1. Οἱ Πυθαγορίζοντες γὰρ, ὡς ἀκούομεν, οὔτ ̓ ὄψον ἐσθίουσιν οὔτ ̓ ἄλλ ̓ οὐδὲ ἐν ἔμψυχον, οἶνόν τ' οὐχὶ πίνουσιν μόνοι. Επιχαρίδης μέντοι κύνας κατεσθίει, τῶν Πυθαγορείων εἷς. Β. ἀποκτείνας μὲν οὖν• οὐκ ἔτι γάρ ἐστ ̓ ἔμψυχον. ALEXIS, Athen. lib. iv. p. 161. B. Pythagorisantes enim, ut accipimus, nec pisces comedunt, nec aliud quidquam animatum, et vinum soli non bibunt. Epicharides quidem canibus vescitur, Pythagoreorum unus. B. Postquam occidit nempe : non enim tum amplius anima eis inest. 2. Πυθαγορισμοὶ καὶ λόγοι SCHWEIGH. λεπτοὶ, διεσμιλευμέναι τε φροντίδες IDEM, ibid. p. 161. B. G. lar alluded to. The Classical Tripos at Cambridge, in spite of the narrowminded opposition which it at first met with, flourishes there "in the full vigour of life," and at Colleges, which before were strictly mathematical, the reward of a fellowship is now proffered, without reserve, to those who rank high in it. I have not heard that Oxford men are growing exclusively philosophical. I cannot persuade me, that, as science advances, classical literature must necessarily go down. I am sure, that, under an amiable and enlightened Queen,-who knows well what should be culled from the example of her illustrious ancestress Elizabeth-the cause of classical learning cannot suffer degradation. The extinction of the study of the ancient languages in a civilised nation is the surest proof of its being already demoralised. When science was patronised by the Emperor Napoleon to the utter exclusion of the belles lettres, where was the morality of France? where was its religion? JAMES BAILEY, M.A. Mr. URBAN, Cork, Sept. 21. I REGRET that no publicity has been given to the very extensive discoveries of Ogham inscriptions which have for some years been making in the south of Ireland, by Mr. A. Abel and other gentlemen. No less than several dozen inscriptions of this sort have been found and copied ; but from the large size of the stones which con-, tain them, and the little encouragement afforded in this country to lite rary or scientific projects, most of them are allowed to remain in their remote and obscure situations. Three however have been deposited in the Royal Cork Institution. There is a general impression that Oghams are of no very ancient date, being merely secret modes of writing. In this idea I myself acquiesced until lately. But the situation of some Ogham stones, lately discovered at Dunlo, in the county of Kerry, goes far to shake this opinion. A subterranean chamber and narrow passage leading to it were accidentally opened. The roof was formed of long flat stones, containing Oghams, which lapped over one another, so as in some instances to conceal the inscriptions, and show that they were designed without any relation to the structure. These underground apartments were of the remotest antiquity. Gildas mentions them as the habitations of the Scots or Irish at the time when that people, with the Picts, ravaged Britain. It is manifest that the Oghams abovementioned were more ancient than the cell of which they formed the roof; and that they were collected from the surrounding country, in order to be applied to that purpose, being most suitable in size and shape; and from the little veneration thus shown to them, it is probable that they were of such extreme antiquity that their nature and origin were then wholly forgotten. I may also mention that a human skeleton, and the bones of some other animal, were found in the cell. Yours, &c. CORCAGIENSIS. RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. WORKS OF THE CAMDEN SOCIETY. IN noticing the appearance of the Second and Third works of the Camden Society, we have much pleasure in remarking the prosperity and increase of the Society itself. We were before so well satisfied of the excellence of its plan, and the judgment of its directing Council, that we felt that it was a numerous body of members that was alone required to render the small individual subscription efficient for the objects in view. Its numbers are now closely approaching to 600; and we think there is every probability of their arriving, before the close of the first year, at the full number to which it has been judged expedient to limit them. With such means we have no doubt that its works will appear in rapid succession; and we heartily welcome the two valuable volumes before us. Kynge Johan; a Play in two Parts. By John Bale. Edited by J. Payne Collier, Esq. F.S.A. from a MS, of the Author in the library of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire. This highly curious production of that very violent and hot-headed Reformer, the celebrated John Bale, is mentioned by its author in the list of his own works which he gives in his Scriptorum Summarium, where among his twenty-two dramatic picces in idiomate materno is this De Joanne Anglorum rege: its existence was, however, only recently discovered, when it was purchased for the matchless dramatic collection of the Duke of Devonshire. It is supposed to have been preserved at Ipswich among papers belonging to the Corporation; and there are indications of its having been performed in the towns of Suffolk, of which county the author was a native. was probably written in the reign of Edward the Sixth; but there are alterations which must have been made subsequently to the succession of Elizabeth. It This is in fact one of the engines, and no very slight or inefficient one, by which the great revolution in religious opinions was effected. The "popetly playe" (p. 17) by which the Church of Rome had first instructed the ignorant people in the leading events of Scripture history, and afterwards confused their faith with a long train of idolatrous legends and degrading absurdities, is here turned into a weapon against herself. She was now herself to be brought upon the stage, her falsehoods refuted, her deformities