y: e poet could he six da he bocads fr particular his is still e fifth and s Our view Be le to the be are two , to rep e pracu ADDISON, N° 340. MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1712. Quis novus hic nostris successit sedibus hospes? Quem sese ore ferens! quam forti pectore et armis! L. VIRG. Æn. iv. ver. 10. What chief is this that visits us from far, spring, and a productions in our English verse. The reader can- in Wales beseeches me to be very exact in my theatre equal not but be pleased to find the depths of philosophy account of that wonderful man, who had marched enlivened with all the charms of poetry, and to an army and all its baggage over the Alps; and, if he heavens make see so great a strength of reason, amidst so beau- possible, to learn whether the peasant who showed tiful a redundancy of the imagination. The author him the way, and is drawn in the map, be yet has shown us that design in all the works of na-living. A gentleman from the university, who is ture, which necessarily leads us to the knowledge deeply intent on the study of humanity, desires me of its first cause. In short, he has illustrated, by to be as particular, if I had opportunity, in obThe numberless and incontestable instances, that divine serving the whole interview between his highness wisdom which the son of Sirach has so nobly as-and our late general. Thus do men's fancies work cribed to the Supreme Being in his formation of according to their several educations and circumthe world, when he tells us, that He created her, stances; but all pay a respect, mixed with admiraand saw her, and numbered her, and poured her tion, to this illustrious character. I have waited out upon all his works.' for his arrival in Holland, before I would let my correspondents know that I have not been so uncurious a Spectator, as not to have seen Prince Eugene. It would be very difficult, as I said just now, to answer every expectation of those who have written to me on that head; nor is it possible for me to find words to let one know what an artful glance there is in his countenance who surprised Cremona; how daring he appears who forced the trenches at Turin: but in general I can say, that he who beholds him will easily expect from him any thing that is to be imagined, or executed, by the wit or force of man. The prince is of that I TAKE it to be the highest instance of a noble stature which makes a man most easily become of living mind, to bear great qualities without discovering all parts of exercise; has height to be graceful on quisite spin a man's behaviour any consciousness that he is occasions of state and ceremony, and no less author superior to the rest of the world. Or, to say it adapted for agility and dispatch his aspect is with this otherwise, it is the duty of a great person so to erect and composed; his eye lively and thoughttakes se demean himself, as that whatever endowments he ful, yet rather vigilant than sparkling; his action may have, he may appear to value himself upon and address the most easy imaginable, and his beno qualities but such as any man may arrive at.haviour in an assembly peculiarly graceful in a He ought to think no man valuable but for his pub- certain art of mixing insensibly with the rest, and ts the Melic spirit, justice, and integrity; and all other en-becoming one of the company, instead of receiving adowments to be esteemed only as they contribute the courtship of it. The shape of his person, and to the exerting those virtues. Such a man, if he is composure of his limbs, are remarkably exact and inexpress wise or valiant, knows it is of no consideration to beautiful. There is in his looks something sublime, me, other men that he is so, but as he employs those which does not seem to arise from his quality or thehigh talents for their use and service. He who af-character, but the innate disposition of his mind. thefects the applauses and addresses of a multitude, It is apparent that he suffers the presence of much evers or assumes to himself a pre-eminence upon any company, instead of taking delight in it; and he other consideration, must soon turn admiration into appeared in public, while with us, rather to recontempt. It is certain, that there can be no me- turn good-will, or satisfy curiosity, than to gratify ep it in any man who is not conscious of it; but the any taste he himself had of being popular. As sense that it is valuable only according to the ap- his thoughts are never tumultuous in danger, they plication of it, makes that superiority amiable, are as little discomposed on occasions of pomp which would otherwise be invidious. In this light and magnificence. A great soul is affected, in it is considered as a thing in which every man either case, no further than in considering the probears a share. It annexes the ideas of dignity, perest methods to extricate itself from them. If power, and fame, in an agreeable and fami- this hero has the strong incentives to uncommon enliar manner, to him who is possessor of it; and all terprises that were remarkable in Alexander, he men who are strangers to him are naturally incited prosecutes and enjoys the fame of them with the to indulge a curiosity in beholding the person, be- justness, propriety, and good sense of Cæsar. It haviour, feature, and