[Footnote 11: Reynolds’s characters are as faithful copies of nature as Woodward’s caricatures of men with heads ten times bigger than their bodies. How could Mr. Surr, in a late well written novel, offer any apology for him? But friendship is as blind as love, in spite of Horace’s opinion.] [Footnote 12: Though I call Dibdin a ballad-monger, I do not think him by any means equal to the other songster, sans-souci Dibdin.] [Footnote 13: It is a melancholy thing, that men of the first abilities have frequently lent their aid to the cause of vice. Better be dull as Cobb, or Hoare, than so to abuse great talents.] [Footnote 14: The age are under great obligations to Mr. Gifford for his very excellent edition of Massinger. I wish he had not been so severe on poor Mason and Coxeter. Their inaccuracies certainly warranted a few expressions of spleen, but not such harsh language as Mr. Gifford uses; but alas! his Persian fist cannot hit a gentle blow. Like his author, whom he has so successfully translated, whenever he attacks, “instat, insultat, jugulat.” --_Scal. de Satira._] [Footnote 15: I am not one of those who think the age degenerate: but certainly the rigid manly character of old times is melted into one of elegance and comparative softness. Perhaps the change is for the better, as I think no virtue has been lost in the transfusion. Be that as it may, there is something in the tone of Massinger not altogether suited to the general taste of the present time. I wish it was.] [Footnote 16: Fletcher is an amiable writer; but the general effect of his tragedies appears to me languid. His comedies, however, are exceedingly entertaining.] [Footnote 17: Jonson’s genius and learning shine to advantage in his Volpone, Alchymist, Silent Woman, and Every Man in his Humour. It is to be lamented his characters are not more general.] [Footnote 18: Let me join my voice to the universal chorus of praise to Shakspeare, “si quid loquar audiendum.” It is merely a testimony of gratitude; nor presumes to add to that fame which has been celebrated, not to mention a thousand others, by the nervous prose of Johnson and the rapturous poetry of Gray. O “Magnum et memorabile nomen!”] MUSIC. _Reviews of late publications._ Respecting the overture to the opera of _Il don Giovanni_ lately published, and the manner in which it was composed, the following singular anecdote is related. The celebrated _Mozart_ had completed the whole of the opera, with the exception of the overture, and as the performance was to take place in a few days, the managers began to be alarmed, lest in his usual habit of procrastination, he should leave his task incomplete, and thus disappoint the public.