Favour with her Father. I hope you will pardon the Trouble I give; but shall take it for a mighty Favour, if you will give me a little more of your Advice to put me in a right Way to cheat the old Dragon and obtain my Mistress. I am once more, York, Feb. 23, 1711-12. SIR, Your obliged bumble Servant, John Trott. 'Let me defire you to make what Alterations you pleafe, and infert this as foon as poffible. Pardon • Mistakes by Haste. I Never do pardon Miftakes by Hafte. SIR, PR The SPECTATOR: Feb. 27, 1711-12. RAY be fo kind as to let me know what you efteem to be the chief Qualification of a good Poet, especially of one who writes Plays; and you will very ⚫inuch oblige, SIR, Your very humble Servant, O be a very well-bred Man. To be Mr. SPECTATOR, N. B. The SPECTATOR. YOU are to know that I am naturally Brave, and love Fighting as well as any Man in England. This gallant Temper of mine makes me extremely delighted with Battles on the Stage. I give you this Trouble to complain to you, that Nicolini refufed to gratify me in that Part of the Opera for which I have moft Tafte. I obferve it's become a Custom, that whenever any Gentlemen are particularly pleafed with, a Song, at their crying out Encore or Altro Volto, the, • Performer is fo obliging as to fing it over again. I was at the Opera the laft time Hydafpes was performed. At that Part of it where the Hero engages with the VOL. IV. M 'Lion, Lion, the graceful Manner with which he put that < terrible Monster to Death gave me fo great a Pleasure, ⚫ and at the fame time fo juft a Senfe of that Gentleman's Intrepidity and Conduct, that I could not forbear defiring a Repetition of it, by crying out, Altre • Volto in a very audible Voice; and my Friends flatter me, that I pronounced thofe Words with a tolerable good Accent, confidering that was but the third Opera ⚫ I had ever seen in my Life. Yet, notwithstanding all this, there was fo little Regard had to me, that the < Lion was carried off, and went to Bed, without being • killed any more that Night. Now, Sir, pray confider ⚫ that I did not understand a Word of what Mr. Nico'lini faid to this cruel Creature; befides, I have no Ear for Mufick; fo that during the long Difpute between 'em, the whole Entertainment I had was from my Eyes; Why then have not I as much Right to have a graceful Action repeated as another has a pleafing • Sound, fince he only hears as I only fee, and we nei⚫ther of us know that there is any reasonable thing a doing? Pray, Sir, fettle the Bufinefs of this Claim in the Audience, and let us know when we may cry Altro Volto, Anglicè, again, again, for the future. I am an Englishman, and expect fome Reafon or other to be given me, and perhaps an ordinary one may ferve; but I expect your Answer. ༤ Mr. SPECTATOR, I am, SIR, Your most humble Servant, Toby Rentfree. Nov. 29. 7OU muft give me Leave, amongst the reft of Y your Female Correfpondents, to addrefs you about an Affair which has already given you many a Speculation; and which, I know, I need not tell you have had a very happy Influence over the adult Part of our Sex: But as many of us are either too old to learn, ⚫ or too obftinate in the Purfuit of the Vanities, which have been bred up with us from our Infancy, and all of us quitting the Stage whilst you are prompting us ་ to act our Part well; you ought, methinks, rather to turn your Inftructions for the Benefit of that Part of our Sex, who are yet in their native Innocence, and Ignorant of the Vices and that Variety of Unhappineffes that reign amongst us. I muft tell you, Mr. SPECTATOR, that it is as • much a Part of your Office to oversee the Education of the female Part of the Nation, as well as of the Male; and to convince the World you are not partial, pray proceed to detect the Male-Administration ⚫ of Governeffes as fuccefsfully as you have exposed that of Pedagogues; and rescue our Sex from the Prejudice and Tyranny of Education as well as that of your own, 'who without your seasonable Interpofition are like to improve upon the Vices that are now in vogue. 