are most religiously careful of keeping to the truth in every particular circumftance of a narration, whether it concern the main end or not. A gentleman whom I had the honour to be in company with the other day, upon fome occafion that he was pleafed to take, faid, he remembered a very pretty repartee made by a very witty man in King Charles's time upon the like occafion. I remember, faid he, upon entering into the tale, much about the time of Oates's plot, that a coufin-german of mine and I were at the Bear in Holborn: No, I am out, it was at the CrofsKeys; but Jack Thomson was there, for he was very great with the gentleman who made the answer. But I am fure it was spoken fomewhere thereabouts, for we drank a bottle in that neighbourhood every evening; but no matter for all that, the thing is the fame; but man who faid he faw Mr. fuch a one go this morning at nine of the clock towards the Gravel-pits, Sir, muft beg your pardon for that, for though I am very loth to have any difpute with you, yet I must take the liberty to tell you it was nine when I faw him at St. James's. When men of this genius are pretty far gone in learning they will put you to prove that fnow is white, and when you are upon that topic can fay that there is really no fuch thing as colour in nature; in a word, they can turn what little knowledge they have into a ready capacity of raifing doubts; into a capacity of being always frivolous and always unanfwerable. It was of two difputants of this impertinent and laborious kind that the cynic faid, "One of thefe fellows "is milking a ram, and the other holds the "pail." "ADVERTISEMENT. "The exercise of the fnuff-box, according to "the most fashionable airs and motions, in op"pofition to the exercife of the fan, will be "taught with the best plain or perfumed fnuff, He was going on to fettle the geography of the jeft when I left the room, wondering at this odd turn of head which can play away its words, with uttering nothing to the purpofe, ftill obferving its own impertinencies, and yet proceed. ing in them. I do not question but he informed the rest of his audience, who had more patience at Charles Lillie's, perfumer, at the corner of than I, of the birth and parentage, as well as the collateral alliances of his family, who made the repartee, and of him who provoked him to it. It is no fall misfortune to any who have a juft value for their time, when this quality of being fo very circumftantial, and careful to be exact, happens to fhew itself in a man whofe quality obliges them to attend his proofs, that it is now day, and the like. But this is augmented when the fame genius gets into autho.rity, as it often does. Nay, I have known it more than once afcend the very pulpit. One of this fort taking it in his head to be a great admirer of Dr. Tillotfon and Dr. Beveridge, never failed of proving out of these great authors things .which no man living would have denied him upon his own fingle authority. One day refolving to come to the point in hand, he said, according to that excellent divine, I will enter upon the matter, or in his words, in his fifteenth fermon of the folio edition, page 160. "I fhall briefly explain the words, and then "confider the matter contained in them." This honeft gentieman needed not, one would think, ftrain his modefty fo far as to alter his defign of entering upon the matter,' to that of "briefly explaining." But fo it was, that -he would not even be contented with that authority, but added alfo the other divine to ftrengthen his method, and told us, with the pious and learned Dr. Beveridge, page 4th of the ninth volume, "I fhail endeavour to make it as plain as I can from the words which I "have now read, wherein for that purpose we This wifeacre was reckoned by the parish, who did not understand him, a moft excellent preacher; but that he read too much, and was fo humble that he did not truft enough to his own parts. "fhall confider Next to thefe ingenious gentlemen, who argue for what nobody can deny them, are to be ranked a fort of people who do not indeed attempt. to prove infignificant things, but are ever labouring to raise arguments with you about matters you will give up to them without the least controverfy. One of these people told a gentle 66 "Beaufort-Buildings in the Strand, and attend"ance given for the benefit of the young mer"chants about the Exchange for two hours "every day at noon, except Saturdays, at a toy-fhop near Garraway's coffee-houfe. There "will be likewife taught the ceremony of the "fnuff-box, or rules for