BIOGRAPHY. THE LATE CHARLES DIBDIN. Charles Dibdin was born at Southampton on the 15th of March 1745; he was the eighteenth child, and his mother was fifty at his birth. He had a brother twenty-nine years older than himself, Thomas Dibdin, on whose death he wrote the beautiful ballad of "Poor Tom Bowling." He was Cap. tain of an East Indiaman, and father of the present Reverend Thomas Frog. nall Dibdin, of black letter celebrity. Charles Dibdin was educated at Winchester, and intended for the Church, but music was his darling passion. Fuseli, the organist of Winchester Cathedral, taught him the gamut, when only nine years of age, and this was almost his only instruction; yet, so eagerly and so successfully did he prosecute self-tuition, that at the age of sixteen, he brought out an opera, in two acts, called "The Shepherd's Artifice," acted at Covent Garden, and which was entirely written and composed by himself. From this time he became an active composer of music for operas, and soon afterwards commenced actor, in the character of " Dametas," in "Midas;" but his best performances were "Mungo," in the "Padlock," and "Ralph," in the "Maid of the Mill," in both of which it has been said he has never been equalled. In the latter character he was encored in all the songs, his salary augmented thirty shillings a week, and Ralph handker chiefs were worn as frequently as Belcher's in the days of that hero of the fist. Dr. Knox paid a high compliment to the chasteness of Dibdin's muse, when he was told that he was the only man he ever saw that could convey a sermon through the medium of a comic song. Dibdin, independent of his songs, about nine hundred in number, wrote nearly seventy dramatic pieces, and set to music fifteen or sixteen, the production of other writers. Dibdin both wrote and composed with great facility; he said the same impulse that inspired the words generally gave birth to the music; and thirty of his prominent songs did not cost him more than three-quarters of an hour labour each. BUONAPARTE'S LITERARY WORKS. 1. Letter of M. Buonaparte to M. Matteo Buttafuoco, Deputy from Corsica to the National Assembly, 1790. This letter is signed "Buonaparte," and dated "from my Cabinet of Milleli, the 28th January, in the second year of Liberty”—i. e. 1790. It consists of 28 pages octavo, and is without either place of publication or printer's name. It has been ascertained, however, to have issued from the press of M. Fr. X. Joly, printer at Dôle, when Buonaparte was Lieutenant in the regiment He corrected of La Fère-Artillerie. the last proof sheets himself, and used to walk to Dôle for that purpose; setting out from Auxonne at 4 o'clock in the morning; and, after his literary labour, partaking of a very frugal breakfast with M. Joly, from whose house he walked back to his garri son by noon. The distance, to and fro, thus performed, is eight Post leagues!! This letter to M. Buttafuoco is in effect a libel, written in an ItalicoFrench style, against this Deputy of the Corsican Noblesse, who sat on the Right Side of the Constituent Assembly. It adverts to a Patriotic Society at Ajaccio, and contains a panegyric upon the author's compatriot Arena, whom he afterwards caused to perish on the scaffold. Mr. Amanthon, of Dijon, has a copy ex autoris dono to a female of Auxonne. 2. The Supper of Beaucaire. Avig. non, Sabin Tournal, 1793. Octavo and Anonymous. Reprinted at Paris 1821, with an Introduction by Fred. Royou. of the Letters, Proclamations, Speeches, 3. General and Complete Collection Messages, &c. of Napoleon le Grand, Empereur, &c. classed and accompa nied by Historical Notes. Published by C. A. Fischer, Leipsig. 2 vols. 8vo. 1808 and 1813. 4. Inedited Correspondence, official and confidential, of Napoléon Buonaparte, &c. Paris, Panckoucke. 18191820. 7 vols. 8vo. 5. Works of Napoléon Buonaparte. Paris, Panckoucke. 1819-1820. 8vo. with Portraits. Five volumes are published, and two or three more expected, including the Manuscripts from St. Helena. 4. Memoir to serve for the History of France in 1815, with the Plan of the Battle of Mont-Saint-Jean (Waterloo). Paris, Barrois, sen. 1820. 8vo. An Edition in 18mo. with the title differing a little, is also in circulation. copy came from Mr. O'Meara to the Printer; as he swore upon his trial for publishing it. The 5. On the Education of Princes of the Blood of France. Lackington, London 1820. 8vo. Dated St. Cloud, 27 July 1812. The English translation is called, "System of Education for the Infant King of Rome;" and the Manual is said to have been addressed to the Imperial Council of State, under the perional inspection of Napoleon. 6. Buonaparte sometimes sent Notes to the Moniteur, on the Translations from the English Journals, which were submitted to him. The article headed "Angleterre" in the Moniteur under the Imperial Government, is frequently loaded with Notes. M. Barrère de Viensac was the person appointed to write them; but the most violent are from Buonaparte's own hand. Inedited Works of Buonaparte. 1. M. Panckoucke has announced an Essay sent by Buonaparte, when very young, for a prize given by the Academy at Besançon. 