Quin used to say, that every king in Europe would rise with a crick in his neck on this day.-A person disputing with Quin concerning the execution of Charles I. triumphantly asked, "By what law was he put to death?" Quin replied, By all the laws he had left them."

Howell wrote some curious lines on the death of Charles the First: they present a pure specimen of the bathos.

So fell the royal oak by a wild crew

Of mongrel shrubs which underneath him grew;

So fell the lion by a pack of curs;

So the rose wither'd 'twixt a knot of burs;

So fell the eagle by a swarm of gnats :

So the whale perish'd by a shoal of sprats.

After all, the divine right of beauty is the only one an Englishman ought to acknowledge, and a pretty woman the only tyrant he is not authorized to resist.-(Junius.)

THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON.

His

THIS gentleman's history is so well known, that a lengthened repetition of it is needless; suffice to say, that, at the age of twenty, he could speak and write to perfection in ten dif ferent languages, had run through the whole circle of the sciences, and could ride, dance, sing, and play most excellently upon musical instruments; he painted admirably, fenced so well that none dared fight with him; in fact, was altogether so wonderful, that by some he was set down as ANTICHRIST! wonderful performances moved the Duke of Mantua to make choice of him as preceptor to his son, Vincent de Gonzagua: the court was pleased with the Duke's choice; and Crichton, for their diversion, composed a comedy, wherein he exposed and ridiculed all the weaknesses and failures of the several employments that men betake themselves to. The unhappy effect that this comic humour had on two maids of honour is admirably told by Sir Thomas Urquhart, a second Rabelais, and the translator of that extravagant author: "They heard," says Sir Thomas, "in him alone the promiscuous speech of fiffeen several actors, by the various ravishments of the excelien

cies whereof, in the frolickness of a jocund straine beyond expectation, the logo-fascinated spirits of the beholding hearers and auricularie spectators, were so, on a sudden, seazed upon in their risible faculties of the soul, and all their vital motions so universally affected, in this extremity of agitation, that, to avoid the inevitable charms of his intoxicating ejaculations, and the accumulative influences of so powerful a transportation, one of my Lady Duchess' chief maids of honour, by the vehemencie of the shock of those incomprehensible raptures, burst forth into a laughter, to the rupture of a veine in her body; and another young lady, by the irresistible violence of the pleasure unawares infused, where the tender receptibil. itie of her too, too tickled fancie was less able to hold out, so unprovidedly was surprized, that with no less impetuositie of ridibundal passion than (as hath been told) occasioned a fracture in the other young ladie; she, not able longer to support the well-beloved burden of so excessive delight, and intransing joys of such mercurial exhilarations, through the ineffable ectasie of an over-mastered apprehension, fell back into a swoon, without the appearance of any other life in her, than what, by the most refined wits of theological speculators, is conceived to be excerced by the purest parts of the separated entelechies of blessed saints, in their sublimest conversations with the celestial hierarchies: this accident procured the incoming of an apothecarie with restoratives, as the other did that of a surgeon with consolidative medicaments." (Vindication of the Honour of Scotland, 111, 112.) But to return to Crichton, the story goes, that he was stabbed to death by the prince to whom he was tutor, through jealousy; and Scotland has the honour of giving birth to one of the most extraordinary men that the world ever saw.

THE

RECREATIVE MAGAZINE.

No. I.

THE HAIR-MACASSAR OIL-WIGS.

THAT the world has been sufficiently hair-brained, upon the subject of hair, will be presently shewn. With that dear sweet sex, however, who smooth our cares and our linen, it is, undoubtedly, not only a natural ornament, but worthy of being so preserved by the unceasing aids of art: but who would have dreamed that man, the lord of all, should have, in all ages betrayed an equal, if not greater, portion of anxiety and care, upon the appearance and culture of his locks? That long and short hair should have caused wars, and rumours of wars; that these teguments of the human body masculine. should have been powdered with dust of every hue discerned in the rainbow, not even excluding what must have been a very expensive hair-powder-gold-dust; that nature, who rarely does what is right, according to the opinions of some people, should be outraged by those, who, having hair, prefer being bald and wear wigs; and those who own a deficiency, have recourse to oils and saponaceous liquids, and even the fat of bears, to procure a quantum sufficit. Plain people as we are, it is possible we may have underrated the importance of a head of hair; and, if we go by the assertion of Lavater, who, probably, examined the poles of his fellow Swiss, and so gained his experience, wrong we must be. He says, "You must take care to distinguish the length of the hair, its quantity, quality, and colour! It indicates a man's manner of feeling and his mental faculties! It admits not of the least dissimulation! Long hair indicates weakness; a noble head of hair is of a golden yellow, with a soft gloss, &c. Lank black hair denotes poverty of intellect; but when thick and strong,

