es, published several excellent manuscript plays, which they
had hoarded in their dramatic exchequers, as the sole property of their
respective companies. In one year appeared fifty of these new plays. Of
these dramas many have, no doubt, perished; for numerous titles are
recorded, but the plays are not known; yet some may still remain in
their manuscript state, in hands not capable of valuing them. All our
old plays were the property of the actors, who bought them for their own
companies. The immortal works of Shakspeare had not descended to us, had
Heminge and Condell felt no sympathy for the fame of their friend. They
had been scattered and lost, and, perhaps, had not been discriminated
among the numerous manuscript plays of that age. One more effort, during
this suspension of the drama, was made in 1655, to recal the public
attention to its productions. This was a very curious collection by John
Cotgrave, entitled "The English Treasury of Wit and Language, collected
out of the most, and best, of our English Dramatick Poems." It appears
by Cotgrave's preface, that "The Dramatick Poem," as he calls our
tragedies and comedies, "had been of late too much slighted." He tells
us how some, not wanting in wit themselves, but "through a stiff and
obstinate prejudice, have, in _this neglect_, lost the benefit of many
rich and useful observations; not duly considering, or believing, that
the _framers_ of them were the most fluent and redundant wits that this
age, or I think any other, ever knew." He enters further into this just
panegyric of our old dramatic writers, whose acquired knowledge in
ancient and modern languages, and whose luxuriant fancies, which they
derived from no other sources but their own native growth, are viewed to
great advantage in COTGRAVE'S commonplaces; and, perhaps, still more in
HAYWARD'S "British Muse," which collection was made under the
supervisal, and by the valuable aid, of OLDYS, an experienced caterer of
these relishing morsels.

DRINKING-CUSTOMS IN ENGLAND.

The ancient Bacchus, as represented in gems and statues, was a youthful
and graceful divinity; he is so described by Ovid, and was so painted by
Barry. He has the epithet of _Psilas_, to express the light spirits
which give wings to the soul. His voluptuousness was joyous and tender;
and he was never viewed reeling with intoxication. According to Virgil:

Et quocunque deus circum _caput_ egit _honestum_.