CAUTION TO SWEARERS.

Norfolk, June, 1819.-Two young men, in company at a public-house at Lynn, in Norfolk, engaged, for a pot of beer, to try which could swear the most diabolical oaths; when one of them, after using the most abominable expressions, became exhausted, and could not utter a syllable, and has remained speechless ever since; a living example to those who take God's name in vain.

CIVIC ERUDITION.

THE Lord Mayor of London, at the time of the riots in 1780, being asked by Lord North why he did not call upon the posse comitatus? Answered, "I would have done so, but deuce take the fellow, I don't know where he lives."

TO MIRA,

WHO, on the Author complaining of heat, commenced fanning him.

Cease, Lovely Mira, cease thy care;
Thy gentle efforts are in vain,
The undulations of the air:

Alas they but increase the pain. Each sparkle of thine eyes commands, With fire a thousand atoms blaze; And wafted by thy lily hand,

My breast receives the burning rays.
D. K.

Extremes meet-A man of sober habits when drunk, has the same kind of stupidity about him, that an habitual drunkard has when he chances to be sober.

SONG TO MISS C

(By Dr. H. Campbell.) Oн, could'st thou think I ever lov'd, Or thought of other maid, Since first thy pleasing smiles I prov'd On which my soul delay'd?

No, never Mary, could this heart,
Another's semblance wear;

Thine still shall be its dearest pant
By Love, dear maid, I swear.

Then why upbraid me thus with scorn
That "others share thy power—
"That I for them may live and mourn
And curse my natal hour."

"Tis cruel Mary thus to wring

An heart that beats for thee

Useful Domestic Hints.

THE following is a Recipe, given in an American Paper, to make a very beautiful paint for the walls of staircases and lobbies, the cost of which is less than one-fourth of that of oil colour, and the beauty far superior :

Take four pounds of Roman vitriol, and pour on it a tea-kettle full of boiling water; when dissolved, add two pounds of pearl ash, and stir the mixture well with a stick, until the effervescence ceases, then add a quarter of a pound of pulverised yellow arsenic, and stir the whole together; let it be laid on with a paint or white-wash brush, and if the wall has not been painted before, two, or even three coats will be requisite. To paint a common sized room with this colour, will not cost more than five or six dollars. If a pea-green is required put in less, and if an apple-green, more of the yellow arsenic

To improve Water for Drinking.The following plan may be adopted for this purpose: — Let the water, when boiled, be put into a common barrelchurn, where it may be agitated to any degree that may be wished for. In the course of its being thus agitated, it will absorb atmospheric air, and other elastic fluids with which it may come in contact. It will thus become a liquor, safe, palatable, and wholesome; to be obtained with little trouble and expense; and accessible in its utmost perfection, to the poorest individual.

Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, by all Newsmen and Booksellers.

Of this Cliff, so consecrated by the muse and the name of Shakspeare, the engraving copied from a sketch drawn on the spot, presents a good and picturesque likeness. The Cliff has, within the last few weeks, been somewhat dilapidated by the fall of a large body of the chalk of which it is formed, but it still exhibits a scene terrific, yet grand.

Of all the immortal works of our great bard, there is none more calculated to excite our concern, or to engage our sympathies, than the tragedy of King Lear none in which the mighty resources of Shakspeare's transcendant genius are more eminently displayed; whether we regard its variety of character, its contrasted and conflicting passions, or the rapid succession of the interesting events which form this play.

Shakspeare's commentators have almost universally agreed in ascribing the story of King Lear to Geoffrey of Monmouth, from whom, or from some old legends borrowed from his book, they conclude that our great poet derived his information. It is true that the story is to be found in the works of this historian, but it there appears under the disadvantage of a slovenly translation into Latin from an ancient Welsh history, entitled, Brut y Brenhinoedd, or Chronicle of the Kings, written by Tysilio, a Welsh bishop, at the close of the seventh century, and so called because it gives a history of all the kings of Britain, from Brutus down to Cadwaladr, the last nominal sovereign, who abdicated the throne in the year 686. Although there are several MS. copies of this Chronicle in existence, one of which is preserved in Sir Robert Cotton's collection in the British Museum; yet not one of the English commentators on Shakspeare seems to have been aware even of the existence of such a document.

:

The tragedy of Shakspeare varies in several particulars from the Chronicle of Tysilio the names have also been modernized or Anglicised; thus Llyr has been altered into Lear. The names of his three daughters, which, in the Welsh Chronicle, are Goronilla, Regan, and Cordeilla, are softened by the poet into those of Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. The Welsh name for Scotland used in the original MS. is Alban, whence came the Albany of Shakspeare. In the original story there are many points not preserved in the tragedy, and the poet has also engrafted many incidents on the Welsh story, particularly the episode of Gloucester and his sons, taken from Sydney's Arcadia; and the character of the Steward, borrowed from the "Mirrour of Magistrates " Nor has he adhered to the

original story in killing Cordelia as he has done during the life of her father; which, as Dr. Johnson observes, is not so consonant with our ideas of justice.

