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Title: The Tatler, Volume 1, 1899

Author: George A. Aitken

Release Date: October 5, 2004 [EBook #13645]

Language: English

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#THE TATLER#

Edited with Introduction & Notes by #George A. Aitken#

_Author of_ "The Life of Richard Steele," Etc.

Vol. I

New York
Hadley & Mathews
156 Fifth Avenue
London: Duckworth & Co.
1899



Preface

_The original numbers of the _Tatler_ were reissued in two forms in
1710-11; one edition, in octavo, being published by subscription, while
the other, in duodecimo, was for the general public. The present edition
has been printed from a copy of the latter issue, which, as recorded on
the title-page, was "revised and corrected by the Author"; but I have
had by my side, for constant reference, a complete set of the folio
sheets, containing the "Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff" in the form
in which they were first presented to the world. Scrupulous accuracy in
the text has been aimed at, but the eccentricities of spelling--which
were the printer's, not the author's--have not been preserved, and the
punctuation has occasionally been corrected.

The first and the most valuable of the annotated editions of the
_Tatler_ was published by John Nichols and others in 1786, with notes by
Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, Dr. John Calder, and Dr. Pearce, Bishop
of Rochester; and though these notes are often irrelevant and out of
date, they contain an immense amount of information, and have been
freely made use of by subsequent editors. I have endeavoured to preserve
what is of value in the older editions, and to supplement it, as
concisely as possible, by such further information as appeared
desirable. The eighteenth-century diaries and letters published of late
years have in many cases enabled me to throw light on passages which
have hitherto been obscure, and sometimes useful illustrations have been
found in the contemporary newspapers and periodicals.

The portraits of Steele, Addison, and Swift, the writers most associated
with the _Tatler_, have been taken from contemporary engravings in the
British Museum; and the imaginary portrait of Isaac Bickerstaff in the
last volume is from a rare picture drawn by Lens in 1710 as a
frontispiece to collections of the original folio numbers._

G. A. A.

_August 1898._




INTRODUCTION

When the first number of the _Tatler_ appeared in 1709, Steele and
Addison were about thirty-seven years of age, while Swift, then still
counted among the Whigs, was more than four years their senior. Addison
and Steele had been friends at the Charterhouse School and at Oxford,
and though they had during the following years had varying experiences,
their friendship had in no way lessened. Addison had been a fellow of
his college, had gained the patronage of Charles Montague and Lord
Somers, had made the grand tour, and published an account of his
travels; had gained popularity by his poem "The Campaign," written in
celebration of the victory at Blenheim; had been made an Under-Secretary
of State, and finally (in December 1708) had been appointed secretary to
Lord Wharton, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Steele, on the other hand,
had enlisted in the Guards, without taking any degree; had obtained an
ensign's commission after dedicating to Lord Cutts a poem on Queen
Mary's death; and had written a little book called "The Christian Hero,"
designed "to fix upon his own mind a strong impression of virtue and
religion, in opposition to a stronger propensity towards unwarrantable
pleasures." At the close of the same year (1701) he brought out a
successful comedy, "The Funeral," which was followed by "The Lying
Lover" and "The Tender Husband," plays which gave strong evidence of the
influence of Jeremy Collier's attack on the immorality of the stage.
"The Tender Husband" owed "many applauded strokes" to Addison, to whom
it was dedicated by Steele, who wished "to show the esteem I have for
you, and that I look upon my intimacy with you as one of the most
valuable enjoyments of my life." In 1705 Steele married a lady with
property in Barbados, and on her death married, in 1707, Mary Scurlock,
the "dear Prue" to whom he addressed his well-known letters. For the
rest, he had been made gentleman-waiter to Prince George of Denmark, and
appointed Gazetteer, with a salary of L300, less a tax of L45 a year. He
was disappointed in his hopes of obtaining the Under-Secretaryship
vacated by Addison.

From 1705 onwards there is evidence of frequent and familiar intercourse
between Swift and Addison and Steele. After Sir William Temple's death,
Swift had become chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley, who gave him the
living of Laracor; and during a visit to England in 1704 he had gained a
position in the front rank of authors by the "Tale of a Tub" and the
"Battle of the Books." At the close of 1707 he was again in England,
charged with a mission to obtain for the Irish clergy the remission of
First Fruits and Tenths already conceded to the English, and throughout
1708 what he calls "the triumvirate of Addison, Steele and me" were in
constant communication. In that year Swift published a pamphlet called
"A Project for the Advancement of Religion and the Reformation of
Manners," which anticipated many of the arguments used in the _Tatler_
and _Spectator_; and he also commenced his attack on John Partridge,
quack doctor and maker of astrological almanacs. On the appearance of
Partridge's "Merlinus Liberatus" for 1708, Swift--borrowing a name from
the signboard of a shoemaker--published "Predictions for the year 1708,
wherein the month and day of the month are set down, the persons named,
and the great actions and events of next year particularly related, as
they will come to pass. Written to prevent the people of England from
being further imposed on by vulgar almanack-makers. By Isaac
Bickerstaff, Esq." Isaac Bickerstaff professed to be a true astrologer,
disgusted at the lies told by impostors, and he said that he was willing
to be hooted at as a cheat if his prophecies were not exactly fulfilled.
His first prediction was that Partridge would die on the 29th of March;
and on the 30th a second pamphlet was published, "The accomplishment of
the first of Mr. Bickerstaff's Predictions ... in a letter to a person
of quality, in which a detailed account is given of Partridge's death,
at five minutes after seven, by which it is clear that Mr. Bickerstaff
was mistaken almost four hours in his calculation.... Whether he had
been the cause of this poor man's death, as well as the predictor, may
be very reasonably disputed." The joke was maintained by Swift and
others in various pieces, and when Partridge, in his almanac for 1709,
protested that he was still living, Swift replied, in "A Vindication of
Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.," which was advertised in the fifth number of
the _Tatler_, that he could prove that Partridge was not alive; for no
one living could have written such rubbish as the new almanac. In
starting his new paper Steele assumed the name of the astrologer Isaac
Bickerstaff, rendered famous by Swift, and made frequent use of Swift's
leading idea. He himself summed up the controversy in the words, "if a
man's art is gone, the man is gone, though his body still appear."

Much has been written on the interesting question of the early history
of the periodical press; but with one exception none of its predecessors
had much effect on the _Tatler_. John Dunton's _Athenian Mercury_ was
the forerunner of our _Notes and Queries_; and it was followed by the
_British Apollo_ (1708-11), the second title of which was "Curious
Amusements for the Ingenious. To which are added the most Material
Occurrences, Foreign and Domestic. Performed by a Society of Gentlemen."
_The Gentleman's Journal_ of 1692-4, a monthly paper of poems and other
miscellaneous matter, was succeeded, in 1707, by Oldmixon's _Muses'
Mercury; or, The Monthly Miscellany_, a periodical which contained also
notices of new plays and books, and numbered Steele among its
contributors. Defoe's _Review_, begun in 1704, aimed at setting the
affairs of Europe in a clearer light, regardless of party; but, added
Defoe, "After our serious matters are over, we shall at the end of every
paper present you with a little diversion, as anything occurs to make
the world merry; and whether friend or foe, one party or another, if
anything happens so scandalous as to require an open reproof, the world
will meet with it there." Accordingly, of the eight pages in the first
number, one and a half pages consist of "Mercure Scandale; or, Advice
from the Scandalous Club, Translated out of French." The censure was to
be of the actions of men, not of parties; and the design was to expose
not persons but things. A monthly supplement, dealing with "the
immediate subject then on the tongues of the town," was begun in
September 1704; and pressure on the space before long pushed the Advices
from the Scandal Club out of the ordinary issue of the _Review_.
Subsequently Defoe wrote more than once in praise of the way in which
his work had been taken up by Isaac Bickerstaff.

Probably the _Tatler_ was started by Steele without any very definite
designs for the future. According to the first number, published on
April 12, 1709, the aim was to instruct the public what to think, after
their reading, and there was to be something for the entertainment of
the fair sex. The numbers were published three times a week, on the
post-days, at the price of one penny. Each paper consisted of a single
folio sheet, and the first four were distributed gratuitously. Steele
probably thought that his position of Gazetteer would enable him to give
the latest news, and he says that these paragraphs brought in a
multitude of readers; but as the position of the _Tatler_ became
established, the need for the support of these items of news grew less,
and after the first eighty numbers they are of rare occurrence. Quite
early in the career of the paper Addison, speaking of the distress which
would be caused among the news-writers by the conclusion of a peace,
said that Bickerstaff was not personally concerned in the matter; "for
as my chief scenes of action are coffee-houses, playhouses, and my own
apartment, I am in no need of camps, fortifications, and fields of
battle to support me.... I shall still be safe as long as there are men
or women, or politicians, or lovers, or poets, or nymphs, or swains, or
cits, or courtiers in being."[1]

The subject of each article was to be indicated by the name of the
coffee-house or other place from which it was supposed to come: "All
accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment shall be under the
article of White's Chocolate-house; Poetry, under that of Will's
Coffee-house; Learning, under the title of Grecian; Foreign and Domestic
News you will have from Saint James's Coffee-house; and what else I have
to offer on any other subject shall be dated from my own Apartment." For
some time each number contained short papers from all or several of
these places; but gradually it became usual to devote the whole number
to one topic. The motto of the first forty numbers was "Quicquid agunt
homines ... nostri farrago libelli"; but in the following numbers it was
changed to "Celebrare domestica facta"; and afterwards each number
generally had a quotation bearing upon the subject of the day. Writing
some time after the commencement of the fatter, Steele said, in the
Dedication prefixed to the first volume, "The general purpose of this
paper is to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of
cunning, vanity, and affectation, and to recommend a general simplicity
in our dress, our discourse, and our behaviour." And elsewhere he says:
"As for my labours, which he is pleased to inquire after, if they but
wear one impertinence out of human life, destroy a single vice, or give
a morning's cheerfulness to an honest mind; in short, if the world can
be but one virtue the better, or in any degree less vicious, or receive
from them the smallest addition to their innocent diversions; I shall
not think my pains, or indeed my life, to have been spent in vain."[2]
At the close, speaking in his own name, Steele wrote: "The general
purpose of the whole has been to recommend truth, innocence, honour, and
virtue, as the chief ornaments of life; but I considered, that severity
of manners was absolutely necessary to him who would censure others, and
for that reason, and that only, chose to talk in a mask. I shall not
carry my humility so far as to call myself a vicious man, but at the
same time must confess my life is at best but pardonable."[3]

With his usual generosity, Steele more than once spoke in the warmest
terms of the assistance rendered to him by Addison. In the preface to
the collected edition he said: "I have only one gentleman, who will be
nameless, to thank for any frequent assistance to me, which indeed it
would have been barbarous in him to have denied to one with whom he had
lived in an intimacy from childhood, considering the great ease with
which he is able to despatch the most entertaining pieces of this
nature. This good office he performed with such force of genius, humour,
wit, and learning that I fared like a distressed prince, who calls in a
powerful neighbour to his aid; I was undone by my auxiliary; when I had
called him in I could not subsist without dependence on him." And in
1722, after Addison's death, in a preface to his friend's play, "The
Drummer," Steele wrote of the _Tatler_, "That paper was advanced indeed!
for it was raised to a greater thing than I intended it! For the
elegance, purity, and correctness which appeared in his writings were
not so much my purpose, as (in any intelligible manner, as I could) to
rally all those singularities of human life, through the different
professions and characters in it, which obstruct anything that was truly
good and great."

It is only fair to Steele to point out that the original idea of the
_Tatler_ was entirely his own, and that he alone was responsible for the
regular supply of material. Addison was in Ireland when the paper was
begun, and did not know who was the author until several numbers had
appeared. His occasional contributions were of little importance until
after eighty numbers had been published; and of the whole 271 numbers
Steele wrote about 188 and Addison only 42, while they were jointly
responsible for 36. Swift contributed only to about a dozen numbers; and
the assistance received from other writers was so slight that it does
not call for notice here. Steele, unlike Addison, was probably at his
best in the _Tatler_, where he had a freer hand, and described, in a
perfectly fresh and unaffected style, the impressions of the moment.
Hastily composed in coffee-house or printing-office, as they often were,
and at very short notice, his papers frequently appeal to the reader of
the present day more than the carefully elaborated and highly finished
work of his friend, who wrote only when he found a suitable topic. And
if Addison's art is of a higher standard than Steele's, it is to Steele
that we owe Addison. A minor poet and the author of a book of travels
and of an unsuccessful opera, Addison found no opportunity for his
peculiar genius until his friend provided the means in the _Tatler_. It
is tolerably certain that he would himself never have taken the
necessary step of founding a periodical appealing to the general public;
and Steele himself said with perfect truth, "I claim to myself the merit
of having extorted excellent productions from a person of the greatest
abilities, who would not have let them appear by any other means."[4]

If more is said here of Steele than of Addison, it is because it is
Steele whose name is most intimately connected with the _Tatler_. The
field in which Addison shone brightest was the _Spectator_, where the
whole plan was arranged in the manner best suited to his genius. But his
influence is, nevertheless, visible in the development of the earlier
paper, and some of his individual articles are equal to anything he
afterwards wrote. It is only necessary to mention his papers on the
Distress of the News-Writers[5]; on the poetaster, Ned Softly[6]; on the
pedant and "broker in learning," Tom Folio[7]; on the Political
Upholsterer, who was more inquisitive to know what passed in Poland than
in his own family[8]; and on the Adventures of a Shilling.[9] His, too,
are the Vision of Justice[10]; the story of a dream;[11] and the amusing
account of the visit to London of Sir Harry Quickset, who, with his
old-world breeding, was the forerunner of Sir Roger de Coverley.[12]

Unlike the members of the Spectator's Club, the _dramatis personae_
introduced in the _Tatler_ do not occupy a very prominent place in
the development of the work. Isaac Bickerstaff himself, an old man of
sixty-four, "a philosopher, an humourist, an astrologer, and a censor,"
is rather vaguely sketched, and his familiar, Pacolet, is made use of
chiefly in the earlier numbers. The occasional references to Bickerstaff's
half-sister, Jenny Distaff,[13] and her husband, Tanquillus, and to his
three nephews and their conduct in the presence of a "beautiful woman of
honour,"[14] gave Steele a framework for some charming sketches of
domestic life. It is not until No. 132 that we have the amusing account
of the members of Bickerstaff's Club, the Trumpet, in Shire Lane. There
were Sir Geoffrey Notch, a gentleman of an ancient family, who had
wasted his estate in his youth, and called every thriving man a pitiful
upstart; Major Matchlock, with his reminiscences of the Civil War; Dick
Reptile, and the Bencher who was always praising the wit of former days,
and telling stories of Jack Ogle, with whom he pretended to have been
intimate in his youth. Very little use was afterwards made of this
promising material.

