astonish and enchant the nation with those inimitable works which form the perpetual boast and immortal heritage of Englishmen.

By a strange kind of fatality, which excites at once our surprise and our unavailing regrets, the domestic and the literary history of this great luminary of his age are almost equally enveloped in doubt and obscurity. Even of the few particulars of his origin and early adventures which have reached us through various channels, the greater number are either imperfectly attested, or exposed to objections of different kinds, which render them of little value; and respecting his theatrical life the most important circumstances still remain matter of conjecture, or at best of remote inference.'-p. 277-281.

After all that has been said of Elizabeth's love of learning and poetry, we do not find that she ever patronized either. She gave nothing, but praise, to Shakspeare; she permitted Spenser to die in penury; and Bacon rose slowly to the height to which his genius entitled him. The account of the rise, reign and fall of the accomplished Essex, is the most interesting part of the work; and the remorse which is said to have haunted the Queen ever after his death, is well depicted in the following letter from Sir John Harrington to his lady:

"Sweet Mall;

"I herewith send thee, what I would God none did know, some ill bodings of the realm and its welfare. Our dear queen, my royal godmother, and this state's natural mother, doth now bear some show of human infirmity; too fast, from that evil which we shall get by her death, and too slow, for that good which she shall get by her releasement from pains and misery Dear Mall, how shall I speak what I have seen or what I have felt? thy good silence in these matters emboldens my pen. For thanks to the sweet God of silence, thy lips do not wanton out of discretion's path like the many gossiping dames we could name, who lose their husbands' fast hold in good friends rather than hold fast their own tongues. Now, I will trust thee with great assurance; and whilst thou dost brood over thy young ones in the chamber, thou shalt read the doings of thy grieving mate in the court. I find some less mindful of what they are to lose, than of what they may perchance hereafter get: Now, on my own part, I cannot blot from my memory's table the goodness of our sovereign lady to me, even, I will say, before born. Her affection to my mother, who waited in privy-chamber, her bettering the state of my father's fortune (which I have, alas, so much worsted,) her watchings over my youth, her liking to my free speech and admiration of my little learning and poesy, which I did so much cultivate on her command, have rooted such love, such dutiful remembrance of her princely virtues, that to turn askant from her condition with tearless eyes, would stain and foul the spring and fount of gratitude. It was not many days since I was bidden to her presence; I blessed the happy moment, and found her in most pitiable state; she bade the archbishop ask me if I had seen Tyrone? I replied with reverence Vol. III.

51

that I had seen him with the lord deputy; she looked up with much choler and grief in her countenance, and said: O! now it mindeth me that you was one who saw this man elsewhere,* and hereat she dropped a tear and smote her bosom; she held in her hand a golden cup, which she often put to her lips; but in truth her heart seemeth too full to need more fulling. This sight moved me to think of what passed in Ireland, and I trust she did not less think on some who were busier there than myself. She gave me a message to the lord deputy, and bade me come to the chamber at seven o'clock. Hereat some who were about her did marvel, as I do not hold so high place as those she did not choose to do her commands..... Her majesty inquired of some matters which I had written; and as she was pleased to note my fanciful brain, I was not unheedful to feed her humour, and read some verses, whereat she smiled once, and was pleased to say: • When thou dost feel creeping time at thy gate, these fooleries will please thee less; I am past my relish for such matters; thou seest my bodily meat doth not suit me well; I have eaten but one ill-tasted cake since yester night.' She rated most grievously at noon at some one who minded not to bring up certain matters of account: several men have been sent to, and when ready at hand, her highness hath dismissed in anger; but who, dearest Mall, shall say, that your highness hath forgotten?"