In the Welsh story the affection of Cordeilla is strongly depicted; she is represented as having retired to Paris, whither Llyr repaired when he had experienced the ingratitude of Goneril and Regan. On hearing of her father's approach, attended by a single knight only, she sent him the means of providing a retinue more worthy of a British monarch. He has an interview with the King of France (Aganippus), whose aid to recover his kingdom he implores. The French Monarch determines on restoring_Llyr, and gives him the government of France while he raises a powerful army. When this army was assembled, "it was agreed in council to send Cordeilla with Llyr, lest the French should not be obedient to him; and Aganippus commanded the French, as they valued their souls and at their peril, to be as obedient to Llyr and to his daughter as they would be to himself. When they had taken leave, they set off towards the Isle of Britain, and against them came Maglon, Prince of Scotland, and Henwyn, Prince of Cornwall, with all their power, and fought gallantly and severely with them; but owing to the French being so numerous, it did not avail them, for they were put to flight and pursued, and a multitude of them slain. And Llyr and his daughter subdued the island before the end of the year, from one sea to another, and chased his two sons-in-law away out of the island.

After they had reduced the island, they governed it for a long time in peace and quietness, until the death of Llyr, when" Cordelia took the government of the Isle of Britain, and she managed it for five years in peace and tranquillity; and in the sixth year rose her two nephews, sons of her sisters, who were young men of great fame, namely, Morgan, the son of Maglon, Prince of Scotland, and Cunedda, the son of Henwyn, Prince of Cornwall; and they assembled an army, and made war on Cordelia; and after frequent conflicts between them, they subdued the island and took her and confined her in prison. And when she thought of her former grandeur, which she had lost, and that there remained no hopes that she should be again restored, out of excessive anguish she killed herself, which was done by stabbing herself with a knife under her breast, so that she lost her soul. And thereupon it was adjudged, that it was the foulest death of any for a person to kill himself."

Leisure Hours.

No. II.

Poscimur, si quid vacui sub umbra

Lusimus tecum, quod et hunc in annum
Vivat et plures.
HOR.

THE first specimen of my LEISURE

BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST.

With reference to that part of Daniel's interpretation of the hand-writing at Belshazzar's feast, in which he says, "thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting," it is curious to find, that a custom of actually weighing kings is related in Sir Thomas Roe's Voyage to India. From this it may be inferred,

READING AT MEALS.

The changes of habits and manners are, in no case, more apparent or more

curious than in the difference of deport

ment at meals between the ancients and moderns. The Greeks and Romans always employed servants to read to them on these occasions: by the former they were called anagnostes, and by the latter lectores; and it appears from Servius, that women were occasionally employed in this office, as he describes one as lectrix. The Emperor Severus was accustomed to read himself at table; and Cornelius Nepos relates of Atticus, that he never supped without doing so, that "his mind," quoth the historian, "might not be less delighted than his stomach." In Greece it was customary to have the praises of great men sung during meal time; and these effusions were called acroamata. The general practice, however, like all others, was, in time, exposed to abuse; and, accordingly, we learn from Martial, that a certain poetaster, called Ligurinus, was wont to recite his own poems at table to the great disgust of his guests. It would be well, perhaps, if

certain reciters of our times were to take

a hint from this anecdote. But, to return, the same custom is mentioned by Eginhard to have been kept up by Charlemagne, who had the lives and exploits of ancient princes read to him while at table; and St. Augustin ascribes a similar practice to the clergy and monks of his day. Of a nature corresponding with the readers above-mentioned are the storytellers. of the East, of whom persons of rank generally employ two or three, male or female, to amuse them with tales when melancholy or indisposed, and often to lull them asleep. Sir William Temple, in his Essays, notices a similar custom amongst the Irish, who had formerly their story-tellers, descended, as he thinks, from the old Irish bards. The duty of the Domestic Bard at the court of the Welsh princes was also, according to the Laws of Howell, nearly the same; instead of reciting tales, he was to sing songs.

be taken in a more literal sense than it is generally supposed to bear.

HOWLING AT FUNERALS.

This custom, so common in the sister island, seems to have been both ancient and general. It was called by the Greeks Sternotupia, and was in use among several nations of old. Dr. Clarke, in his Travels in Asia, describes it as very general the Narrative of the Congo Expedition, amongst the Arabs; and we find, from published in 1818, that it is of common

use at Embomma in Africa. The Roduty it was to superintend the mode of mans had their prefice, whose particular

lamentation at funerals.