'I who know the Dignity of your Post, as SPECTATOR, and the Authority a fkilful Eye ought to bear in the Female World, could not forbear confulting you ' and beg your Advice in fo critical a Point, as is that ⚫ of the Education of young Gentlewomen. Having already provided my felf with a very convenient House in a good Air, I am not without Hope but that you 'will promote this generous Design. I muft farther tell you, Sir, that all who fhall be committed to my • Conduct, befide the ufual Accomplishments of the 'Needle, Dancing, and the French Tongue, fhall not fail to be your conftant Readers. It is therefore my humble Petition, that you will entertain the Town on ⚫ this important Subject, and fo far oblige a Stranger, as to raise a Curiofity and Inquiry in my Behalf, by publishing the following Advertisement. 6 I am, SIR, Your conftant Admirer, M. W. ADVERTISEMENT. THE Boarding-School for young Gentlewomen, which waS formerly kept on Mile-End-Green, being laid down, there is now one fet up almoft oppofite to it at the two Golden Balls, and M 2 much much more convenient in every Respect; where, befide the common Instructions given to young Gentlewomen, they will be taught the whole Art of Paftry and Preferving, with whatever may render them accomplished. Those who please to make Trial of the Vigilance and Ability of the Perfons concerned, may inquire at the tavo Golden-Balls on Mile-EndGreen near Stepney, where they will receive further Satisfaction. THIS is to give Notice, that the SPECTATOR has taken upon him to be Vifitant of all Boarding-Schools, where young Women are educated; and defigns to proceed in the faid Office after the fame Manner that the Vifitants of Colleges do in the two famous Univerfities of this Land. ALL Lovers who write to the SPECTATOR, are defired to forbear one Expreffion which is in most of the Letters to him either out of Laziness, or want of Invention, and is true of not above two thousand Women in the whole World; viz. She has in her all that is valuable in Woman. T No. 315. Saturday, March 1. Nec deus interfit, nifi dignus vindice nodus Hor. Ars Poet, v. 191. Never prefume to make a God appear, H ROSCOMMON. ORACE advifes a Poet to confider thoroughly the Nature and Force of his Genius. Milton feems to have known perfectly well, wherein his Strength lay, and has therefore chofen a Subject entirely conformable to thofe Talents, of which he was Maiter. As his Genius was wonderfully turned to the Sublime, his Subject is the nobleft that could have entered into the Thoughts of Man. Every thing that is truly great and and aftonishing, has a Place in it. The whole Syftem of the intellectual World; the Chaos, and the Creation ; Heaven, Earth and Hell; enter into the Conftitution of his Poem. HAVING in the Firft and Second Books reprefented the Infernal World with all its Horrors, the Thread of his fable naturally leads him into the oppofite Regions of Blifs and Glory. IF Milton's Majefty forfakes him any where, it is in thofe Parts of his Poem, where the Divine Perfons are introduced as Speakers. One may, I think, observe, that the Author proceeds with a kind of Fear and Trembling, whilft he defcribes the Sentiments of the Almighty. He dares not give his Imagination its full Play, but choofes to confine himself to fuch Thoughts as are drawn from the Books of the moft Orthodox Divines, and to fuch Expreffions as may be met with in Scripture. The Beauties therefore, which we are to look for in these Speeches, are not of a Poetical Nature, nor fo proper to fill the Mind with Sentiments of Grandeur, as with Thoughts of Devotion. The Paffions, which they are defigned to raise, are a Divine Love and Religious Fear. The Particular Beauty of the Speeches in the Third Book, confifts in that Shortnefs and Perfpicuity of Stile, in which the Poet has couched the greateft Mysteries of Chriftianity, and drawn together, in a regular Scheme, the whole Difpenfation of Providence, with refpect to Man. He has reprefented all the abftrufe Doctrines of Predeftination, Free-Will and Grace, as alfo the great Points of Incarnation and Redemption, (which naturally grow up in a Poem that treats of the Fall of Man) with great Energy of Expreffion, and in a clearer and ftronger Light than I ever met with in any other Writer. As thefe Points are dry in themselves to the Generality of Readers, the concife and clear manner in which he has treated them, is very much to be admired, as is likewise that particular Art which he has made ufe of in the interfperfing of all thofe Graces of Poetry, which the Subject was capable of receiving. THE Survey of the whole Creation, and of every thing that is tranfacted in it, is a Profpect worthy of Omniscience; and as much above that, in which. Virgil M 3 has |