it a referve, but there appeared in her a mirth or chear⚫fulness which was not a forbearance of more immoderate joy, but the natural appearance of all which ⚫ could flow from a mind poffeffed with an habit of innocence and purity. I muft utterly have forgot Belinda to have taken no notice of one who was growing up to the fame womanly virtues which fhine to perfection ' in her, had I not diftinguished one who feemed to promise to the world the fame life and conduct with my faithful and lovely Belinda. When the company broke up, the fine young thing permitted me to take care of her home. Mrs. Jane faw my particular regard to her, and was informed of my attending her to her father's houfe. She came early to Belinda the next morning, and asked if Mrs. Such-a-one had been ' with her? No. If Mr. Such-a one's Lady? No.

Nor your coufin Such-a-cne? No. Lord, fays Mrs. Jane, what is the friendship of women?-- -Nay, they may laugh at it. And did no one tell you any thing of the behaviour of your lover Mr. What d'ye call laft night? But perhaps it is nothing to you that he is to be married to young Mrs. on Tuesday ' next? Belinda was here ready to die with rage and jealoufy. Then Mrs. Jane goes on: I have a young • kinfman who is clerk to a great conveyancer, who fhall fhew you the rough draught of the marriage fettlement. The world fays her father gives him two thousand pounds more than he could have with you. I went innocently to wait on Belinda as ufual, but was not admitted; I writ to her, and my letter was fent back unopened. Poor Betty her maid, who is on my fide, has been here juft now blubbering, and told we the whole matter. She fays she did not think I could be fo bafe; and that fhe is now odious to her 'mistress for having so often spoke well of me, that the dare not mention me more. All our hopes are placed in having thefe circumftances fairly represented in the SPECTATOR, which Petty fays he dare not but bring up as foon as it is brought in; and has promifed when you have broke the ice to own this was • laid between us: And when I can come to an hearing, the young Lady will fupport what we fay by her

ተ

• tefti

teftimony, that I never faw her but that once in my whole life. Dear Sir, do not omit this true relation, nor thing it too particular; for there are crowds of ⚫ forlorn coquettes who intermingle themfelves with other Ladies, and contract familiarities out of malice, and with no other defign but to blast the hopes of lovers, the expectation of parents, and the benevolence of kindred. I doubt not but I fhall be,

SIR.

THE

SIR,

your most obliged humble fervant,

CLEANTHES.

Will's Coffee-houfe, Jan. 10.

HE other day entering a room adorned with the fair fex, I offered, after the usual manner, to each of them a kifs; but one, more fcornful than the reft, turned her cheek. I did not think it proper to take any notice of it until I had asked your advice. Your humble fervant,

E. S.

The correfpondent is defired to fay which cheek the offender turned to him.

ADVERTISEMENT.

From the parish-velry, January 9.

All Ladies who come to church in the new-fashioned hoods, are defired to be there before divine fervice begins, left they divert the attention of the congregation.

T

RALPH

N° 273

Saturday, January 12.

Hor, Ars Poet. ver. 156.

Notandi funt tibi mores.

Note well the manners.

Having examined the action of Paradife Loft, let

us the next place confider the actors. This

is Ariftotle's method of confidering, firft the fable, and fecondly the manners; or, as we generally call them in English, the fable and the characters.

Homer has excelled all the heroic poets that ever wrote in the multitude and variety of his characters. Every God that is admitted into his poem, acts a part which would have been fuitable to no other deity. His Princes are as much distinguished by their manners, as by their dominions; and even thofe among them, whofe characters feem wholly made up of courage, differ from one another as to the particular kinds of courage in which they excel. In fhort, there is scarce a fpeech or action in the Illiad, which the reader may not afcribe to the person who speaks or acts, without feeing his name at the head of it.

