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an orphan at his first entrance into the world, with every preffure of diftrefs, and was taken into the fervice of the bishop of Avila, in whofe praife he wrote feveral paftorals, and made his first drama tic effay, with a comedy entitled La Paftoral de Jacinto. He foon after quitted his patron, went to the univerfity of Alcala, where he ftudied philofophy, and took a degree, then returned to Madrid, and became fecretary to the duke of Alva, who entrusted him with his noft weighty concerns. Encouraged by his new Mecanas, he again tuned his lyre, and fung his praife in a poem entitled Arcadia, About this time he married Dona Isabella de Urbina, a lady of fashion, on account of whofe gallantries he foon after fought a duel, and having griev oufly wounded his antagonist, fled to Valencia, where he lived fome years; after which he returned again to Madrid, where lofing his wife, he felt himfelf animated with a military ardour, and repaired to Cadiz to emba k on board the great armada, fitting out by Philip the fecond, against Queen Eliz beth. In this fleet he failed for Lisbon in company with his brother, a lieutenant in the Spanish navy, who loft his life in that expedition. Our poet had his fhare of the inisfortunes of that disappointed fleet, and appeared at Madrid without a fingle friend, became fecretary to the marquis of Malpica, and afterwards to the count of Lemos, Though his first marriage was fo unfuccesful, he was in hopes of eing more fortunate in that fate with Dona Juana de Guardia, a lady of rank,

whom he foon after loft. Inconfolable at these repeated afflictions, he entered into the ecclefiaftic ftate, was ordained a priest, and appointed head chaplain to a congregation of priests at Madrid, though he ftill courted the mufes, making this the chief relaxation that foftened his forrows He was now in the zenith of his poetic glory, and his reputation became fo univerfal, that Pope Urban the eighth fent him the degree of doc tor in divinity, and the cross of the order of Malta, added to a lucrative poft in the apoftolic exchequer, which Lope held to his death, which happened in his feventy-third year, to the great regret of the court, and every learned man in the kingdom. The duke of Sefa, who was his patron and executor, caufed him to be interred at his own expence, with fuch pomp and magnificence as had never been feen before for a private perfon; the duke invited all the grandees of the kingdom, who attended in perfon, in token of their concern at the lofs of fo diftinguished a character. The funeral obfequies lafted three days, all the clergy of the king's chapel affitted, three bifhops officiated pontifically, and three of the most eloquent ora ors exerted themselves in praife of the deceased, adding new laurels to the fame of Lope de Vega, with whom, when living, many princes gloried in being acquainted. Pope Urban wrote him a letter in anfwer to a dedication of his poem in favour of Mary queen of Scots, entitled Corona tragica de Maria Stua do. Cardinai Barbarini held a very intimate correfpondence with him, as did

many

ter, and blazed out inceffantly. So extraordinary was the rapidity of his genius, he would often finish a play in twenty-four hours, and fome comedies in lefs than five hours, with as much correctness and elegance in his verfe, as the moft laboured pieces of other writers of his time. Such was the contemporary of Sir Philip Sidney, Shakespeare, and Spenfer; in his Laurel de Apollo he has celebrated all the good poets of his time, but none were more univerfally praised from all parts than himself; his furprifing faculties were fuch, that in his dramatic pieces he broke through all rules of art, yet fuch was his fuccefs, that he was conftantly the favourite of the public, and drew perpetual bursts of applaufe. It was not his fault if his fucceffors had not his talents to conceal their defects, and only imitated his imperfections, rendering the Spanish drama infupportable when deprived of the beauties. of Lope: this was foreseen by Cervantes, who reproaches our poet with destroying the rules of the drama, as laid down by the ancients, in order to court popular applaufe; to obtain which he loft fight of every idea of nature or good tafte, adding, that the probability of fable dwindled in his hands, and was wafted away by the enchanting magic of verfe; all unity of time and place was annihilated; his heroes came out of their cradles, and wandered from eaft or weft a lovers or combatants, put on the cowl of monks, died in cloifters, and worked miracles on the ftage. The scene is tranfported from Italy to Flanders, and as eafily fhifted from Valencia to Mexico. Footmen difcourse