The poet John Gay has given an excellent account of the work
accomplished by Steele and Addison in a pamphlet called "The Present
State of Wit" (1711). Speaking of the discontinuance of the _Tatler_, he
says: "His disappearing seemed to be bewailed as some general calamity:
every one wanted so agreeable an amusement; and the coffee-houses began
to be sensible that the Esquire's Lucubrations alone had brought them
more customers than all their other newspapers put together. It must,
indeed, be confessed that never man threw up his pen under stronger
temptations to have employed it longer; his reputation was at a greater
height than, I believe, ever any living author's was before him....
There is this noble difference between him and all the rest of our
polite and gallant authors: the latter have endeavoured to please the
age by falling in with them, and encouraging them in their fashionable
vices and false notions of things. It would have been a jest some time
since, for a man to have asserted that anything witty could be said in
praise of a married state; or that devotion and virtue were any way
necessary to the character of a fine gentleman. Bickerstaff ventured to
tell the town that they were a parcel of fops, fools, and vain
coquettes; but in such a manner as even pleased them, and made them more
than half inclined to believe that he spoke truth. Instead of complying
with the false sentiments or vicious tastes of the age, either in
morality, criticism, or good breeding, he has boldly assured them that
they were altogether in the wrong, and commanded them, with an authority
which perfectly well became him, to surrender themselves to his
arguments for virtue and good sense.

"It is incredible to conceive the effect his writings have had on the
town; how many thousand follies they have either quite banished, or
given a very great check to; how much countenance they have added to
virtue and religion; how many people they have rendered happy, by
showing them it was their own fault if they were not so; and, lastly,
how entirely they have convinced our fops and young fellows of the value
and advantages of learning. He has indeed rescued it out of the hands of
pedants and fools, and discovered the true method of making it amiable
and lovely to all mankind. In the dress he gives it, it is a most
welcome guest at tea-tables and assemblies, and is relished and caressed
by the merchants on the 'Change; accordingly, there is not a lady at
Court, nor a banker in Lombard Street, who is not verily persuaded that
Captain Steele is the greatest scholar and best casuist of any man in
England.

"Lastly, his writings have set all our wits and men of letters upon a
new way of thinking, of which they had little or no notion before; and
though we cannot yet say that any of them have come up to the beauties
of the original, I think we may venture to affirm that every one of them
writes and thinks much more justly than they did some time since."

Gay's opinion has been confirmed by the best judges of nearly two
centuries, and there is no need to labour the question of the wit and
wisdom of the _Tatler_. But some examples may be cited in illustration
of the topics on which Steele and his friends wrote, and the manner in
which they dealt with them. The very first numbers contained
illustrations of most of what were to be the characteristics of the
paper. There is the account of the very pretty gentleman at White's
Chocolate-house thrown into a sad condition by a passing vision of a
young lady; the notice of Betterton's benefit performance; the comments
on the war; the campaign against Partridge, with the declaration that
all who were good for nothing would be included among the deceased; the
discussion on the morality of the stage, with praise of Mrs. Bicknell
and reproaches upon a young nobleman who came drunk to the play; the
comparison of the rival beauties, Chloe and Clarissa; the satire on the
Italian opera, and on Pinkethman's company of strollers; and the
allegorical paper on Faelicia, or Britain. All these and other matters
are dealt with in the four numbers which were distributed gratuitously;
as the work progressed the principal change, besides the disappearance
of the paragraphs of news, was the development of the sustained essay on
morals or manners, and the less frequent indulgence in satire upon
individual offenders, and in personal allusions in general. This change
seems to have been the result partly of design, and partly of
circumstances, including Addison's influence on the work. Steele himself
said, as we have seen, that the _Tatler_ was raised to a greater height
than he had designed; but no doubt he realised that he must feel his
way, and be at first a tatler rather than a preacher. After some grave
remarks about duelling in an early paper (No. 26), he makes Pacolet,
Bickerstaff's familiar, say, "It was too soon to give my discourse on
this subject so serious a turn; you have chiefly to do with that part of
mankind which must be led into reflection by degrees, and you must treat
this custom with humour and raillery to get an audience, before you come
to pronounce sentence upon it."

Follies and weaknesses are ridiculed in the _Tatler_ in a genial
spirit, by one who was fully alive to his own imperfections, and point
is usually given to the papers by a sketch of some veiled or imaginary
individual. In this way Bickerstaff treats of fops,[15] of wags,[16] of
coquettes,[17] of the lady who condemned the vice of the age, meaning
the only vice of which she was not guilty;[18] of impudence;[19] and of
pride and vanity.[20] In a graver tone he attacks the practice of
duelling;[21] gamesters and sharpers;[22] drunken "roarers" and
"scowrers";[23] and brutal pastimes at the Bear Garden and
elsewhere.[24] The campaign against swindlers exposed Steele to serious
threats on more than one occasion.[25]

Of what Coleridge called Steele's "pure humanity" there is nowhere
better evidence than in the _Tatler_. It is enough to cite once more the
well-known examples of the account of his father's death and his
mother's grief;[26] the stories of Unnion and Valentine,[27] of the
Cornish lovers,[28] of Clarinda and Chloe,[29] and of Mr. Eustace,[30]
and the charming account of the married happiness of an old friend, with
the pathetic picture of the death of the wife, and the grief of husband
and children.[31] In the last number Steele said, "It has been a most
exquisite pleasure to me to frame characters of domestic life"; and we
know from his letters that when he wrote of children he was only
expressing the deep affection which he felt for his own. Equally in
advance of his time was his respect for women, one of whom--Lady
Elizabeth Hastings--he has immortalised in the words, "To love her is a
liberal education."[32] In the same number he wrote, "As charity is
esteemed a conjunction of the good qualities necessary to a virtuous
man, so love is the happy composition of all the accomplishments that
make a fine gentleman." In a time of much laxity he constantly dwelt on
the happiness of marriage; "wife is the most amiable term in human
life."[33] But good nature must be cultivated if the married life is to
be happy,[34] and all unnecessary provocations avoided. "Dear Jenny,"
says Bickerstaff to his sister, "remember me, and avoid
Snap-Dragon."[35] Women must be rightly educated before they can expect
to be treated by, and to influence men as they should.[36] The make of
the mind greatly contributes to the ornament of the body; "there is so
immediate a relation between our thoughts and gestures that a woman must
think well to look well."[37] The habit of scandal-mongering and other
weaknesses are the result of an improper training of the mind.[38] "All
women especially," says Thackeray, "are bound to be grateful to Steele,
as he was the first of our writers who really seemed to admire and
respect them." His pity extended to the hunted deer: "I have more than
once rode off at the death," he says; "to be apt to shed tears is a sign
of a great as well as a little spirit."[39]

Steele's teaching on morals and right living enters intimately into his
literary criticism. His love for Shakespeare was real and intelligent;
there is no formal discussion of the rules of the drama, but throughout
the _Tatler_ there are references which show the keenest appreciation
of Shakespeare's powers as poet and philosopher. "The vitiated tastes of
the audience at the theatre could only be amended," says Steele, "by
encouraging the representation of the noble characters drawn by
Shakespeare and others, from whence it is impossible to return without
strong impressions of honour and humanity. On these occasions, distress
is laid before us with all its causes and consequences, and our
resentment placed according to the merit of the persons afflicted. Were
dramas of this nature more acceptable to the taste of the town, men who
have genius would bend their studies to excel in them."[40] Still more
remarkable are the allusions to "Paradise Lost," for Milton was then even
less appreciated than Shakespeare. As in so many other things, Addison's
more elaborate criticism in the _Spectator_ was foreshadowed in the
_Tatler_ by Steele; and the comparison of passages by Milton and
Dryden[41] must have been very striking to the reader of that time, who
usually knew Shakespeare or Chaucer only through the adaptations of Dryden
or Tate.

Though it is not true, as some have represented, that the _Tatler_ is
for the most part a mere society journal, concerned chiefly with the
gossip of the day, yet its contributors made use of the scenes and
events familiar to their readers in order to bring home the kindly
lessons they wished to teach; and in so doing they have given us a
picture of the daily life of the town which would alone have given
lasting interest to the paper. The distinctly "moral" papers have had
countless imitators, and sometimes therefore they are apt to pall upon
us, but the social articles are at least as interesting now as when they
were written, and one of the reasons why some excellent judges have
prefered the _Tatler_ to the _Spectator_, is that there is a greater
proportion of these gossiping papers, combining wisdom with satire, and
bringing before us as in a mirror the London of Queen Anne's day.
Bickerstaff takes us from club to coffee-house, from St. James's to the
Exchange; we see the poets and wits at Will's, the politicians at
White's, the merchants at Garraway's, the Templars at the Smyrna; we see
Betterton and the rest on the stage, and the ladies and gentlemen in the
front or side boxes; we see Pinkethman's players at Greenwich, Powell's
puppet-show, Don Saltero's Museum at Chelsea, and the bear-baiting and
prize-fights at Hockley-in-the-Hole. We are taken to the Mall at St.
James's, or the Ring in Hyde Park, and we study the fine ladies and the
beaux, with their red heels and their amber-headed canes suspended from
their waistcoats; or we follow them to Charles Lillie's, the perfumer,
or to Mather's toy-shop, or to Motteux's china warehouse; or to the
shops in the New Exchange, where the men bought trifles and ogled the
attendants. Or yet again we watch the exposure of the sharpers and
bullies, and the denunciation of others who brought even greater ruin on
those who fell into their clutches. We see the worshipping and the
flirtations in the church, with Smalridge and Atterbury, Hoadly and
Blackall among the preachers, and hear something of the controversies
between High and Low Church, Whig and Tory. We hear, too, of the war
with France, and of the hopes of peace. Steele tells us not only of
Marlborough and Prince Eugene, but of privates and non-commissioned
officers, of their lives and tragedies, of their comrades and friends.
All Sergeant Hall knew of the battle was that he wished there had not
been so many killed; he had himself a very bad shot in the head, but
would recover, if it pleased God. "To me," says Steele, recalling his
own service as a trooper, "I take the gallantry of private soldiers to
proceed from the same, if not from a nobler impulse than that of
gentlemen and officers.... Sergeant Hall would die ten thousand deaths
rather than a word should be spoken at the Red Lattice, or any part of
the Butcher Row, in prejudice to his courage or honesty." His letter to
his friend was "the picture of the bravest sort of man, that is to say,
a man of great courage and small hopes."[42]

Something must be said of the events of 1710, which led to the
discontinuance of the _Tatler_. The trial of Dr. Sacheverell in March
was followed by the fall of the Whigs in the autumn; and in October
Steele lost his post of Gazetteer. Swift says it was "for writing a
_Tatler_ some months ago, against Mr. Harley, who gave him the post at
first." There was a growing coldness between Swift and his old friends,
and on the 3rd of November Swift wrote, "We have scurvy _Tatlers_ of
late, so pray do not suspect me." On the preceding day Swift's first
paper in the Tory _Examiner_ had been published. He still met Steele
from time to time, and he says that he interceded for him with Harley,
but was frustrated by Addison. However this may be, it is certain that
Harley saw Steele, and that as the result of their interview Steele
retained his post as Commissioner of the Stamp Office, and brought the
_Tatler_ to a close on January 2, 1711, without consulting Addison. "To
say the truth, it was time," says Swift; "for he grew cruel dull and
dry." It is true that there is a falling off towards the close of the
_Tatler_, but that it was not want of matter that brought about the
abandonment of the paper is proved by the commencement only two months
later of the _Spectator_. Steele himself said that on many accounts it
had become an irksome task to personate Mr. Bickerstaff any longer; he
had in some places touched upon matters concerning Church and State, and
he could not be cold enough to conceal his opinions. Gay tells us, in
"The Present State of Wit," that the town being generally of opinion
that Steele was quite spent as regards matter, was the more surprised
when the _Spectator_ appeared; people were therefore driven to accept
the alternative view that the _Tatler_ was laid down "as a sort of
submission to, or composition with, the Government for some past
offences."

