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fpeechless, till an occafion offered of expreffing himself in the refuse of the tyring-rooms. We had a judge that danced a minuet with a Quaker for his partner, while half a dozen harlequins ftood by as fpectators; a Turk drank me off two bottles of wine, and a Jew eat me up half a ham of bacon. If I can bring my defign to bear, and make the mafquers preferve their characters in my affemblies, I hope you will allow there is a foundation laid for more elegant and improving galiantries than any the town at prefent affords; and confequently, that you will give your approbation to the endeavours of, Sir,

Your moft obedient humble fervant.

I am very glad the following epiftle obliges me to mention Mr. Powell a fecond time in the fame paper; for indeed there cannot be too great encouragement given to his fkill in motions, provided he is under proper restrictions,

SIR,

T HE Opera at the Hay-market, and that under the Little Piazza in Covent Garden, being at prefent the two leading diverfions of the town, and Mr. Powell profeffing in his advertisements to fet up Whittington and his Cat against Rinaldo and Armida, my curiofity led me the beginning of last week to view both thefe performances, and make my obfervations upon them.

First therefore, I cannot but obferve that Mr. Powell wifely forbearing to give his company a bill of fare beforehand, every fcene is new and unexpected; whereas it is certain, that the undertakers of the Haymarket, having raifed too great an expectation in their printed opera, very much difappoint the audience on the stage.

The King of Jerufalem is obliged to come from the city on foot, instead of being drawn in a triumphant chariot by white horfes, as my opera-book had promifed me; and thus while I expected Armida's dragons thould rush forward towards Argantes, I found the hero was obliged to go to Armida, and hard her out of her coach. We had alfo but a very fhort allowance of thunder and lightning, though I cannot in this place omit doing justice to the boy who had the direction of the two painted dragons, and made them fpid fire and fmole; he

flashed out his rofin in fuch just proportions and in fuch due time, that I could not forbear conceiving hopes of his being one day a moft excellent player. I faw indeed but two things wanting to render his whole action compleat, I mean the keeping his head a little lower," and hiding his candle.

I obferve that Mr. Powell and the undertakers had both the fame thought, and I think much about the fame time, of introducing animals on their feveral ftages, though indeed with very different fuccefs. The Sparrows and Chaffinches at the Haymarket fly as yet very irregularly over the ftage; and inttead of perching on the trees and performing their parts, there young actors either get into the gallerics, or put out the candles; whereas Mr. Powell has fo well difciplined his Pig, that in the firft fcene he and Punch dance a minuet together. I am informed however, that Mr. Powell refolves to excel his adverfaries in their own way; and introduce Larks in his next opera of Sufanna, or Innocence Betrayed, which will be exhibited next week with a pair of new Elders.

The moral of Mr. Powell's drama is violated, I confefs, by Punch's national reflections on the French, and King Harry's laying his leg upon the Queen's lap in too ludicrous a manner before fo great an affembly.

As to the mechanifm and fcenery, every thing indeed was uniform and of a piece, and the fcenes were managed very dextroufly; which calls on me to take notice, that at the Haymarket the undertakers forgetting to change their fide-scenes, we were prefented with a profpect of the ocean in the midit of a delightful grove; and though the gentlemen on the stage had very much contributed to the beauty of the grove, by walking up and down between the trees, I must own I was not a little aftonished to fee a well-dreffed young fellow, in a full-bottomed wig, appear in the midst of the fea, and without any visible concern taking fnuff.

I hall only obferve one thing farther, in which both dramas agree; which is, that by the fqueak of their voices the herces of each are eunuchs; and as the wit in both pieces is equal, I must prefer the performance of Mr. Powell, becaufe it is in our own language. am, &c.

I

R

N° XV.

No XV. SATURDAY, MARCH 17.

PARVA LEVES CAPIUNT ANIMOS

OVID. ARS AM. I. 159.

LIGHT MINDS ARE PLEAS'D WITH TRIFLES.

WHEN I was in France, I ufed lovers luckily bethought himfelf of add

to gaze with great aftonishment at the fplendid equipages, and partycoloured habits, of that fantastic nation. I was one day in particular contemplating a lady, that fat in a coach adorned with gilded Cupids, and finely painted with the loves of Venus and Adonis. The coach was drawn by fix milk-white horfes, and loaden behind with the fame number of powdered footmen. Juft before the lady were a couple of beautiful pages that were stuck among the harnefs, and by their gay dreffes and fmiling features, looked like the elder brothers of the little boys that were carved and painted in every corner of the coach.