offering fnuff to a "ftranger, a friend, or a mistress, according to "the degrees of familiarity or diftance; with an explanation of the careless, the scornful, "the politic, and the furly pinch, and the gef"tures proper to each of them. "N. B. The undertaker does not queftion but in a fhort time to have formed a body of "regular snuff-boxes ready to meet and make "head against all the regiment of fans which "have been lately difciplined, and are now in "motion." T N° 139. THURSDAY, AUGUST 9. Vera gloria radices agit, atque etiam propagatur: fiia omnia celeriter, tanquam flofculi, decidunt, nec fimulatum poteft quidquam effe diuturnum. TULL True glory takes root, and even spreads: all falfe pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit laft long. F all the affections which attend human glory is the most ardent. According as this is cultivated in princes, it produces the greatest good or the greatest evil. Where fovereigns have it by impreffions received from education only, it creates an ambitious rather than a noble mind; where it is the natural bent of the prince's inclination, it prompts him to the purfuit of things truly glorious. The two greatest men now in Europe, according to the common acceptation of the word great, are Lewis King of France, and Peter Emperor of Ruffia, As it is certain that all fame does not arife from the practice of virtue, it is, methinks, no unpleafing amufement, to examine the glory of thefe potentates, and diftinguish that which is empty, perishing, and frivolous, from what is Z 2 folid, The folid, lafting, and important. Lewis of France had his infancy attended by crafty and worldly men, who made extent of territory the most glorious inftance of power, and miftook the fprcading of fame for the acquifition of honour. young monarch's heart was by fuch converfation eafily deluded into a fondness for vain-glory, and upon thefe unjuft principles to form or fall in with fuitable projects of invafion, rapine, murder, and all the guilts that attend war when it is unjuft. At the fame time this tyranny was laid, fciences and arts were encouraged in the moft generous manner, as if men of higher faculties were to be bribed to permit the maffacre of the rest of the world. Every fuperftructure which the court of France built upon their first defigns, which were in themselves vicious, was fuitable to its falfe foundation. The oftentation of riches, the vanity of equipage, fhame of poverty, and ignorance of modefty, were the common arts of life; the generous love of one woman was changed into gallantry for all the fex, and friendships among men turned into commerces of intereft, or mere profeffions. "While "thefe were the rules of life, perjuries in the "prince, and a general corruption of manners, "in the fubject, were the fnares in which France "has entangled all her neighbours." With fuch falfe colours have the eyes of Lewis been enchanted, from the debauchery of his early youth, to the fuperftition of his prefent old age. Hence it is, that he has the patience to have ftatues erected to his prowefs, his valour, his fortitude; and in the foftneffes and luxury of a court to be applauded for magnanimity and enterprise in military atchivements. JOW. emperor is alfo literally under his own command. How generous and how good was his entering his own name as a private man in the army he raifed, that none in it might expect to out-run the fteps with which he himfelf advanced? By fuch measures this godlike prince learned to conquer, learned to use his conquefts. How terrible has he appeared in battle, how gentle in' victory? Shall then the bafe arts of the Frenchman be held polite, and the honeft labours of the Ruffian barbarous? No: barbarity is the ignorance of true honour, or placing any thing inftead of it. The unjust prince is ignoble and barbarous, the good prince only renowned and glorious. Peter Alexowitz of Ruffia, when he came to years of manhood,though he found himfelfemperof of a vast and numerous people, mafter of an endless territory, abfolute commander of the lives and fortunes of his fubjects, in the midft of this unbounded power and greatnefs turned his thoughts upon himself and people with forSordid ignorance and a brute manner of life this generous prince beheld and contemned from the light of his own genius. His judgment fuggefted this to him, and his courage prompted him to amend it. In order to this he did not fend to the nation from whence the rest of the world has borrowed its politenefs, but himself left his diadem to learn the true way to