Excellent testimony to the immediate popularity of the _Tatler_ is
furnished by the fact that its successive numbers were reprinted in
Dublin and in Edinburgh. At least sixty-nine numbers of the Dublin
issue, in quarto, were printed. The Scottish re-issue was a folio sheet,
commenced about February 1710, and continued until the close of the
paper. The date of each number of the Edinburgh paper--"printed by
James Watson, and sold at his shop next door to the Red Lion, opposite
to the Lucken Booths"--is five or six days later than that of the
original issue; it was evidently worked off as soon as the London post
came in. Other evidence of the popularity of the _Tatler_ in the
provinces is afforded by the foundation of the "Gentleman's Society" at
Spalding. Maurice Johnson, a native of Spalding and a member of the
Inner Temple, gives this account of the matter: "In April 1709, that
great genius Captain Richard Steele ... published the _Tatlers_, which,
as they came out in half-sheets, were taken in by a gentleman, who
communicated them to his acquaintances at the coffee-house then in the
Abbey Yard; and these papers being universally approved as both
instructive and entertaining, they ordered them to be sent down thither,
with the Gazettes and Votes, for which they paid out of charity to the
person who kept the coffee-house, and they were accordingly had and read
there every post-day, generally aloud to the company, who would sit and
talk over the subject afterwards. This insensibly drew the men of sense
and letters into a sociable way of conversing, and continued the next
year, 1710, until the publication of these papers desisted, which was in
December, to their great regret." Afterwards the _Spectator_ was taken
in, and a regular society was started in 1712, by the encouragement of
Addison, Steele, and other members of Button's Club.

One indication of the popularity of the _Tatler_ in its own day is the
long subscription list prefixed to the reprint in four octavo volumes.
Some copies were printed on "royal," others on "medium" paper; and the
price of the former was a guinea a volume, while that of the latter was
half a guinea. There was also an authorised cheap edition, in duodecimo,
at half a crown a volume, besides a pirated edition at the same price. A
still more conclusive proof of the success of the _Tatler_ was the
number of papers started in imitation of its methods. Addison mentioned
some of those periodicals in No. 229, where details will be found of the
"Female Tatler," "Tit for Tat," and the like. But besides these, several
spurious continuations of the _Tatler_ appeared directly after the
discontinuance of the genuine paper, including one by William Harrison,
written with Swift's encouragement and assistance. But Harrison, as
Swift said, had "not the true vein for it," and his paper reached only
to fifty-two numbers, which were afterwards reprinted as a fifth volume
to the collected edition of the original _Tatler_. Gay said that
Steele's imitators seemed to think "that what was only the garnish of
the former _Tatlers_ was that which recommended them, and not those
substantial entertainments which they everywhere abound in." The town,
in the absence of anything better, welcomed their occasional and faint
endeavours at humour; "but even those are at present become wholly
invisible, and quite swallowed up in the blaze of the _Spectator_."
Steele himself said that his imitators held the censorship in
commission.



[Footnote 1: No. 18.]

[Footnote 2: No. 89.]

[Footnote 3: No. 271.]

[Footnote 4: _Spectator_, No. 532.]

[Footnote 5: _Tatler_, No. 18.]

[Footnote 6: No. 163.]

[Footnote 7: No. 158.]

[Footnote 8: Nos. 155, 160.]

[Footnote 9: No. 249.]

[Footnote 10: Nos. 100, 102.]

[Footnote 11: No. 117.]

[Footnote 12: No. 86.]

[Footnote 13: No. 10.]

[Footnote 14: No. 30.]

[Footnote 15: No. 142.]

[Footnote 16: No. 184.]

[Footnote 17: No. 27.]

[Footnote 18: No. 210.]

[Footnote 19: No. 168.]

[Footnote 20: Nos. 127, 186.]

[Footnote 21: Nos. 25, 26, 29, 31, 38, 39.]

[Footnote 22: Nos. 56, &c.]

[Footnote 23: Nos. 40, 45.]

[Footnote 24: No. 134.]

[Footnote 25: See Nos. 115, 271.]

[Footnote 26: No. 181.]

[Footnote 27: No. 5.]

[Footnote 28: No. 82.]

[Footnote 29: No. 94.]

[Footnote 30: No. 172.]

[Footnote 31: Nos. 95, 114.]

[Footnote 32: No. 49.]

[Footnote 33: No. 33.]

[Footnote 34: No. 149.]

[Footnote 35: No. 85. See, too, No. 104.]

[Footnote 36: Nos. 141, 248.]

[Footnote 37: No. 212.]

[Footnote 38: Nos, 40, 42, 47.]

[Footnote 39: No. 68.]

[Footnote 40: No. 8.]

[Footnote 41: No. 6.]

[Footnote 42: No. 87.]




THE TATLER




THE PREFACE.[43]

In the last _Tatler_ I promised some explanation of passages and persons
mentioned in this work, as well as some account of the assistances I
have had in the performance. I shall do this in very few words; for when
a man has no design but to speak plain truth, he may say a great deal in
a very narrow compass. I have in the dedication of the first volume made
my acknowledgments to Dr. Swift, whose pleasant writings, in the name of
Bickerstaff, created an inclination in the town towards anything that
could appear in the same disguise. I must acknowledge also, that at my
first entering upon this work, a certain uncommon way of thinking, and a
turn in conversation peculiar to that agreeable gentleman, rendered his
company very advantageous to one whose imagination was to be continually
employed upon obvious and common subjects, though at the same time
obliged to treat of them in a new and unbeaten method. His verses on the
Shower in Town,[44] and the Description of the Morning,[45] are
instances of the happiness of that genius, which could raise such
pleasing ideas upon occasions so barren to an ordinary invention.

When I am upon the house of Bickerstaff, I must not forget that
genealogy of the family sent to me by the post, and written, as I since
understand, by Mr. Twysden,[46] who died at the battle of Mons, and has
a monument in Westminster Abbey, suitable to the respect which is due to
his wit and his valour. There are through the course of the work very
many incidents which were written by unknown correspondents. Of this
kind is the tale in the second _Tatler_, and the epistle from Mr. Downes
the prompter,[47] with others which were very well received by the
public. But I have only one gentleman,[48] who will be nameless, to
thank for any frequent assistance to me, which indeed it would have been
barbarous in him to have denied to one with whom he has lived in an
intimacy from childhood, considering the great ease with which he is
able to dispatch the most entertaining pieces of this nature. This good
office he performed with such force of genius, humour, wit and learning,
that I fared like a distressed prince who calls in a powerful neighbour
to his aid; I was undone by my auxiliary; when I had once called him in,
I could not subsist without dependence on him.

The same hand writ the distinguishing characters of men and women under
the names of Musical Instruments, the Distress of the News-writers, the
Inventory of the Playhouse, and the Description of the Thermometer,[49]
which I cannot but look upon as the greatest embellishments of this
work.

Thus far I thought necessary to say relating to the great hands which
have been concerned in these volumes, with relation to the spirit and
genius of the work; and am far from pretending to modesty in making this
acknowledgment. What a man obtains from the good opinion and friendship
of worthy men, is a much greater honour than he can possibly reap from
any accomplishments of his own. But all the credit of wit which was
given me by the gentlemen above mentioned (with whom I have now
accounted) has not been able to atone for the exceptions made against me
for some raillery in behalf of that learned advocate for the episcopacy
of the Church, and the liberty of the people, Mr. Hoadly. I mention this
only to defend myself against the imputation of being moved rather by
party than opinion;[50] and I think it is apparent, I have with the
utmost frankness allowed merit wherever I found it, though joined in
interests different from those for which I have declared myself. When my
Favonius[51] is acknowledged to be Dr. Smalridge, and the amiable
character of the dean in the sixty-sixth _Tatler_ drawn for Dr.
Atterbury, I hope I need say no more as to my impartiality.

I really have acted in these cases with honesty, and am concerned it
should be thought otherwise: for wit, if a man had it, unless it be
directed to some useful end, is but a wanton frivolous quality; all that
one should value himself upon in this kind is, that he had some
honourable intention in it.

As for this point, never hero in romance was carried away with a more
furious ambition to conquer giants and tyrants, than I have been in
extirpating gamesters and duellists. And indeed, like one of those
knights too, though I was calm before, I am apt to fly out again, when
the thing that first disturbed me is presented to my imagination. I
shall therefore leave off when I am well, and fight with windmills no
more: only shall be so arrogant as to say of myself, that in spite of
all the force of fashion and prejudice, in the face of all the world, I
alone bewailed the condition of an English gentleman, whose fortune and
life are at this day precarious; while his estate is liable to the
demands of gamesters, through a false sense of justice; and to the
demands of duellists, through a false sense of honour. As to the first
of these orders of men, I have not one word more to say of them: as to
the latter, I shall conclude all I have more to offer against them (with
respect to their being prompted by the fear of shame) by applying to the
duellist what I think Dr. South says somewhere of the liar, "He is a
coward to man, and a brave to God."

_To_ Mr. Maynwaring.[52]

SIR,

The state of conversation and business in this town having been long
perplexed with pretenders in both kinds, in order to open men's eyes
against such abuses, it appeared no unprofitable undertaking to publish
a paper which should observe upon the manners of the pleasureable, as
well as the busy part of mankind. To make this generally read, it seemed
the most proper method to form it by way of a letter of intelligence,
consisting of such parts as might gratify the curiosity of persons of
all conditions, and of each sex. But a work of this nature requiring
time to grow into the notice of the world, it happened very luckily,
that a little before I had resolved upon this design, a gentleman[53]
had written Predictions, and two or three other pieces in my name, which
had rendered it famous through all parts of Europe; and by an inimitable
spirit and humour, raised it to as high a pitch of reputation as it
could possibly arrive at.

By this good fortune, the name of Isaac Bickerstaff gained an audience
of all who had any taste of wit, and the addition of the ordinary
occurrences of common journals of news brought in a multitude of other
readers. I could not, I confess, long keep up the opinion of the town,
that these lucubrations were written by the same hand with the first
works which were published under my name; but before I lost the
participation of that author's fame, I had already found the advantage
of his authority, to which I owe the sudden acceptance which my labours
met with in the world.

The general purpose of this paper, is to expose the false arts of life,
to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity, and affectation, and
recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and our
behaviour. No man has a better judgment for the discovery, or a nobler
spirit for the contempt of such impostures, than your self; which
qualities render you the most proper patron for the author of these
essays. In the general, the design, however executed, has met with so
great success, that there is hardly a name now eminent among us for
power, wit, beauty, valour, or wisdom, which is not subscribed, for the
encouragement of the two volumes in octavo, on a royal or medium
paper.[54] This is indeed an honour, for which it is impossible to
express a suitable gratitude; and there is nothing could be an addition
to the pleasure I take in it, but the reflection that it gives me the
most conspicuous occasion I can ever have, of subscribing myself,

Sir,

Your most obliged, most obedient, and most humble Servant,

ISAAC BICKERSTAFF.



[Footnote 43: This Preface was originally prefixed to the fourth volume
of the collected edition issued in 1710-11.]

[Footnote 44: No. 238.]

[Footnote 45: No. 9.]

[Footnote 46: See No. 11.]

[Footnote 47: No. 193.]

[Footnote 48: Addison.]

[Footnote 49: Nos. 153, 18, 42, 220.]

[Footnote 50: Benjamin Hoadly, afterwards Bishop of Bangor, Salisbury,
and Winchester, successively, was in 1709 engaged in controversy with
Dr. Francis Atterbury, who represented the high-church party. George
Smalridge, afterwards Bishop of Bristol, was a Jacobite.]

[Footnote 51: See Nos. 72, 114.]

[Footnote 52: Arthur Maynwaring was descended from the ancient family of
the Maynwarings of Over Peover, Cheshire. He was born in 1668, at
Ightfield, Shropshire, and was educated at the Shrewsbury Grammar School
and at Christ Church, Oxford, where Smalridge was his tutor. Filled with
prejudices against the Revolution, he came to London to study law, but a
political satire which he published brought him under Dryden's notice,
and the kind reception given him by several Whig statesmen, to whom he
was introduced, caused him to change his views on politics, and after
his father's death in 1693 he gave up the law and determined to push his
fortunes at the Court. He was made a Commissioner of Customs and
afterwards Auditor of the Imprests. He was admitted to the Kit-Cat Club,
and in 1706 the interest of Godolphin procured him a seat in the House
of Commons. Upon the fall of the Whig ministry in 1710, Maynwaring set
up the _Medley_, a weekly paper in which the attacks of the _Examiner_
were answered, and wrote various political pamphlets. But his health
soon broke down, and he died in November, 1712. Mrs. Oldfield, the
actress, was the sole executrix of his will, by which he divided his
small property of some L3000 between her, a son that he had by her, and
his sister. There appear to have been many good points in his character.
His "Life and Posthumous Works" were published by Oldmixon in 1715.
"Maynwaring, whom we hear nothing of now, was the ruling man in all
conversations, indeed what he wrote had very little merit in it" (Pope,
in Spence's "Anecdotes," 1820, p. 338). Steele says that Harley told him
that he had to thank Maynwaring for his post of Gazetteer.]

[Footnote 53: Swift.]

[Footnote 54: "Encouragement of these volumes," in the octavo edition.
The list of subscribers to the original octavo edition comprised the
names of some four hundred of the most prominent persons of the day.]




THE TATLER

BY ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, ESQ.




No. 1. [STEELE.

_Tuesday, April 12_, 1709.