2. M. Joly (the Printer at Dôle) states, that Buonaparte, in his youth, also wrote a History of Corsica, which was to have been printed in 2 vols. 12mo. When in garrison at Auxonne, in 1790, he invited M. Joly to come and see him, and negotiate for the printing of the work. M. Joly accordingly went. Buonaparte occupied in the Pavillion a chamber almost bare, the sum total of its furniture being a bad bed without curtains, a table set in the embrasure of a window, covered with books and papers, and two chairs. One of his brothers slept on a bad mattress in an adjoining apartment. They agreed upon the price for the impression, but Buonaparte was momentarily uncertain whether he should be marched from Auxonne or remain there; and, in fact, the order for his going to Toulon came within a few days after, and the work was never printed. M. Joly repeats an anecdote, that Buonaparte having the charge of the depôt with the ornaments of the Regimental Church, (the chaplaincy having been suppressed), observed to him, when showing them, "If you have not heard mass, I can say it to you." 3. Buonaparte read to the Institute in January 1798, a "Report on a Polygraphical Instrument" for printing circulars with rapidity. 4. The Hamburgh Correspondenten of March last, states, that Count Dzialinski has an interesting MS. of from 30 to 40 folio pages, verified to be Buonaparte's, by Montholon, Monnier, and Bassano, containing many curious documents on the history of the times, from about the year 1790 to the commencement of the war in Italy. Parts relate to a plan for improving the Turkish Artillery, and more important Notes, &c. to the Plan of Operations in the first Spanish Campaign, and to secret plans for settling the Austrian and French frontiers. 5. Lastly, The Memoirs of his Life, written by Buonaparte at St. Helena. THE HOUSEWIFE. No. VII. BOLUSSES FOR THE RHEUMATISM AND CONTRACTIONS OF THE JOINTS. Bruise four cloves of garlic with two drachms of gum ammoniac, and make them into six bolusses with spring water. Take one every morning and evening, drinking plentifully of strong sassafras tea, at least twice a day, while using this medicine. This is said to be a most effectual remedy for the rheumatism, and equally good in contractions of the joints. Apply spirits of salt with a bit of soft sponge, and the ink will soon disappear if done once or twice at short intervals. Take half a grain each of opium and yellow sub-sulphate of quicksilver, formerly called turpeth mineral; make them into a pill, and place it in the hollow of the tooth some hours before bed-time, with a small piece of wax over the top; when it is said never to fail effecting a complete cure. OIL OF BROWN PAPER FOR Take a piece of the thickest coarse brown paper, and dip it in the best salad oil; then set the paper on fire, and carefully preserve all the oil that drops, for use. LIQUID FOR REMOVING SPOTS CAPITAL FISH SAUCE. Take three well-beaten yolks of LONDINIANA. SAINT PAUL'S SCHOOL. This excellent institution was foundin the reign of Henry VIII. by John Colet, D. D. Dean of St. Paul's, who resolved, that as the city was deficient in public schools, the sons of his fellow citizens should partake largely of his gratitude for the success of his family, while the whole kingdom might at the same time enjoy the good effects of his bounty and of a classical education. In 1509, he began seriously to carry his design into effect; and conveyed the whole of his estate in London to the Mercers' Company, in trust for the endowment of his school. He also drew up rules for the government of his school, by which he directed, that ' in the grammar-school there should be a high master, chosen by the wardens and assistants of the Mercers' Company; he was to be a man hoole in in good and cleane Latin literature, body, honest and vertuous, and learned and also in Greke, yf such may be gotten; a wedded man, a single man, or a prieste that hath no benefice with cure, and no service that may lett the due business in the schole.' The wages of this master was fixed at a mark a weke, and a lyvery gown of four nobles, delivered in cloth; and a was unable to teach any longer. pension of 101. per annum when he a surmaister, There was also to be " some man vertuouse in livinge, and well lettered, that shall teach under the maister.' He was to be appointed by the high master, with the approbation of the surveyors, and to receive 68. 8 d. a week, and a livery gown of four nobles, delivered in cloth. The surveyors, on acknowledging him as surmaster, are to expect him to do his duty, and say unto him, 'Your roome is no perpetuate, but according to your labour and diligence, otherwise found not according and reasonable, warned of us ye shall departe.' A chaplain was appointed with a salary of 81. per annum, and a livery gown of 26s. 8d. delivered in cloth. The rules as to the admission of children, and the regulations respecting them, are as follow: There shall be taught in the scole, children of all nations and contres indif ferently, to the number of one hundred L'ALLEGRO. and fifty-three, according to the number of the seates in the schole. The maister shall admit these children as they be offered from tyme to tyme; but first see that they canne say the Catechyzon, and also that he can rede and write competently, else let him not be admitted in no wise. A child, at the first admission, once for ever, shal pay 4 d. for wrytinge of his name: this money of the admissions shall the poor scoler have, that swep eth the schole, and kepeth the seats cleane. In every forme one principal childe shal be placid in the chayre, president of that forme. The children shall come unto the schole in the mornynge at seven of the clocke, both in winter and somer, and tarye there untyl eleven, and return againe at one of the clocke, and depart at five. And thrise in the daye prostrate they shall say the prayers, with due tract and pausing, as they be conteyned in a table in the schole, that is to say, in the mornynge, and at none, and at eveninge. 