glory and honour, and application to useful arts, wherein to employ the laborious, the fimple, the honeft part of his people. Mechanic employments and operations were very juftly the fift objects of his favour and obfervation. Wich this glorious intention he travelled into foreign nations in an obfcure manner, above receiving little honours where he fojourned, but prying into what was of more confequence, their arts of peace and of war. By this means has this great prince laid the foundation of a great and lafting fame, by perfonal labour, perfonal knowledge, perfonal valour. It would be injury to any of antiquity to name them with him. Who, bat himself, ever left a throne to learn to fit in it with more graçe? Who ever thought himfelf mean in abfolute power, until he had learned to ufe it? If we confider this wonderful perfon, it is perplexity to know where to begin his encomium. Others may in a metaphorical or philofophic fenfe be faid to command themfelves, but this Though men may impose upon themselves what they please by their corrupt imaginations, truth will ever keep its station; and as glory is nothing elfe but the fhadow of virtue, it will certainly disappear at the departure of virtue. But how carefully ought the true notions of it to be preferved, and how induftrious fhould we be to encourage any impulfes towards it? The Weftminster fchool-boy that faid the other day he could not fleep or play for the colours in the halt, ought to be free from receiving a blow for ever. But let us confider what is truly glorious according to the author I have to-day quoted in the front of my paper. The perfection of glory, fays Tully, confifts in these three particulars: "That the people "love us; that they have confidence in us; "that being affected with a certain admiration "towards us, they think we deferve honour." This was fpoken of greatnefs in a commonwealth; but if one were to form a notion of confummate glory under our conftitution, one must add to the above-mentioned felicities a certain neceffary inexiftence, and difrelifh of all the reft, without the prince's favour. He fhould, methinks, have riches, power, honour, command, glory; but riches, power, honour, command and glory fhould have no charms, but as accompanied with the affection of his prince. He fhould, methinks, be popular because a favourite, and a favourite because popular. Were it not to make the character too imaginary, I would give him fovereignty over fome foreign territory, and make him efteem that an empty addition without the kind regards of his own prince. One may merely have an idea of a man thus compofed and circumftantiated, and if he were fo made for power without an incapacity of giving jealousy, he would be alfo glorious without poffibility of receiving difgrace. This humility and this importance muft make his glory immortal. These thoughts are apt to draw me beyond the ufual length of this paper, but if I could fuppofe fuch rhapsodies could outlive the common fate of ordinary things, I would fay thefe fketches and faint images of glory were drawn in Auguft 1711, when John Duke of Marlborough made that memorable march wherein he took the French lines without bloodshed. I Mr. Spectator, When Have loft fo much time already, that I defire, upon the receipt hereof, you would fit down immediately and give me your anfwer. And I would know of you whether a pretender of mine really loves me. As well as I can I will defcribe his manners. he fees me he is always talking of constancy, but vouchfafes to vifit me but once a fortnight, and then is always in hafte to be gone. When I am fick, I hear, he fays he is mightily con" cerned, but neither comes nor fends, becaufe, · as he tells his acquaintance with a figh, he ⚫ does not care to let me know all the power I have over him, and how impoffible it is for him to live without me. When he leaves the town he writes once in fix weeks, defires to hear from me, complains of the torment of abfence, fpeaks of flames, tortures, languishings, and ecftafies. He has the cant of an im'patient lover, but keeps the pace of a luke warm one. You know I must not go fafter than he does, and to move at this rate is as tedious as counting a great clock. But you are to know he is rich, and my mother fays as he is flow he is fure; he will love me long, if he love me little: but I appeal to you whether he loves at all. Your neglected humble fervant, All these fellows who have money are extremely faucy and cold; pray, Sir, tell them ⚫ of it.' I Mr. Spectator, < means a quaint antithefis may