    Quicquid agunt homines ... nostri farrago libelli.
                                            Juv., Sat. I. 85, 86.[55]

       *       *       *       *       *

Though the other papers which are published for the use of the good
people of England have certainly very wholesome effects, and are
laudable in their particular kinds, yet they do not seem to come up to
the main design of such narrations, which, I humbly presume, should be
principally intended for the use of politic persons, who are so public
spirited as to neglect their own affairs to look into transactions of
State. Now these gentlemen, for the most part, being men of strong zeal
and weak intellects, it is both a charitable and necessary work to offer
something, whereby such worthy and well-affected members of the
commonwealth may be instructed, after their reading, what to think;
which shall be the end and purpose of this my paper: wherein I shall
from time to time report and consider all matters of what kind soever
that shall occur to me, and publish such my advices and reflections
every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday in the week for the convenience
of the post.[56] I have also resolved to have something which may be of
entertainment to the fair sex, in honour of whom I have taken the title
of this paper. I therefore earnestly desire all persons, without
distinction, to take it in for the present gratis, and hereafter at the
price of one penny, forbidding all hawkers to take more for it at their
peril. And I desire my readers to consider, that I am at a very great
charge for proper materials for this work, as well as that before I
resolved upon it, I had settled a correspondence in all parts of the
known and knowing world. And forasmuch as this globe is not trodden upon
by mere drudges of business only, but that men of spirit and genius are
justly to be esteemed as considerable agents in it, we shall not, upon a
dearth of news, present you with musty foreign edicts, or dull
proclamations, but shall divide our relation of the passages which occur
in action or discourse throughout this town, as well as elsewhere, under
such dates of places as may prepare you for the matter you are to
expect, in the following manner:

All accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, shall be under
the article of White's Chocolate-house;[57] poetry, under that of Will's
Coffee-house;[58] learning, under the title of Grecian;[59] foreign and
domestic news, you will have from St. James's Coffee-house;[60] and what
else I shall on any other subject offer, shall be dated from my own
apartment.

I once more desire my readers to consider that as I cannot keep an
ingenious man to go daily to Will's under twopence each day merely
for his charges,[61] to White's under sixpence, nor to the Grecian
without allowing him some plain Spanish,[62] to be as able as others at
the learned table; and that a good observer cannot speak with even
Kidney[63] at St. James's without clean linen; I say, these
considerations will, I hope, make all persons willing to comply with my
humble request (when my gratis stock is exhausted) of a penny a piece;
especially since they are sure of some proper amusement, and that it is
impossible for me to want means to entertain them, having, besides the
helps of my own parts, the power of divination, and that I can, by
casting a figure, tell you all that will happen before it comes to pass.

But this last faculty I shall use very sparingly, and not speak of
anything until it is passed, for fear of divulging matters which may
offend our superiors.[64]


White's Chocolate-house, April 11.

The deplorable condition of a very pretty gentleman, who walks here at
the hours when men of quality first appear, is what is very much
lamented. His history is, that on the 9th of September, 1705, being in
his one and twentieth year, he was washing his teeth at a tavern window
in Pall Mall, when a fine equipage passed by, and in it a young lady,
who looked up at him; away goes the coach, and the young gentleman
pulled off his nightcap, and instead of rubbing his gums, as he ought to
do out of the window till about four o'clock, he sits him down, and
spoke not a word till twelve at night; after which, he began to inquire,
if anybody knew the lady. The company asked, "What lady?" But he said no
more until they broke up at six in the morning. All the ensuing winter
he went from church to church every Sunday, and from play-house to
play-house all the week, but could never find the original of the
picture which dwelt in his bosom. In a word, his attention to anything
but his passion, was utterly gone. He has lost all the money he ever
played for, and been confuted in every argument he has entered upon
since the moment he first saw her. He is of a noble family, has
naturally a very good air, and is of a frank, honest temper: but this
passion has so extremely mauled him, that his features are set and
uninformed, and his whole visage is deadened by a long absence of
thought. He never appears in any alacrity, but when raised by wine; at
which time he is sure to come hither, and throw away a great deal of wit
on fellows, who have no sense further than just to observe, that our
poor lover has most understanding when he is drunk, and is least in his
senses when he is sober.[65]


Will's Coffee-house, April 8.

On Thursday last[66] was presented, for the benefit of Mr.
Betterton,[67] the celebrated comedy, called "Love for Love."[68] Those
excellent players, Mrs. Barry,[69] Mrs. Bracegirdle,[70] and Mr.
Doggett,[71] though not at present concerned in the house, acted on that
occasion. There has not been known so great a concourse of persons of
distinction as at that time; the stage itself was covered with gentlemen
and ladies, and when the curtain was drawn, it discovered even there a
very splendid audience. This unusual encouragement, which was given to a
play for the advantage of so great an actor, gives an undeniable
instance, that the true relish for manly entertainments and rational
pleasures is not wholly lost. All the parts were acted to perfection;
the actors were careful of their carriage, and no one was guilty of the
affectation to insert witticisms of his own, but a due respect was had
to the audience, for encouraging this accomplished player. It is not now
doubted but plays will revive, and take their usual place in the opinion
of persons of wit and merit, notwithstanding their late apostacy in
favour of dress and sound. This place is very much altered since Mr.
Dryden frequented it; where you used to see songs, epigrams, and satires
in the hands of every man you met, you have now only a pack of cards;
and instead of the cavils about the turn of the expression, the elegance
of the style, and the like, the learned now dispute only about the truth
of the game. But, however the company is altered, all have shown a great
respect for Mr. Betterton: and the very gaming part of this house have
been so much touched with a sense of the uncertainty of human affairs
(which alter with themselves every moment) that in this gentleman, they
pitied Mark Antony of Rome, Hamlet of Denmark, Mithridates of Pontus,
Theodosius of Greece, and Henry the Eighth of England. It is well known
he has been in the condition of each of those illustrious personages for
several hours together, and behaved himself in those high stations, in
all the changes of the scene, with suitable dignity. For these reasons,
we intend to repeat this favour to him on a proper occasion, lest he who
can instruct us so well in personating feigned sorrows, should be lost
to us by suffering under real ones. The town is at present in very great
expectation of seeing a comedy now in rehearsal, which is the
twenty-fifth production of my honoured friend Mr. Thomas D'Urfey;[72]
who, besides his great abilities in the dramatic, has a peculiar talent
in the lyric way of writing, and that with a manner wholly new and
unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, wherein he is but faintly
imitated in the translations of the modern Italian operas.[73]


St. James's Coffee-house, April 11.

Letters from the Hague of the 16th say, that Major-General Cadogan[74]
was gone to Brussels, with orders to disperse proper instructions for
assembling the whole force of the allies in Flanders in the beginning of
the next month.[75] The late offers concerning peace were made in the
style of persons who think themselves upon equal terms. But the allies
have so just a sense of their present advantages, that they will not
admit of a treaty, except France offers what is more suitable to her
present condition. At the same time we make preparations, as if we were
alarmed by a greater force than that which we are carrying into the
field. Thus this point seems now to be argued sword in hand. This was
what a great general[76] alluded to, when being asked the names of those
who were to be plenipotentiaries for the ensuing peace, answered, with a
serious air, "There are about a hundred thousand of us." Mr. Kidney, who
has the ear of the greatest politicians that come hither, tells me,
there is a mail come in to-day with letters, dated Hague, April 19,
N.S., which say, a design of bringing part of our troops into the field
at the latter end of this month, is now altered to a resolution of
marching towards the camp about the 20th of the next. There happened the
other day, in the road of Scheveling, an engagement between a privateer
of Zealand and one of Dunkirk. The Dunkirker, carrying 33 pieces of
cannon, was taken and brought into the Texel. It is said, the courier of
Monsieur Rouille[77] is returned to him from the Court of France.
Monsieur Vendome being reinstated in the favour of the Duchess of
Burgundy, is to command in Flanders.

Mr. Kidney added, that there were letters of the 17th from Ghent, which
give an account, that the enemy had formed a design to surprise two
battalions of the allies which lay at Alost; but those battalions
received advice of their march, and retired to Dendermond.
Lieutenant-General Wood[78] appeared on this occasion at the head of
5000 foot, and 1000 horse, upon which the enemy withdrew, without making
any further attempt.


From my own Apartment.

I am sorry I am obliged to trouble the public with so much discourse
upon a matter which I at the very first mentioned as a trifle--viz. the
death of Mr. Partridge,[79] under whose name there is an almanack come
out for the year 1709, in one page of which it is asserted by the said
John Partridge, that he is still living, and that not only so, but that
he was also living some time before, and even at the instant when I writ
of his death. I have in another place, and in a paper by itself,
sufficiently convinced this man that he is dead, and if he has any
shame, I don't doubt but that by this time he owns it to all his
acquaintance: for though the legs and arms, and whole body of that man
may still appear and perform their animal functions; yet since, as I
have elsewhere observed, his art is gone, the man is gone. I am, as I
said, concerned, that this little matter should make so much noise; but
since I am engaged, I take myself obliged in honour to go on in my
lucubrations, and by the help of these arts of which I am master, as
well as my skill in astrological speculations, I shall, as I see
occasion, proceed to confute other dead men, who pretend to be in being,
that they are actually deceased. I therefore give all men fair warning
to mend their manners, for I shall from time to time print bills of
mortality; and I beg the pardon of all such who shall be named therein,
if they who are good for nothing shall find themselves in the number of
the deceased.[80]



[Footnote 55: This motto was repeated at the head of each of the first
40 numbers in the folio issue.]

[Footnote 56: These were the days on which the post left London for the
different parts of the country.]

[Footnote 57: White's Chocolate-house, five doors from the bottom of the
west side of St. James's Street, was established in 1698. It was burnt
on April 28, 1733, while kept by Mr. Arthur. Plate VI. of Hogarth's
"Rake's Progress" depicts gamblers engrossed in play in a room in this
house during the fire; see also Plate IV. Swift gives it a bad character
in his "Essay on Modern Education;" it had a strong character for
gambling (Timbs's "Clubs and Club Life in London," where, at p. 48,
there is a sketch of White's from an old drawing). The house became a
private club, as we now have it, about 1736.]

[Footnote 58: Will's Coffee-house, named after Will Urwin, its
proprietor, was the corner house on the north side of Russell Street,
Covent Garden, at the end of Bow Street. The present house, 21 Russell
Street, is probably part of the old building. Will's was ceasing to be
the resort of the wits in 1709; it was in its glory at the close of the
seventeenth century. The wits' room, where Dryden presided, was on the
first floor.]

[Footnote 59: The Grecian, in Devereux Court in the Strand, was probably
the most ancient coffee-house in or about London. In 1652 an English
Turkey merchant brought home with him a Greek servant, who first opened
a house for making and selling coffee. This man's name was Constantine,
and his house was much resorted to by lawyers, Greek scholars, and
Members of the Royal Society. (See Thoresby's Diary, i. 111, 117.) Foote
and Goldsmith afterwards frequented it. In Dr. King's "Anecdotes" there
is a story of two gentlemen friends who disputed at the Grecian
Coffee-house about the accent of a Greek word to such a length that they
went out into Devereux Court and drew swords, when one of them was
killed on the spot.]

[Footnote 60: The St. James's Coffee-house was the last house but one on
the S.W. corner of St. James's Street. It was frequented by Whig
statesmen, and was closed about 1806. Swift and Steele were at a supper
given by the keeper on the 19th November, 1710.]

[Footnote 61: Cf. the _Spectator_, No. 31: "Laying down my penny upon
the bar."]

[Footnote 62: Wine.]

[Footnote 63: A waiter. See Nos. 10, 26.]

[Footnote 64: This introduction was repeated in Nos. 2 and 3 of the
original issue.]

[Footnote 65: "The reader is desired to take notice of the article from
this place from time to time, for I design to be very exact in the
progress this unhappy gentleman makes, which may be of great instruction
to all who actually are, or who ever shall be, in love." (Original
folio.) For Viscount Hinchinbroke ("Cynthio"), see No. 5.]

[Footnote 66: April 7, 1709. Cibber acknowledges that Steele did the
stage very considerable service by the papers on the theatre in the
_Tatler_.]

[Footnote 67: For further particulars of Thomas Betterton (1635-1710),
see Nos. 71 and 167. Cibber says: "I never heard a line in tragedy come
from Betterton wherein my judgment, my ear and my imagination were not
fully satisfied.... The person of this excellent actor was suitable to
his voice, more manly than sweet, not exceeding the middle stature,
inclining to be corpulent; of a serious and penetrating aspect; his
limbs nearer the athletic than the delicate proportion; yet, however
formed, there arose from the harmony of the whole a commanding mien of
majesty."]

[Footnote 68: By Congreve, 1695.]

[Footnote 69: Mrs. Elizabeth Barry on this occasion spoke an epilogue,
written by Rowe. She was the daughter of Edward Barry, barrister, whose
fortunes were ruined by his attachment to Charles I. Tony Aston, in his
"Supplement to Cibber's Apology," says she was woman to Lady Shelton, of
Norfolk, his godmother; and Curll tells us that she was early taken
under the protection of Lady Davenant. She was certainly on the stage in
1673. At her first appearance there was so little hope of her success,
that at the end of the season she was discharged [from] the theatre. It
is probable that at this time she became acquainted with Lord Rochester,
who took her under his protection, and gave her instructions in her
theatrical performances. By his interest she seems to have been restored
to the stage, and, improving daily in her profession, she soon eclipsed
all her competitors, and in the part of Monimia in "The Orphan"
established her reputation, which was enhanced by her performance as
Belvidera in "Venice Preserved," and as Isabella in "The Fatal
Marriage." "In characters of greatness," says Cibber, "Mrs. Barry had a
presence of elevated dignity, her mien and motion superb, and gracefully
majestic; her voice full, clear, and strong, so that no violence of
passion could be too much for her, and when distress or tenderness
possessed her she subsided into the most affecting melody and softness.
In the art of exciting pity she had a power beyond all the actresses I
have yet seen, or what your imagination can conceive. In scenes of
anger, defiance, or resentment, while she was impetuous and terrible,
she poured out the sentiment with an enchanting harmony.... In tragedy
she was solemn and august, in comedy alert, easy, and genteel, pleasant
in her face and action, filling the stage with a variety of gesture. She
could neither sing nor dance, no not in a country dance. She adhered to
Betterton in all the revolutions of the theatre, which she quitted about
1707, on account of ill-health." She returned, however, for one night
with Mrs. Bracegirdle, April 7, 1709, and performed Mrs. Frail in "Love
for Love" for Betterton's benefit. She died at Acton in 1713. Mrs.
Barry, Mrs. Bracegirdle, Mr. Betterton, and Mr. Varbriggen were sworn as
Comedians in Ordinary to her Majesty, 30th Oct., 2 Anne (1703). On the
3rd March, 1692, Mrs. Barry received L25 for acting in "The Orphan"
before their Majesties, and on the 10th June, 1693, L25 for Caius
Marius. (Lord Chamberlain's Records, Warrant Books, No. 20, p. 151; No.
18, pp. 30, 242.)]

