SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY. I. THE SPECTATOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem HORACE, Ars Poetica, 143, 144. I HAVE observed that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure 'till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor, with other particulars of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of an author.2 To gratify this curiosity, which is so natural to a reader, I design this paper and my next as prefatory discourses to my following writings, and shall give some account in 1. His thought it is, not smoke from flame, But out of smoke a steadfast light to bring, That in the light bright wonders he may frame. 2. In his Notes on Walter Savage Landor, De Quincey (iv. 407), commenting on this passage, says: "No reader cares about an author's person before reading his book; it is after reading it, and supposing the book to reveal something of the writer's moral nature, as modifying his intellect; it is for his fun, his fancy, his sadness, possibly his craziness, that any reader cares about seeing the author in person. Afflicted with the very satyriasis of curiosity, no man ever wished to see the author of a Ready Reckoner, or of the Agistment Tithe, or on the Present Deplorable Dry Rot in Potatoes." them of the several1 persons that are engaged in this work. As the chief trouble of compiling, digesting, and correcting, will fall to my share, I must do myself the justice to open the work with my own history.2 3 I was born to a small hereditary estate, which, according to the tradition of the village where it lies, was bounded by the same hedges and ditches in William the Conqueror's time that it is at present, and has been delivered down from father to son whole and entire, without the loss or acquisition of a single field or meadow, during the space of six hundred years. There runs a story in the family, that [before I was born] my mother dreamt that she was [to bring forth] a judge; whether this might proceed from a lawsuit which was then depending in the family, or my father's being a justice of the peace, I cannot determine; for I am not so vain as to think it presaged any dignity that I should arrive at in my future life, though that was the interpretation which the neighborhood put upon it. The gravity of my behavior at my very first appearance in the world seemed to favor my mother's dream: for, as she has often told me, I threw away my rattle before I was two months old, and would not make use of my coral till they had taken away the bells from it. 1. Note that "several" is used in its specific meaning not of many, but of separate persons. 2. Addison is of course constructing an imaginary character and giving him a consistent history, but as Macaulay remarks in his essay on The Life and Writings of Addison, "It is not easy to doubt that the portrait was meant to be in some features a likeness of the painter." Especially may this be said of the humorously exaggerated characteristic of shyness. 3. Whole perfect. with all its divisions; entire with each division As for the rest of my infancy, there being nothing in it remarkable, I shall pass it over in silence. I find, that, during my nonage, I had the reputation of a very sullen youth, but was always a favorite of my schoolmaster, who used to say, that my parts were solid, and would wear well. I had not been long at the University, before I distinguished myself by a most profound silence; for, during the space of eight years, excepting in the public exercises of the college, I scarce uttered the quantity of an hundred words; and indeed do not remember that I ever spoke three sentences together in my whole life. Whilst I was in this learned body, I applied myself with so much diligence to my studies, that there are very few celebrated books, either in the learned or modern tongues, which I am not acquainted with. Upon the death of my father, I was resolved to travel into foreign countries, and therefore left the University with the character of an odd unaccountable fellow, that had a great deal of learning, if I would but show it. An insatiable thirst after knowledge carried me into all the countries of Europe in which there was anything new or strange to be seen; nay, to such a degree was my curiosity raised, that having read the controversies1 of some great men concerning the antiquities of Egypt, I made a voyage to Grand Cairo, on purpose to take the measure of a pyramid: and, as soon as I had set myself right in that particular, returned to my native country with great satisfaction. 1. In Addison's time, John Greaves, Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, had led in the discussion regarding the measurement of the pyramids, as in our day Piazzi Smyth, whose work, Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, still excites interest and debate. I have passed my latter years in this city, where I am frequently seen in most public places, though there are not above half a dozen of my select friends that know me: of whom my next paper shall give a more particular account. There is no place of general resort wherein I do not often make my appearance; sometimes I am seen thrusting my head into a round of politicians at Will's,1 and listening with great attention to the narratives that are made in those little circular audiences. Sometimes I smoke a pipe at Child's,2 and while I seem attentive to nothing but the Postman,3 overhear the conversation of every table in the room. I appear on Sunday nights at St. James's coffee-house, and sometimes join the little committee of politics in the inner room, as one who comes there to hear and improve. My face is likewise very well known at the Grecian, the Cocoa Tree, and in the theatres both of Drury Lane and 6 5 1. "The father of the modern club." Will's Coffee House stood on the northwest corner of Russell and Bow Streets, Covent Garden. It took its name from the proprietor, William Urwin, and derived its greatest reputation from the poet Dryden's resort to it. 2. In St. Paul's churchyard. From its neighborhood to the cathedral, Doctor's Commons, the College of Physicians, and the Royal Society, it was frequented by clergy, lawyers, physicians, and men of science. 3. The Postman, a journal edited by a French Protestant, M. Fonvive, was marked by the prominence it gave to foreign cor respondence. 4. The headquarters of Whig politicians. 5. For a more particular account of what went on in the inner room, see The Spectator, No. 403. 6. So called from being kept by a Greek named Constantine. Its nearness to the Temple led to its being the rendezvous of men of learning. 7. The Tory headquarters. the Hay Market. I have been taken for a merchant upon the Exchange for above these ten years, and sometimes pass for a Jew in the assembly of stockjobbers at Jonathan's.1 In short, wherever I see a cluster of people, I always mix with them, though I never open my lips but in my own club. Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species; by which means I have made myself a speculative statesman, soldier, merchant, and artisan, without ever meddling with any practical part in life. I am very well versed in the theory of a husband or a father, and can discern the errors in the economy,2 business, and diversion of others, better than those who are engaged in them as standers-by discover blots, which are apt to escape those who are in the game. I never espoused any party with violence, and am resolved to observe an exact neutrality between the Whigs and Tories, unless I shall be forced to declare myself by the hostilities of either side. In short, I have acted in all the parts of my life as a looker-on, which is the character I intend to preserve in this paper. 3 I have given the reader just so much of my history and character, as to let him see I am not altogether unqualified for the business I have undertaken. As for other particulars in my life and adventures, I shall insert them in following papers, as I shall see 1. Jonathan's coffee-house was the resort of the more questionable sort of stock-jobbers. 2. In The Spectator as originally printed, the spelling of this word œconomy emphasized its meaning as derived from the Greek, the "management of the house." 3. In the game of backgammon, "to make a blot" was to leave a piece exposed. |