exposed, and her vanities ridiculed, with all the licence of caricature. The populace were still to be indulged with their laugh, but it was not to be any longer directed against the buffooneries of Cain, or the dishonesties of Judas Iscariot, but against the craft of the priest, the luxury of the monk, the pride of the bishop, the covetousness of the Pope, and against those ceremonies and pageantries which they had hitherto regarded as awful rites and sacred if unintelligible mysteries. The object of Bale in his present production was to present to the people, after the just dramatic axiom, veluti in speculo, their own struggles with the Church of Rome. For this object he selected as the groundwork of his play, the most prominent period of English history when the authority of the Pope had been resisted. In so doing, we are told by Mr. Collier, he made the first approach to that historical drama, which afterwards arrived at its perfection in the hands of Shakspeare. The historical characters are King John, Pope Innocent, Cardinal Pandulphus, Archbishop Langton, the monk Simon of Swinshead, and another called Raymondus; besides whom are several abstract impersonations, namely, Engiand, represented as a widow; Imperial Majesty, who is supposed to take the reins of government after King John has been poisoned; the three estates of Nobility, Clergy, and Civil Order (representing the magistracy); Treason, Verity, and Sedition, the last of whom is the Vice or Jester of the piece. "Thus (observes Mr. Collier) we have many of the elements of historical plays, such as they were acted at our public theatres forty or fifty years afterwards, as well as some of the ordinary materials of the old moralities, which were gradually exploded by the introduction of real or imaginary characters on the scene. Bale's play, therefore, occupies an intermediate place between moralities and historical plays, and it is the only known existing specimen of that species of composition of so carly a date. The interlude, of which the characters are given in Mr. Kempe's Loseley Manuscripts, p. 64, was evidently entirely allegorical; and the plays of Cambyses and Appius and Virginia are not English subjects, and belong to a later period of our drama. On this account, if on no other, Kynge Johan deserves the special attention of literary and poetical antiquaries." The various imperfections of character which contributed to the ruin of the actual King John, are not admitted into the composition before us: he appears no otherwise than as a chivalrous monarch, commissioned alike by generosity and duty to relieve the impoverished condition of the widow England, and all his misfortunes are attributed to the malice of the Clergy. "This noble Kynge Johan, as a faythfull Moyses, This is part of the speech of "The Intrepretour," p. 43. By way of specimen of the poetry as well as the spirit of the composition, we will now make some brief extracts. The following is from the first interview of King John and Sedition: "K. J. But what is thy name, tell me yett onys agayne? S. As I sayd afore, I am Sedycyon playne: In every relygyon and munkysh secte I rayne, K. J. I pray the, good frynd, tell me what ys thy facyon? And wyll be so long as they last and endwer. K. J. Yff thow be a cloysterer, tell of what order thow art? I am ower syre John sumtyme with a new shaven crowne, A graye fryer sumtyme with cutt shoes and a rope : Sumtyme I can playe the whyght monke, sumtyme the fryer, In p. 17 the King thus pleads the cause of England: And them to maynteyn unresonable ys the spoyle Of her londs, her goods, and of her pore chylders toyle. Rekyn fyrst yowr tythis, yowr devocyons, and yowr offrynges, Evyn to dewore her and eat her upp att onnys. C. Yow wold have no churche, I wene, by thes sacred bones. But of faythfull hartes and charytable doynges; For whan Christes Chyrch was in her hyeste glory She knew neyther thes sectes nor their ipocrysy. *So in the MS. but we suspect it should be a Charter-house monk, or Carthusian. -Rev. A quene, sayth Davyd, on thy ryght hand, Lord, I se K. J. What ys yowr meanyng by that same scripture, tell me? Munks, chanons and fryers, most excellent dyvynis, Clarynes and Columbynes, Templers, newe Ninivytes, Hungaryes, Teutonykes, Hospitelers, Honofrynes, Paulynes, Hieronymytes, and Monkes of Josaphathes Valleye, Archedecons and pristes, as to ther fortune falles. S. O. Me thynkyth yowr fyrst text stondeth nothyng with yowr reson, For in Davydes tyme wer no such sects of relygyon. K. J. Davyd meanyth vertuys by the same diversyte, As in the sayd psalme yt is evydent to se, And not munkysh sects; but it is ever yowr cast For yowr advancement the scripturs for to wrast." We have only room to add the terms in which the Pope curses King John. "For as moch as kyng Johan doth Holy Church so handle, Here I do curse hym wyth crosse, boke, bell and candle. I take hym from Crist, and after the sownd of this bell, I take from hym baptym, with the other sacramentes And sufferages of the churche, bothe amber dayes and lentes. King John is at length poisoned; but finally the scene shifts forward some centuries. Sedition is led away to the gallows, and the prospect is opened of the spread of the Gospel and its principles, under the godly rule of Queen Elizabeth. Of the many reflections on the religious and political sentiments of the times arising from this performance, we may point out one of the most important. It is that the doctrine of the jus divinum in the monarch, which made the Tudors so arbitrary and the Stuarts so unfortunate, was cherished in its growth by its having been inculcated with the object of excluding the papal and ecclesiastical authority. Thus, at p. 5, in reply to an assertion of the pope's supremacy over "bothe kyng and keyser," England replies "Trwly of the devyll they are that do ony thyng |