The lady was the unfortunate Cleanthe, who afterwards gave an occafion to a pretty melancholy novel. She had for feveral years received the addreffes of a gentleman, whom after a long and intimate acquaintance the forfook, upon the account of this shining equipage, which had been offered to her by one of great riches but a crazy conftitution. The circumstances in which I faw her, were, it feems, the difguifes only of a broken heart, and a kind of pageantry to cover diftrefs; for in two months after he was carried to her grave with the faine pomp and magnificence; being fent thither partly by the lofs of one lover-and partly by the poffeffion of

another.

I have often reflected with myself on this unaccountable humour of womankind, of being fmitten with every thing that is fhowy and fuperficial; and on the numberless evils that befal the fex from this light fantastical difpofition. I myfelf remember a young lady, that was very warmly folicited by a couple of importunate rivals, who, for feveral months together, did all they could to recommend themselves by complacency of behaviour, and agreeableness of converfation. At length, when the competition was doubtful, and the lady undeterrained in her choice, one of the young

-ing a fupernumerary lace to his liveries, which had fo good an effect that he married her the very week after.

The ufual converfation of ordinary women very much cherishes this natural weakness of being taken with outfide and appearance. Talk of a new-married couple, and you immediately hear whether they keep their coach and fix, or eat in plate; mention the name of an abfent lady, and it is ten to one but you learn fomething of her gown and petticoat. A ball is a great help to difcourfe, and a birth day furnishes converfation for a twelvemonth after. A furbelow of precious ftones, an hat buttoned with a diamond, a brocade waistcoat or petticoat, are standing topics. In fhort, they confider only the drapery of the fpecies, and never caft away a thought on thofe ornaments of the mind that make perfons illuftrious in themselves and useful to others. When women are thus perpetually dazzling one another's imaginations, and filling their heads with nothing but colours, it is no wonder that they are more attentive to the fuperficial parts of life than the folid and fubftantial bleffings of it. A girl who has been trained up in this kind of converfation, is in danger of every embroidered coat that comes in her way. A pair of fringed gloves may be her ruin. În a word, lace and ribbons, filver and gold galloons, with the like glittering gewgaws, are fo many lures to women of weak minds or low educations, and when artificially difplayed, are able to fetch down the most airy coquette from the wildeft of her flights and rambles.

True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noife; it arifes, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's felf; and, in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few felect companions; it loves fhade and folitude, and naturally haunts groves and fountains, fields and meadows: in fhort, it feels every thing it wants withE 2

in itself, and receives no addition from multitudes of witneffes and fpectators. On the contrary, falfe happinefs loves to be in a crowd, and to draw the eyes of the world upon her. She does not receive any fatisfaction from the applaufes which the gives herself, but from the admiration which the raifes in others. She flourishes in courts and palaces, theatres and affemblies, and has no exift-, ence but when the is looked upon.

Aurelia, though a woman of great quality, delights in the privacy of a country life, and paffes away a great part of her time in her own walks and gardens. Her husband, who is her bofom friend and companion in her folitudes, has been in love with her ever fince he knew her. They both abound with good fenfe, confummate virtue, and a mutual efteem; and are a perpetual entertainment to one another. Their family is under fo regular an ceconomy, in it's hours of devotion and repaft, employment and diverfion, that it looks like a little commonwealth within itfelf. They often go into company, that they may return with the greater delight to one another; and fometimes live in town, not to enjoy it fo properly as to grow weary of it, that they may renew in themfelves the relish of a country life. By this means they are happy in each other, beloved by their children, adored by their fervants, and are become the envy, or rather the delight, of all that

know them.

How different to this is the life of Fulvia! the confiders her husband as her fteward, and looks upon difcretion and good housewifery as little domeftic virtues, unbecoming a woman of quality. She thinks life loft in her own family, and fancies herfelf out of the world when the is not in the ring, the play

I

houfe, or the drawing-room; fhe lives in a perpetual motion of body, and reft leffnefs of thought, and is never easy in any one place, when the thinks there is more company in another. The miffing of an opera the first night would be more afflicting to her than the death of a child. She pities all the valuable part of her own fex, and calls every woman of a prudent, modeft, and retired life, a poorfpirited unpolifhed creature. What a mortification would it be to Fulvia, if the knew that her fetting herself to view is but expofing herself, and that the grows contemptible by being confpicuous!

