other, as it were to tack the taking leave with the reft of the difcourfe, is a common error of young men of good education. Though I have already declared I fhall not ufe words of foreign termination, I cannot help it if my correfpondents do it. A gentleman, therefore, who fubfcribes Aronces, and writes to me concerning fome regulations to be made among a fett of country dancers, muft be more particular in his account. His general complaint is, that the men who are at the expence of the ball, bring people of different characters together, and the libertine and innocent are huddled, to the danger of the latter, and encouragement of the former." I have frequently obferved this kind of enormity, and must defire Aronces to give me an TH exact relation of the airs and glances of the whole company, and particularly how Mrs. Gatty fets, when it happens that fhe is to pafs by the lover vagabond, who, I find, is got into that company by the favour of his coufin Jenny. For I deign to have a very ftrict eye upon thefe diverfions; and it fhall not fuffice, that, according to the author of The Rape of the Lock, all faults are laid upon Syiphs; when I make my enquiry, as the lame author has it— What guards the purity of melting maids The glance by day, and whisper in the dark? detires, When music foftens, and when dancing fires? No IV. THURSDAY, MARCH 4. 4 THE DANCER JOINING WITH THE TUNEFUL THRONG, HE great work which I have begun for the fervice of the more polite part of this nation, cannot be fuppofed to be carried on by the invention and induftry of a fingle perfon only: it is, therefore, neceffary that I invite all other ingenious perfons to affift me. Confidering my title is The Lover, and that a good air and mien is (in one who pretends to please the fair) as useful as fkill in all or any of the arts and sciI am mightily pleased to obferve, that the art of Dancing is, of late, come to take rank in the learned world, by being communicated in letters and characters, as all other parts of knowledge have for fome ages been. I fhall defire all thofe of the faculty of Dancing, to write me, from time to time, all the new fteps they take in the improvement of the fcience. I this morning read, with unfpeakable delight, in The Evening Po, the following advertisement ences, WEAVER'S HISTORY OF DANCING. On Tuesday laft was published, THE Bretagne, a French Dance, by Mr. Pecour, and writ by Mr. Siris; engraven in Characters and Figures, for the ufe of Matters. Price 2s. 6d. Note, Mr. Siris's Ball Dances are likewife printed, and his original Art of Dancing by Characters and Figures. All fold by J. Walfh, at the Harp and Hautboy, in Catharine Street, in the Strand. Take this Dance in it's full extent and variety, it is the best I ever read; and though Mr. Siris, out of modesty, may pretend that he has only tranflated it, I cannot but believe, from the stile, that he himself writ it; and, if I know any thing of writing, he certainly penned the laft coupée. This admirable piece is full of inftruction; you fee it is called the Bretagne, that is to fay, the Britain. It is intended for a feftival entertainment, (like Mr. Bays's Grand Dance) that, that, upon occafion of the peace with France and Spain, the whole nation fhould learn a new Dance together. Some of the best experienced perfons in French dancing are to practife it at the Great Room in York Buildin, s; where, it feems, the Master of the Revels lives. He, as it is ufual, carries a white wand in his hand, and, at a motion made with it to the mufic, the Dance is to begin. I am credibly informed that, out of refpect, and for diftin&tion-fake, he has ordered, that the firit perfon who fhall be taken out, is to be the Cenfor of Great Britain. I do not think this at all unlikely, nor below the gravity of that fage; for it is well known, the judges of the land dance the first day of every term, and it is fuppofed, by fome, they are to dance next after the Cenfor. Mr. Siris has made the beginning of this movement very difficult for any one who has not, from his natural parts, a more than ordinary qualification that way. The Dance is written in the genius required by Mr. Weaver, in his Hiftory of Dancing. The antients,' fays that more than peripatetic philofopher, Mr. Weaver, were fo fond of dancing, that Pliny has given us Dancing iflands; which paffage of " Pliny, Celius Rodiginus quotes. There is alfo an account,' fays he, ‹ that in the Torrhebian Lake, which is alfo called the Nymphæan, there are ⚫ certain islands of the Nymphs, which move round in a ring at the found of the flutes, and are therefore called the Calamine Islands, from Calamus, a pipe or reed; and alfo the Dancing Ilands, becaufe at the found of the fymphony, they were moved by the beating of the feet of the fingers.' I appeal to all the learned etymologifts in Great Britain, whether it is poffible to affign a reafon for calling this grand Dance The Britain, if the French did not think to make this a dancing island. The file of Mr. Sinis is apparently political, as any judicious reader will find, if he perufes his Siciliana, which was writ to inftruct another But I forget that this is too elaborate for my character. All that I have to fay to the matter of Dancing, is only as it regards lovers; and, as I would advise them to avoid dabbling in politics, I have explained thefe political dances, that the motions we learn may never end in warlike ones; like those which were performed by the antients with clashing of fwords, defcribed by Mr. Weaver (in the above-mentioned hiftory) out of Claudian Here, too, the warlike dancers