Will's Coffee house, August 5.

A good company of us were this day to fee, or rather to hear, an artful perfon do feveral feats of activity with his throat and windpipe. The first thing, wherewith he prefented us, was a ring of bells, which he imitated in a moft miraculous manner; after that, he gave us all the different notes of a pack of hounds, to our great delight and aftonishment. The company expreffed their applaufe with much noife; and never was heard fuch a harmony of men and dogs: But a certain plump merry felllow, from an angle of the room, fell a crowing like a cock fo ingenioufly, that he won our hearts from the other operator in an inftant. As foon as I faw him, I. recollected I had seen him on the ftage, and immediately knew it to be Tom Mirrour, the comical actor. He immediately addreffed himfelf to me, and told me, he was furprised to fee a Virtuofo take fatisfaction in any reprefentations below that of human life; and asked me, whether I thought this acting bells and dogs was to be confidered under the notion of Wit, Humour, or Satire ? Were it not better, continued he, to have fome particular picture of man laid before your eyes, that might incite your laughter? He had no fooner fpoke the word, but he immediately quitted his natural fhape, and talked to me in a very different air and tone from what he had ufed before; upon which, all that fat near us laughed; but I faw no deftortion in his countenance, or any thing that appeared to me difagreeable. I asked. Pacalet, what meant that fudden whisper about us? for I could not take the jeft. He answered, The Gentleman you were talking to, affumed your air and countenance fo exactly, that all fell a laughing to fee how little you knew your felf, and how much you were enamoured with your own image. But that perfon, continued my monitor, if men would make the right ufe of him, might be as inftrumental to their reforming errors in gefture, language, and fpeech, as a dancing mafter, linguift, or orator. You fee he laid yourfelf before you with fo much ad drefs, that you faw nothing particular in his behaviour: He has fo happy a knack of representing errors and im perfections,

B 2

perfections, that you can bear your faults in him as well as in yourfelf: He is the firft mimic that ever gave the beauties, as well as the deformities, of the man he acted. What Mr. Dryden faid of a very great man may be well applied to him:

He feems to be

Not one, but all mankind's epitome.

You are to know, that this Pantomime may be faid to be a fpecies, of himself: He has no commerce with the rest of mankind, but as they are the objects of imitation; like the Indian fowl, called the Mock-bird, who has no note of his own, but hits every found in the wood as foon as he hears it; fo that Mirrour is at once a copy and an original. Poor Mirrour's fate, as well as talent, is like that of the bird we just now spoke of; the nightingale, the linnet, the lark, are delighted with his company; but the buzzard, the crow, and the owl, are obferved to be his mortal enemies. Whenever Sophronius meets Mirrour, he receives him with civility and refpect, and well knows, a good copy of himself can be no injury to him; but Bathilius fhuns the ftreet where he expects to meet him; for he, that knows his every step and look is constrained and affected, must be afraid to be rivalled in his action, and of having it difcovered to be unnatural, by its being practised by another as well as himself.

From my own Apartment, August 5.

Letters from Coventry and other places have been sent to me, in answer to what I have faid in relation to my antagonist Mr. Powell; and advise me, with warm language, to keep to fubjects more proper for me than fuch high points. But the writers of thefe epiftles mistake the ufe and fervice I proposed to the learned world by fuch obfervations: For you are to understand, that the title of this Paper gives me a right of taking to myself, and inferting in it, all fuch parts of any Book or Letter which are foreign to the purpofe intended, or profeffed, by the writer: So that fuppofe two great Divines fhould argue, and treat each other with warmth and levity, unbecoming

unbecoming their fubject or character, all that they fay unfit for that place is very proper to be inferted here. Therefore from time to time, in all Writings which shall hereafter be published, you shall have from me extracts of all that shall appear not to the purpose; and for the benefit of the Gentle Reader, I will fhew what to turn over unread, and what to perufe. For this end I have a mathematical fieve preparing, in which I will fift every page and paragraph; and all that falls through I fhall make bold with for my own ufe. The fame thing will be as beneficial in fpeech; for all fuperfluous expreffions in talk fall to me alfo: As, when a pleader at the bar defigns to be extremely impertinent and troublesome, and cries, "Under favour of the Court,"miffion, my Lord-I humbly offer" and "I "think I have well confidered this matter; for I would "be very far from trifling with your Lordship's time, "or trefpaffing upon your patience-however, thus I ❝ will venture to say -" and fo forth. Or elfe, when a fufficient felf-conceited coxcomb is bringing out fométhing in his own praife, and begins "Without vanity, "I must take this upon me to affert." There is alfo a trick which the Fair Sex have, that will greatly contribute to fwell my Volumes: As, when a woman is going to abuse her best friend, " Pray, fays fhe, have you "heard what is faid of Mrs. fuch a one? I am heartily "forry to hear any thing of that kind of one I have fo