I cannot conclude my paper, without obferving, that Virgil has very finely touched upon this female paffion for drefs and fhow, in the character of Camilla; who, though the feems to have fhaken off all the other weaknesses of her fex, is ftill defcribed as a woman in this particular. The poet tells us, that, after having made a great flaughter of the enemy, the unfortunately caft her eye on a Trojan, who wore an embroidered tunic, a beautiful coat of mail, with a mantle of the fineft purple. A golden bow,' fays he, 'hung upon his fhoulder; his garment was buckled with a golden clafp; and his head was covered with an helmet of the fame shining metal.' The Amazon immediately fingled out this well-dreffed warrior, being feized with a woman's longing for the pretty trappings that he was adorned with

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-Totumque incauta per agmen Famineo prada et spoliorum ardebat amore. N. 11. VER. 782.

This heedlefs purfuit after thefe glittering trifles, the poet (by a nice concealed moral) reprefents to have been the deftruction of his female hero.

N° XVI. MONDAY, MARCH 19.

QUOD VERUM ATQUE DECENS CURO ET ROGO, ET OMNIS IN HOC SUM.

HOR. I. EP. v. lã.

WHAT RIGHT, WHAT TRUE, WHAT FIT WE JUSTLY CALL,
LET THIS BE ALL MY CARE FOR THIS IS ALL

Have received a letter, defiring me to be very fatirical upon the little Muff that is now in fashion; another informs me of a pair of filver Garters Buckled below the knee, that have been

POPE.

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lately feen at the Rainbow Coffee-house in Fleet Street; a third fends me an heavy complaint against fringed Gloves. To be brief, there is fcarce an ornament of either fex which one or other

of

of my correfpondents has not inveighed againit with fome bitternefs, and recommended to my obfervation. I muft therefore, once for all, inform my readers, that it is not my intention to fink the dignity of this my paper with reflections upon red-heels or top-knots, but rather to enter into the paflions of mankind, and to correct thofe depraved fentiments that give birth to all thofe little extravagancies which appear in their outward dress and behaviour. Foppifh and fan-, taftic ornaments are only indications of vice, not criminal in themselves. Extinguifh vanity in the mind, and you naturally retrench the little fuperfluities of garniture and equipage. The bloffoms will fall of themselves when the root that nourishes them is destroyed.

I fhall therefore, as I have faid, apply my remedies to the first feeds and principles of an affected drefs, without defcending to the dress itself; though at the fame time I muft own, that I have thoughts of creating an officer under me, to be intituled- The Cenfor of Small • Wares,' and of allotting him one day in a week for the execution of fuch his office. An operator of this nature might aft under me with the fame regard as a furgeon to a phyfician; the one might be employed in healing those blotches and tumours which break out in the body, while the other is fweetening the blood and rectifying the conftitution. To fpeak truly, the young people of both fexes are fo wonderfully apt to fhoot out into long fwords or fweeping trains, bushy head-dreffes, or full-bottomed periwigs, with feveral other incumbrances of drefs, that they stand in need of being pruned very frequently, left they should be oppreffed with ornaments, and over-run with the luxuri. ance of their habits. I am much in doubt, whether I fhould give the preference to a Quaker that is trimmed clofe and almost cut to the quick, or to a Beau that is loaden with fuch a redundance of excrefcences. I must therefore defire my correfpondents to let me know how they approve my project, and whether they think the erecting of fuch a petty cenforfhip may not turn to the emolument of the public; for I would not do any thing of this nature rafhly and without advice.

There is another set of correfpondents to whom I mult addrefs myfelf in the fecond place; I mean fuch as fill their

letters with private fcandal and black accounts of particular perfons and families. The world is fo full of illnature, that I have lampoons fent meby people who cannot fpell, and fatires compofed by thofe who fcarce know how to write. By the last poft in particular, I received a packet of fcandal which is not legible; and have a whole bundle of letters in women's hands that are full of blots and calumnies, infomuch, that when I fee the name Cælia, Phillis, Paftora, or the like, at the bottom of fcrawl, I conclude on course that it brings me fome account of a fallen virgin, a faithlefs wife, or an amorous widow. I must therefore inform these my correfpondents, that it is not my defign to be a publisher of intrigues and cuckoldoms, or to bring little infamous ftories out of their prefent lurking-holes into broad day-light. If I attack the vicious, I fhall only fet upon them in a body; and will not be provoked, by the worft ufage I can receive from others, to make an example of any particular criminal. In fhort, I have fo much of a Drawcanfir in me, that I fhall not pafs over a fingle foe to charge whole armies. It is not Lais nor Silenus, but the Harlot and the Drunkard, whom I shall endeavour to expofe; and fhall confider the crime as it appears in a fpecies, not as it is circumftanced in an individual. I think it was Caligula who wished the whole city of Rome had but one neck, that he might behead them at a blow. I fhall do, out of humanity, what that emperor would have done in the cruelty of his temper, and aim every stroke at a collective body of offenders. At the fame time I am very fenfible, that nothing fpreads a paper like private calumny and defamation; but as my fpeculations are not under this neceffity, they are not expofed to this temptation.