shape, of him in whose cha is easy to observe in him a mind as capable of beracter, perhaps, each man had formed something in ing entertained with contemplation as enterprise; common with himself. a mind ready for great exploits, but not impatient Whether such, or any other, are the causes, all for occasions to exert itself. The prince has wis men have a yearning curiosity to behold a man of dom, and valour in as high perfection as man can heroic worth. And I have had many letters from enjoy it; which noble faculties, in conjunction, all parts of this kingdom, that request I would give banish all vain glory, ostentation, ambition, and them an exact account of the stature, the mien, all other vices which might intrude upon his mind, the aspect, of the prince who lately visited Eng- to make it unequal. These habits and qualities of land, and has done such wonders for the liberty of soul and body, render this personage so extraordiEurope. It would puzzle the most curious to nary, that he appears to have nothing in him but form to himself the sort of man my several corre what every man should have in him, the exertion spondents expect to hear of, by the action men- of his very self, abstracted from the circumstances tioned, when they desire a description of him. in which fortune has placed him. Thus, were you There is always something that concerns them- to see Prince Eugene, and were told he was a priselves, and growing out of their own circum-vate gentleman, you would say he is a man of stances, in all their inquiries. A friend of mine where t de See No. 269. His Highness stood godfather to Steele's second son, who was named Eugene. I AM amazed to find an epilogue attacked in your last Friday's paper, which has been so generally applauded by the town, and received such honours as were never before given to any in an English theatre. 'Hold! are you mad? you damn'd confounded dog, I am to rise and speak the epilogue.' "This diverting manner was always practised by Mr. Dryden, who, if he was not the best writer tragedies in his time, was allowed by every one to have the happiest turn for a prologue or an epilogue. The epilogues to Cleomenes, Don Sebas tian, The Duke of Guise, Aurengzebe, and Love Triumphant, are all precedents of this nature. 'I might further justify this practice by that excellent epilogue which was spoken a few years since, after the tragedy of Phaedra and Hippol tus; with a great many others, in which the authors have endeavoured to make the audience merry. If they have not all succeeded so well as the writer of this, they have however shown, that it was not for want of good-will. a 'I must further observe, that the gaiety of it may be still the more proper, as it is at the end of a French play; since every one knows that na tion, who are generally esteemed to have as polite taste as any in Europe, always close their tragic entertainments with what they call a petite pier, which is purposely designed to raise mirth, and send away the audience well pleased. The same person who has supported the chief character in the tragedy, very often plays the principal part in the petite pièce: so that I have myself seen, at Paris, Orestes and Lubin acted the same night, by the same man. 'Tragi-comedy, indeed, you have yourself, in former speculation, found fault with very justly because it breaks the tide of the passions while they are yet flowing; but this is nothing at all The audience would not permit Mrs. Oldfield to the present case, where they have already had to go off the stage the first night till she had re-their full course. peated it twice; the second night the noise of an- As the new epilogue is written conformably to cora was as loud as before, and she was again the practice of our best poets, so it is not such obliged to speak it twice: the third night it was an one, which, as the Duke of Buckingham called for a second time; and, in short, contrary in his Rehearsal, might serve for any other play to all other epilogues, which are dropped after the but wholly rises out of the occurrences of the third representation of the play, this has already piece it was composed for. been repeated nine times. I must own I am the more surprised to find this censure, in opposition to the whole town, in a paper which has hitherto been famous for the can dour of its criticisms. The only reason your mournful correspondert gives against this facetious epilogue, as he calls it, is, that he has a mind to go home melancholy, wish the gentleman may not be more grave thin wise. For my own part, I must confess, I think I can by no means allow your melancholy cor- it very sufficient to have the anguish of a fictitious respondent, that the new epilogue is unnatural, be-piece remain upon me while it is representing cause it is gay. If I had a mind to be learned, I but I love to be sent home to bed in a good hu could tell him that the prologue and epilogue were mour. If Physibulus is, however, resolved to be real parts of the ancient tragedy; but every one inconsolable, and not to have his tears dried up, le knows, that, on the British stage, they are distinct need only continue his old custom, and when he performances by themselves, pieces entirely de- has had his half-crown's worth of sorrow, slink c tached from the play, and no