be brought about, how one word may be made to look two ways, and what will be the confequence of a forced allufion. Now, though fuch authors appear to me to refemble those who 'make themselves fine, inftead of heing welldreffed, or graceful; yet the mifchief is, that these beauties in them, which I call blemishes, are thought to proceed from luxuriance of fancy, and overflowing of good fenfe: in one word, they have the character of being too witty: but if you would acquaint the world they are not witty at all, you would, among many others, oblige, Have been delighted with nothing more through the whole courfe of your writings than the fubftantial account you lately gave of wit, and I could with you would take fome other opportunity to exprefs further the corrupt tafte the age is run into; which I am chiefly apt to attribute to the prevalency of a few popular authors, whofe merit in fome refpects has given a fanétion to their faults in others. Thus the imitators of Milton feem to place all the excellency of that fort of writing either in the uncouth or antique words, or fomething elfe which was highly vicious, though pardonable, in that great man. The admirers of what we call point, or turn, look upon it as the particular happinefs to which Cowley, Ovid, and others, owe their reputation, and therefore imitate them only in fuch inftances; what is juft, proper and natural does not seem to be the question with them, but by what Sir, SIR, Your most benevolent reader, R. D.' Am a young woman, and reckoned pretty, therefore you will pardon me that I trouble you to decide a wager between me and a coufin of mine, who is always contradicting one be'cause he underftands Latin. Pray, Sir, is Dimple spelt with a fingle or a double p? 'I am, Sir, Your very humble fervant, Betty Santer. Pray, Sir, direct thus, To the Kind Querist, and leave it at Mr. Lillie's, for I do not care to be known in the thing at all. I am, Sir, ' again your humble fervant.' • Mr. Spectator, L AST night as I was walking in the park, I met a couple of friends; pr'ythee Jack, fays one of them, let us go drink a glass of wine, for I am fit for nothing else. This put 'me upon reflecting on the many miscarriages which happen in conversation over wine, when men go to the bottle to remove fuch humours as it only ftirs up and awakens. This I could not attribute more to any thing than to the humour of putting company upon others which men do not like themfelves. Pray, Sir, declare in your papers, that he who is a trou⚫blesome companion to himself, will not be an ' agreeable one to others. Let people reason 'themselves into good-humour, before they im'pose themselves upon their friends. Pray, Sir, be as eloquent as you can upon this fubject, and do human life fo much good, as to argue 'powerfully, that it is not every one that can fwallow who is fit to drink a glass of wine. Your most humble servant." upon the behaviour of fome of the female * gamesters. I have obferved ladies, who in all other refpees are gentle, good-humoured, and the very 4 pinks of good-breeding; who as foon as the. ombre-table is called for, and fet down to their business, are immediately tranfmigrated into the verieft wafps in nature. You must know I keep my temper, and win their money; but am out of countenance to take it, it makes them fo very uneafy. Be pleased, dear Sir, to infract them to lofe with a better grace, and you will oblige • Mr. Spectators Y Yours, Rachel Pafto.' OUR kindness to Eleonora, in one of your papers, has given me encourage ment to do myself the honour of writing to you. The great regard you have fo often expreffed for the inftruction and improvement of 4 our fex, will, I hope, in your own opinion, fufficiently excufe me from making any apology for the impertinence of this letter. The great defire I have to embellish my mind with fome of thofe graces which you fay are fo becoming, and which you affert reading helps us to, has made me uneafy until I am put in a capacity of attaining them this, Sir, I fhall never think myfelf in, until you fhall be pleafed to recommend fame author or authors to my pe• rufal. < I thought indeed, when I first caft my eye on Eleonora's letter, that I fhould have had no occafion for requefting it of you; but to my, very great concern, I found on the perufal of that Spectator, I was entirely difappointed, * and am as much at a lofs how to make ufe of my time for that end as ever. Pray, Sir, oblige me at least with one fcene, as you were pleafed to entertain Eleonora with your prologue. I write to you not only