from the Stage; but only fuch as had too much Horror in them, and which would have a better Effect upon the Audience when tranfacted behind the Scenes. I would therefore recommend to my Countrymen the Practice of the ancient Poet, who were very fparing of their publick Executions, and rather chofe to perform them behind the Scenes, if it could be done with as great an Effect upon the Audience. At the fame time I muft obferve, that though the devoted Perfons of the Tragedy were feldom flain before the Audience, which has generally fomething ridiculous in it, their Bodies were often produced after their Death, which has always in it fomething melancholy or terrifying; fo that the killing on the Stage does not feem to have been avoided only as an Indeceny, but also as an Improbability.

Nec pueros coram populo Medea trucidet;

Hor.'

Aut humana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus;
Aut in Avem Progne vertatur, Cadmus in anguem,
Quodcunque oftendis mihi fic, incredulus odi.
Medea must not draw her murth'ring Knife,
Nor Atreus there his horrid Feaft prepare:
Cadmus and Progne's Metamorphofis,
(She to a Swallow turn'd, he to a Snake)
And whatfoever contradicts my Senfe,
I hate to fee, and never can believe.

Ld. RoscoM MO N.

I have now gone through the feveral dramatick Inventions which are made ufe of by the ignorant Poets to fupply the Place of Tragedy, and by the Skilful to improve it; fome of which I could wifh entirely rejected, and the reft to be used with Caution. It would be an endless Task to confider Comedy in the fame Light, and to mention the innumerable Shifts that small Wits put in practice to raise a Laugh. Bullock in a fhort Coat, and Norris in a long one, feldom fail of this Effect. In ordinary Comedies, a broad and a narrow brim'd Hat are different Characters. Sometimes the Wit of the Scene lies in a Shoulder-Belt, and fometimes in a Pair of Whiskers. A Lover running about the Stage, with his Head peeping out of a Barrel, was thought a very good Joft in King Charles the

H 4

Second's

Second's Time; and invented by one of the firft Wits of that Age. But because Ridicule is not fo delicate as Compaffion, and because the Objects that make us laugh are infinitely more numerous than thofe that make us weep, there is a much greater Latitude for comick than tragick Artifices, and by confequence a much greater Indulgence to be allowed them.

C

Saturday, April 21.

N° 45.

Natio Comoeda eft

Juv.

T

HERE is nothing which I more defire than a fafe and honourable Peace, tho' at the fame time I am very apprehenfive of many ill Confequences that may attend it. I do not mean in regard to our Politicks, but to our Manners. What an Inundation of Ribbons and, Brocades will break in upon us? What Peals of Laughter and Impertinence fhall we be exposed to? For the Prevention of these great Evils, I could heartily wish that there was an Act of Parliament for Prohibiting the Importation of French Fopperies.

THE Female Inhabitants of our Ifland have already received very ftrong Impreffions from this ludicrous Nation, tho' by the Length of the War (as there is no Evil which has not fome Good attending it) they are pretty well worn out and forgotten. I remember the time when fome of our well-bred Country-Women kept their Valet de Chambre, because, forfooth, a Man was much more handy about them than one of their own Sex. I my felf have feen one of thefe Male Abigails tripping about the Room with a Looking-Glafs in his Hand, and combing his Lady's Hair a whole Morning together. Whether or no there was any Truth in the Story of a Lady's being got with Child by one of these her Handmaids I cannot tell, but I think at prefent the whole Race of them is extinct in our own Country.

ABOUT

ABOUT the Time that feveral of our Sex were taken into this kind of Service, the Ladies likewife brought up the Fashion of receiving Vifits in their Beds. It was then looked upon as Piece of Ill Breeding for a Woman to refuse to see a Man, becaufe fhe was not stirring, and a Porter would have been thought unfit for his Place, that could have made so aukward an Excufe. As I love to fee every thing that is new, I once prevailed upon my Friend WILL. HONEYCOMB to carry me along with him to one of these Travelled Ladies, defiring him, at the fame time, to present me as a Foreigner who could not fpeak English, that fo I might not be obliged to bear a Part in the Difcourfe. The Lady, tho' willing to appear undreft, had put on her beft Looks, and painted her felf for our Reception. Her Hair appeared in a very nice Diforder, as the Night-Gown which was thrown upon. her Shoulders was ruffled with great Care. For my Part, [ am fo fhocked with every thing which looks immodeft in the Fair Sex, that I could not forbear taking off my Eye from her when fhe moved in her Bed, and was in the greatest Confusion imaginable every time she stirred a Leg or an Arm. As the Coquets, who introduced this Cuftom, grew old, they left it off by degrees; well knowing that a Woman of Threefcore may kick and tumble her Heart out, without making any Impreffions.