way essential to it. before the epilogue begins. The moment the play ends, Mrs. Oldfield is no It is pleasant enough to hear this tragical ge more Andromache, but Mrs. Oldfield; and though nius complaining of the great mischief Andro the poet had left Andromache stone-dead upon the mache had done him. What was that? Why, she stage, as your ingenious correspondent phrases it, made him laugh. The poor gentleman's sufferings Mrs. Oldfield might still have spoke a merry epi- put me in mind of Harlequin's case, who wa logue. We have an instance of this in a tragedy tickled to death. He tells us soon after, through where there is not only a death, but a martyrdom small mistake of sorrow for rage, that during the St. Catherine was there personated by Nell Gwin: whole action he was se very sorry, that he thinks she lies stone-dead upon the stage, but, upon those he could have attacked half a score of the fiercest gentlemen's offering to remove her body, whose Mohockst in the excess of his grief. I canno business it is to carry off the slain in our English but look upon it as an happy accident, that a man tragedies, she breaks out into that abrupt begin- who is so bloody-minded in his affliction, was de ning of what was a very ludicrous, but at the same verted from this fit of outrageous melancholy. The time thought a very good epilogue: valour of this gentleman in his distress brings i one's memory the Knight of the Sorrowful Coun By Edmund Neal, commonly known by the name of Smit 4to. 1707. + See Nos. 324, 332, and 347. er was tenance, who lays about him at such an unmerciful give it you. "Hortensius, an officer of good rank rate in an old romance. I shall readily grant him in her majesty's service, happened, in a certain that his soul, as he himself says, would have made part of England, to be brought to a country genwas not the les a very ridiculous figure, had it quitted the body, tleman's house, where he was received with that s allowed by erg and descended to the poetical shades, in such an more than ordinary welcome, with which men of for a presencounter. domestic lives entertain such few soldiers whom a o Clemens As to his conceit of tacking a tragic head with military life, from the variety of adventures, has e, Autunza comic tail, in order to refresh the audience, it is not rendered overbearing, but humane, easy, and edents of such a piece of jargon, that I don't know what to agreeable. Hortensius staid here some time, and ify this make of it. had easy access at all hours, as well as unavoidable waseeThe elegant writer makes a very sudden transi- conversation at some parts of the day, with the of Phzing tion from the playhouse to the church, and from cthers, thence to the gallows. d-will we, that the pr per, as dan teemed to la ned to rest the clie vs the p hare Lorrain.* beautiful Sylvana, the gentleman's daughter. People who live in cities are wonderfully struck with d to make theAs for what relates to the church, he is of opi- every little country abode they see when they take all stede nion that these epilogues have given occasion to the air; and it is natural to fancy they could live are hose those merry jigs from the organ-loft, which have in every neat cottage (by which they pass) much dissipated those good thoughts and dispositions he happier than in their present circumstances. The has found in himself, and the rest of the pew, upon turbulent way of life which Hortensius was used the singing of two staves culled out by the judici- to, made him reflect with much satisfaction on all ery one ous and diligent clerk. the advantages of a sweet retreat one day; and, He fetches his next thought from Tyburn; and among the rest, you will think it not improbable seems very apprehensive lest there should happen it might enter into his thought, that such a woman they call any innovations in the tragedies of his friend Paul as Sylvana would consummate the happiness. The world is so debauched with mean considerations, ell please!! 'In the mean time, sir, this gloomy writer, who that Hortensius knew it would be received as an is so mightily scandalized at a gay epilogue after act of generosity, if he asked for a woman of the a serious play, speaking of the fate of those un-highest merit, without further questions, of a pahappy wretches who are condemned to suffer an rent who had nothing to add to her personal quaignominious death by the justice of our laws, en-lifications. The wedding was celebrated at her deavours to make the reader merry on so impro- father's house. When that was over, the generous To la per an occasion, by those poor burlesque expres-husband did not proportion his provision for her to sions of tragical dramas, and monthly perfor- the circumstances of her fortune, but considered his wife as his darling, his pride, and his vanity, or rather that it was in the woman he had chosen that a man of sense could show pride or vanity with an excuse, and therefore adorned her with rich habits and valuable jewels. He did not however omit to admonish her, that he did his very utmost in this; that it was an ostentation he could not be guilty of but to a woman he had so much pleasure in, desiring her to consider it as such; and begged of her also to take these matters rightly, and believe the gems, the gowns, the laces, would still become her better, if ber air and be cted thes of the pa fore mances. 