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fall into her Tail: I mean the broad fweeping Train that follows her in all her Motions, and finds conftant Employment for a Boy who ftands behind her to open and Ipread it to Advantage. I do not know how others are affected at this Sight, but I must confefs, my Eyes are wholly taken up with the Page's Part; and as for the Queen, I am not fo attentive to any thing the fpeaks, as to the right adjusting of her Train, left it fhould chance to trip up her Heels, or incommode her, as fhe walks to and fro upon the Stage. It is, in my Opinion, a very odd Spectacle, to fee a Queen venting her Paffion in a difordered Motion, and a little Boy taking care all the while that they do not ruffle the Tail of her Gown. The Parts that the two Perfons act on the Stage at the fame Time, are very different: The Princefs is afraid left she fhould incur the Displeasure of the King her Father, or lofe the Hero her Lover, whilft her Attendant is only concerned left she should entangle her Feet in her Petticoat.

WE are told, That an ancient Tragick Poet, to move the Pity of his Audience for his exiled Kings and diftreffed Heroes, used to make the Actors represent them in Dreffes and Cloaths that were thread-bare and decayed. This Artifice for moving Pity, feems as ill-contrived, as that we have been fpeaking of to infpire us with a great Idea of the Perfons introduced upon the Stage. In fhort, I would have our Conceptions raifed by the Dignity of Thought and Sublimity of Expreffion, rather than by a Train of Robes or a Plume of Feathers.

ANOTHER mechanical Method of making great Men, and adding Dignity to Kings and Queens, is to accompany them with Halberts and Battle-axes. Two or three Shifters of Scenes, with the two Candle-fnuffers, make up a compleat Body of Guards upon the English Stage; and by the Addition of a few Porters dreffed in red Coats, can reprefent above a dozen Legions. I have fometimes feen a Couple of Armies drawn up together upon the Stage, when the Poet has been difpofed to do Honour to his Generals. It is impoffible for the Reader's Imagination to multiply twenty Men into fuch prodigious Multitudes, or to fancy that two or three hundred thoufand Soldiers are fighting in a Room of forty or fifty

2

Yards

Yards in Compass. Incidents of such a nature fhould be

told, not reprefented.

Non tamen intus

Digna geri promes in fcenam multaque tolles
Ex oculis, qua mox narret facundia prafens.
Yet there are things improper for a Scene,
Which Men of Judgment only will relate.

Hot,

Ld. ROSCOMMON,

I fhould therefore, in this Particular, recommend to my Countrymen the Example of the French Stage, where the Kings and Queens always appear unattended, and leave their Guards behind the Scenes. I fhould likewife be glad if we imitated the French in banishing from our Stage the Noife of Drums, Trumpets, and Huzzas; which is fometimes fo very great, that when there is a Battle in the Hay-Market Theatre, one may hear it as far as Charing-Cross.

I have here only touched upon thofe Particulars which are made ufe of to raise and aggrandize the Perfons of a Tragedy; and fhall fhew in another Paper the feveral Expedients which are practifed by Authors of a vulgar Genius to move Terror, Pity, or Admiration, in their Hearers.

THE Taylor and the Painter often contribute to the Succefs of a Tragedy more than the Poet. Scenes affect ordinary Minds as much as Speeches; and our Actors are very fenfible, that a well-dreffed Play has fometimes brought them as full Audiences, as a well-written one. The Italians have a very good Phrase to express this Art of impofing upon the Spectators by Appearances: They call it the Fourberia della Scena, The Knavery or trickifh Part of the Drama. But however the Show and Outfide of the Tragedy may work upon the Vulgar, the more understanding Part of the Audience immediately fee thro' it, and despise it.

A good Poet will give the Reader a more lively Idea of an Army or a Battel in a Description, than if he actually faw them drawn up in Squadrons and Battalions, or engaged in the Confufion of a Fight. Our Minds fhould be opened to great Conceptions, and inflamed with glorious

Sentiments, by what the Actor speaks, more than by what he appears. Can all the Trappings or Equipage of a King or Hero, give Brutus half that Pomp and Majefty which he receives from a few Lines in Shakespear?

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N° 43.

Thursday, April 19.

Ha tibi erunt artes; pacifque imponere morem,
Parcere Subjectis, & debellare Superbos.

T

Virg.

HERE are Crowds of Men, whofe great Misfor tune it is that they were not bound to Mechanick Arts or Trades, it being abfolutely neceffary for them to be led by fome continual Task or Employment, Thefe are fuch as we commonly call dull Fellows; Perfons, who for want of fomething to do, out of a certain Vacancy of Thought, rather than Curiofity, are ever meddling with things for which they are unfit. I cannot give you a Notion of them better than by prefenting you with a Letter from a Gentleman, who belongs to a Society of this Order of Men, refiding at Oxford.

