( who are converted into such by their own industry ' and affectation. If you will please to be at the house • to-night, you will see me do my endeavour to fhew • some unnatural appearances which are in vogue among • the police and well-bred. I am to represent, in the ' character of a fine lady dancing, all the distortions ' which are frequently taken for graces in mien and gesture. This, Sir, is a specimen of the method we • Thall take to expose the monsters which come within • the notice of a regular theatre; and we desire no thing more gross may be admitted by your spectators < for the future. We have calhiered three companies • of theatrical guards, and design our kings shall for « the future make love, and fit in council, without an army; and wait only your directions whether you • will have them reinforce King Porus, or join the trocps of Macedon. Mr. Penkethman resolves to • confult his Pantheon of heathen gods in opposition to • the oracle of Delphos, and doubts not but he thall turn the fortunes of Porus, when he personates him. . I am desired by the company to inform you, that they • submit it to your censures; and thall have you in greater veneration than Hercules was in of old, if you can drive monsters from the theatre; and think your • merit will be as much greater than his, as to convince o is more than to conquer. · I am, Sir, «T. D.' WHE expected viciffitudes of my fortune, I doubt ' not but i'fhall obtain your pity and favour. I have • for many years last past been thunderer to the play house; and have not only made as much noise out of • the clouds as any predecessor of mine in the theatre • that ever bore that character, but also have def. • cended and spoke on the stage as the bold zu ander in the Rehearsal. When they got me down thus • low, they thought fit to degrade me further, and • make me a ghost. I was contented with this for 6 these two last winters; but they carry their tyranny « still further, and not satisfied that I am banished • from above ground, they have given me to under• stand that I am wholly to depart their dominions, " and taken from me even my subterraneous employ• ment. Now, Sir, what I desire of you is, that if your undertaker thinks fit to use fire-arms, as other « authors have done, in the time of Alexander, I may o be a cannon against Poius, or else provide for me in the burning of Persepolis, or what other method you « Ihall think fit. 6 SALMONEUS of Covent-Garden.' The petition of all the devils of the play-house in behalf of theinfelves and families, setting forth their expulsion from thence, with certificates of their good life and conversation, and praying relief. The merit of this petition referred to Mr. Chr. Rich. who made them devils. The petition of the grave-digger in Hamlet, to command the pioneers in the expedition of Alexander. Granted. The petition of William Bullock, to be Hepheftion to Penkethman the Great. Granted. . ADVERTISEMENT. A widow gentlewoman, well born both by father • and mother's side, being the daughter of Thomas « Prater, once an eminent practitioner in the law, and • of Letitia Tattle, a family, well known in all pa?ts • of this kingdom, having been reduced by misfor tunes to wait on several great persons, and for some 6 time to be teacher at a boarding-school of young la dies, giveth notice to the public, that she hath lately • taken a house near Bloomsbury-Square, commodi « ously 6 fously situated next the fields in a good air; where the • teaches all sorts of birds of thc loquacious kinds, as parrots, starlings, magpics, and others, to imitate hu. man voices in greater perfection than ever yet was • practised. They are not only instructed to pronounce • words diftin&tly, and in a proper tone and accent, 'but to speak the language with great purity and vo' lubility of tongue, together with all the fashionable ' phrates and compliments now in use either at tea• tables or visiting-days. Those that lave good voices may be taught to sing the newest opera-airs, and, • if required, to speak either Italian or French, pay. . ing something extraordinary above the common rates. • They whose friends are not able to pay the full prices may be taken as half-boarders. She teaches Tuch as are designed for the diversion of the public, and to act in enchanted woods on the theatres, by • the great. As she has often observed with much concern how indecent an education is usually given " these innocent creatures, which in some measure is owing to their being placed in rooms next the street, where, to the great offence of chaste and tender ears, • they learn ribaldry, obscene songs, and imunodeft ex• pressions from passengers, and idle people, as also to cry fish, and card-matches, with other useless parts of learning to birds who have rich friends; the has fitted up proper and neat apartments for them in the « back part of her faid house; where the suffers none • to approach them but herfelf, and a servant-maid • who is deaf and dumb, and whom she provided on • purpose to prepare their food and cleanse their cages; • having found by long experience how hard a thing • it is for those to keep filence who have the use of ( speech, and the dangers her scholars are exposed to • by the strong impressions that are made by harsh • sounds and vulgar dialects. In short, if they are birds • of any parts or capacity, she will undertake to render o them so accomplished in the compass of a twelves month, that they shall be fit conversation for such laVOL. • dies • dies as love to choose their friends and companions out of this species.' R. No. XXXVII. THURSDAY, APRIL 12. Non illa colo calathisve Minerva VIRG. S me.. Unbred to spinning, in the loom unskill'd. DeYDEN, SOME months ago, my friend Sir Roger, being in the country, inclosed a letter to me, directed to a certain lady whom I shall here call by the name of Leonora, and, as it contained matters of consequence, desired me to deliver it to her with my own hand. Accordingly I waited upon her ladyship pretty early in the morning, and was desired by her woman to walk into her lady library, 'cill such time as the was in a readiness to receive The very found of a Lady's Library gave me a great curiosity to see it; and as it was some time before the lady came to me, I had an opportunity of turning over a great many of her books, which were ranged together in a very beautiful order. At the end of the Folios, which were finely bound and gilt, were great jars of China placed one above another in a very noble piece of architecture. The Quartos were separated from the Octavos by a pile of smaller vessels, which rose in a delightful pyramid. The Octavos were bounded by tea-dishes of all shapes, colours, and sizes, which were so disposed on a wooden frame, that they looked like one continued pillar indented with the finest strokes of sculpture, and Itained with the greatest variety of dyes. That part of the library which was designed for the reception of plays and pamphlets, and other loose papers, was inclosed in a kind of iquare, consisting of one of the prettiest grotesque works that ever I saw, and made up of scaramouches, lions, monkies, mandarines, trees, shells, and a thousand other odd figures in China-ware. In the midst of the room was a little Japan-table, with a quire of gilt paper paper upon it, and on the paper a silver snuff-box made in the shape of a little book. I found there were several other counterfeit books upon the upper shelves, which were carved in wood, and lerved only to fill up the number like faggots in the muster of a regiment. I was wonderfully pleased with such a mixt kind of furniture, as seemed very suitable both to the lady and the scholar, and did not know at first whether I should fancy myself in a grotto, or in a library. Upon my looking into the books, I found there were some few which the lady had bought for her own use, but that most of thein had been got together, either because she had heard them praised, or because she had seen the authors of them. . Among several that I examined, I very well remember these that follow: Ogilby's Virgii. The Grand Cyrus; with a pin stuck in one of the middle leaves. Pembroke's Arcadia. Locke of Human Understanding; with a paper of parches in it. A Spelling-Book. Father Malebranche’s Search after Truth, translated into English. A Book of Novels. Tales in Verse, by Mr. Durfey: bound in red leather, gilt on the back, and doubled down in several places. All the Claffic Authors in wood. A fet |