many other cardinals and noblemen, who courted his friendship. When he walked in the streets, he was gazed upon and followed as a prodigy; he was, moreover, loaded with prefents, and by the rapid fale of his numerous works, foon amaffed a confiderable fortune, and acquired a capital of 150,000 ducats, befides his annual income of fifteen hundred ducats, arifing out of his benefices and employnents; fo great was the fertility of his genius, the amazing readinefs of his wit and rapidity of thought, added to his animated expreffion, that perhaps there never was a poet in the world, either ancient or modern, that could be compared to him,-His lyric compofitions and fugitive pieces, with his profe effays, form a collection of fifty volumes, befides his dramatic works, which make twentyfix volumes more; exclufive of four hundred fcriptural dramatic pieces, called in Spain Autos Sacramentales, all which were fucceffively brought on the ftage; and what is still more extraordinary, fpeaking of his printed works, in one of his paftorals to Claudio, he fays, they form the leaft part of what ftill remained in his clofet. It appears from his own authority, that he ufed conftantly to write five sheets a day, which multiplied by the days of his life, would make 133,225 fheets; then reckoning the number of verfes correfponding to each fheet, it will appear that, exclufive of profe, he wrote 21,3 16,000 verfes, an unheard of exertion and facility of verfification! Our author poffeffing an inexhauftible fund, which, like the fire of Vefuvius, continually affordednew mat

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like courtiers, princes like bullies, and ladies like chambermaids. The actors appear in legions, often feventy at a time and clofe with numerous proceffions, which are ftill kept up with us, as well as opening graves, and burying the dead, performing the most awful rites of mortality by way of amufement, which for my part I muft own makes my heart recoil at the difmel fight; nor can the most captivating language of Shakefpeare overcome my feelings at this glaring indecorum.

So fenfible was Lope of the wildness of his imagination, and how wantonly he fported with the confidence of the public, that fpeaking of himself, he acknowledges his fault in the follwing words:

Mas ninguno de todos Ilamar puedo
Mas barbaro que yo, pues contra el arte
Me atrevo a dar preceptos, y me dexo
Llevar de la vulgar corriente, a donde
Me llaman ignorante, Italia y Francia.
And again,

Y efcrivo por el arte, que inventaron
Los que el vulgar aplauso pretendieron

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That is, "that he was fenfible of the reproaches Italy and France would make him for breaking through all rules to please the ig norant public, but fince it was they that paid for it, they had a right to be pleased in their own way."

I have now given you both fides of the question, respecting this great man; were I to fpeak to you of his perfonal virtues, they are yet fuperior to his literary talents. His benevolence and charity towards the indigent and diftreffed was fo great, that he always extended his hand to the needy, infomuch that, notwithstanding his confiderable fortune and income, not more than fix thousand ducats were found at his death-O illuftrious bard, if an Englishman is not capable of doing juftice to thy poetical numbers, and the harmony of thy verse, accept at least of this tribute to the goodness of thy heart!

NATURAL

NATURAL HISTORY.

Natural Hiftory and Defcription of the Tyger Cat of the Cape of Good Hope, by John Reinhold Forfter. LL.D. F.R. and A.S. from Vol. 71 of the Philofophical Tranfactions.

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NEWtribes of quadrupeds have in Africa more reprefentatives of their different fpecies than that of the cat. The genus of antelopes may perhaps be excepted, fince, to my knowledge, about twenty different ghazels and antelopes are to be met with in Africa; but no more than about eight or nine of the cat tribe have hitherto been discovered on that continent. However, I know about twentyone different fpecies of this great clafs; and, I fuppofe, these by no means exhauft this numerous tribe. The greater and more numerous the different genera of animals are, the more difficult it must be to the natural historian properly to arrange the whole of fuch an extenfive divifion of animals, especially if they are not equally well known. To form new genera, in order to difpofe and arrange them under, is a remedy which increases the evil instead of curing it. The beft method, therefore which can be devifed, is to make great divifions in each genus, comprehending thofe fpecies which, on account