[Footnote 70: Mrs. Anne Bracegirdle was the daughter of Justinian
Bracegirdle, of Northamptonshire. By the imprudence of her father, who
ruined himself by becoming surety for some friends, she was early left
to the care of Betterton and his wife, whose attentions to her she
always acknowledged to be truly paternal. By them she was first
introduced to the stage, and, while very young, performed the page in
"The Orphan." Increasing in years, and in ability, she became the
favourite performer of the times. Cibber describes her in these terms:
"Mrs. Bracegirdle was now but just blooming in her maturity; her
reputation, as an actress, gradually rising with that of her person;
never any woman was in such general favour of her spectators, which, to
the last scene of her dramatic life, she maintained by not being
unguarded in her private character. This discretion contributed not a
little to make her the _Cara_, the darling of the theatre: for it will
be no extravagant thing to say scarce an audience saw her that were less
than half of them lovers, without a suspected favourite among them: and
though she might be said to have been the universal passion and under
the highest temptations, her constancy in resisting them served but to
increase the number of her admirers. And this perhaps you will more
easily believe, when I extend not my encomiums on her person beyond a
sincerity that can be suspected; for she had no greater claim to beauty
than what the most desirable brunette might pretend to. But her youth
and lively aspect threw out such a glow of health and cheerfulness,
that, on the stage, few spectators that were not past it, could behold
her without desire. There were two very different characters in which
she acquitted herself with uncommon applause: if anything could excuse
that desperate extravagance of love, that almost frantic passion of
Lee's Alexander the Great, it must have been when Mrs. Bracegirdle was
his Statira: as when she acted Millamant, all the faults, follies, and
affectation of that agreeable tyrant were venially melted down into so
many charms and attractions of a conscious beauty." In the theatrical
disputes of the times, she adhered to her benefactor Betterton, and
continued to perform with applause until 1707, when, on the preference
being given to Mrs. Oldfield in a contention between that actress and
Mrs. Bracegirdle, she left the stage, except for one night, when she
returned with Mrs. Barry to the theatre, and performed Angelica for
Betterton's benefit (the performance described in this number). She died
in 1748.]

[Footnote 71: Thomas Doggett died in 1721. In 1695 he created the
character of Ben in Congreve's "Love for Love." Afterwards he was
associated with Steele in the management of Drury Lane Theatre.]

[Footnote 72: D'Urfey's "Modern Prophets" was produced in 1709. Thomas
D'Urfey died in 1723, aged 70, leaving Steele a watch and chain, which
his friend wore at the funeral. He wrote many plays and songs. See also
Nos. 11, 43.]

[Footnote 73: See No. 4.]

[Footnote 74: William, First Earl Cadogan (1675-1726), was an able
officer who took a very prominent part in Marlborough's campaigns. In
January, 1709, he was made lieutenant-general, and he was dangerously
wounded at the siege of Mons. He was appointed Lieutenant of the Tower
of London in December.]

[Footnote 75: The news-paragraphs in the earlier numbers of the _Tatler_
are here preserved for the sake of completeness, but for the most part
the details recorded are not of permanent interest, and do not call for
comment. The reader may be reminded generally that in the spring of 1709
the French, after the battle of Oudenarde and the fall of Lille,
followed by a very severe winter, were driven to think of terms of
peace. The negotiations, however, fell through for the time, and the
campaign was begun in the Netherlands, where Marlborough and Prince
Eugene had an army of 110,000 men. The French were entrenched under
Villars between Douay and Bethune, and were strengthened by part of the
garrison of Tournay. Marlborough seized the opportunity of attacking the
half-defended town, which was obliged to surrender on July 29, after a
siege of nineteen days. The French then made a great effort, and brought
an army of 100,000 men into the field, with the result that the battle
of Malplaquet (Sept. 11) was a very bloody and hard-earned victory for
the allies. The subsequent fall of Mons brought the campaign to a
close.]

[Footnote 76: Marlborough.]

[Footnote 77: A merchant entrusted by Lewis XIV. to negotiate terms of
peace with the Dutch.]

[Footnote 78: General Wood played a distinguished part in the battles of
Donauwerth (1704) and Ramilies (1706).]

[Footnote 79: See the Introduction.]

[Footnote 80: "A Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., against what is
objected to him by Mr. Partridge in his Almanack for the present year
1709. By the said Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., London, printed in the year
1709." (Advertisement in folio issue.) In a pamphlet called "Predictions
for the Year 1712. By Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.; in a Letter to the author
of the Oxford Almanack. Printed in the year 1712," this "Vindication" is
thus noticed: "I can't but express my resentment against a gentleman who
personated me in a paper called 'Mr. Bickerstaff's Vindication.' I'm
grieved to find the times should be so very wicked, that one impostor
should set up to reform another, and that a false Bickerstaff should
write against an imaginary Partridge. And I am heartily concerned that
one who shows so much wit, such extreme civility, and writes such a
gentlemanlike style, should prefix my name to writings in which there
appears so little solidity and no knowledge of the Arabian philosophy.
If this paper should be transmitted to posterity (as, perhaps, it might
have been by the authority of the name it wears in the front) it might
have been a lasting reflection upon me to the end of the world.... Till
seeing four volumes of writings--the collected edition of the
_Tatler_--pretended to be mine, and a serious philosopher's name
prefixed to papers as free from my solidity as they are full of wit, I
thought it high time to vindicate myself, and give the world a taste of
my writings; for I am now persuaded 'twill be more for my reputation to
convince than to despise mankind."]




No. 2. [STEELE.

From _Tuesday, April 12_, to _Thursday, April 14_, 1709.

       *       *       *       *       *


Will's Coffee-house, April 13.

There has lain all this evening, on the table, the following poem. The
subject of it being matter very useful for families, I thought it
deserved to be considered, and made more public. The turn the poet[81]
gives it is very happy; but the foundation is from a real accident
which happened among my acquaintance.[82] A young gentleman of a great
estate fell desperately in love with a great beauty of very high
quality, but as ill-natured as long flattery and an habitual self-will
could make her. However, my young spark ventures upon her, like a man of
quality, without being acquainted with her, or having ever saluted her,
till it was a crime to kiss any woman else. Beauty is a thing which
palls with possession; and the charms of this lady soon wanted the
support of good humour and complaisancy of manners. Upon this my spark
flies to the bottle for relief from his satiety. She disdains him for
being tired with that for which all men envied him; and he never came
home, but it was: "Was there no sot that would stay longer? Would any
man living but you? Did I leave all the world for this usage?" To which
he: "Madam, split me, you are very impertinent!" In a word, this match
was wedlock in its most terrible appearances. She, at last weary of
railing to no purpose, applies to a good uncle, who gives her a bottle
of water. "The virtue of this powerful liquor," said he, "is such, that
if the woman you marry proves a scold (which, it seems, my dear niece,
is your misfortune, as it was your good mother's before you), let her
hold six spoonfuls in her mouth, for a full half hour after you come
home--" But I find I am not in humour for telling a tale, and nothing in
nature is so ungrateful as story-telling against the grain, therefore
take it as the author has given it you.


The MEDECINE.

#A Tale--for the Ladies.#

    Miss Molly, a famed toast, was fair and young,
    Had wealth and charms, but then she had a tongue
    From morn to night, the eternal larum run,
    Which often lost those hearts her eyes had won.

    Sir John was smitten, and confessed his flame,
    Sighed out the usual time, then wed the dame:
    Possessed he thought of every joy of life,
    But his dear Molly proved a very wife.
    Excess of fondness did in time decline,
    Madam loved money, and the knight loved wine.
    From whence some petty discords would arise,
    As, "You're a fool"; and, "You are mighty wise!"

    Though he and all the world allowed her wit,
    Her voice was shrill, and rather loud than sweet,
    When she began,--for hat and sword he'd call.
    Then, after a faint kiss, cry, "B'y, dear Moll:
    Supper and friends expect me at the Rose."[83]
    And, "What, Sir John, you'll get your usual dose!
    Go, stink of smoke, and guzzle nasty wine,
    Sure, never virtuous love was used like mine!"

    Oft as the watchful bellman marched his round,
    At a fresh bottle gay Sir John he found.
    By four the knight would get his business done,
    And only then reeled off, because alone;
    Full well he knew the dreadful storm to come,
    But armed with bordeaux, he durst venture home.

    My lady with her tongue was still prepared,
    She rattled loud, and he impatient heard:
    "'Tis a fine hour? In a sweet pickle made!
    And this, Sir John, is every day the trade.
    Here I sit moping all the live-long night,
    Devoured with spleen, and stranger to delight;
    'Till morn sends staggering home a drunken beast,
    Resolved to break my heart, as well as rest."

    "Hey! Hoop! d'ye hear my damned obstreperous spouse!
    What, can't you find one bed about the house!
    Will that perpetual clack lie never still!
    That rival to the softness of a mill!
    Some couch and distant room must be my choice,
    Where I may sleep uncursed with wife and noise."

    Long this uncomfortable life they led,
    With snarling meals, and each, a separate bed.
    To an old uncle oft she would complain,
    Beg his advice, and scarce from tears refrain.
    Old Wisewood smoked the matter as it was,
    "Cheer up!" cried he, "and I'll remove the cause.

    "A wonderous spring within my garden flows,
    Of sovereign virtue, chiefly to compose
    Domestic jars, and matrimonial strife,
    The best elixir t' appease man and wife;
    Strange are th' effects, the qualities divine,
    'Tis water called, but worth its weight in wine.
    If in his sullen airs Sir John should come,
    Three spoonfuls take, hold in your mouth--then mum:
    Smile, and look pleased, when he shall rage and scold,
    Still in your mouth the healing cordial hold;
    One month this sympathetic medecine tried,
    He'll grow a lover, you a happy bride.
    But, dearest niece, keep this grand secret close,
    Or every prattling hussy'll beg a dose."

    A water-bottle's brought for her relief,
    Not Nantz could sooner ease the lady's grief:
    Her busy thoughts are on the trial bent,
    And female-like, impatient for th' event:

    The bonny knight reels home exceeding clear,
    Prepared for clamour, and domestic war.
    Entering, he cries, "Hey! where's our thunder fled?
    No hurricane! Betty, 's your lady dead?"
    Madam, aside, an ample mouthful takes,
    Curtsies, looks kind, but not a word she speaks:
    Wondering, he stared, scarcely his eyes believed,
    But found his ears agreeably deceived.
    "Why, how now, Molly, what's the crotchet now?"
    She smiles, and answers only with a bow.
    Then clasping her about,--"Why, let me die!
    These nightclothes, Moll, become thee mightily!"
    With that, he sighed, her hand began to press,
    And Betty calls, her lady to undress;
    "Nay, kiss me, Molly, for I'm much inclined."
    Her lace she cuts, to take him in the mind.
    Thus the fond pair to bed enamoured went,
    The lady pleased, and the good knight content.

    For many days these fond endearments passed,
    The reconciling bottle fails at last;
    'Twas used and gone: Then midnight storms arose,
    And looks and words the union discompose.
    Her coach is ordered, and post-haste she flies,
    To beg her uncle for some fresh supplies;
    Transported does the strange effects relate,
    Her knight's conversion, and her happy state!

    "Why, niece," says he, "I prithee apprehend
    The water's water. Be thyself thy friend;
    Such beauty would the coldest husband warm,
    But your provoking tongue undoes the charm:
    Be silent, and complying; you'll soon find,
    Sir John, without a medecine, will be kind."


St. James's Coffee-house, April 13.

Letters from Venice say, the disappointment of their expectation to see
his Danish Majesty, has very much disquieted the Court of Rome. Our last
advices from Germany inform us, that the minister of Hanover has urged
the council at Ratisbon to exert themselves in behalf of the common
cause, and taken the liberty to say, that the dignity, the virtue, the
prudence of his electoral highness, his master, were called to the head
of their affairs in vain, if they thought fit to leave him naked of the
proper means to make those excellences useful for the honour and safety
of the Empire. They write from Berlin of the 13th, O.S., that the true
design of General Fleming's visit to that Court was, to insinuate, that
it will be for the mutual interest of the King of Prussia and King
Augustus to enter into a new alliance; but that the ministers of Prussia
are not inclined to his sentiments. We hear from Vienna, that his
Imperial Majesty has expressed great satisfaction in their high
mightinesses having communicated to him the whole that has passed in the
affair of a peace. Though there have been practices used by the agents
of France, in all the Courts of Europe, to break the good understanding
of the allies, they have had no other effect, but to make all the
members concerned in the alliance, more doubtful of their safety from
the great offers of the enemy. The Empire is roused by this alarm, and
the frontiers of all the French dominions are in danger of being
insulted the ensuing campaign: advices from all parts confirm, that it
is impossible for France to find a way to obtain so much credit, as to
gain any one potentate of the allies, or make any hope for safety from
other prospects.


