemenges, a great orator,and diftinguifhed by many works; Gerfon, or John Charlier, chancellor of the univerfity of Paris, and ambailador

from

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from France to the council of Con-
fance; Thomas Connecte, a Carmelite,
remarkable for the aufterity of his
life: He went from city to city, and
from province to province, as far as
Italy itself, preaching in publick plac-
es against luxury, and depravity of
manners, above all, he declaimed a- A
gainst the ridiculous dreffes with
which the ladies of that age pretend-
ed to fet off their charms, among o
thers, thofe head-dieffes with long
and large horns called Henins, and he
incenfed against them the children
and the people. But he was not fa-
tisfied with attacking trailing fleeves,
head dreffes, nine-pins, dice, chefs-
boards, and cards, which he burned
without mercy, he ventured alfo to
attack the monks, and the Pope him-
felf: His holiness delivered him to
the Inquifition, who condemned him
to the flames for herefy, because he
had maintained that the Pope's ex-
comunications were not to be feared,
while we were doing God fervice,
and that incontinent ecclesiastics ought
to be allowed to marry; Euftache de
Parvilly, a Carmelite, a furious and fe-
ditious orator; Charles Duke of Or-
leans, whofe poems breathe those fen-
timents, that tafte, that politeness,
which are wanting in the poets his
contemporaries; Peneit Gentien; John D
de Courtecuiffe, who was bishop of Ge-
neva; Vincent Ferrier, who was cano-
nized; Juvenal des Urfins, the orna-
ment of the bar in his time; brother
Richard, a Francifcan, who, armed with
the revelation of which he pretended
to have the key, terrified the people
with predictions of impending cala-
mities, the vengeance of heaven for E

the diforders of the earth: The
fashion to reverence him as an apof-
tle, did not last long; the Parifians
curfed him as foon as he efpoused the
Dauphin's party. All the science of
thofe times confifted in amaffing an
immenfe fund of learning, but with-
out tafte. There was then feen at
Paris one of thote prodigies of know-
ledge, which would be thought very
remarkable in our days. At the age
of zo, he spoke all the known langua-
ges, ancient and modern; he was a
divine, a physician, a lawyer, gram-
marian; he maintained alone a courle
of public difputation in the college of
Navarre against 3000 of the molt ce-
lebrated clerks in the university. This
champion of literature was at the
fame time a dancer, a tumbier, a fing-
er, a musician, a poet of the first cials,

C

an excellent horfeman, a knight well fkilled in arms, in foort, fays an antient author, if a man could live an bundred years without eating, drinking, or feeping, he could never learn what that young man knew.

G

Henry V, King of England, and regent of France, died the 31st of Auguft, 1422, aged 34 years. Charles VI. foon followed him, dying in the month of October, in the fame year. Is it cre dible that there was not money enough in his treafury to defray, the expences of his funeral? Nevertheless nothing is more certain, as the parliament was obliged to order, that all the late King's moveables should be fold by patent as advantageously as posible, in order to raise the Jums neceffary to finifh bis funeral.

The King being dead, the Dauphin caufed himself to be crowned at Poitiers, in an assembly of the Lords attached to his party. But at Paris, a general affembly tendered the crown to Henry VI, King of England, who was yet an infant, and the regency to the duke of Bedford, in pursuance of the treaty of Troyes.

Charles VII. faw himfeif reduced to provinces of Languedoc, Dauphiny, duvergne, Bourbonnois, Berry, Poitou, Saintonge, Touraine, Orleanois, and part of Angan, and Maine. The Duke of Bretagne maintained a kind of neutrality. And the English, mafters of Paris, poffelled Normandy, the ile of France, La Brie, Champagne, Picardy, Ponthieu, Le Boulonois, Le Calefis, as far as the frontiers of Flanders, and the most confiderable part of Aquitain, as far as the Pyrenees and the ocean; by their alliance with the Duke of Burgundy, they still disposed of the dutchy as well as the county of that name, and of the provinces of Flanders and Artois. The Duke of Bretagne did not long delay to embrace their party, which afterwards he abandoned for another.

