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No 341. tertained with Contemplation as Enterprize; a Mind ready for great Exploits, but not impatient for Occafions to exert it felf. The Prince has Wifdom and Valour in as higħ Perfection as Man can enjoy it; which noble Faculties in conjunction, banish all Vain-Glory, Oftentation, Ambition, and all other Vices which might intrude upon his Mind to make it unequal. Thefe Habits and Qualities of Soul and Body render this Perfonage fo extraordinary, that he appears to have nothing in him but what every Man fhould have in him, the Exertion of his very felf, abftracted from the Circumstances in which Fortune has placed him. Thus were you to fee Prince Eugene, and were told he was a private Gentleman, you would fay he is a Man of Modefty and Merit: Should you be told that was Prince Eugene, he would be diminished no otherwise, than that part of your diftant Admiration would turn into familiar Good-will. This I thought fit to entertain my Reader with, concerning an Hero who never was equalled but by one Man; over whom alfo he has this Advantage, that he has had an Opportunity to manifeft an Efteem for him in his Adversity.

N 34I.

Tuesday, April 1.

· Revocate animos mæftumque timorem

Mittite

H

Virg.

AVING, to oblige my Correfpondent Phyfibulu printed his Letter laft Friday, in relation to the new Epilogue, he cannot take it amifs, if I now publifh another, which I have juft received from a Gentleman who does not agree with him in his Sentiments upon that Matter.

SIRE

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SIR,

'I A M amazed to find an Epilogue attacked in your last

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Friday's Paper, which has been fo generally applauded by the Town, and receiv'd fuch Honours as were never before given to any in an English Theatre.

THE Audience would not permit Mrs. Oldfield to go ' off the Stage the first Night, till fhe had repeated it twice; the fecond Night the Noife of Ancora's was as loud as before, and fhe was again obliged to speak it twice: the third Night it was called for a fecond time; and, in 'fhort, contrary to all other Epilogues, which are dropt after the third Representation of the Play, this has already been repeated nine times.

I must own I am the more furprized to find this Cenfure in oppofition to the whole Town, in a Paper which has hitherto been famous for the Candour of its : Criticisms.

I can by no means allow your melancholy Correfpondent, that the new Epilogue is unnatural becaufe C it is gay. If I had a mind to be learned, I could tell him that the Prologue and Epilogue were real Parts of the ancient Tragedy; but every one knows that on the British Stage they are diftinct Performances by themfelves, Pieces entirely detached from the Play, and no way effential to it.

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THE moment the Play ends, Mrs. Oldfield is no more Andromache, but Mrs. Oldfield; and tho' the Poet • had left Andromache ftone-dead upon the Stage, as your ingenious Correfpondent phrases it, Mrs. Oldfield might ftill have spoke a merry Epilogue. We have an Inftance ⚫ of this in a Tragedy where there is not only a Death but a Martyrdom. St. Catharine was there perfonated by Nell Gwin; fhe lies ftone dead upon the Stage, but upon thofe Gentlemens offering to remove her Body, whose • Business it is to carry off the Slain in our English Tragedies, fhe breaks out into that abrupt Beginning of what was a very ludicrous, but at the fame time thought a very good Epilogue,

Hold

1

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Hold, are you mad?
you
"damn'd confounded Dog,
I am to rife and fpeak the Epilogue.

THIS diverting Manner was alwavs practifed by Mr? Dryden, who if he was not the best Writer of Tragedies in his time, was allowed by every one to have the happiest Turn for a Prologue or an Epilogue. The Epilogues to Cleomenes, Don Sebaftian, The Duke of Guife, Aurengzebe, and Love Triumphant, are all Precedents of this nature.

I might further justify this Practice by that excel⚫lent Epilogue which was spoken a few years fince, after the Tragedy of Phaedra and Hippolitus; with a great many others, in which the Authors have endeavour'd to make the Audience merry. If they have, not all fuc-⚫ceeded fo well as the Writer of this, they have however fhewn that it was not for want of Good-will.

