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SIR,

TH

HERE is no State of Life fo Anxious as that of a Man who does not live according to the Dictates of his own Reafon; It will feem odd to you, when I affure you that my Love of Retirement first of all brought me to Court; but this will be no Riddle, when I acquaint you that I placed my felf here with a Defign of getting fo much Money as might enable me · to Purchase a handfome Retreat in the Country. At present my Circumstances enable me, and my Duty prompts me, to pass away the remaining Part of my Life in fuch a Retirement as I at firft propofed to my felf; but to my great Misfortune I have entirely loft the Relifh of it, and should now return to the Country with greater Reluctance than I at first came to Court, I am fo unhappy, as to know that what I am fond of are Trifles, and that what I neglect is of the greatest Importance: In fhort, I find a Contest in my Mind between Reafon and Fashion. I remember you once told me, that I might live in the World, and out of it, and at the fame time. Let me beg of you to explain this Paradox more at large to me, that I may conform my Life, if poffible, both to my Duty and my Inclination. I am

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Monday, April 2.

Neque femper arcum

Tendit Apollo..

Hor.

Shall here prefent my Reader with a Letter from a. Projector, concerning a new Office which he thinks may very much contribute to the Embellishment of the City, and to the driving Barbarity out of our Streets.

I

I confider it is a Satyr upon Projectors in general, and a lively Picture of the whole Art of Modern Criticism.

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SIR,

Bferving that you have Thoughts of creating, certain Officers under you, for the Inspection of 'feveral petty Enormities which you your felf cannot attend to, and finding daily Abfurdities hung out upon the Sign-Fofts of this City, to the great Scandal of Foreigners, as well as thofe of our own Country, who are curious Spectators of the fame: I do humbly pro-pofe, that you would be pleased to make me your Superintendant of all fuch Figures and Devices as are or fhall be made ufe of on this Occafion; with full Powers to rectifie or expunge whatever I fhall find irregular or 'defective. For want of fuch an Officer, there is nothing like found Literature and good Senfe to be met with in thofe Objects, that are every where thrusting themselves out to the Eye, and endeavouring to become vifible. Our Streets are filled with blue Boars, black "Swans, and red Lions; not to mention flying Pigs, and Hogs in Armour, with many other Creature more extraordinary than any in the Defarts of Africk. Strange! that one who has all the Birds and Beafts in Nature to chufe out of, fhould live at the Sign of an Ens Rationis!'

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MY firft Task therefore should be, like that of Hercules, to clear the City from Monsters. In the second Place I would forbid, that Creatures of jarring and incongruous Natures fhould be joined together in the fame Sign; fuch as the Bell and the Neats-Tongue, the Dog and the Gridiron. The Fox and Goofe may be fup. - pofed to have met, but what has the Fox and the Seven Stars to do together? And when did the Lamb and Dolphin ever meet, except upon a Sign-Poft? As for • the Cat and Fiddle, there is a Conceit in it; and therefore I do not intend that any thing I have here faid fhould affect it. I must however obferve to you upon this Subject, that it is ufual for a young Tradefman, at his first fetting up, to add to his own Sign, that of the Master whom he ferved; as the Husband after Marriage, gives a Place to his Miftrefs's Arms in his own Coat. This I take to have given Rife to many of thofe Abfurdities

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Abfurdities which are committed over our Heads; and, as I am informed, first occafioned the three Nuns and a Hare, which we fee fo frequently joined together. I would therefore establish certain Rules, for the determining how far one Tradefman may give the Sign of another, and in what Cafes he may be allowed to quarter it with his own.

IN the third Place, I would enjoin every Shop to make use of a Sign which bears fome Affinity to the Wares in which it deals. What can be more inconfi ftent, than to see a Bawd at the Sign of the Angel, or a Taylor at the Lion? Á Cook fhould not live at the Boot, nor a Shoe-maker at the roafted Pig; and yet for want of this Regulation, I have feen a Goat fet up before the Door of a Perfumer, and the French King's Head at a Sword-Cutler's.

AN ingenious Foreigner obferves, that feveral of thofe Gentlemen who value themselves upon their Families, and overlook such as are bred to Trade, bear the Tools of their Forefathers in their Coats of Arms. I will not examine how true this is in Fact: But though it may not be neceffary for Pofterity thus to fet up the Sign of their Forefathers, I think it highly proper for those who actually profefs the Trade, to fhew some fuch Marks of it before their Doors.