Homer does not only outfhine all other poets in the variety, but also in the novelty of his characters. He has introduced among his Grecian princes a person who had lived thrice the age of man, and converfed with Thefeus, Hercules, Polyphemus, and the first race of heroes. His principal actor is the fon of a goddess, not to mention the offspring of other deities, who have likewise a place in his poem, and the venerable Trojan prince, who was the father of fo many kings and heroes. There is in the several characters of Homer, a certain dignity as well as novelty, which adapts them in a more peculiar manner to the nature of an heroic poem. Though at the fame time, to give them the greater variety, he has described a Vulcan, that is a buffoon among his gods, and a Therfites among his mortals.

Virgil falls infinitely fhort of Homer in the characters of his poem, both as to their variety and novelty. Æneas is indeed a perfect character, but as for Achates, though he is ftiled the hero's friend, he does nothing in the whole poem which may deserve that title. Gyas, Mneftheus, Sergeftus and Cloanthus, are all of them men of the same stamp and character.

Fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cloanthum.

There are indeed several natural incidents in the Part of Afcanius; as that of Dido cannot be fufficiently admired. I do not fee any thing new or particular in Turnus. Pallas and Evander are remote copies of Hector and Priam, as Laufus and Mezentius are almoft parallels to Pallas and Evander. The characters of Nifus and Euryalus are beautiful, but common. We must not forget the parts of Sinon, Camilla, and fome few others, which are fine improvements on the Greek poet. In fhort, there is neither that variety nor novelty in the perfons of the nied, which we meet with in thofe of the Iliad.

If we look into the characters of Milton, we fhall find that he has introduced all the variety his fable was capable of receiving. The whole fpecies of mankind was in two perfons at the time to which the fubject of his poem is confined. We have however, four distinct characters in these two perfons. We fee man and woman in the highest innocence and perfection, and in the most abject ftate of guilt and infirmity. The two laft characters are, indeed, very common and obvious, but the two first are not only more magnificent, but more new than any characters either in Virgil or Homer, or indeed in the whole circle of nature.

Milton was fo fenfible of this defect in the fubject of his poem, and of the few characters it would afford him, that he has brought into it two actors of a fhadowy and fictitious nature, in the perfons of Sin and Death, by which means he has wrought into the body of his fable a very beautiful and well-invented allegory. But notwithstanding the fineness of this allegory may atone for it in fome measure; I cannot think that perfons of fuch a chimerical existence are proper actors in an epic poem ; because there is not that measure of probability annexed

to

to them, which is requifite in writings of this kind, as I fhall fhew more at large hereafter.

Virgil has, indeed, admitted Fame as an actress in the Eneid, but the part fhe acts is very fhort, and none of the most admired circumftances in that divine work. We find in mock-heroic poems, particularly in the Dif penfary and the Lutrin, feveral allegorical perfons of this nature, which are very beautiful in those compofitions, and may perhaps be used as an argument, that the authors of them were of opinion, fuch characters might have a place in an epic work. For my own part I should be glad the reader would think fo, for the fake of the poem I am now examining, and must further add, that if fuch empty unfubftantial Beings may be ever made ufe of on this occafion, never were any more nicely imagined, and employed in more proper actions, than thofe of which I am now speaking.

Another principal actor in this poem is the great enemy of mankind. The part of Ulyfes in Homer's Odyssey is very much admired by Ariftotle, as perplexing that fable with very agreeable plots and intricacies, not only by the many adventures in his voyage, and the subtilty of his behaviour, but by the various concealments and difcoveries of his perfon in feveral parts of that poem. But the crafty Being I have now mentioned, makes a much longer voyage than Ulyfes, puts in practice many more wiles and ftratagems, and hides himself under a greater variety of fhapes and appearances, all of which are feverally detected, to the great delight and surprise of the reader.

We may likewife obferve with how much art the poet has varied feveral characters of the perfons that fpeak in his infernal affembly. On the contrary, how has he reprefented the whole Godhead exerting itfelf towards man in its full benevolence under the threefold distinction of a Creator, a Redeemer, and a Comforter !

Nor muft we omit the perfon of Raphael, who, amidst his tendernefs and friendship for man, fhews fuct a dignity and condefcenfion in all his speech and behaviour, as are fuitable to a superior nature. The angels are indeed as much diverfified in Milton, and diftinguished by