blefs our Their artful wand'ring, and their laws of An unconfus'd return and inoffenfive fight. Their moving breasts in tuneful changes rife, shown In air with waving, deep the targets groan, Struck with alternate fwords, which thence rebound, And end the concert, and the facred found. Ne V. A N° V. SATURDAY, MARCH 6. MY SOUL'S FAR BETTER PART, CEASE WEEPING, NOR AFFLICT THY TENDER HEART. SI have fixed my stand in the very centre of Covent Garden, a place for this last century particularly famed for wit and love; and am near the play. houfe, where one is reprefented every night by the other; I think I ought to be particularly careful of what paffes in my neighbourhood; and, as I am a profeffed knight-errant, do all that lies in my power to make the charming endowment of wit, and the prevailing paffion of love, fubfervient to the interefts of honour and virtue. You are to understand, that having yesterday made an excursion from my lodge, there paffed by me, near St. James's, the charmer of my heart. I have, ever fince her parents firft bestowed her, avoided all places by her frequented; but accident once or twice in a year brings the bright phantom into my fight, upon which there is a flutter in my bofom for many days following: when I confider, that during this emotion I am highly exalted in my being, and my every fentiment improved by the effects of that paffion; when I reflect, that all the objects which prefent themselves to me, now are viewed in a different light from that in which they had appeared, had I not lately been exhilarated by her prefence; in fine, when I find in myself fo Atrong an inclination to oblige and entertain all whom I meet with, accompanied with fuch a readinefs to receive kind impreffions of thofe I converfe with; I am more and more convinced, that this paffion is in honeft minds the strongest incentive that can move the foul of man to Jaudable accomplishments. Is a man just? let him fall in love, and grow generous. Is a man good-natured? let him love, and grow public-fpirited. It immediately makes the good which is in him fhine forth in new excellencies, and the ill vanish away without the pain of of contrition, but with a fudden amendment of heart. This fort of paffion, to produce fuch effects, mult necessarily be conceived towards a modeft and virtuous ART OF LOVE, CONGREVE. woman; for the arts to obtain her muft be fuch as are agreeable to her, and the lover becomes immediately poffeffed with fuch perfections or vices, as make way to the object of his defires. I have plenty of examples to enforce thefe truths, every night that a play is acted in my neighbourhood: the noble refolutions which heroes in tragedy take, in order to recommend themselves to their mistresses, are no way below the confideration of the wifeft men; yet, at the fame time, instructions the most probable to take place in the minds of the young and inconfiderate. But, in our degenerate age, the poet must have more than ordinary fkill to raise the admiration of the audience fo high, in the more great and public parts of his drama, to make a loose people attend to a paffion which they never, or that very faintly, felt in their own bofoms. That perfect piece, which has done fo great honour to our nation and language, called Cato, excels as much in the paffion of it's lovers, as in the fublime fentiments of it's hero; their generous love, which is more heroic than any concern in the chief characters of most dramas, makes but fubordinate characters in this. When Martia reproves Juba for entertaining her with love in fuch a conjuncture of affairs, wherein the common caufe fhould take place of all other thoughts, the prince anfwers in this noble manner: It has been obfervable, that the stage in all times has had the utmoft influence on the manners and affections of mankind; and as thofe reprefentations of human life have tended to promote virtue or vice, fo has the age been improved or debauched. I doubt not but the frequent reflections upon marriage and innocent love, with which our theatre has long abounded, have been the great caufe of our corrupt fentiments in this respect. It is not every youth that can behold the fine gentleman of the comedy reprefented with a good grace, leading a loofe and profligate life, and condemning virtuous affe&tion as infipid, and not be fecretly emulous of what appears fo amiable to a whole audience. Thefe gay pictures ftrike trong and lasting impreffions on the fancy and imagination of youth, and are hardly to be erafd in riper years, unless a commerce between virtuous and innocent lovers he painted with the fame advantage, and with as lovely colours, by the most masterly hands on the theatre. I have faii masterly hands, because they must be fuch who can run counter to cur natural propensity to inordinate pleasure; little authors are very glad of applaufe purchafed any way; loofe appetites and defires are eafily raifed; but there is a wide difference between that reputation and applaufe which is obtained from our wantonnefs, and that which flows from a capacity of firring fuch affections which upon cool thoughts contribute to our happiness. But I was going to give an account of the exultation which I am in, upon an accidental view of the woman whom I had long loved, with a most pure, though ardent paffion; but as this is, according to my former representations of the matter, no way expedient for her to indulge me in, I must break the force of it by leading a life fuitable and analogous to it, and making all the town fenfible how much they owe to her bright eyes which infpire me in the performance