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Oxford, April 13. 1711. Four a Clock in the Morning. N fome of your late Speculations, I find fome Sket

SIR.

Iches toward an Hiftory of Clubs: But you feem to

me to fhew them in fomewhat too ludicrous a Light. I have well weighed that Matter, and think, that the moft important Negotiations may best be carried on in fuch Affemblies. I fhall therefore, for the good of Mankind (which, I truft, you and I are equally concerned for) propofe an Institution of that Nature for Example fake.

I must confefs the Defign and Tranfactions of too many Clubs are trifling, and manifeftly of no Confequence to the Nation or Publick Weal: Thofe I'll give · you up. But you must do me then the Juftice to own, that nothing can be more useful or laudable, than the Scheme we go upon. To avoid Nicknames and Witticifms, we call our felves The Hebdomadal Meeting: Our

Prefident

• Prefident continues for a Year at leaft, and sometimes four or five: We are all Grave, Serious, Defigning Men, in our Way: We think it our Duty, as far as in us lies, to take care the Conftitution receives no Harm, • Ne quid detrimenti Res capiat publica- To cenfure Do&trines or Facts, Perfons or Things, which we don't like; To fettle the Nation at home, and to carry on the War abroad, where and in what manner we fee fit. If other People are not of our Opinion, we can't help that. 'Twere better they were. Moreover, we now and then condefcend to direct, in fome measure, the little Affairs of our own University.

VERILY, Mr. SPECTATOR, we are much offended at the A&t for Importing French Wines: A Bottle or two ⚫ of good folid Edifying Port at honeft George's, made a Night cheerful, and threw off Referve. But this plaguy French Claret will not only coft us more Money but do us lefs Good: Had we been aware of it, before it had gone too far, I muft tell you, we would have petitioned to be heard upon that Subject. But let that pass.

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I muft let you know likewife, good Sir, that we look upon a certain Northern Prince's March, in Conjunction with Infidels, to be palpably against our good Will and Liking; and, for all Monfieur Palmquist, a moft dangerous Innovation; and we are by no means yet fure, that fome. People are not at the Bottom on't. leaft, my own private Letters leave Room for a Politician, well vers'd in Matters of this Nature, to fufpect as much, as a penetrating Friend of mine tells me.

At

WE think we have at last done the Business with the • Malecontents in Hungary, and fhall clap up a Peace there.

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WHAT the Neutrality Army is to do, or what the Army in Flanders, and what two or three other Princes, is not yet fully determined among us; and we wait impatiently for the coming in of the next Dyer's, who, you must know, is our Authentick Intelligence, 6 our Ariftotle in Politicks. And 'tis indeed but fit there 'fhould be fome Dernier Refort, the abfolute Decider of all Controverfies.

WE were lately informed, that the Gallant Train’dBands had patroll'd all Night long about the Streets of London: We indeed could not imagine any Occasion for

• it,

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it, we gueffed not a Tittle on't aforehand, we were in nothing of the Secret; and that City Tradefmen, or their Apprentices fhould do Duty, or work, during the Holidays, we thought abfolutely impoffible. But Dyer being pofitive in it, and fome Letters from other People, who had talked with fome who had it from thofe who fhould know, giving fome Countenance to it, the Chairman reported from the Committee, appointed to examine into that Affair, That 'twas Poffible there might be fomething in't. I have 'much more to say to you, but my two good Friends ' and Neighbours, Dominick and Slyboots, are just come in, and the Coffee's ready. I am, in the mean time,

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

Your Admirer, and Humble Servant,
Abraham Froth."

YOU may obferve the Turn of their Minds tends only to Novelty, and not Satisfaction in any thing. It would be Difappointment to them, to come to Certainty in any thing, for that would gravel them, and put an end to their Enquiries, which dull Fellows do not make for Information, but for Exercife. I do not know but this may be a very good way of accounting for what we frequently fee, to wit, that dull Fellows prove very good Men of Business. Business relieves them from their own natural Heavinefs, by furnishing them with what to do; whereas Bufinefs to Mercurial Men, is an Interruption from their real Exiftence and Happiness. Tho' the dull Part of Mankind are harmless in their Amusements, it were to be wifhed they had no vacant Time, becaufe they ufually undertake fomething that makes their Wants confpicuous, by their manner of fupplying them. You fhall feldom find a dull Fellow of good Education, but if he happens to have any Leisure upon his Hands) will turn his Head to one of those two Amufements, for all Fools of Eminence, Politicks or Poetry. The former of thefe Arts, is the Study of all dull People in general; but when Dullness is lodged in a Perfon of a quick Animal Life, it generally exerts it VOL. 1.

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felf

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