was; which melancholy confideration I cannot yet perfectly furmount, but hope your fentiments on this head will make it fupportable. To fhew you what a value I have for your dictates, these are to certify the perfons concerned, that unless one of them returns to his colours (if I may fo call them now) before the winter is over, I'll voluntarily confine myself to a retirement, where I'll punish them all with my needle. I'll be revenged on them by decyphering them on a carpet, humbly begging admittance, myfelf fcornfully refufing it. If you difapprove of this, as favouring too much of malice, be pleased to acquaint me with a draught you like better, and it shall be faithfully performed By the unfortunate MONIMIA,' N° 614. Monday, November 1. Si mihi non anime fixum, immotumque federet, Virg. Æn. 4. v. 15-a -Were I not refolv'd against the yoke Of hapless marriage; never to be curs'd With fecond love, fo fatal was the first;. To this one error I might yield again. T Dryden. HE following account hath been tranfmitted to me by the love-cafuift. • Mr SPECTATOR, H AVING, in fome former papers, taken care of the two ftates of virginity and marriage, and being willing that all people fhould be served in their turn, I this day drew out my drawer of widows, where I met with feveral cafes, to each whereof I have returned fatiffactory answers by the poft. The cafes are as follow. 2. WHETHER 2. WHETHER Amoret be bound by a promife of marriage to Philander made during her husband's life? 2. WHETHER Sempronia, having faithfully given a promise to two feveral perfons during the laft fickness of her husband, is not thereby left at liberty to chuse which of them the pleases, or to reject them both for the fake of a new lover? CLEORA asks me, whether the be obliged to continue fingle, according to a vow made to her husband at the ⚫ time of his prefenting her with a diamond necklace; fhe being informed by a very pretty young fellow of a good confcience, that such vows are in their nature finful? ANOTHER inquires, whether the hath not the right of widowhood, to dispose of herself to a gentleman of great merit, who preffes very hard; her husband being irrecoverably gone in a confumption? 'AN unreasonable creature hath the confidence to ask, whether it be proper for her to marry a man who is 6 younger than her eldest fon? 'A SCRUPULOUS well-fpoken matron, who gives me a great many good words, only doubts, whether she is not obliged in confcience to fhut up her two marriageable daughters, till fuch time as the hath comfortably difpofed of herself? SOPHRONIA, who feems by her phrafe and spelling to be a perfon of condition, fets forth, That whereas the hath a great eftate, and is but a woman, fhe defires to be informed, whether the would not do prudently to marry Camillus, a very idle tall young fellow, who hath no fortune of his own, and confequently hath nothing else to do but to manage hers.' BEFORE I fpeak of widows, I cannot but obferve one thing, which I do not know how to account for; a widow is always more fought after, than an old maid of the fame age. It is common enough anong ordinary people, for a ftale virgin to fet up a fhop in a place where fhe is not known; where the large thumb-ring fuppofed to be given her by her husband, quickly recommends her to fome. wealthy neighbour, who takes a liking to the jolly widow, that would have overlooked the venerable spinfter. THE truth of it is, if we look into this fet of women, we find, according to the different characters or circumVOL. VIII. ftances S 1 ftances wherein they are left, that widows may be divided into those who raise love, and thofe who raise compaffion. BUT not to ramble from this fubject, there are two things in which confifts chiefly the glory of a widow; the love of her deceased husband, and the care of her children to which may be added a third, arifing out of the former, fuch a prudent conduct as may do honour to both. A WIDOW poffeffed of all these three qualities, makes not only a virtuous but a fublime character. THERE is fomething fo great and fo generous in this state of life, when it is accompanied with all its virtues, that it is the fubject of one of the finest among our modern tragedies in the perfon of Andromache; and hath met with an univerfal and deferved applause, when introduced upon our English ftage by Mr Philips. THE most memorable widow in history is queen Artemifia, who not only erected the famous Mausoleum, but drank up