THE following gleanings from SHAKSPEARE are selected as adapted to assist the memory of the admirers of the Immortal Bard,—or, rather, to awaken their recollection of such passages as are oftener quoted than those of any other author.

The key to these unconnected sentences is in the possession of every literary man: to such, it may supply the place of more prolix matter, and open to their view, in a concise pocket volume, the brightest gems of the poet

"Deliver'd in such apt and gracious words,
That aged ears play truant to his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravish'd;

So sweet and voluble is his discourse."

To these are prefixed a short extract from the voluminous Preface of Dr. JOHNSON, whose ob

ΤΟ

MRS. SIDDONS.

MADAM,

NEXT to the admiration I have for

the genius of the BARD OF AVON, is that of the transcendent powers you have evinced in portraying the magic images of his mighty mind. To whom, then, can I dedicate the emanations of the Poet," whose eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, glanced from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,”but to Her, whose gifted discrimination has given to his characters "a form and moving so express

b

and admirable." To say more, would be to “ gild refined gold—to throw a perfume on the violet ;”to say less, would be casting a shade over your matchless career in the Histrionic Art-gloss over the virtues that adorn you in private (" which need not the painted flourish of my praise”), and weaken the impression your talents have planted in the mind of,

MADAM,

Your obedient Servant,

EDEN LODGE, BECKENHAM,

1st January, 1828.

BENJAMIN OAKLEY.

THE following geass re ..

selected as atret u as