my own fentiments, but alfo thofe of feveral others of my acquaintance, who are as little pleafed with the ordinary man<<ner of spending one's time as myfelf: and if a ◄ fervent defire after knowledge, and a great fenfe of our prefent ignorance, may be thought a good prefage and earnest of improvement, you may look upon your time you fhall beftow in anfwering this request not thrown away to no purpofe. And I cannot but add, that unlefs you have a particular and more than ordi nary regard for Eleonora, Phave a better title to your favour than fhe; fince I do do not con- tent myself with tea-table reading of your papers, but it is my entertainment very often • when alone in my clofet. To fhew you I am capable of improvement, and hate flattery, * I acknowledge I do not like fome of your papers, but even there I am readier to call in queftion my own fhallow understanding than Mr. Spectator's profound judgment. N° 141. SATURDAY, AUGUST 11. -Migravit ab aure voluptas HOR. Ep. 1. 1. 2. v. 187. OmnisPleasure no more arises from the ear. N the prefent emptinefs of the town, I have feveral applications from the lower parts of the players, to admit fuffering to pafs for acting. They in very obliging terms defire me to let a fall on the ground, a ftumble, or a good flap on the back, be reckoned a jeft. Thefe gambols I fhall tolerate for a feafon, because I hope the evil cannot continue longer than until the people of condition and taste return to town. The method, fome time ago, was to entertain that part of the audience, who have no faculty above eye-fight, with rope-dancers and tumblers; which was a way difcreet enough, because it prevented confufion, and diftinguished fuch as could fhew all the poftures which the body is capable of, from thofe who were to reprefent all the paffions to which the mind is fubject. But though this was prudently fettied, corporeal and intellectual actors ought to be kept at a ftill wider diftance than to appear on the fame ftage at all: for which reafon I muft propofe fome methods for the improvement of the beargarden, by difmiffing all bodily actors to that quarter. In cafes of greater moment, where men appear in public, the confequence and importance of the thing can bear them out. And though a pleader or preacher is hoarfe or aukward, the weight of the matter commands refpect and attention; but in the theatrical fpeaking, if the performer is not exactly proper and graceful, he is utterly ridiculous. In cafes where there is little elfe expected, but the pleasure of the ears and eyes, the leaft diminution of that pleafure is the highest offence. In acting, barely to perform the part is commendable, but to be the teaft out is contemptible. To avoid these diffi culties and delicacies, I am informed, that while I was out of town, the actors have flown in the air, and played fuch pranks, and run fuch hazards, that none but the fervants of the re-office, tilers and mafons, could have been able to perform the like. The author of the following letter, it feems, has been of the audience at one of these entertainments, and has accordingly complained to me upon it; but I think he has been to the utmost degree fevere again what is exceptionable in the play he mentions, without dwelling fo much as he might have done on the author's most excellent talent of humour. The pleasant pictures he has drawn of life, fhould have been more kindly mentioned, at the fame time that he banithes his witches, who are too dull devils to be attacked with fo much warmth. I am, Sir, your already, and in hopes of being more your, obliged fervant, " • Parthenia. Mr. Spectator, U% PON a report that Moll White had fol lowed you to town, and was to act à part in the Lancashire-witches, went laft week to fee that play. It was my fortune to fit next to a country juftice of the peace, à 'neighbour, as he faid, of Sir Roger's, who pretended to fhew her to us in one of the dances. There was witchcraft enough in the entertainment almoft to incline me to believe him; Ben Johnfon was almoft lamed; young Bullock narrowly faved his neck; the audience was aftonished, and an old acquaintance of mine, a perfon of worth, whem I would have bowed to in the pit, at two yards distance did not know me. If you were what the country people reported you, a white witch, I could have withed you had been there to have exercifed that rabble of broomsticks, with which we were haunted for above three hours. I could have allowed them to fet Clod in the tree, to have feared the fportfinen, plagued the juftice, and employed honeft