POPE JOAN.

thought to have been once filled by a The papal chair, it is well known, is woman. This was Pope Joan, as she is generally called, or John VII., who was pope during the ninth century. She is described to have been of very dissolute brought great disgrace on the pontifical manners, and, consequently, to have dignity. On this account, measures were taken to prevent the recurrence of such an opprobrium; and Sabellicus tells us, "it was decreed no one should thereafter

be admitted into St. Peter's chair, priusgenitalia ab ultimo diacono cardinale quam perforatam sedem futuri Pontificis attrectarentur." Such is his account, which, for special reasons, I prefer giving in the original. Sabellicus adds, that this porphyry chair was to be seen, in his time, in the Pope's palace; but Platina is of opinion, that it was designed for

another use.

"Non nostrum tantas componere lites." But, be all this as it may, it appears that, in consequence of Pope Joan's incontinent life, the popes, until of late times, were accustomed, in their processions, when they reached the place of her private residence, to turn out of the road into a bye way, and, having passed the obnoxious spot, to return to the original route. mode of electing the popes, above noticed, is thought, by some, to be a mere fiction; but, whether it be so or not, it gave birth to an epigram on the election of Innocent D

The

VIII., which I shall here transcribe. The author is Michael Marullus :

Quid quæris testes, sit mas an fæmina Cibo? Respice natorum, pignora cesta, gregem. Octo nocens pueros genuit, totedemque puellas; Hunc merito poterit dicere Roma Patrem.

DAY AND NIGHT.

It has been very plausibly surmised, from what Moses says in the first chapter of Genesis, respecting the Hebrew Nuc. themeron (" and the evening and the morning were the first day"), that it began with the evening. And it may corroberate this hypothesis to notice, that the ancient Britons and Saxons seem to have reckoned time in the same way. Cæsar particularly alludes to the custom as existing among the Gauls, who are known to have been of kindred descent with the Britons ; and it may be inferred from our ordinary expressions of "fortnight" and "se'nnight," that it was also prevalent amongst the Saxons.

Archbishop Tillotson supposes the custom of embalming so common amongst the ancient Egyptians, to be alluded to in that verse of Ecclesiastes, where Solomon says, a good name is better than precious ointment," chap. vii. verse 1. The meaning of this expression Tillotson considers to be, that" a good name" after death is better than the preservation or embalming of the body by precious ointment."

ROMAN MOURNING.

66

It was a custom amongst the Romans to mourn ten months after the death of any near relative; and during this period they considered it inauspicious to attempt any enterprise of importance. Bossu, the French critic, arguing from this practice, in his attempt to prove the duration of the Eneid, presumes that Æneas did not leave Sicily until about ten months after

the death of his father; because, as founder of the Roman empire, it was his duty to give an example of the customs and rites to be used by his posterity, and, consequently, that it would have been in consistent with such a character for him to have undertaken the descent upon Italy during the time of mourning for the

death of Anchises. But is not Bossu arguing from a fact in support of a fiction? Let the learned decide. OTIOSUS.

THE HISTORY OF BEARDS, WHISKERS, HAIR, BARBERS,

AND HAIR-CUTTING.

(For the Mirror.) VARIOUS have been and still are the ceremonies and customs of different na

tions with regard to the beard. The Tartars once waged a long and bloody war with the Persians, and declared them infidels, though, in other respects, of the same faith with themselves, merely because they would not cut their whiskers after the mode or rite of the Tartars. The Spartans, from the age of twenty years, suffered their hair and beards to grow; the hair being deemed an ornament which became the freeman and warrior. A Spartan being once asked why he wore so long a beard, replied, "Since it is grown white it incessantly reminds me not to dishonour my old age." The Assyrians had long beards; and Chrysostom observes, that the kings of Persia had their beards woven or matted together with gold threads. Some of the first kings of France had, in the same manner, their beards matted and knotted with gold. The Africans wore long beards, as may be seen on the medals of Juba. The Greeks always wore their beards till the time of Alexander, when he commanded the Macedonians to be shaven, lest the length of their beards should give a handle to their enemies. The Romans for a long time wore beards and long hair. Pliny says the Romans did not begin to shave till the year of Rome 454. Scipio Africanus was the first who introduced the mode of shaving every day.* whose memory the cutlers of Sheffield ought to erect a statue of steel.) The philosophers, however, retained the beard; and the military men wore it short and frizzled, as we see it upon the triumphal arches and other monuments. time of grief and affliction they suffered their beard and hair to grow, as was the case with M. Livius in his retirement from Rome, and with Augustus after the defeat of Varus. The Greeks, on the contrary, in time of grief, cut their hair and shaved their beards (see Seneca);

(To

In the

which was also the custom among some

barbarian nations. The first fourteen Roman emperors shaved till the time of the Emperor Adrian, who retained the mode of wearing the beard. Plutarch tells us he did it to hide the scars in his face. Among the Catti, (a nation of Germany, a young man was not allowed

to shave or cut his hair till he had slain an enemy (see Tacitus). Among the Jews it was reckoned ignominious to shave a person's beard, (2 Sam. x. 4). The dav on which the young men, among the Greeks and Romans, first shaved the beard, was a festival; visits of ceremony were paid them; and they received pre

day) makes in one year 43,900 strokes with the It is calculated that a person (shaving every