of my prefent office, in which I fhall particularly take all the youth of both fexes under my care. The two theatres, and all the polite coffee-houses, I fhall conftantly frequent, but principally the coffee-house under my lodge, Button's, and the play-house in Covent Garden. But as I fet up for the judge of pleasures, I think it neceffary to affign particular places of refort to my young gentlemen as they come to town, who cannot expect to pop in at Mr. Button's on the firft day of their arrival in town. I recommerd it, therefore, to young men, to frequent Shanley's fome days before they take upon them to app ar at Button's. I have ordered, that no one look in the face of any new comer; and taken effectual methods that he may poffefs himself of any empty chair in the house without being ftared at; but foraimuch as fome, who may have been in town for fonie months together heretofore, by long abfence have relapfed from the audacity they had arrived at, into their first bathfulness and rufticity, I have given them the fame privilege of obfcure entry for ten days. I have directed alfo, that books be kept of all that paffes in town in all the eminent coffee-houses, that any gentleman, though just arrived our of exile from the moft diftant counties in Great Britain, may as familiarly enter into the town-talk as if he had lodg ed all that time in Covent Garden; but above all things I have provided, that proper houfes for bathing and cupping may be ready for thofe country gentlen.en whofe too healthy vifages give them an air too robuft and importunate for this polite region of lovers, who have fo long avoided wind and weather, and have every day been outstripped by them in the ground they have paffed over by feveral miles. As to the orders under which I have put my female youth at affemblies, opera's, and plays, I fhall declare them in a particular chapter, under the title of, The Government of the Eye in Publick Places.' COR N° VI. TUESDAY, MARCH 9. ON ROWS OF HOMELY TURF THEY SAT TO SEL, ORRESPONDENTS begin to grow numerous; and indeed I cannot but be pleased with the intelligence which one of them fends me, for the novelty of it. The gentleman is a very great antiquary, and tells me he has feveral pieces by him, which are letters from the Sabine virgins to their parents, friends, and lovers, in their own country, after the famous rape which laid the foundation of the Roman people. He thinks thefe very proper memorials for one who writes an hiftory under the title of Lover. He has alfo answers to thofe letters, and pretends Ovid took the defign of his Epiftles from having had thefe very papers in his hands. This, you'll fay, is a very great curiofity; and for that reafon I have refolved to give the reader the following account, which was written by a Sabine lady to her mother, within ten days after that memorable mad wedding, and is as follows: DEAR MOTHER, THIS is to acquaint you, that I am better pleated with a very goodnatured hufband in this little village here of Rome, than ever I was in all the ftate and plenty at your houfe. When he firt feized me, mul confefs he was very rough and ungentle, but he grows much tamer every day than other, and I do not question but we fhall very foon be as orderly and fober a couple as you and my father. My coufin Lydia nobody knows of certainly, but the poor girl had two or three hufbands in the rout, and as he is very pretty, they fay all contend for her fill. Romulus has appointed a day to fix the disputed marriages; but it is very remarkable, that feveral can neither agree to live together, or to part: for if one propofes it, that is taken fo mortally ill, that the other will infift upon flaying, at leaft till the other confents to stay; and then the party who denied demands a di ART OF LOVE. vorce, to be revenged of the fame inclination in the other: thus they fay they cannot consent to cohabit till they are upon an equality in having each refufed the other. This you must believe will make a great perplexity; but Romulus, who expects a war, will have great regard to let none who do not like each other stay together; and makes it a maxin, that a robust race is not to be expected to defcend from wranglers. Pray let me know how my lover, who propofed himself to you, bears the lofs of me. I must confefs, I could not but refent his being indifferent on this occafion, after all the vows and proteftations he made when you left us together. I don't question but he will make jetts upon the poverty of the Romans; but they threaten here, that if you are not very well contented with what has paffed, they will make you a vifit with fwords in their hands, and demand portions with your daughters. When I was made prize by my good man, who is reniarkably valiant, (for which reafon they left me undifputed in his hands) he foon took off my firft terrors from my obfervation of that his pre-eminence, and a certain determinate behaviour, with a dying fondness that glowed in his eyes. I told him, from what I faw other people fuffer, I could not but think my lot very fortunate, that I had fallen into his hands; and begged of him he would indulge my curiofity in going with me to fome eminence, and obferve what befel the rest of my friends and country women. He did fo, and from the place we flood on I obferved what paffed in all the burly-burly, he ob ferving to me the quality and merit of the husbands, I giving to him an account of the wives. How ftrangely truth will out! Hifpulla, as I faw, when they were ftruggling for her, has crooked legs; Chloe laughed fo violently when he was carried off, that I ob |