The affairs of Ireland, which had always been a subject of anxiety, now added to the Queen's uneasiness; and after some days of sudden and profound melancholy, she expired. And Miss Aikin seems to believe the story of the ring of the Earl of Essex,-which, being secreted by the Countess of Nottingham, was produced at last, when it was too late. Amidst all the grief and horror which this proof of the repentance of her favourite inflicted, Elizabeth was true to her character; as she is said actually to have shaken "the dying Countess in her bed, and, vehemently exclaiming, that God might forgive her, but she never would-flung out of the chamber."

Returning to her palace, she surrendered herself without resistance to the despair which seized her heart on this fatal and too late disclosure. Hence her refusal of medicine and almost of food;hence her obstinate silence interrupted only by sighs, groans, and broken hints of a deep sorrow which she cared not to reveal ;--hence the days and nights passed by her, seated on the floor, sleepless, her eyes fixed, and her finger pressed upon her mouth ;-hence, in short, all those heart-rending symptoms of incurable and mortal anguish which conducted her, in the space of twenty days, to the lamentable termination of a long life of power, prosperity, and glory.'p. 429.

The work concludes with a kind of summary character of

* Harrington had been at a conference held with him by Essex; for which he had been severely rated by the queen.

Elizabeth; which, bating a little excusable partiality, appears to be justly drawn.

We cannot dismiss this work, without noticing the freedom with which the fair author remarks upon subjects, where her delicacy might have taught her at least to be silent: it is the only masculine trait in the work. We might point out several instances where she is unnecessarily broad in her allusions; and which, without affecting fastidiousness, we would wish, for her own sake, she had avoided.

ART. VII.-Dissertation on the Gipsies: representing their manner of life, family economy, religion, language, &c. &c. with a historical inquiry concerning their origin and first appearance in Europe. From the German of H. M. G. Grellmann. 8vo. pp. 210. London, 1807.

THE extraordinary fact, that the Jews have continued a separate people for nearly two thousand years, in a state of dispersion throughout the civilized world, does not appear to be wholly unparalleled in the history of mankind. We do not pretend to find an exact parallel in the history of any other people; but the Gipsies of Europe furnish another instance, of a numerous people dwelling among the nations without amity or assimilation, retaining to themselves peculiar manners, appearance, and language, and suffering every species of oppression and contumely, without losing their essential characteristics, or perishing from the face of the earth like the persecuted natives of our western world. For a period of more than three hundred years, the Gipsies have wandered about among civilized men; yet they still remain what their fathers were; never incorporated into any settled community, nor conformed to the manners of any nation among whom they dwell. -'Africa makes them no blacker, nor Europe whiter: they nei'ther become more lazy in Spain, nor more diligent in Germany. In Turkey, Mahomet, and in Christendom, Christ, remain equally ' without their homage. Around on every side, they see fixed 'habitations, with settled inhabitants; they, nevertheless, proceed in their own way, and continue, for the most part, unsocial, 'wandering robbers.'-(Grellmann.)

The most authentic accounts of the Gipsies state, that they appeared in different countries of Europe at different times in the 15th century. The most remarkable company of them was first noticed at Bologne. This company consisted of about one hundred persons of both sexes, of a tawny complexion, dressed in ragged attire, and using a language totally unknown to the people

among whom they came. Their leader was called Andrew, Duke of Egypt; and they related, that they had been driven out of their possessions in Egypt by a king of Hungary. This was unquestionably false, so far as the King of Hungary was concerned; but it is presumed by learned men who have investigated their language and history, that they were originally from Hindostan. Sir William Jones asserts, (Asiatic Researches, Vol. III. p. 7.) that many of their words are pure Sanscrit ; and he likewise supposes they emigrated from their native country to the coast of Arabia or Africa, and thence they rambled into Egypt, extending their wanderings over the continent of Europe. That they sojourned awhile in Egypt, is rendered probable by the fact that a numerous people resembling them is now in existence near Thebes in Upper Egypt.*