assiduity and the love of order. Hair black and thin, on a half-bald head, a sound clear judgment; but excluding invention and the sallies of wit."-Lavater addresses Algernon Sydney thus, "With no other inducement than thy hair, I should salute thee as an honest man, a zealous patriot, though, perhaps, over violent.” Some will think that these hairy apostrophes lead to nothing: what would he have said to Curran ? -It would be curious to know what judgment Lavater would have formed of that people, whose hair is like the plumage of parrots; for we have read, in Dangeau's Memoirs, Paris, 1818, that, "A ship is arrived at La Rochelle, from Canada, with accounts that our (the French) colonies are in want of speedy succours. The Bishop of Quebec has sent missionaries into parts which have been, hitherto, considered as imaginary. He reports, that he has discovered a people, whose hair, both of the head and body, is like the plumage of parrots; and another, of which all the men are hump-backed, and all the women lame !

There are some who consider the human hair-a vegetable ! and this appears by the evidence of grave-diggers, who affirm it to grow spontaneously over dead bodies, while in a state of decomposition, of which endless instances may be adduced. The learned Honoratus Faber, lib. 3, De Plantis, and several other authors, are of opinion, that hair, wool, feathers, nails, horns. teeth, &c. are nothing but vegetables: if it be so, we need not be surprised to see them grow on the bodies of animals even after their death, as has been frequently observed. Petrus Borellus, Hist. et Obs. Med. Cent 1. Obs. 10, however, goes further he pretends that the productions may be transplanted as vegetables; and may grow in a different place from that where they first germinated ;-granted,—An acre of red hair would look sufficiently picturesque. Dr. Tyson, in the Philosophical Collections of Mr. Hooke, confirms the fact of this posthumous growth of hair, in three different instances.— (Vide the Acts of Leipsic.)

The hair, it appears, has others properties. We are not competent to decide, of our own personal knowledge, whether the electric fluid dwells about the hair; but Cardan, Scaliger, Faber, and others have avouched for sparks having fallen from ladies, while combing their hair: that the sex should attract sparks can, however, be no wonder.

St. Augustine speaks of some who have the faculty of bringing their hair forward that lies behind, and vice versa—without moving the head!

Serres, in his History of France, says, that Queen Clotilda preferred having the heads of her young sons cut off, rather than that their hair should be cropped; which is wonderful, for the hair grows again, but the head never will.

Formerly they even swore by their hair; but that was when Prince's Russian oil was not in much request, otherwise we should have had much more swearing, judging by the numer ous affidavits now made before the Lord Mayor. Again, it was held a mark of great politeness to pluck a hair out of your friend's head. St. Germier had his pole thinned thus; for the king (Clovis) plucked one of the saint's, doing him great honour thereby; which, when his courtiers saw, (who always do as their king does,) each of them plucked a hair of the saint's; and the Saint-Bishop was quite enchanted at it, though at the expense of a head of hair.-Caligula, the tyrant, not so polite, caused all to be shaved on the hinder part of their heads, who were handsome, and had a thick head of hair grown out into a comely length: he loved to disfigure them.

In these days, human hair is an article of commerce, since it has for a long time been imported into this country. In the account of goods which have paid duties at the Custom House, we find, in the list of Jan. 5, 1792, to Jan. 5, 1793, no less than 11,523 lbs. imported, the value of which was £3,841, and the duty paid upon it £1,152.

Let us now, however, take a review of some of the different fashions that have pervaded the earlier period, as to long and short hair, and the powdering thereof.-The Israelites, it appears, wore their hair very long. Josephus says, that Solomon's life-guards had their hair floating down the shoulders, and that they every day powdered their hair with gold-spangles, which glittered exceedingly in the sun.

We are told, also, in Godwin's Moses and Aaron, that as Absalom's hair weighed two hundred shekels, after the king's weight, (2 Samuel, 14, 26,) i. e. the standard; the weight was, consequently, 4 lb. 2 oz., and yet Absalom polled it every year. In these days, such an annual crop woul be more valuable than that of an acre of land, the finest hair now selling at five guineas an ounce. Besides, Absalom powdered his hair with gold, which must have rendered his hair-dresser's bill, at the end of the year (if they gave credit in those days) a very expensive one. Not only Absalom, but some of the Roman emperors, powdered their hair with gold-dust, as Gallienus, Commodus, Nero, &c.