The English by their fuperior force, and by the kill of their generals, extended their conquefts without ceafing. Charles VII. a weak and imprudent monarch, the victim of his own blind prejudice for his favourites, facrificed every thing to the ambition of La Tremouille, who governed him, and conducted him from pleasures to pleasures. This prince was one day employed in directing the preparations for a feaft, when La Hire came to receive his orders, Charles very inattentive to what that warrior faid,

alked

afked him what he thought of the en-
tertainment, which he propofed to
give his court. I think, replied La
Hire, that a kingdom cannot be loft
with more gaiety.-Charles the VII. A
would have loft it, but for the fa-
mous Maid of Orleans, whose history
is too well known to be enlarged on
here.

Mr JOHNSON's Account of Shakespeare's
Plays. (Concluded from p. 500.)

TH

VOL. VI.
CORIOLANUS.

HE tragedy of Cariolanus is one of the moft amusing of our authour's perfor mances. The old man's merriment in Menenius; the lofty lady's dignity in Volumnia; the bridal modefty inVirgilia; the patrician and military haughtinefs in Coriolanus; the plebeian malignity, and tribunitian infolence in Brutus and Sicinius, make a very pleafing and interesting variety; and the various revolutions of the hero's fortune fill the mind with anxious curiofity. There is, perhaps, too much butle in the firft act, and too little in the laft.

VOL VII,

JULIUS CAESAR.

B

CYMBELINE.

This play has many juft fentiments, fome natural dialogues, and fome pleafing fcenes, but they are obtained at the expence of much incongruity.

To remark the folly of the fiction, the abfurdity of the conduct, the confussion of the names and manners of different times, and the impoffibility of the events in any fyftem of life, were to waste criticism upon unrefifling imbecility, upon faults too evident for detection, and too groís for aggravation.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

This play is more correaly written than moft of Shakespeare's compofitions, but it is not one of thofe in which either the extent of his views or elevation of his fancy is full difplayed. As the ftory abounded with materials, he has exerted little inCvention; but he has diverfified his characters with great variety, and preferved them with great exactnefs. His vicious characters fometimes difguft, but cannot corrupt, for both Creffida and Pandarus are detefted and contemned. The comick characters feem to have been the favourites of the writer, they are of the fuperfcial kind, and exhibit more of manners D than nature, but they are copiously filled and powerfully impressed.

Of this tragedy many particular paffages deserve regard, and the contention and reconcilement of Brutus and Caffius is univerfally celebrated; but I have never been firongly agitated in perufing it, and think it fomewhat cold and unaffecting,compared with fome other of Shake peare's plays; E his adherence to the real ftory, and to Roman manners, feems to have impeded the natural vigour of his genius.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA,

This play keeps curiofity always bufy, and the paffions always interested. The continual hurry of the action, the variety of incidents, and the quick fucceffion of one perfonage to another, call the mind F forward without intermiffion from the first act to the laft. But the power of delighting is derived principally from the frequent changes of the fcene; for, except the feminine arts, fome of which are too low, which diftinguish Cleopatra, no character is very strongly diferiminated. Upton, who did not easily mifs what he defired to find, has difcovered that the language of Antory is, with great skill and learning, made pompous and fuperb, according to his real practice. But I think his diction not diftinguishable from that of others; the moft tumid speech in the play is that which Cefar makes to OFavia.

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The events, of which the principal are H fcribed according to hiftory, are producbout any art of connexion, or care, facn,

VOL VIII.

ROMEO AND JULIET.

This play is one of the moft pleafing of our authour's performances. The scenes rous and important, the catastrophe irreare bufy and various, the incidents numefiltibly affecting, and the proce's of the action carried on with such probability, at leaft with fuch congruity to popular opinions, as tragedy requires.

Here is one of the few attempts of Shakespeare to exhibit the converfation of gentlemen, to reprefent the airy sprightlinefs of juvenile elegance.

The nurfe is one of the characters in which the authour delighted: He has, with great fubtlety of diftinction, drawn her at once loquacious and fecret, obfequious and infolent, trufly and dishonest.

His comick fcenes are happily wrought, but his pathetick ftrains are always polluted with fome unexpected depravations. His perfons, however diftreffed, bave a conceit left them in their misery, a miserabie

concert.

HAMLET.

If the dramas of Shakespeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excelJence which diftinguishes it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet, the praife of variety. The incidents are

fo numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale. The scenes are interchangeable diyertified with merri

ment

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