From my own Apartment, April 13.

I find it of very great use, now I am setting up for a writer of news,
that I am an adept in astrological speculations; by which means, I avoid
speaking of things which may offend great persons. But at the same time,
I must not prostitute the liberal sciences so far, as not to utter the
truth in cases which do not immediately concern the good of my native
country. I must therefore boldly contradict what has been so assuredly
reported by the news-writers of England, that France is in the most
deplorable condition, and that their people die in great multitudes. I
will therefore let the world know, that my correspondent, by the way of
Brussels, informs me, upon his honour, that the gentleman who writes the
Gazette of Paris, and ought to know as well as any man, has told him,
that ever since the king has been past his 63rd year, or grand
climacteric, there has not one man died of the French nation who was
younger than his Majesty, except a very few, who were taken suddenly
near the village of Hochsted[84] in Germany; and some more, who were
straitened for lodging at a place called Ramilies, and died on the road
to Ghent and Bruges. There are also other things given out by the
allies, which are shifts below a conquering nation to make use of. Among
others, 'tis said, there is a general murmuring among the people of
France, though at the same time all my letters agree, that there is so
good an understanding among them, that there is not one morsel carried
out of any market in the kingdom, but what is delivered upon credit.



[Footnote 81: William Harrison (1685-1713) was a favourite with Swift
and Addison. He wrote verses, and a continuation of the _Tatler_, and
afterwards obtained office in the diplomatic service; but his health
soon broke down, and he died when 28.]

[Footnote 82: There is a similar story in Burton's "Anatomy of
Melancholy."]

[Footnote 83: The Rose Tavern, in Russell Street, adjoined Drury Lane
Theatre, and was a favourite resort during and after the play.]

[Footnote 84: The Battle of Blenheim.]




No. 3. [STEELE.

From _Thursday, April 14_, to _Saturday, April 16_, 1709.

       *       *       *       *       *


Will's Coffee-house, April 14.

This evening, the comedy called "The Country Wife"[85] was acted in
Drury Lane, for the benefit of Mrs. Bignell.[86] The part which gives
name to the play was performed by herself. Through the whole action, she
made a very pretty figure, and exactly entered into the nature of the
part. Her husband in the drama, is represented to be one of those
debauchees who run through the vices of the town, and believe when they
think fit they can marry, and settle at their ease. His own knowledge of
the iniquity of the age, makes him choose a wife wholly ignorant of it,
and place his security in her want of skill how to abuse him. The poet,
on many occasions, where the propriety of the character will admit of
it, insinuates, that there is no defence against vice, but the contempt
of it: and has, in the natural ideas of an untainted innocent, shown the
gradual steps to ruin and destruction, which persons of condition run
into, without the help of a good education how to form their conduct.
The torment of a jealous coxcomb, which arises from his own false
maxims, and the aggravation of his pain, by the very words in which he
sees her innocence, makes a very pleasant and instructive satire. The
character of Horner, and the design of it, is a good representation of
the age in which that comedy was written; at which time love and
wenching were the business of life, and the gallant manner of pursuing
women was the best recommendation at Court. To which only it is to be
imputed, that a gentleman of Mr. Wycherley's character and sense,
condescends to represent the insults done to the honour of the bed,
without just reproof; but to have drawn a man of probity with regard to
such considerations, had been a monster, and a poet had at that time
discovered his want of knowing the manners of the Court he lived in, by
a virtuous character in his fine gentleman, as he would show his
ignorance, by drawing a vicious one to please the present audience. Mrs.
Bignell did her part very happily, and had a certain grace in her
rusticity, which gave us hopes of seeing her a very skilful player, and
in some parts, supply our loss of Mrs. Verbruggen.[87] I cannot be of
the same opinion with my friends and fellow-labourers, the Reformers of
Manners,[88] in their severity towards plays, but must allow that a good
play acted before a well-bred audience, must raise very proper
incitements to good behaviour, and be the most quick and most prevailing
method of giving young people a turn of sense and breeding. But as I
have set up for a weekly historian, I resolve to be a faithful one; and
therefore take this public occasion to admonish a young nobleman, who
came flustered into the box last night, and let him know, how much all
his friends were out of countenance for him. The women sat in terror of
hearing something that should shock their modesty, and all the gentlemen
in as much pain, out of compassion to the ladies, and perhaps resentment
for the indignity which was offered in coming into their presence in so
disrespectful a manner. Wine made him say nothing that was rude,
therefore he is forgiven, upon condition he will never hazard his
offending more in this kind. As I just now hinted, I own myself of the
Society for Reformation of Manners. We have lower instruments than those
of the family of Bickerstaff, for punishing great crimes, and exposing
the abandoned. Therefore, as I design to have notices from all public
assemblies, I shall take upon me only indecorums, improprieties, and
negligences, in such as should give us better examples. After this
declaration, if a fine lady thinks fit to giggle at church, or a great
beau come in drunk to a play, either shall be sure to hear of it in my
ensuing paper: for merely as a well-bred man, I cannot bear these
enormities.

After the play, we naturally stroll to this coffee-house, in hopes of
meeting some new poem, or other entertainment, among the men of wit and
pleasure, where there is a dearth at present. But it is wonderful there
should be so few writers, when the art is become merely mechanic, and
men may make themselves great that way, by as certain and infallible
rules, as you may be a joiner or a mason. There happens a good instance
of this, in what the hawker just now has offered to sale; to wit,
"Instructions to Vanderbank; a Sequel to the Advice to the Poets: A
Poem, occasioned by the Glorious Success of her Majesty's Arms, under
the Command of the Duke of Marlborough, the last Year in Flanders."[89]
Here you are to understand, that the author finding the poets would not
take his advice, he troubles himself no more about them; but has met
with one Vanderbank,[90] who works in arras, and makes very good
tapestry hangings. Therefore, in order to celebrate the hero of the age,
he claps me together all that can be said of a man that makes hangings, as:

    _Then, artist, who dost Nature's face express
    In silk and gold, and scenes of action dress;
    Dost figured arras animated leave,
    Spin a bright story, or a passion weave
    By mingling threads; canst mingle shade and light,
    Delineate triumphs, or describe a fight._

Well, what shall this workman do? Why, to show how great an hero the
poet intends, he provides him a very good horse:

    _Champing his foam, and bounding on the plain,
    Arch his high neck, and graceful spread his mane._

Now as to the intrepidity, the calm courage, the constant application of
the hero, it is not necessary to take that upon yourself; you may, in
the lump, bid him you employ raise him as high as he can, and if he does
it not, let him answer for disobeying orders:

    _Let fame and victory in inferior sky,
    Hover with ballanced wings, and smiling fly
    Above his head, &c._

A whole poem of this kind may be ready against an ensuing campaign, as
well as a space left in the canvas of a piece of tapestry for the
principal figure, while the underparts are working: so that in effect,
the adviser copies after the man he pretends to direct. This method
should, methinks, encourage young beginners: for the invention is so
fitted to all capacities, that by the help of it a man may make a
receipt for a poem. A young man may observe, that the jig[91] of the
thing is, as I said, finding out all that can be said of his way [whom]
you employ to set forth your worthy. Waller and Denham had worn out the
expedient of "Advice to a Painter."[92] This author has transferred the
work, and sent his advice to the Poets; that is to say, to the turners
of verse, as he calls them. Well, that thought is worn out also,
therefore he directs his genius to the loom, and will have a new set of
hangings in honour of the last year in Flanders. I must own to you, I
approve extremely this invention, and it might be improved for the
benefit of manufactory: as, suppose an ingenious gentleman should write
a poem of advice to a calico-printer: do you think there is a girl in
England, that would wear anything but the taking of Lille, or the Battle
of Oudenarde? They would certainly be all the fashion, till the heroes
abroad had cut out some more patterns. I should fancy small skirmishes
might do for under-petticoats, provided they had a siege for the upper.
If our adviser were well imitated, many industrious people might be put
to work. Little Mr. Dactile, now in the room, who formerly writ a song
and a half, is a week gone in a very pretty work upon this hint: he is
writing an epigram to a young virgin who knits very well ('tis a
thousand pities he is a Jacobite); but his epigram is by way of advice
to this damsel, to knit all the actions of the Pretender and the Duke of
Burgundy last campaign in the clock of a stocking. It were endless to
enumerate the many hands and trades that may be employed by poets, of so
useful a turn as this adviser's. I shall think of it; and in this time
of taxes, shall consult a great critic employed in the custom-house, in
order to propose what tax may be proper to put upon knives, seals,
rings, hangings, wrought-beds, gowns and petticoats, where any of those
commodities bear mottoes, or are worked upon poetical grounds.


St. James's Coffee-house, April 15.

Letters from Turin of the 3rd instant, N.S., inform us, that his Royal
Highness employs all his address in alarming the enemy, and perplexing
their speculations concerning his real designs the ensuing campaign.
Contracts are entered into with the merchants of Milan, for a great
number of mules to transport his provisions and ammunition. His Royal
Highness has ordered the train of artillery to be conveyed to Susa
before the 20th of the next month. In the meantime, all accounts agree,
that the enemy are very backward in their preparations, and almost
incapable of defending themselves against an invasion, by reason of the
general murmurs of their own people; which, they find, are no way to be
quieted, but by giving them hopes of a speedy peace. When these letters
were dispatched, the Marshal de Thesse was arrived at Genoa, where he
has taken much pains to keep the correspondents of the merchants of
France in hopes, that measures will be found out to support the credit
and commerce between that state and Lyons. But the late declaration of
the agents of Monsieur Bernard, that they cannot discharge the demands
made upon them, has quite dispirited all those who are engaged in the
remittances of France.


From my own Apartment, April 15.

It is a very natural passion in all good members of the commonwealth, to
take what care they can of their families. Therefore I hope the reader
will forgive me, that I desire he would go to the play, called the
"Stratagem,"[93] this evening, which is to be acted for the benefit of
my near kinsman, Mr. John Bickerstaff.[94] I protest to you the
gentleman has not spoken to me to desire this favour; but I have a
respect for him, as well in regard to consanguinity, as that he is an
intimate friend of that famous and heroic actor, Mr. George Powell, who
formerly played Alexander the Great in all places, though he is lately
grown so reserved as to act it only on the stage.[95]



[Footnote 85: By Wycherley, first acted in 1683.]

[Footnote 86: Mrs. Bicknell (or Bignell) was born about 1695. It is not
clear whether she was married, or whether the name Bicknell was taken to
distinguish her from her sister, Mrs. Young, who was also an actress. We
first hear of her acting in 1706; she took parts in which sauciness and
coquetry were the chief features. Her last recorded appearance was on
the 2nd of April, 1723; and she died in May. She signed a petition "M.
Bicknell"; probably her name was Margaret, her mother's name. Steele
alludes to her as "pretty Mrs. Bignell" in No. 11, and as his friend in
the _Guardian_, No. 50. She was Miss Prue in Congreve's "Love for Love,"
and Miss Hoyden in Vanbrugh's "Relapse." In the _Spectator_ (No. 370)
Steele praises her dancing.]

[Footnote 87: Cibber writes thus of this actress: "Mrs. Mountford, whose
second marriage gave her the name of Verbruggen, was mistress of more
variety of humour than I ever knew in any one woman actress. This
variety, too, was attended with an equal vivacity, which made her
excellent in characters extremely different.... She was so fond of
humour, in what low part soever to be found, that she would make no
scruple of defacing her fair form to come heartily into it." She could
act admirably as a Devonshire lass, a pretty fellow, or a fine lady.
Mrs. Verbruggen's first husband, the actor Mountford, was killed by
Captain Hill, with the assistance of Lord Mohun, in 1692, because Hill,
who was making unsuccessful suit to Mrs. Bracegirdle was jealous of her
fellow-actor. Mountford was then in his thirty-third year. Mrs.
Mountford's second husband, John Verbruggen, is described by Tony Aston
as "nature without extravagance." ... "That rough diamond shone more
bright than all the artful polished brilliants that ever sparkled on our
stage." The same writer says of Mrs. Verbruggen: "She was all art, but
dressed so nice, it looked like nature. She was the most easy actress in
the world. Her maiden name was Percival."]

[Footnote 88: Various Societies for the Reformation of Manners were
founded in the reign of William III. An "Account" of these societies was
published in 1699, and Defoe often wrote on the subject. In 1708 the
Society for London and Westminster secured the conviction of 3299 "lewd
and scandalous" persons, guilty of Sunday trading swearing, drunkenness,
&c.]

[Footnote 89: See Steele's apology to Blackmore, author of this poem, in
No. 14. Sir Richard Blackmore (died 1729) was a Whig physician who wrote
epics on religious and other subjects, and was often at loggerheads with
the actors and wits. Though he was not a poet, Addison and Steele
praised him on account of the religious tone of his work (see
_Spectator_, Nos. 6, 339).]

[Footnote 90: Vanderbank, or as his father sometimes wrote his name,
Vandrebanc, was a son of Peter Vanderbank, a Parisian, who came into
England with Gascar the painter, about 1674, and died at Bradfield, in
Hertfordshire, in 1697. His father was admired for the softness of his
prints, and still more for the size of them, some of his heads being the
largest that had then appeared in England; but the prices he received by
no means compensated for the time employed on his works, and he was
reduced to want, and died at the house of Mr. Forester, his
brother-in-law. After his death, his widow sold his plates to one Brown,
a print-seller, who made a great profit by them. His eldest son had some
share in the theatre at Dublin; the youngest, William, was a poor
labourer, who gave an account of his father and the family to Vertue.
The person mentioned in this paper was probably his father's name-son,
and might be, as Walpole conjectures, an engraver. Whatever concern the
father might have had in any manufacture of tapestry, he could not be
the person meant here, for at this time he had been dead above ten
years. The suite of tapestry, in the Duke of Ancaster's sale, with
Vanderbank's name to it, mentioned by Walpole, must therefore be
supposed to belong to the son, who is said, upon the authority of the
French translator of the _Tatler_, to have represented nature very
happily in works of tapestry, and to have been a man inimitable in this
way. (See Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting," 1782, vol. v. p. 166.)]

