Fame, and the Historical Characters of Shakspeare, and two ironical Apologies for the Characters and Conduct of Iago and Shylock. So admirably, indeed, was the grave irony of these vindications maintained, that, as a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine has observed, “several attacks have been made on them, on the supposition of their being serious; as Swift's advice to the Irish peasantry, to eat their own children, was, at first, from the grave manner in which it was proposed, mistaken in the same way."

There is much reason to regret that the sequel to this volume of essays which, we were told, was soon to follow, has never made its since appearance, it is well known that Mr. Hole had made many other communications to the society of a very interesting nature. Two of these, however, have since been published in a separate form; and the first, indeed, by the author himself, in a manner very much enlarged from that in which it was originally read to his fellow members. It is entitled "Remarks on the Arabian Nights Entertainments; in which the Origin of Sinbad's Voyages, and other Oriental Fictions, is particularly considered," and was printed in 1797, in 12mo. Few works of similar extent have

exhibited a larger fund of curious, elaborate, and entertaining research; for the author has successfully traced the marvels of the East, which we have been accustomed to consider as the mere offspring of a rich but lawless imagination, either to descriptions drawn from nature, and incidents founded on fact, or to classic tales and popular legends; to relations, events, and circumstances, in short, which were not only credited by the Indian and the Arab, but many of which have since been found not inconsistent with the discoveries of modern travellers, and the results of philosophical inquiry.

Of a nature somewhat similar in principle and design would have been the second of these productions, had the author lived to complete his plan ; for what we have was merely intended as an introduction to Remarks on the Voyages of Ulysses, as narrated in the Odyssey. It was fortunately found, however, after his death, sufficiently complete in itself to admit of publication, and was given to the world in 1807, by a friend of the author, under the title of "An Essay on the Character of Ulysses, as delineated by Homer.” The object of this highlypleasing and ingenious little work is to prove," that no mental excellence, nor moral virtue, can easily

be discovered, that is not exemplified, so far as Homer's ideas extended, in the character of Ulysses* ;" and it must be allowed, I think, that the essayist has, in a very satisfactory manner, established his point.

This amiable man and accomplished scholar died on the 28th of May, 1803, after a painful illness, and in the fifty-eighth year of his age. Among his manuscripts have been found some original plays, and a poem of considerable humour, written in the dialect of his native county, and called “The Exmoor Courtship," of which a part has since been printed in the fourth volume of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.

I shall now close this slight biography of Mr. Hole with a miniature description of his character from the pen of one of his most intimate friends, being the termination of a tribute to his memory which was read at one of the meetings of the Exeter society.

"I need scarcely add in this place," says the writer," what Mr. Hole was:-the sincere, the unaffected grief of the whole circle of his family and

* Essay, p. 143.

friends demonstrates, more strikingly than words can paint, his worth, his merits, and his talents. Friendly and affectionate in the more limited circle, he claimed, and obtained, in his turn, the warmest and most sincere attachment. The world in general saw in his character, honour, generosity, learning, and religion, and freely accorded their approbation and regard. His knowledge was solid and well founded; his religion sincere and unaffected; his benevolence warm and unconfined. Without the parade of superior learning, he gained the esteem and confidence of those with whom he conversed; and never in a single instance lost a friend by a fault of his own. Mr. Jackson, who soon followed Mr. Hole to the grave, remarked, that he had known Hole more than thirty years, without having discovered a single fault in his character. No one possessed a more acute and penetrating discernno one was better acquainted with Mr.

ment; Hole *"

Having thus made my readers in some slight degree acquainted with the life and general character of Mr. Hole, I proceed with pleasure to the

* Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, vol. v. p. 70.

more immediate subject of my undertaking, the consideration of his ARTHUR, as that product of his genius to which, as I have before observed, he must owe his reputation with posterity.

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pre

It is well known from a passage in his Epitaphium Damonis, that Milton had projected an epic poem on the subject of king Arthur, in which, from his manner of mentioning the design, there is every reason to suppose that he would have adopted the legendary fables of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Mr. Hole, however, whilst he faithfully adheres to our general conception of the character of Arthur, clines pursuing this track; telling us, in his face, when speaking of the doubts which have been unreasonably entertained as to the very existence of his hero, that "whether the extraordinary narrative of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and the more consistent testimony of graver historians, outweighs or not the silence of Bede and Gildas, is of little consequence to the Arthur who now appears. He is merely an ideal personage; his achievements groundless and imaginary; not to be examined at the bar of historic truth, but of poetic credibility."

He then proceeds to inform us that his poem is intended as an imitation of the old metrical