exaggerated, if not ridiculous. If he was wrong, what has been said
may perhaps account for his being so, without detracting from his
ability and judgement in other things.

It is proper to add, that the account of the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
has appeared in another work.

April 15, 1817






CYMBELINE

CYMBELINE is one of the most delightful of Shakespeare's historical
plays. It may be considered as a dramatic romance, in which the most
striking parts of the story are thrown into the form of a dialogue,
and the intermediate circumstances are explained by the different
speakers, as occasion renders it necessary. The action is less
concentrated in consequence; but the interest becomes more aerial
and refined from the principle of perspective introduced into the
subject by the imaginary changes of scene as well as by the length
of time it occupies. The reading of this play is like going [on?] a
journey with some uncertain object at the end of it, and in which
the suspense is kept up and heightened by the long intervals between
each action. Though the events are scattered over such an extent of
surface, and relate to such a variety of characters, yet the links
which bind the different interests of the story together are never