SEMPRONIA is at prefent the most profeft Admirer of the French Nation, but is fo modeft as to admit her Vifitants no farther than her Toilet. It is a very odd Sight that beautiful Creature makes, when he is talking Politicks with her Treffes flowing about her Shoulders, and examining that Face in the Glafs, which does fuch Execution upon all the Male Standers-by. How prettily does fhe divide her Difcourfe between her Woman and her Vifitants? What fprightly Tranfitions does fhe make from an Opera or a Sermon, to an Ivory Comb or a PinCushion? How have I been pleafed to fee her interrupted in an Account of her Travels, by a Meffage to her Footman and holding her Tongue, in the midft of a Moral Reflection, by applying the Tip of it to a Patch?

THERE is nothing which expofes a Woman to great-~er Dangers, than that Gaiety and Airinefs of Temper, which are natural to most of the Sex: It fhould be there

H

fore the Concern of every wife and virtuous Woman, to keep this Sprightlinefs from degenerating into Levity. On the contrary, the whole Difcourfe and Behaviour of the French is to make the Sex more Fantastical, or, (as they are pleased to term it) more awakened, than is confiftent either with Virtue or Difcretion. To fpeak Loud in Publick Affemblies, to let every one hear you Talk of Things that fhould only be mentioned in Private, or in Whisper, are looked upon as Parts of a refined Education. At the fame time, a Blush is unfashionable, and Silence more illbred than any thing that can be spoken. In fhort, Difcretion and Modefty, which in all other Ages and Countries have been regarded as the greatest Ornaments of the Fair Sex, are confidered as the Ingredients of narrow Converfation, and Family Behaviour.

SOME Years ago I was at the Tragedy of Mackbeth, and unfortunately placed my felf under a Woman of Quality that is fince Dead; who, as I found by the Noife the made, was newly returned from France. A little before the rifing of the Curtain, fhe broke out into a loud Soliloquy, When will the dear Witches enter? and immediately › upon their first Appearance, asked a Lady that fat three Boxes from her, on her Right Hand, if those Witches were not charming Creatures. A little after, as Betterton was in one of the finest Speeches of the Play, fhe fhook her Fan at another Lady, who fate as far on the Left Hand, and told her with a Whisper, that might be heard all over the Pit, We must not expect to fee Balloon to Night. Not long after, calling out to a young Baronet by his Name, who fate three Seats before me, the asked him whether Mackbeth's Wife was ftill alive; and before he could give an Anfwer, fell a talking of the Ghost of Banquo. She had by this time formed a little Audience to her felf, and fixed the Attention of all about her. But as I had a mind to hear the Play, I got out of the Sphere of her Impertinence, and planted my felf in one of the remoteft Corners of the Pit.

THIS pretty Childishness of Behaviour is one of the moft refined Parts of Coquetry, and is not to be attained in Perfection, by Ladies that do not Travel for their Improvement. A natural and unconftrained Behaviour has fomething in it fa agreeable, that it is no wonder to see

People

People endeavouring after it. But at the fame time, it is fo very hard to hit, when it is not Born with us, that People often make themselves Ridiculous in attempting it.

A very ingenious French Author tells us, that the Ladies of the Court of France, in his Time, thought it ill Breeding, and a kind of Female Pedantry, to pronounce an hard Word right; for which Reafon they took frequent occafion to use hard Words, that they might fhew a Pofitenefs in murdering them. He further adds, that a Lady of fome Quality at Court, having accidentally made ufe of an hard Word in a proper Place, and pronounced it right, the whole Affembly was out of Countenance for

her.

I must however be fo juft to own, that there are many Ladies who have Travelled feveral Thousands of Miles without being the worfe for it, and have brought Home with them all the Modefty, Difcretion, and good Sense, that they went Abroad with. As on the contrary, there are great Numbers or Travelled Ladies, who have lived all their Days within the Smoak of London. I have known a Woman that never was out of the Parish of St. James's betray as many Foreign Fopperies in her Carriage, as fhe could have Gleaned up in half the Countries of Europe.

C

N 46.

Monday, April 23.

Non bene junctarum difcordia femina rerum.

W

Ovid.

WHEN I want Materials for this Paper, it is my Custom to go abroad in quest of Game, and when I meet any proper Subject, I take the first Opportunity of fetting down an Hint of it upon Paper. At the fame time I look into the Letters of my Correfpondents, and if I find any thing fuggefted in them that may afford Matter of Speculation, I likewife enter a Minute of it in my Collection of Materials. By