[Footnote 91: Trick (the early editions have "gigg").]

[Footnote 92: Waller wrote "Instructions to a Painter" and "Advice to a
Painter," and Denham "Directions to a Painter."]

[Footnote 93: Farquhar's "Beaux' Stratagem," 1707.]

[Footnote 94: Bickerstaff acted the part of the Captain in Mrs.
Centlivre's farce, "A Bickerstaff's Burying; or, Work for the Upholders"
(1713), which was dedicated to the "magnificent Company of Upholders,
whom the judicious Censor of Great Britain has so often condescended to
mention." In the "British Apollo," vol. ii. No. 107 (Feb. 27 to March 1,
1710), is a "New Prologue to 'Don Quixote' for Mr. Bickerstaff's Benefit
at the Theatre Royal, spoken by himself." The prologue ends:

    "I need not from the ladies fear my doom,
    When it shall thus be said, in my behalf,
    He bears the awful name of BICKERSTAFF."

In the _Daily Courant_ for Feb. 4, 1710, there was advertised a
performance of the "Comical History of Don Quixote" at Drury Lane, "at
the desire of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., for the benefit of his cousin,
John Bickerstaff."]

[Footnote 95: George Powell, actor and dramatist, gave way often to
drink. He died in 1714. Addison praised his acting of tragic parts in
No. 40 of the _Spectator_. See also No. 31. An order to the comedians in
Dorset Gardens forbade them acting till further order, because they had
allowed Powell to play after he was committed for drawing his sword on
Colonel Stanhope and Mr. Davenant. This is dated May 3, 10 Will. III.
(1698); but on May 4 there was another order for the comedians to resume
acting. (Lord Chamberlain's Records, Warrant Book No. 19, p. 80.)
Cibber's remarks on this incident will be found in his "Apology," chap.
x.]




No. 4. [STEELE.

From _Saturday April 16_, to _Tuesday, April 19, 1709_.

       *       *       *       *       *

It is usual with persons who mount the stage for the cure or information
of the crowd about them, to make solemn professions of their being
wholly disinterested in the pains they take for the public good. At the
same time, those very men, who make harangues in plush doublets, and
extol their own abilities and generous inclinations, tear their lungs in
vending a drug, and show no act of bounty, except it be, that they lower
a demand of a crown, to six, nay, to one penny. We have a contempt for
such paltry barterers, and have therefore all along informed the public
that we intend to give them our advices for our own sakes, and are
labouring to make our lucubrations come to some price in money, for our
more convenient support in the service of the public. It is certain,
that many other schemes have been proposed to me; as a friend offered to
show me a treatise he had writ, which he called "The Whole Art of Life,
or the Introduction to Great Men, illustrated in a Pack of Cards." But
being a novice at all manner of play I declined the offer. Another
advised me, for want of money, to set up my coach and practise physic,
but having been bred a scholar, I feared I should not succeed that way
neither; therefore resolved to go on in my present project. But you are
to understand, that I shall not pretend to raise a credit to this work,
upon the weight of my politic news only, but, as my Latin sentence in
the title-page informs you, shall take anything that offers for the
subject of my discourse. Thus, new persons, as well as new things, are
to come under my consideration; as, when a toast, or a wit, is first
pronounced such, you shall have the freshest advice of their preferment
from me, with a description of the beauty's manner, and the wit's style;
as also, in whose places they are advanced. For this town is never
good-natured enough to raise one, without depressing another. But it is
my design, to avoid saying anything, of any person, which ought justly
to displease; but shall endeavour, by the variety of the matter and
style, to give entertainment for men of pleasure, without offence to
those of business.


White's Chocolate-house, April 18.

All hearts at present pant for two ladies only[96], who have for some
time engrossed the dominion of the town. They are indeed both exceeding
charming, but differ very much in their excellences. The beauty of
Clarissa is soft, that of Chloe piercing. When you look at Clarissa,
you see the most exact harmony of feature, complexion, and shape; you
find in Chloe nothing extraordinary in any one of those particulars, but
the whole woman irresistible. Clarissa looks languishing; Chloe,
killing. Clarissa never fails of gaining admiration; Chloe, of moving
desire. The gazers at Clarissa are at first unconcerned, as if they were
observing a fine picture. They who behold Chloe, at the first glance,
discover transport, as if they met their dearest friend. These different
perfections are suitably represented by the last great painter Italy has
sent us, Mr. Jervas.[97] Clarissa is, by that skilful hand, placed in a
manner that looks artless, and innocent of the torments she gives; Chloe
drawn with a liveliness that shows she is conscious, but not affected,
of her perfections. Clarissa is a shepherdess; Chloe, a country girl. I
must own, the design of Chloe's picture shows, to me, great mastery in
the painter; for nothing could be better imagined than the dress he has
given her, of a straw hat and riband, to represent that sort of beauty
which enters the heart with a certain familiarity, and cheats it into a
belief, that it has received a lover as well as an object of love. The
force of their different beauties is seen also in the effects it makes
on their lovers. The admirers of Chloe are eternally gay and
well-pleased: those of Clarissa, melancholy and thoughtful. And as this
passion always changes the natural man into a quite different creature
from what he was before, the love of Chloe makes coxcombs; that of
Clarissa, madmen. There were of each kind just now here. Here was one
that whistles, laughs, sings, and cuts capers, for love of Chloe.
Another has just now written three lines to Clarissa, then taken a turn
in the garden, then came back again, then tore his fragment, then called
for some chocolate, then went away without it.

Chloe has so many admirers in the room at present, that there is too
much noise to proceed in my narration, so that the progress of the loves
of Clarissa and Chloe, together with the bottles that are drank each
night for the one, and the many sighs which are uttered, and songs
written, on the other, must be our subject on future occasions.


Will's Coffee-house, April 18.

Letters from the Haymarket inform us, that on Saturday night last the
opera of "Pyrrhus and Demetrius"[98] was performed with great applause.
This intelligence is not very acceptable to us friends of the theatre;
for the stage being an entertainment of the reason and all our
faculties, this way of being pleased with the suspense of them for three
hours together, and being given up to the shallow satisfaction of the
eyes and ears only, seems to arise rather from the degeneracy of our
understanding, than an improvement of our diversions.[99] That the
understanding has no part in the pleasure is evident, from what these
letters very positively assert, to wit, that a great part of the
performance was done in Italian: and a great critic fell into fits in
the gallery, at feeling, not only time and place, but languages and
nations confused in the most incorrigible manner. His spleen is so
extremely moved on this occasion, that he is going to publish a treatise
against operas, which, he thinks, have already inclined us to thoughts
of peace, and if tolerated, must infallibly dispirit us from carrying on
the war. He has communicated his scheme to the whole room, and declared
in what manner things of this kind were first introduced. He has upon
this occasion considered the nature of sounds in general, and made a
very elaborate digression upon the London cries,[100] wherein he has
shown from reason and philosophy why oysters are cried,
card-matches[101] sung, and turnips and all other vegetables neither
cried, sung, nor said, but sold, with an accent and tone neither natural
to man or beast. This piece seems to be taken from the model of that
excellent discourse of Mrs. Manly the schoolmistress, concerning
samplers.[102] Advices from the upper end of Piccadilly say that Mayfair
is utterly abolished;[103] and we hear Mr. Pinkethman[104] has removed
his ingenious company of strollers to Greenwich: but other letters from
Deptford say, the company is only making thither, and not yet settled;
but that several heathen gods and goddesses, which are to descend in
machines, landed at the King's Head Stairs last Saturday. Venus and
Cupid went on foot from thence to Greenwich; Mars got drunk in the town,
and broke his landlord's head; for which he sat in the stocks the whole
evening; but Mr. Pinkethman giving security that he should do nothing
this ensuing summer, he was set at liberty. The most melancholy part of
all, was, that Diana was taken in the act of fornication with a boatman,
and committed by Justice Wrathful, which has, it seems, put a stop to
the diversions of the theatre of Blackheath. But there goes down another
Diana and a patient Grissel next tide from Billingsgate.[105]


St. James's Coffee-house, April 18.

They write from Saxony of the 13th instant, N.S., that the Grand General
of the Crown of Poland was so far from entering into a treaty with King
Stanislaus, that he had written circular letters, wherein he exhorted
the Palatinates to join against him; declaring, that this was the most
favourable conjuncture for asserting their liberty.

Letters from the Hague of the 23rd instant, N.S., say, they have advices
from Vienna, which import, that his Electoral Highness of Hanover had
signified to the Imperial Court, that he did not intend to put himself
at the head of the troops of the Empire, except more effectual measures
were taken for acting vigorously against the enemy the ensuing campaign.
Upon this representation, the Emperor has given orders to several
regiments to march towards the Rhine, and despatched expresses to the
respective princes of the Empire to desire an augmentation of their
forces.

These letters add, that an express arrived at the Hague on the 20th
instant, with advice, that the enemy having made a detachment from
Tournay of 1500 horse, each trooper carrying a foot-soldier behind him,
in order to surprise the garrison of Alost; the allies, upon notice of
their march, sent out a strong body of troops from Ghent, which engaged
the enemy at Asche, and took 200 of them prisoners, obliging the rest to
retire without making any further attempt. On the 22nd in the morning a
fleet of merchant ships coming from Scotland, were attacked by six
French privateers at the entrance of the Meuse. We have yet no certain
advice of the event: but letters from Rotterdam say, that a Dutch
man-of-war of forty guns, which was convoy to the said fleet, was taken,
as were also eighteen of the merchants. The Swiss troops, in the
service of the States, have completed the augmentation of their
respective companies. Those of Wirtemberg and Prussia are expected on
the frontiers within few days; and the auxiliaries from Saxony, as also
a battalion of Holstein, and another of Wolfembuttel, are advancing
thither with all expedition. On the 21st instant, the deputies of the
States had a conference near Woerden with the President Rouille, but the
matter which was therein debated is not made public. His Grace the Duke
of Marlborough and Prince Eugene continue at the Hague.


From my own Apartment, April 18.

I have lately been very studious for intelligence, and have just now, by
my astrological flying-post, received a packet from Felicia,[106] an
island in America, with an account that gives me great satisfaction, and
lets me understand that the island was never in greater prosperity, or
the administration in so good hands, since the death of their late
valiant king. These letters import, that the chief minister has entered
into a firm league with the ablest and best men of the nation, to carry
on the cause of liberty, to the encouragement of religion, virtue, and
honour. Those persons at the helm are so useful, and in themselves of
such weight, that their strict alliance must needs tend to the universal
prosperity of the people. Camillo,[107] it seems, presides over the
deliberations of state; and is so highly valued by all men, for his
singular probity, courage, affability, and love of mankind, that his
being placed in that station has dissipated the fears of that people,
who of all the world are the most jealous of their liberty and
happiness. The next member of their society is Horatio,[108] who makes
all the public despatches. This minister is master of all the languages
in use to great perfection: he is held in the highest veneration
imaginable for a severe honesty, and love of his country: he lives in a
court, unsullied with any of its artifices, the refuge of the oppressed,
and terror of oppressors. Martio[109] has joined himself to this
council; a man of most undaunted resolution and great knowledge in
maritime affairs; famous for destroying the navy of the Franks,[110] and
singularly happy in one particular, that he never preferred a man who
has not proved remarkably serviceable to his country. Philander[111] is
mentioned with particular distinction; a nobleman who has the most
refined taste of the true pleasures and elegance of life, joined to an
indefatigable industry in business; a man eloquent in assemblies,
agreeable in conversation, and dextrous in all manner of public
negotiations. These letters add, that Verono,[112] who is also of this
council, has lately set sail to his government of Patricia, with design
to confirm the affections of the people in the interests of his queen.
This minister is master of great abilities, and is as industrious and
restless for the preservation of the liberties of the people, as the
greatest enemy can be to subvert them. The influence of these
personages, who are men of such distinguished parts and virtues, makes
the people enjoy the utmost tranquillity in the midst of a war, and
gives them undoubted hopes of a secure peace from their vigilance and
integrity.[113]



[Footnote 96: In a copy of the original edition of the _Tatler_, with
MS. notes written early in the last century, which was sold at Messrs.
Sotheby's, in April, 1887, the ladies here described were said to be
Mrs. Chetwine and Mrs. Hales respectively. Mrs. Hales was a maid of
honour who married Mr. Coke, vice-chamberlain, in July, 1709 (Luttrell's
"Brief Relation," vi. 462); "Mrs. Chetwine" was probably the wife of
William Richard Chetwynd, afterwards third Viscount Chetwynd, who
married Honora, daughter of John Baker, Consul at Algiers; or the wife
of his brother Walter, M.P. for Stafford, and Master of the Buckhounds.
In 1717, Lady M. W. Montagu, describing a week spent by a fashionable
lady, said, 'Friday, Mrs. Chetwynd's, &c.; a perpetual round of hearing
the same scandal' (Pope's Works, ix. 385).]

[Footnote 97: Charles Jervas, portrait painter (died 1739), became
principal painter to George I. and George II. He also made a translation
of "Don Quixote," first published in 1742.]

[Footnote 98: A translation of Owen McSwiney (1709) from the Italian of
Scarlatti.]