Teague with his holy water. This was the proper ufe of them in comedy, if the author had flopped here; but I cannot ⚫ conceive what relation the facrifice of the black lamb, and the ceremonies of their worship to the devil, have to the business of mirth and humour. The gentleman who writ this play, and has ⚫ drawn fome characters in it very juftly, appears. to have been misled in his witchcraft by an unwary following the inimitable Shakespear. The incantations in Macbeth have a folemnity admirably adapted to the occasion of that Tra This, no doubt, is a full reparation, and difmiffes the audience with very edifying impreffions. Thefe things fall under a province you have partly pursued already, and therefore demand your animadverfion, for the regulating fo noble an entertainment as that of the stage. It were to be wished that all who write for it hereafter would raife their genius, by the ambition of pleafing people of the best understanding; and, leave others who fhew nothing of the humans 'fpecies but rifibility, to feek their diverfion at the bear-garden, or fome other privileged place, where reafon and good-manners have no right to difturb them. August 8, 1711. T I am, &c. HOR. Od. 13. l. 1. v. 18, -They equal move In an unbroken yoke of faithful love. GLANVIL gedy, and fill the mind with a fuitable horror; No 142. MONDAY, AUGUST 13. befides, that the witches are a part of the ftory itself, as we find it very particularly re- Irrupta tenet copula "lated in Hector Boetius, from whom he feems to have taken it. This therefore is a proper machine where the bufinefs is dark, horrid and bloody; but is extremely foreign from the affair of Comedy. Subjects of this kind, which ⚫ are in themfeives difagreeable, can at no time become entertaining, but by paffing through an imagination like Shakespear's to form them; for which reafon Mr. Dryden would not allow even Beaumont and Fletcher capable of imitating him. 6 "But Shakespear's magic could not copy'd be, "Within that circle none durft walk but he.' I fhould not, however, have troubled you with thefe remarks, if there were not fomething elfe in this Comedy, which wants to be exorcifed more than the witches: I mean the ⚫ freedom of fome paffages, which I fhould have overlooked, if I had not obferved that those jefts can raife the loudeft mirth, though they are painful to right fenfe, and an outrage upon • modesty. We must attribute fuch liberties to the tafte of that age, but indeed by fuch representati ons a poet facrifices the beft part of his au dience to the worft; and, as one would think; neglects the boxes, to write to the orange• wenches. "I must not conclude until I have taken no⚫tice of the moral with which this comedy ends. The two young ladies having given a notable example of outwitting thofe who had a right in the difpofal of them, and marrying without confent of parents; one of the injured parties, who is eafily reconciled, winds up all with this remark, 66 -Defign whate'er we will, We are to fuppofe that the gallants are men of merit, but if they had been rakes, the excufe might have ferved as well. Hans Carvel's wife was of the fame principle, but has ex 2 T HE following letters being genuine, and the images of a worthy paffion, I am willing to give the old lady's admonition to myself, and the reprefentation of her own happiness, a place in my writings. • Mr. Spectator, I August 9, 1711 A M now in the fixty-feventh year of my age, and read you with approbation; but methinks you do not ftrike at the root of the greatest evil in life, which is the falfe notion of gallantry in love. It is, and has long been, upon a very ill foot; but I who have been a wife forty years, and was bred in a way that has made me ever fince very happy, fee through the folly of it. In a word, Sir, when I was a young woman, all who avoided the vices of the age, were very carefully educated, and all fantastical objects were turned out of our fight. The tapeftry hangings, with the great and venerable fimplicity of the fcripture ftories, had better effects than now the loves of Venus and Adonis, or Bacchus and Ariadne in your fine prefent prints. The gentleman I am married to made love to mc in rapture, but it was the rapture of a Chriftian and a man of honour, not a romantic hero or a whining coxcomb: this put our life upon a right bafis. To give you an idea of our regard one to another, I inclofe to you feveral of his letters, writ forty years ago, when my lover; and one writ the other day, after fo many years cohabitation. Your fervant, Andromache." |