I must further obferve, that the Gaiety of it may be ftill the more proper, as it is the end of a French Play; fince every one knows that Nation, who are generally efteem'd to have as polite a Tafte as any in Europe, always clofe their Tragick Entertainments with what they call a Petite Piece, which is purpofely defign'd to raise Mirth, and fend away the Audience well pleased. The fame Perfon who has fupported the chief Character in the Tragedy, very often plays the principal Part in the Petite Piece; fo that I have my felf feen at Paris, Oreftes and Lubin acted the fame Night by the fame Man.

TRAGI-COMEDY, indeed, you have your felf in a former Speculation found fault with very juftly, because it breaks the Tide of the Paffions while they are yet flowing; but this is nothing at all to the prefent Cafe, where they have already had their full courfe.

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AS the new Epilogue is written conformable to the • Practice of our beft Poets, for it is not fuch an one which, as the Duke of Buckingham fays in his Rehearsal, might ferve for any other Play; but wholly rifes out of the Occurrences of the Piece it was compofed for.

6.

THE

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THE only Reafon your mournful Correfpondent gives against this facetious Epilogue, as he calls it, is, that he has a mind to go home melancholy. I wish the Gentleman may not be more grave than wife. For my own part, I must confefs I think it very fufficient to have the Anguish of a fictitious Piece remain upon me while it is reprefenting but I love to be fent home to bed in a good humour. If Phyfibulus is however refolv'd to be ⚫ inconfolable, and not have his Tears dried up, he need only continue his old Custom, and when he has had his Half Crown's worth of Sorrow; flink out before the Epilogue begins.

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IT is pleasant enough to hear this Tragical Genius complaining of the great Mifchief Andromache had done him: What was that? Why, the made him laugh. The poor Gentleman's Sufferings put me in mind of Harlequin's Cafe, who was tickled to death. He tells us foon after, thro' a fmall Miftake of Sorrow for Rage, that during the whole Action he was fo very forry, that ⚫ he thinks he could have attack'd half a fcore of the fiercest • Mohocks in the Excefs of his Grief. I cannot but look c. upon it as an happy Accident, that a Man who is fo • bloody-minded in his Affliction, was diverted from this Fit of outragious Melancholy. The Valour of this Gentleman in his Diftrefs, brings to one's memory the Knight of the forrowful Countenance, who lays about him at fuch an unmerciful rate in an old Romance. I fhall readily · grant him that his Soul, as he himself fays, would have • made a very ridiculous Figure, had it quitted the Body, and defcended to the Poetical Shades, in fuch an En

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counter.

AS to his Conceit of tacking a Tragic Head with a Comic Tail, in order to refresh the Audience, it is fuch a piece of Jargon, that I don't know what to make of it.

THE elegant Writer makes a very fudden Tranfition from the Play-house to the Church, and from thence, to the Gallows.

AS for what relates to the Church, he is of opinion, that thefe Epilogues have given occalion to these merry Figgs from the Organ-Loft, which have diffipated those

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good Thoughts, and Difpofitions he has found in himself, and the rest of the Pew, upon the finging of two Staves cull'd out by the judicious and diligent Clark.

HE fetches his next Thought from Tyburn; and • feems very apprehenfive left there fhould happen any Innovations in the Tragedies of his Friend Paul Lorrain.

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IN the mean time, Sir, this gloomy Writer, who is fo mightily fcandaliz'd at a gay Epilogue after a ferious Play, fpeaking of the Fate of thofe unhappy Wretches who are condemned to fuffer an ignominicus Death by the Juftice of our Laws, endeavours to make the Reader merry on fo improper an occafion, by thofe poor . Burlesque Expreffions of Tragical Dramas, and Monthly Performances.

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I am, Sir, with great Respect,

Your most obedient, most humble Servant,

X

Philomeides.

N° 342. Wednesday, April 2.

Juftitia partes funt non violare homines: Verecundia non offendere.

A

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Tull.

S Regard to Decency is a great Rule of Life in ge neral, but more efpecially to be confulted by the Female World, I cannot overlook the following Letter which defcribes an egregious Offender.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

''I

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Was this Day looking over your Papers, and reading in that of December the 6th with great delight, ⚫ the amiable Grief of Afteria for the Absence of her Hufband, it threw me into a great deal of Reflection. I I cannot fay but this arofe very much from the Circum

ftances

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