the ashes of her dead lord; thereby inclosing them in a nobler monument than that which she had built, though defervedly esteemed one of the wonders of architecture. THIS laft lady feems to have had a better title to a fecond husband than any I have read of, fince not one duft of her first was remaining. Our modern heroines might think a husband a very bitter draught, and would have good reafon to complain, if they might not accept of a fecond partner, till they had taken fuch a troublesome method of lofing the memory of the first. I SHALL add to these illuftrious examples out of ancient ftory, a remarkable inftance of the delicacy of our anceitors in relation to the ftate of widowhood, as I find it recorded in Cowell's interpreter. At Eaft and Weft Enborne, in the county of Berks, if a customary tenant die, the widow fhall have what the law calls her free-bench, in all his copy-hold lands, dum folo et cafta fuerit; that is, while he lives fingle and chafte; but if the ⚫ commits incontinency, fhe forfeits her eftate: yet if she will come into the court riding backward upon a black ram, with his tail in her hand, and fay the words following, the steward is bound by the custom to re-admit her to her free-bench. Here Here I am, Riding upon a black ram, Like a whore as I am; And, for my Crincum Crancum, And, for my Have done this worldly shame; Therefore, I pray you Mr Steward, let me have. my land again. THE like custom there is in the manor of Torre in Devonshire, and other parts of the Weft. Ir is not impoffible but I may in a little time prefent you with a regifter of Berkshire ladies, and other westerndames, who rode publicly upon this occafion; and I hope. the town will be entertained with a cavalcade of widows.. N° 615. Wednesday, November 3.. Qui deorum Muneribus fapienter uti, Non illo pro caris amicis Aut patria timidus perire. Hor. Od. 9. 1. 4. v. 47 Who spend their treasure freely, as 'twas giv'n Who in a fix'd unalterable flate Smile at the doubtful tide of fate, And fcorn alike her friendship and her hate : Loth to purchafe life fo dear; But kindly for their friend embrace cold death, And feal their country's love with their departing breath.. Stepney. T must be owned that fear is a very powerful paffion, fince it is esteemed one of the greatest of virtues to fubdue it. It being implanted in us for our prefervation, it is no wonder that it fticks clofe to us, as long as we have any thing we are willing to preferve. But as life, and all its enjoyments, would be fcarce worth the keeping, if we were under a perpetual dread of lofing them; it is the bufinefs of religion and philofophy to free us from all unnecessary anxieties, and direct our fear to its proper object. If we confider the painfulness of this paffion, and the violent effects it produces, we fhall fee how dangerous it is to give way to it upon flight occafions. Some have frightened themselves into madnefs, others have given up their lives to these apprehenfions. The ftory of a man who grew grey in the space of one night's anxiety is very famous. O! nox, quam longa es, quæ facis una fenem! A tedious night indeed, that makes a young man old. may THESE apprehenfions, if they proceed from a confcioufnefs of guilt, are the fad warnings of reafon; and excite our pity, but admit of no remedy. When the hand of the Almighty is vifibly lifted against the impious, the heart of mortal man cannot withitand him. We have this paffion fublimely reprefented in the punishment of the Egyptians, tormented with the plague of darkness, in the apocryphal book of Wisdom, afcribed to Solomon. FOR when unrighteous men thought to opprefs the holy nation; they being fhut up in their houfes, the prifoners of darknefs, and fettered with the bonds of a long night, lay there exiled from the eternal providence. For while they fuppofed to lie hid in their fecret fins, they were fcattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly aftonished and troubled with ftrange apparitions. For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous, and being oppreffed with confcience, always forecafteth grievous things. For fear is nothing. elfe but a betraying of the fuccours which reafon offereth. For the whole world fhined with clear light, and none were hindered in their labour. Over them only was fpread a heavy night, an image of that darknefs which fhould afterwards receive them; but yet were they unto themselves more grievous than the darkness.' Το |