"Like Cato, gave his little Senate laws, or like Mr. Nisby, in the humbler houses of call, "Emptied his pint, and sputter'd his decrees," through a cloud of Virginia. "Laced Coffee" it is perhaps eedless to add - is coffee dashed with spirits. "Bohea No. 17, page 113. The Fine Lady's Journal. (p. 115), in Clarinda's time, was 20s. a lb. (see the "Private Account Book of Isabella, Duchess of Grafton," in the Hanmer Correspondence, 1838, p. 239). "Aurengzebe" (p. 116) was an heroic play produced by Dryden in 1675; “Indamora" (p. 117) was the name of the heroine. For Nicolini, see Note to No. 10, Stage Lions. The “dumb man" (p. 118) was Duncan Campbell, a fashionable fortune-teller, whose headquarters in 1712 (see Spectator, No. 474) were at the "Golden Lion" in Drury Lane. De Foe compiled a popular life of him, which Curll published in 1720. He was then "living in Exeter Court, over against the Savoy, in the Strand," and still prospering with the credulous. As to " Lady Betty Modely's skuttle" (p. 116), and "mobs" (p. 118), Chalmers has two highly edifying notes. He explains the former to be "a pace of affected precipitation," and the latter "a huddled œconomy of dress so called." "Mobs" were in vogue long after the date of this paper. They are referred to as late as 1773 or 1774 in those dancing couplets which Goldsmith wrote to pretty Mrs. Bunbury at Barton, and which were first given to the world in the Hanmer Correspondence, p. 382: "Both are plac'd at the bar, with all proper decorum, "On The authorship of the celebrated epitaph the Countess Dowager of Pembroke" (p. 119) still remains "uncertain." In the original issue of this essay Addison assigned it to Ben Jonson, in whose works it was included by his first editor Whalley, whom Gifford follows (Jonson's Works, 1816, viii., p. 337). In the previous year (1815) Sir Egerton Brydges, when editing his Original Poems, never published, by William Browne (the author of Britannia's Pastorals), had thought himself justified in claiming it for that author, because he had found it, with a second stanza, in a collection of poems purporting to be by Browne, which forms part of the Lansdowne MSS. (No. 777, Art. i.) Of this version the following is a textual copy from the MS. (fol. 43): — "Vnderneath this sable Herse Lyes the subiect of all verse "Marble pyles let no man raise Shall turne Marble & become Both her Mourner & her Tombe." Browne was on intimate terms with William, Earl of Pembroke, here referred to. But, oddly enough, the foregoing verses (and this assumes the existence of another MS. copy) are to be found among what 'are described as Pembroke's own poems, printed with Rudyard's in 1660 by the younger Donne, and reprinted by Brydges in 1817. In this collection, however, they do not, according to Brydges, bear Pembroke's initial; and as the volume also contains several pieces which have been traced to well-known writers (see Hannah's Poems by Sir Henry Wotton, Sir Walter Raleigh, and others, 1845, p. lxi), Pembroke's claim to any hand in them, improbable on other grounds, may fairly be dismissed. The choice therefore lies between Jonson, to whom tradition assigns them, and Browne, in whose MS. poems they appear. From the inferior and even contradictory character of the second stanza, editors have naturally hesitated to give Jonson the credit of it. But this is to insist a little too much upon great authors being always equal to themselves. If, as we cannot but believe, he wrote the first verse, it is not impossible that he also wrote the second, only discarding it perhaps when it was too late to suppress it entirely. At all events, the "sable Herse" of line i. seems to anticipate the "Marble pyles" of line vii.; and the fact that, in addition to the two cases mentioned above, "both parts are found in many ancient copies, e. g., in Sancroft's Collection, MS. Tann. 465, fol. 62; and in MS. Ashm. 781, p. 152" (Hannah, ut supra, p. lxii), is in favor of their being the work of one and the same writer, whether it be Browne or Jonson. No. 18, page 120. ·Sir Roger de Coverley at the Play. The Distrest Mother (p. 120), the new play referred to, was a dull and decorous version by Ambrose Philips of Racine's Andromaque. Fielding burlesqued it in the Covent Garden Tragedy, 1732. The part of Andromache was taken by Pope's "Narcissa," Mrs. Oldfield; and Addison and