This worse than superfluous 'like' is very like an interpolation of some matter of fact critic--all 'pus, prose atque venenum'. The 'your' in the next line, instead of 'their,' is likewise yours, Mr. Critic! Act ii: sc. 1. Timon's speech:-- Another of a new _way_ will be look'd at.-- We much suspect the poets wrote, 'of a new _day_.' So, immediately after, --Time may For all his wisdom, yet give us a day. (SEWARD'S NOTE.) For this very reason I more than suspect the contrary. Ib. sc. 3. Speech of Leucippe:-- I'll put her into action for a _wastcoat_.-- What we call a riding-habit,--some mannish dress. THE MAD LOVER. Act IV. Masque of beasts:-- --This goodly tree, An usher that still grew before his lady, Wither'd at root: this, for he could not wooe, A grumbling lawyer: &c. Here must have been omitted a line rhyming to 'tree;' and the words of the next line have been transposed:-- --This goodly tree, _Which leafless, and obscur'd with moss you see_, An usher this, that 'fore his lady grew, Wither'd at root: this, for he could not wooe, &c. THE LOYAL SUBJECT. It is well worthy of notice, and yet has not been, I believe, noticed hitherto, what a marked difference there exists in the dramatic writers of the Elizabetho-Jacobæan age--(Mercy on me! what a phrase for 'the writers during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.!')--in respect of their political opinions. Shakspeare, in this as in all other things, himself and alone, gives the permanent politics of human nature, and the only predilection, which appears, shews itself in his contempt of mobs and the populacy. Massinger is a decided Whig;--Beaumont and Fletcher high-flying, passive-obedience, Tories. The Spanish dramatists furnished them with this, as with many other ingredients. By the by, an accurate and familiar acquaintance with all the productions of the Spanish stage previously to 1620, is an indispensable qualification for an editor of B. and F.;--and with this qualification a most interesting and instructive edition might be given. This edition of Colman's Stockdale, (1811,) is below criticism. In metre, B. and F. are inferior to Shakspeare, on the one hand, as expressing the poetic part of the drama, and to Massinger, on the other, in the art of reconciling metre with the natural rhythm of conversation,--in which, indeed, Massinger is unrivalled. Read him aright, and measure by time, not syllables, and no lines can be more legitimate,--none in which the substitution of equipollent feet, and the modifications by emphasis, are managed with such exquisite judgment. B. and F. are fond of the twelve syllable (not Alexandrine) line, as-- Too many fears' tis thought too: and to nourish those-- This has, often, a good effect, and is one of the varieties most common in Shakspeare. RULE A WIFE AND HAVE A WIFE. Act III. Old Woman's speech:-- --I fear he will knock my Brains out for lying.