'In the sole, in no tyme in the yere, they shall use talough condell in no wise, but al only waxe candell, at the costes of theyr frendes. Also I will they bring no meate, nor drinke, nor bottel, nor use in the schole no breakfasts, nor drinkings, in the tyme of learnynge in no wise; yf they nede drinke, let them be provided in some other place. "I will they use no cock-fyghtynge, nor rydinge about of victorye, nor disputing at Saint Bartilimewe, which is but foolish babling and losse of tyme. I will also that they shal have no remedyes*: if the maister granteth any remedyes, he shall forfeit 40 s. totiens quotiens, excepte the Kyng, or an archbishop, or a bishop, present, in his own person in the scole desire it. 'All these children shall, every Childermast daye, come to Paulis Church, and heare the childe bishop sermon; and after be at high masse, and each of them offer a penny to the childe bishop, and with them the maisters and purveyors of the scole§. [To be continued.] Alluding to the number of fish taken by Holy Innocents' day, 28th December. and if he died in the interval, was buried in that habit, or represented in it, as at Salisbury. No. VI. SNUFF TAKING. Every professed, inveterate, and incurable snuff-taker, at a moderate computation, takes minutes. Every pinch, with the agreeone pinch in ten able ceremony of blowing and wiping the nose, and other incidental circumstances, consumes a minute and a half. One minute and a half out of every ten, allowing sixteen hours to a snufftwenty-four minutes out of every nataking day, amounts to two hours and tural day, or one day out of every ten. One day out of every ten amounts to thirty-six days and a half in every year. Hence, if we suppose the practice to be persisted in forty years, two entire years of the snuff-taker's life will be dedicated to tickling his nose, and two more to blowing it. VICARS OF BRAY. The Vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, was a Papist, under the reign of Henry VIII. and a Protestant under Edward VI.; he was a Papist again under Mary, and once more became a Protestant in the reign of Elizabeth. When this scandal to the gown was reproached for his versatility of religious creeds, and taxed for being a turncoat and an inconstant changeling, as Fuller expresses it, he replied, "Not so neither; for if I changed my religion, I am sure I kept true to my principle, which is to live and die Vicar of Bray!" This vivacious and Reverend hero has given birth to a proverb peculiar to this country, "The Vicar of Bray will be Vicar of Bray still." But how has it happened that this Vicar should be so notorious, and one in much higher rank, acting the same part, should have escaped notice? Dr. Kitchen, Bishop of Llandaff, from an idle Abbot under Henry VIII. was made a busy bishop; Protestant under Edward, he returned to his old master under Mary; and at last took the oath of supremacy under Elizabeth, and finished as a Parliamentary Prohis name; for they said that he had testant. A pun spread the odium of always loved the Kitchen better than the Church! THE MUSES' WILD WREATH. From spleen at beholding the young THE OLD MAID'S PRAYER TO DIANA. Since thou and the stars my dear Goddess decree That, old maid as I am, an old maid I must be, Oh! hear the petition I offer to thee, For to bear it must be my en deavour; From the grief of my friendships all dropping around, Till not one whom I loved in my youth can be found, From the legacy-hunters that near us abound, Diana, thy servant deliver! From the scorn of the young, or the flouts of the gay, From all the trite ridicule rattled away By the pert ones who know nothing better to say, (Or a spirit to laugh at them give her ;) From pining at fancied neglected desert, Or vain of a civil speech, bridling alert, From finical niceness, or slatternly dirt, Diana, thy servant deliver! From over solicitous guarding of pelf, From humour unchek'd, that most pestilent elf, From every unsocial attention to self, Orridiculous whim whatsoever; From the vapourish freaks or methodical airs Apt to sprout in a brain that's exempted from cares, From impertinent meddling in other's affairs, Diana, thy servant deliver! From the erring attachments of deso late souls, From the love of spadille and of matadore boles, Of lap-dogs, and parrots, and monkies, and owls, Be they ne'er so uncommon and clever; But chief from the love with all love liness flown, Which makes the dim eye condescend to look down On some ape of a fop, or some owl of a clown, Diana, thy servant deliver! |