Budgell furnished a highly popular Epilogue. Steele, who wrote the Prologue, had already praised the piece in an earlier Spectator (No. 290). The Committee; or, The Faithful Irishman, 1665 (p. 120) was a play by Sir Robert Howard, Dryden's brother-in-law. Captain Sentry (p. 121) was Sir Roger's nephew and heir. (See No. 21, Death of Sir Roger de Coverley.) The "Mohocks" or Mohawks (p. 120), of whom mention was made in the Fine Lady's Journal, were a club or "nocturnal fraternity," who perpetrated all kinds of brutal excesses. There is a letter giving a particular account of them in No. 324 of the Spectator. Swift also writes: "Did I tell you of a race of rakes, called the Mohocks, that play the devil about this town every night, slit people's noses and beat them, etc.?" Again, "Our Mohocks go on still, and cut people's faces every night. 'Faith, they sha'n't cut mine: I like it better as it is. The dogs will cost me at least a crown a week in chairs. I believe the souls of your houghers of cattle have got into them, and now they don't distinguish between a cow and a Christian." (Journal to Stella, Forster's corrected text, March 8 and 26, 1712.) What would Swift have said to the "houghers of cattle " to-day? No. 19, page 126. A Day's Ramble in London. The old Stocks Market" (p. 127), a view of which by Joseph Nichols, shewing the statue of Charles II. trampling upon Oliver Cromwell, was engraved in 1738, stood on the site of the present Mansion House; and "Strand Bridge" (p. 128) was at the foot of Strand Lane, between King's College and Surrey Street. There was a "Dark-house' (p. 128) in Billingsgate; but it can scarcely be the one here referred to. "James Street " (p. 129) is James Street, Covent Garden. The "Silkworm" of this Voyage ou il vous plaira still survived at the close of the century in Cowper's "... Miss, the mercer's plague, from shop to shop The polished counter, and approving none, (Task, Bk. vi.) - nor is the race even now extinct. Steele's frank admiration for female beauty is one of the most engaging features in his papers. A subsequent Spectator (No. 510) begins thus: "I was the other Day driving in an Hack thro' Gerard Street, when my Eye was immediately catch'd with the prettiest Object imaginable, the Face of a very fair Girl, between Thirteen and Fourteen, fixed at the Chin to a painted Sash, and made part of the Lanskip. It seem'd admirably done, and upon throwing myself eagerly out of the Coach to look at it, it laugh'd, and flung from the Window. This amiable Figure dwelt upon me," and so forth. See also the episode of the beautiful Amazon of Enfield Chase in Tatler, No. 248. One wonders a little if "Dearest Prue" ever studied these particular essays. No. 20, page 134.-Dick Estcourt: In Memoriam.Estcourt was buried in the south aisle of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, on the day this paper was issued (August 27, 1712).* Another contemporary and eye-witness of his performances closely confirms Steele's words respecting his imitative powers. "This Man was so amazing and extraordinary a Mimick, that no Man or Woman, from the Coquette to the Privy-Councillor, ever mov'd or spoke before him, but he could carry their Voice, Look, Mien, and Motion, instantly into another Company : I have heard him make long Harangues, and from various Arguments, even in the Manner of Thinking, of an eminent Pleader at the Bar, with every the least Article and Singularity of his Utterance so perfectly imitated, that he was the very alter ipse, scarce to be distinguish'd from his Original." (An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Comedian, 1740, p. 69.) Yet Cibber goes on to say that these qualities deserted him upon the stage; and that he was on the whole "a languid, unaffecting Actor." The Northern Lasse (p. 138), first acted in 1632, was by Richard Brome; the Tender Husband, 1703 (p. 138), was Steele's own. There are other references to Estcourt in Nos. 264, 358, and 370 of the Spectator. He acted as Providore of the famous Beef-Steak Club, and wore a golden gridiron as his badge of office. No. 21, page 140.- Death of Sir Roger de Coverley. "The reason which induced Cervantes to bring his hero to the grave, para mi sola nacio Don Quixote, y yo para el, made Addison declare, with *The date of Estcourt's burial has been obligingly supplied by Colonel Jos. L. Chester. |