[Footnote 99: In the _Spectator_ (Nos. 1, 5, 13, &c.) Addison often
wrote against the Italian opera. In 1706, Dennis published "An Essay on
the Operas after the Italian Manner, which are about to be established
on the English Stage: with some reflections on the damage which they may
bring to the Public." He traces to the recent alterations in the
entertainments of the stage, the fact that familiar conversation among
all classes was confined to two points, news and toasting, neither of
which required much intelligence.]

[Footnote 100: The street cries of 1709 are described in Lauron's
"Habits and Cries of the City of London." They included "Any
card-matches or save-alls" and "Twelve-pence a peck, oysters."]

[Footnote 101: Matches made by dipping pieces of card in melted sulphur.
In the _Spectator_ (No. 251), Addison speaks of vendors of card-matches
as examples of the fact that those made most noise who had least to
sell.]

[Footnote 102: In vol. ii. of Dr. W. King's Works (1776) is "An Essay on
the Invention of Samplers, by Mrs. Arabella Manly, schoolmistress at
Hackney."]

[Footnote 103: May Fair was abolished in 1709, after it had on several
occasions been presented as a nuisance by the Grand Jury at Westminster.
This fair was granted by King James II. under the Great Seal, in the
fourth year of his reign, to Sir John Coell and his heirs for ever, in
trust for Henry Lord Dover and his heirs for ever, to be held in the
field called Brookfield, in the parish of St. Martin's, Westminster, to
commence on the first day of May, and to continue fifteen days yearly.
It soon became the resort of the idle, the dissipated, and the
profligate, insomuch that the peace-officers were frequently opposed in
the performance of their duty; and, in the year 1702, John Cooper, one
of the constables, was killed, for which a fencing-master, named Cook,
was executed. (See also No. 20.) The fair was revived under George I.,
but was finally abolished through the exertions of the sixth Earl of
Coventry.]

[Footnote 104: William Pinkethman, the popular actor and droll, was
spoken of by Gildon as "the flower of Bartholomew Fair, and the idol of
the rabble." In June, 1710, he opened a theatre at Greenwich, and in
1711 his "wonderful invention called The Pantheon, or, The Temple of the
Heathen Gods," with over 100 figures, was to be seen in the Little
Piazza, Covent Garden (_Spectator_, No. 46, advertisement).]

[Footnote 105: "It is credibly reported that Mr. D----y has agreed with
Mr. Pinkethman to have his play acted before that audience as soon as it
has had its first sixteen days' run in Drury Lane" (folio). The play was
D'Urfey's "Modern Prophets."]

[Footnote 106: Britain.]

[Footnote 107: John, Lord Somers, President of the Council.]

[Footnote 108: Sidney, Lord Godolphin, the Lord High Treasurer; or
(according to the MS. notes in the copy mentioned above) Lord
Sunderland.]

[Footnote 109: Edward, Earl of Orford.]

[Footnote 110: At La Hogue, 1692.]

[Footnote 111: Probably Lord Halifax.]

[Footnote 112: Thomas, Earl of Wharton, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.]

[Footnote 113: "Advertisement.--Upon the humble petition of Running
Stationers, &c., this paper maybe had of them, for the future, at the
price of one penny" (folio). The first four numbers were distributed
gratuitously.]




No. 5. [STEELE.

From _Tuesday, April 19_, to _Thursday, April 21_, 1709.

       *       *       *       *       *


White's Chocolate-house, April 20.

    _Who names that lost thing, love, without a tear,
    Since so debauched by ill-bred customs here,
    To an exact perfection they have brought
    The action, love, the passion is forgot._

This was long ago a witty author's lamentation, but the evil still
continues; and if a man of any delicacy were to attend the discourses of
the young fellows of this age, they would believe there were none but
prostitutes to make the objects of passion. So true it is what the
author of the above verses said, a little before his death, of the
modern pretenders to gallantry: "They set up for wits in this age, by
saying when they are sober, what they of the last spoke only when they
were drunk." But Cupid is not only blind at present, but dead-drunk, he
has lost all his faculties: else how should Celia be so long a maid with
that agreeable behaviour? Corinna, with that uprightly wit? Lesbia, with
that heavenly voice? And Sacharissa, with all those excellences in one
person, frequent the park, the play, and murder the poor tits that drag
her to public places, and not a man turn pale at her appearance? But
such is the fallen state of love, that if it were not for honest
Cynthio,[114] who is true to the cause, we should hardly have a pattern
left of the ancient worthies that way: and indeed he has but very little
encouragement to persevere; but he has a devotion, rather than love, for
his mistress; and says,

    Only tell her that I love,
      Leave the rest to her, and Fate;
    Some kind planet from above,
    May, perhaps, her passsion move:
      Lovers on their stars must wait.[115]

But the stars I am so intimately acquainted with, that I can assure him,
he will never have her: for would you believe it, though Cynthio has
wit, good sense, fortune, and his very being depends on her, the
termagant for whom he sighs, is in love with a fellow, who stares in the
glass all the time he is with her, and lets her plainly see, she may
possibly be his rival, but never his mistress. Yet Cynthio, the same
unhappy man whom I mentioned in my first narrative, pleases himself with
a vain imagination, that with the language of his eyes, now he has found
who she is, he shall conquer her, though her eyes are intent upon one
who looks from her; which is ordinary with the sex. It is certainly a
mistake in the ancients, to draw the little gentleman, Love, as a blind
boy; for his real character is, a little thief that squints. For ask
Mrs. Meddle, who is a confidante, or spy, upon all the passions in town,
and she will tell you, that the whole is a game of cross purposes. The
lover is generally pursuing one who is in pursuit of another, and
running from one that desires to meet him. Nay, the figure of this
passion is so justly represented in a squinting little thief (who is
always in a double action) that do but observe Clarissa next time you
see her, and you'll find, when her eyes have made their tour round the
company, she makes no stay on him they say she is to marry, but rests
two seconds of a minute on Wildair, who neither looks nor thinks on her,
or any woman else. However, Cynthio had a bow from her the other day,
upon which he is very much come to himself; and I heard him send his man
of an errand yesterday without any manner of hesitation; a quarter of an
hour after which he reckoned twenty, remembered he was to sup with a
friend, and went exactly to his appointment. I sent to know how he did
this morning, and I find he very perfectly remembers that he spoke to me
yesterday.


Will's Coffee-house, April 20.

This week[116] being sacred to holy things, and no public diversions
allowed, there has been taken notice of, even here, a little treatise,
called, "A Project for the Advancement of Religion; dedicated to the
Countess of Berkeley."[117] The title was so uncommon, and promised so
peculiar a way of thinking, that every man here has read it, and as
many as have done so, have approved it. It is written with the spirit of
one, who has seen the world enough to undervalue it with good breeding.
The author must certainly be a man of wisdom, as well as piety, and have
spent much time in the exercise of both. The real causes of the decay of
the interest of religion, are set forth in a clear and lively manner,
without unseasonable passions; and the whole air of the book, as to the
language, the sentiments, and the reasonings, show it was written by one
whose virtue sits easy about him, and to whom vice is thoroughly
contemptible. It was said by one of this company,[118] alluding to the
knowledge the author seems to have of the world, "The man writes much
like a gentleman, and goes to heaven with a very good mien."


St. James's Coffee-house, April 20.

Letters from Italy say, that the Marquis de Prie, upon the receipt of an
express from the Court of Vienna, went immediately to the palace of
Cardinal Paulucci, minister of state to his Holiness, and demanded in
the name of his Imperial Majesty, that King Charles should be forthwith
acknowledged king of Spain, by a solemn act of the congregation of
cardinals appointed for that purpose: he declared at the same time, that
if the least hesitation were made in this most important article of the
late treaty, he should not only be obliged to leave Rome himself, but
also transmit his master's orders to the imperial troops to face about,
and return into the ecclesiastical dominions. When the cardinal reported
this message to the Pope, he was struck with so sensible an affliction,
that he burst into tears. His sorrow was aggravated by letters which
immediately after arrived from the Court of Madrid, wherein his Nuncio
acquainted his Holiness, that upon the news of his accommodation with
the Emperor, he had received a message to forbear coming to Court; and
the people were so highly provoked, that they could hardly be restrained
from insulting his palace. These letters add, that the King of Denmark
was gone from Florence to Pisa, and from Pisa to Leghorn, where the
governor paid his Majesty all imaginable honours. The king designed to
go from thence to Lucca, where a magnificent tournament was prepared for
his diversion. An English man-of-war, which came from Port Mahon to
Leghorn in six days, brought advice, that the fleet commanded by Admiral
Whitaker, was safely arrived at Barcelona, with the troops and
ammunition which he had taken in at Naples.

General Boneval, Governor of Commacchio, had summoned the magistrates of
all the towns near that place to appear before him, and take an oath of
fidelity to his Imperial Majesty, commanding also the gentry to pay him
homage, on pain of death and confiscation of goods. Advices from
Switzerland inform us, that the bankers of Geneva were utterly ruined by
the failure of Mr. Bernard. They add, that the deputies of the Swiss
Cantons were returned from Solleure, where they were assembled at the
instance of the French Ambassador; but were very much dissatisfied with
the reception they had from that minister. 'Tis true, he omitted no
civilities, or expressions of friendship from his master, but he took no
notice of their pensions and arrears; what further provoked their
indignation, was, that instead of twenty-five pistoles formerly allowed
to each member, for their charge in coming to the Diet, he had
presented them with six only. They write from Dresden, that King
Augustus was still busy in recruiting his cavalry, and that the Danish
troops, which lately served in Hungary, had orders to be in Saxony in
the middle of May, and that his Majesty of Denmark was expected at
Dresden in the beginning of that month. King Augustus makes great
preparations for his reception, and has appointed sixty coaches, each
drawn by six horses for that purpose: the interview of these princes
affords great matter for speculation. Letters from Paris of the 22nd of
this month say, that Mareschal Harcourt and the Duke of Berwick were
preparing to go into Alsace and Dauphine, but that their troops were in
want of all manner of necessaries. The Court of France had received
advices from Madrid, that on the 7th of this month, the States of Spain
had with much magnificence acknowledged the Prince of Asturias
presumptive heir of the crown. This was performed at Buen Retiro; the
deputies took the oaths on that occasion by the hands of Cardinal
Portocarrero. Those advices add, that it was signified to the Pope's
Nuncio, by order of council, to depart from that Court in twenty-four
hours, and that a guard was accordingly appointed to conduct him to
Bayonne.

Letters from the Hague of the 26th instant inform us, that Prince Eugene
was to set out the next day for Brussels, to put all things in a
readiness for opening the campaign. They add, that the Grand Pensioner
having reported to the Duke of Marlborough what passed in the last
conference with Mr. Rouille,[119] his Grace had taken a resolution
immediately to return to Great Britain, to communicate to her Majesty
all that has been transacted in that important affair.


From my own Apartment, April 20.

The nature of my miscellaneous work is such, that I shall always take
the liberty to tell for news such things (let them have happened never
so much before the time of writing) as have escaped public notice, or
have been misrepresented to the world, provided that I am still within
rules, and trespass not as a Tatler any further than in an incorrectness
of style, and writing in an air of common speech. Thus if anything that
is said, even of old Anchises or AEneas, be set by me in a different
light than has hitherto been hit upon, in order to inspire the love and
admiration of worthy actions, you will, gentle reader, I hope, accept of
it for intelligence you had not before. But I am going upon a narrative,
the matter of which I know to be true: it is not only doing justice to
the deceased merit[120] of such persons, as, had they lived, would not
have had it in their power to thank me, but also an instance of the
greatness of spirit in the lowest of her Majesty's subjects; take it as
follows:

At the siege of Namur by the Allies, there were in the ranks of the
company commanded by Captain Pincent, in Colonel Frederick Hamilton's
regiment, one Unnion a corporal, and one Valentine a private sentinel:
there happened between these two men a dispute about a matter of love,
which, upon some aggravations, grew to an irreconcilable hatred. Unnion
being the officer of Valentine, took all opportunities even to strike
his rival, and profess the spite and revenge which moved him to it. The
sentinel bore it without resistance, but frequently said he would die to
be revenged of that tyrant. They had spent whole months thus, one
injuring, the other complaining; when in the midst of this rage towards
each other, they were commanded upon the attack of the castle, where the
corporal received a shot in the thigh, and fell; the French pressing on,
and he expecting to be trampled to death, called out to his enemy, "Ah,
Valentine! Can you leave me here?" Valentine immediately ran back, and
in the midst of a thick fire of the French, took the corporal upon his
back, and brought him through all that danger as far as the Abbey of
Salsine, where a cannon-ball took off his head: his body fell under his
enemy whom he was carrying off Unnion immediately forgot his wound, rose
up, tearing his hair, and then threw himself upon the bleeding carcass,
crying, "Ah, Valentine! Was it for me, who have so barbarously used
thee, that thou hast died? I will not Jive after thee." He was not by
any means to be forced from the body, but was removed with it bleeding
in his arms, and attended with tears by all their comrades, who knew
their enmity. When he was brought to a tent, his wounds were dressed by
force; but the next day, still calling upon Valentine, and lamenting his
cruelties to him, he died in the pangs of remorse and despair.

It may be a question among men of noble sentiments, whether of these
unfortunate persons had the greater soul; he that was so generous as to
venture his life for his enemy, or he who could not survive the man that
died, in laying upon him such an obligation?

When we see spirits like these in a people, to what heights may we not
suppose their glory may arise, but (as it is excellently observed by
Sallust[121]) it is not only to the general bent of a nation that great
revolutions are owing, but to the extraordinary genios[122] that lead
them. On which occasion he proceeds to say that the Roman greatness was
neither to be attributed to their su