of fome common relation or character have a great affinity to one another. The genus of cat, to which the animal belongs we are going to speak of more at large, offers three very easy and natural fubdivisions. The first comprehends animals related to the cat tribe, with long hair or manes on their necks; fecondly, fuch as have remarkably long tails without any marks of a mane on their necks; laftly, fuch as have a brush of hair on the tips of their ears, and fhorter tails than the fecond fubdivifion. The first might be called in Latin Feles jubata ; the fecond fubdivifion should be named Elure; and the third and laft, Lynces. To the firft fubdivifion the lion and the hunting leopard or Indian chittah, belong. The fecond fubdivifion confifts of the tyger, the panther, the leopard, the ounce, the puma, the jaguar-ete, the jaguara, the ocelot, the gingy of Congo, the Marakaya, the tyger cat of the Cape or the nfuffi of Congo, the ibetan tyger-cat which I faw at Peterfburg, the common bush-cat of the Cape; and, laftly, the wild cat, and its domestic varieties.— To the third divifion belong the lynx, the caracal, the ferval, the bay lynx, and the ghaus of Profeffor Guldenstedt.

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Since

Since it is quite foreign to my purpose to speak of thofe fpecies which are known already to the naturalifts, I confine myself to that species only which hitherto has been imperfectly known to naturalifts."

The first notice we had of, the Cape cat is, in my opinion, to be met with in Labat's Relation Hiftorique de l'Ethiopie occidentale, tom. I. p. 177. taken as is fuppofed from Father Carazzi. Labat mentions there the 'nfuffi, a kind of wild cat of the fize of a dog, with a coat as much striped and varied as that of a tyger. Its appearance befpeaks cruelty, and its eyes fierceness; but it is cowardly, and gets its prey only by cunning and infidious arts. All these characters are perfectly applicable to the Cape cat, and it feems the animal is found in all parts of Africa, from Congo to the Cape of Good Hope, in an extent of country of about eleven degrees of latitude. Kolbe, in his Prefent State of the Cape of Good Hope, vol. II. p. 127. (of the English edition) fpeaks of a tyger bufhcat, which he defcribes as the largest of all the wild cats of the Cape countries, and is fpotted fomething like a tyger. A fkin of this animal was feen by Mr. Pennant in a furrier's fhop in London, who thought it came from the Cape of Good Hope; from this fkin Mr. Pennant gave the first description which could be of any utility to a natural historian. All the other authors mention this animal in a vague manner. When I and my fon touched the fecond time at the Cape of Good Hope in the year 1775, an animal of

this fpecies was offered me to purchafe; but I refufed buying it because it had a broken leg, which made me apprehenfive of lofing it by death during the pasfage from the Cape to London. It was very gentle and tame. It was brought in a basket to my apartment, where I kept it above four and twenty hours, which gave me the opportunity of describing it, and of observing its manners and economy; as it did to my fon that of making a very accurate drawing of it.

After a moft minute examination, I found its manners and economy perfectly analogous to thofe of our domeftic cats. It ate frefh raw meat, and was very much attached to its feeders and benefactors: though it had broke the fore-leg by accident, it nevertheless was very easy. After it had been feveral times fed by me, it foon followed me like a tame favourite cat. It liked to be ftroked and careffed; it rubbed its head and back always against the perfon's clothes who fed it, and defired to be made much of. It purred as our domeftic cats do when they are pleafed. It had been taken when quite young in the woods, and was not above eight or nine months old; I can, however, pofitively aver, having feen many skins of full-grown tyger-cats, that it had already very nearly, if not quite, attained its full-growth. I was told, that the tyger-cats live in mountainous and woody tracts, and that in their wild ftate they are very great deftroyers of hares, rabbits, yerbuas, young antelopes, lambkins, and of all the feathered tribe.

DESCRIPTIO

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