WHEN the Name gives an Occafion for an ingenious Sign-Poft, I would likewife advife the Owner to take that Opportunity of letting the World know who he is. It would have been ridiculous for the Ingenious Mrs. Salmon to have lived at the Sign of the Trout; for which Reafon fhe has erected before her House the Figure of the Fish that is her Name-fake. Mr. Bell has likewife diftinguished himself by a Device of the fame Nature: And here, Sir, I must beg leave to obferve to you, that this particular Figure of a Bell has given Occafion to feveral Pieces of Wit in this kind. A Man of your Reading, muft know that Abel Drugger gained great Applaufe by it in the Time of Ben. Johnfon. Our Apocryphal Heathen God is also represented by this Figure; which, in Conjunction with the Dragon, makes a very handfome Picture in feveral of our Streets. As for the Bell-Savage, which is the Sign of a Savage Man

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Man ftanding by a Bell, I was formerly very much puzzled upon the Conceit of it, till I accidentally fell into the reading of an old Romance tranflated out of the French; which gives an Account of a very beautiful Woman who was found in a Wilderness, and is called in the French la belle Sauvage; and is every where tran. flated by our Country-man the Bell-Savage. This Piece of Philofophy will, I hope, convince you that I have made Sign-Pofts my Study, and confequently qualified my felf for the Employment which I follicit at your Hands. But before I conclude my Letter, I must communicate to you another Remark which I have made upon the Subject with which I am now entertaining you, namely, that I can give a fhrewd Guess at the Humour of the Inhabitant by the Sign that hangs before his Door. A furly cholerick Fellow, generally makes Choice of a Bear; as Men of milder Difpofitions frequently live at the Lamb. Seeing a Punch-Bowl painted upon a Sign near Charing-Crofs, and very curiously garnished, with a couple of Angels hovering over it and fqueezing a Lemmon into it, I had the Curiofity to ask after the Mafter of the Houfe, and found upon Enquiry, as I had gueffed by the little Agréemens upon his Sign, that he was a Frenchman. I know, Sir, it is not requifite for me to enlarge upon thefe Hints to a Gentleman of your great Abilities; fo humbly recom mending my felf to your Favour and Patronage,

I remain, &c.

I fhall add to the foregoing Letter, another which came to me by the fame Penny-Poft.

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From my own Apartment near Charing-Crofs.
Honoured Sir,

HAVING heard that this Nation is a great Ene
courager of Ingenuity, I have brought with me
a Rope-Dancer that was caught in one of the Woods
belonging to the Great Mogul. He is by Birth a Mon-
key; but fwings upon a Rope, takes a Pipe of Tobac
co, and drinks a Glafs of Ale, like any reasonable Crea-
He gives great Satisfaction to the Quality; and

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C

if they will make a Subfcription for him, I will fend for a Brother of his out of Holland that is a very good Tumbler; and alfo for another of the fame Family whom I defign for my Merry-Andrew, as being an excellent Mimick, and the greatest Drole in the Country where he now is. I hope to have this Entertainment in a Readiness for the next Winter; and doubt not but it will please more than the Opera or Puppet-Show. I will not say that a Monkey is a better Man than some of the Opera-Heroes; but certainly he is a better Reprefentative of a Man, than the moft artificial Compofition of Wood and Wire. If you will be pleased to give me a good Word in your Paper, you fhall be every Night a Spectator at my Show for nothing.

I am, &c.

N® 29.

Tuesday, April 3.

-Sermo linguâ concinnus utrâque

Suavior: ut Chie nota fi commista Falerni eft. Hor

T

HERE is nothing that has more startled our English Audience, than the Italian Recitativo at its firft

Entrance upon the Stage. People were wonderfully furprized to hear Generals finging the Word of Command, and Ladies delivering Meffages in Mufick. Our Country-men could not forbear laughing when they heard a Lover chanting out a Billet-doux, and even the Superfcription of a Letter fet to a Tune. The Famous Blunder in an old Play of Enter a King and two Fidlers folus, was now no longer an Abfurdity; when it was impoffible for a Hero in a Defart, or a Princess in her Clofet, to speak any thing unaccompanied with Musical Inftruments.

BUT however this Italian Method of acting in Recitativo might appear at first hearing, I cannot but think it much more juft than that which prevailed in our Englih Opera before this Innovation: The Transition from

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