-With fub

great a value for; but they make no fcruple of telling "it; and it was not spoken of to me as a fecret, for now "the town rings of it." All fuch flowers in Rhetorick, and little refuges for malice, are to be noted, and naturally belong only to Tatlers. By this method you will immediately find Folio's contract themselves into Octavo's, and the labour of a fortnight got over in half a day.

St. James's Coffee-house, August 5.

Last night arrived a mail from Lisbon, which gives a very pleafing account of the pofture of affairs in that part of the world, the enemy having been neceffitated wholly to abandon the blockade of Olivenza. These advices fay, that Sir John Jennings is arrived at Lisbon

B. 3

When

When that Gentleman left Barcelona, his Catholic Ma jefty was taking all poffible methods for carrying on an offenfive war. It is obferved with great fatisfaction in the Court of Spain, that there is a very good intelligence between the General officers: Count Staremberg and Mr. Stanhope acting in all things with fuch unanimity, that the public affairs receive great advantages from their perfonal friendship and efteem to each other, and mutual affiftance in promoting the fervice of the common cause.

"This is to give notice, that if any able bodied Pa"latine will enter into bonds of matrimony with Betty Pepin, the faid Palatine shall be settled in a freehold "of forty fhillings per Annum in the county of Middlefex."

N° 52.

Tuesday, August 9, 1709.

White's Chocolate-house, August 7•

Delamira refigns her Fan.

LONG had the croud of the gay and young food

in fufpence, as to their fate in their paffion to the beauteous Delamira; but all their hopes are lately vanished, by the declaration that he has made of her choice, to take the happy Archibald for her companion for life. Upon her making this known, the expence of fweet powder and jeffamine are confiderably abated; and the Mercers and Milleners complain of her want of public fpirit, in not concealing longer a fecret which was fo much the benefit of trade. But fo it happened; and no one was in confidence with her in carrying on this traaty, but the matchlefs Virgulta, whofe defpair of ever entering the matrimonial ftate made her, fome nights before Delamira's refolution was published to the world, addrefs herself to her in the following manner:

Delamira!

"Delamira! you are now going into that ftate of life, wherein the ufe of your charms is wholly to be applied to the pleafing only one man. That swim"ming air of your body, that janty bearing of your "head over one fhoulder, and that inexpreffible beauty "in your manner of playing your Fan, must be lowered "into a more confined behaviour; to fhew, that you "would rather fhun than receive addreffes for the future. Therefore, dear Delamira, give me those excellencies you leave off, and acquaint me with your manner of charming: For I take the liberty of our friendship to fay, that when I confider my own ftature, motion, "complexion, wit, or breeding, I cannot think myself any way your inferior; yet do I go through crouds "without wounding a man, and all my acquaintance marry round me, while I live a virgin unasked; and, "I think, unregarded."

Delamira heard her with great attention, and, with that dexterity which is natural to her, told her, that all fhe had above the reft of her Sex and contemporary Beauties was wholly owing to a Fan, (that was left her by her mother, and had been long in the family) which whoever had in poffeffion, and ufed with skill, should command the hearts of all her beholders: And fince, faid fhe fmiling, I have no more to do with extending my conquefts or triumphs, I will make you a prefent of this ineftimable rarity. Virgulta made her expreffions of the higheft gratitude for fo uncommon a confidence in her, and defired fhe would fhew her what was peculiar in the management of that utenfil, which rendered it of fuch general force while she was miftrefs of it. Delamira replied, you fee, Madam, Cupid is the principal figure painted on it; and the fkill in playing this Fan is, in your feveral motions of it, to let him appear as little as poffible; for honourable Lovers fly all endeavours to enfnare them; and your Cupid muit hide his bow and arrow, or he will never be fure of his game. You may obferve, continued fhe, that in all public affemblies, the Sexes feem to feparate themselves, and draw up to attack each other with eye-fhot: That is the time when the Fan, which is all the armour of a woman, is of most use