In the next place, I must apply myfelf to my party correfpondents, who are continually teazing me to take notice of one another's proceedings. How often am I afked by both fides, if it is poffible for me to be an unconcerned fpectator of the rogueries that are committed by the party which is oppofite to him that writes the letter? About two days fince I was reproached with an old Grecian law, that forbids any man to ftand as a neuter or a looker-on in the divifions of his country. However, as I am very fenfible my paper would lofe

it's

it's whole effect, fhould it run into the outrages of a party, I fhall take care to keep clear of every thing which looks that way. If I can any way affuage private inflammations, or allay public ferments, I fhall apply myself to it with my utmost endeavours; but will never let my heart reproach me with having done any thing towards increafing those feuds and animofities that extinguish religion, deface government, and make a nation miferable.

What I have faid under the three foregoing heads will, I am afraid, very much retrench the number of my correfpondents: I fhall therefore acquaint my reader, that if he has ftarted any hint which he is not able to purfue; if he has met with any furprising story which he does not know how to tell; if he has difcovered any epidemical vice which has efcaped my oblervation, or has heard of any uncommon virtue which he would defire to publifh; in fhort, if he has any materials that can furnish out an innocent diverfion, I fhall promife him my beft affiftance in the working of them up for a public entertainment.

This paper my reader will find was

SINCE

intended for an answer to a multitude of correfpondents; but I hope he will pardon me if I fingle out one of them in particular, who has made me so very humble a requeft, that I cannot forbear complying with it.

I

SIR,

TO THE SPECTATOR.

MARCH 15, 1710-11. Am at prefent fo unfortunate, as to have nothing to do but to mind my own business; and therefore beg of you that you will be pleafed to put me into fome fmall poft under you. I obferva that you have appointed your printer and publifher to receive letters and advertisements for the city of London; and fhall think myfelf very much honoured by you, if you will appoint me to take in letters and advertisements for the city of Westminster and the dutchy of Lancafter. Though I cannot promife to fill fuch an employment with fufficient abilities, I will endeavour to make up with induftry and fidelity what I want in parts and genius. I am, Sir, your mott obedient fervant, C

CHARLES LILLIE.

No XVII. TUESDAY, MARCH 20..

TETRUM ANTE OMNIA VULTUM.

A VISAGE ROUGH,
DEFORM'D, UNFEATUR'D.

INCE our perfons are not of our own making, when they are fuch as appear defective or uncemely, it is, methinks, an honest and laudable fortitude to dare to be ugly; at least to keep ourfelves from being abafhed with a confcidufnefs of imperfections which we cannot help, and in which there is no guilt. I would not defend an haggard beau for paffing away much time at a glafs, and giving foftneffes and languishing graces to deformity; all I intend is, that we ought to be contented with our countenance and fhape, fo far, as never to give ourselves an uneafy reflection on that fubject.. It is to the ordinary people, who are not accustomed to make very proper remarks on any occafion, matter of great jeft, if a man enters with a prominent pair of fhoulders into an affembly, or is diftinguished by an expanfion of mouth, or obliquity of afpe&.

Juv. SAT.X. 191. DRYDEN.

It is happy for a man, that has any of thefe oddneffes about him, if he can be as merry upon himself, as others are apt to be upon that occafion; when he can poffefs himself with fuch a chearfulnefs, women and children, who are at first frighted at him, will afterwards be as much pleafed with him. As it is barbarous in others to railly him for natural defects, it is extremely agreeable when he can jelt upon himself for them.

Madame Maintenon's first husband was an hero in this kind, and has drawn many pleafantries from the irregularity of his hape, which he defcribes as very much refembling the letter Z. He diverts himself likewife, by reprefenting to his reader the make of an engine and pully, with which he ufed to take off his hat. When there happens to be any thing ridiculous in a vifage, and the owner of it thinks it an afpect of

dignity,

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