The Gipsies possessed little skill in any useful art; were grossly ignorant; and, to the disgusting appearance which usually attends excessive poverty, they added the utmost depravity of manners,— subsisting together without even that low degree of decorum which is found among the meanest ranks of civilized society, and choosing to live by rapacity and fraud, rather than by regular industry. The true science of astronomy was then in a manner unknown; but the false one of astrology was in high vogue. Those who professed divination and palmistry, were peculiarly acceptable to the indolent and inquisitive in that age. Then the greater portion of society was much more eager to discover "hidden things of darkness," than to acquire that easy knowledge of nature which has since become general, and which has served at once to enlighten and to limit curiosity. For this reason chiefly, the Gipsies found encouragement wherever they came: but, though the credulity of the times furnished them employment in the supernatural capacity of fortune-telling, it was never a very lucrative or permanent resource; and they requited themselves for insufficiency of profit, by making free with whatever they could grasp, to gratify their whims, or supply their wants.

In Italy, the Gipsies were called Zigari; and were supposed by Pope Pius II. to be emigrants from Zigi, or the modern Circassia. In the 16th century, they so swarmed in the different countries of Europe, that the most severe laws were passed against them by almost every government; laws as wise and as merciful as those enforced against witchcraft, and tending, like them, not to enlighten and improve their unhappy subjects, but to cut them off from all possible advantages, even from life itself.

They began their wanderings in England and Scotland in 1534, and soon excited general execration. In the reign of Henry VIII. a law was passed, commanding them to leave the kingdom under

*Rees' Cyclopedia.

pain of imprisonment and confiscation of goods, and extending the same penalty to such as should join them, or should assume a disguise in resemblance of them, or hold any intercourse with them. By a statute of Elizabeth, it was made felony without benefit of clergy, for any Egyptian (so the Gipsies were called) to remain a month in the kingdom: and Sir Matthew Hale relates, that thirteen Gipsies were executed in his time at the assizes in Suffolk, merely because they were Gipsies. The following account of their present condition in England, may be found in the European Magazine, of November, 1820.

There appears to be good ground to believe these extraordinary itinerants were originally of the lowest class of Hindoos; having emigrated, it is supposed, from Hindoostan about A. D. 1408. Their language is undoubtedly a species of Hindostanee, as is shown by a comparison of grammatical peculiarities, as well as of a number of words taken down as specimens of their language, from English Gipsies, and from Turkish Gipsies in Hungary, (printed in the 7th volume of Archæologia;) also, by selections from the Vocabulary compiled by Grellmann, the learned author of a dissertation on the subject; and by words obtained, as a translation of familiar English words, from Gipsies in the immediate neighbourhood of London. Throughout the countries of Europe, during the four centuries that they have wandered about as outcasts, they appear to have preserved among themselves, and transmitted unimpaired to their descendants, together with other invariable characteristics of their origin, while speaking) the languages of the respective countries they inhabit--one common language of their own, to which they appear to be attached, yet which serves them for no other purpose, that we are acquainted with, than that of concealment. The combined influence of time, climate, and example, has not effected any material alteration in their state. A recent traveller states, that he met with numerous hordes in Persia, with whom he had conversed, and found their language the true Hindostanee. In Russia, he found them, both in language and manners, the same, corresponding exactly to the Gipsies of our own country. In Poland and Lithuania, as well as in Courland, they exist in surprising numbers. In Hungary, their number amounts to about 50,000 : and they are scarcely less numerous in other parts of Europe; every where exhibiting the same deeply-rooted attachment to their ancient habits and half-savage customs, and the same features of an oriental character, as vagrants, thieves, and fortune-tellers. How far the treatment they have received from civilized nations, among whom they have been universally objects of contempt or persecution, has tended to keep them in their present state of intellectual debasement, by strengthening their prejudices, and driving them to the usual resources of indigence, demands the serious and dispassionate consideration of every friend of humanity. In our own country, hunted like beasts of prey from township to township, advertised as rogues and vagabonds, even rewards being offered for their apprehension, their condition is becoming daily more deplorable, while no asylum