'I am SIR, with great respect, BUDGELL. 'most humble servant, No 342. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1712. offendere. Justitice partes sunt non violare homines; verecundiæ, non haviour was such, that it might appear she dressed TULL. thus rather in compliance to his humour that way, than out of any value she herself had for the Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency, in giving trifles. To this lesson, too hard for a woman, them no offence. Hortensius added, that she must be sure to stay As regard to decency is a great rule of life in gewith her friends in the country till his return. As neral, but more especially to be consulted by the soon as Hortensius departed, Sylvana saw in her female world, I cannot overlook the following let-looking glass, that the love he conceived for her ter, which describes an egregious offender. ་ MR. SPECTATOR, was wholly owing to the accident of seeing her: and she was convinced it was only her misfortune the rest of mankind had not beheld her, or men of I was this day looking over your papers; and much greater quality and merit had contended for reading in that of December the 6tht, with great one so genteel, though bred in obscurity; so very delight, the amiable grief of Asteria for the ab-witty, though never acquainted with court, or sence of her husband, it threw me into a great excellence from the world; but without any regard town. She therefore resolved not to hide so much deal of reflection, I cannot say but this arose very much from the circumstances of my own is now the gayest lady about this town, and has to the absence of the most generous man alive, she life, who am a soldier, and expect every day to receive orders which will oblige me to leave be- shut out the thoughts of her husband, by a constant hind me a wife that is very dear to me, and that retinue of the vainest young fellows this age has very deservedly. She is at present, I am sure, no produced: to entertain whom, she squanders away way below your Asteria for conjugal affection: all Hortensius is able to supply her with, though but I see the behaviour of some women so little that supply is purchased with no less difficulty suited to the circumstances wherein my wife and I shall soon be, that it is with a reluctance, I never 'Now, Mr. Spectator, would it not be a work me to present pain is, the example of a young tions you can. knew before, I am going to my duty. What puts becoming your office, to treat this criminal as she deserves? You should give it the severest refleclady, whose story you shall have as well as I can You should tell women, that they are more accountable for behaviour in absence, than after death. The dead are not dishonoured by their levities; the living may return, and bedom of any little bird they see confined to a cage, laughed at by empty fops, who will not fail to and think they merit as much by it, as we should turn into ridicule the good man, who is so unsea- do here, by ransoming any of our countrymen from sonable as to be still alive, and come and spoil their captivity at Algiers. You must know,' says good company. 'I am, SIR, 'Your most obedient humble servant.' Will, the reason is, because they consider every animal as a brother or sister in disguise, and there. fore think themselves obliged to extend their charity to them, though under such mean circumstances. They'll tell you,' says Will, that the soul of a man, when he dies, immediately passes into the body of another man, or of some brute, which he resembled in his humour, or his fortune, when he was one of us.' All strictness of behaviour is so unmercifully laughed at in our age, that the other much worse extreme is the more common folly. But let any woman consider, which of the two offences an husband would the more easily forgive, that of being less entertaining than she could to please company, As I was wondering what this profusion of learn or raising the desires of the whole room to his dis- ing would end in, Will told us, that Jack Freeadvantage; and she will easily be able to form her love, who was a fellow of whim, made love to one conduct. We have indeed carried women's cha-of those ladies who throw away all their fondness racters too much into public life, and you shall see on parrots, monkeys, and lapdogs. Upon going to them now-a-days affect a sort of fame: but I can-pay her a visit one morning, he writ a very pretty not help venturing to disoblige them for their ser- epistle upon this hint. Jack,' says he, was con vice, by telling them, that the utmost of a woman's ducted into the parlour, where he diverted himself character is contained in domestic life; she is for some time with her favourite monkey, which blameable or praiseworthy according as her car-was chained in one of the windows; till at length riage affects the house of her father, or her hus- observing a pen and ink lie by him, he writ the band. All she has to do in this world, is contained following letter to his mistress in the person of the within the duties of a daughter, a sister, a wife, monkey; and, upon her not coming down so soon and a mother. All these may be well performed, as he expected, left it in the window, and went though a lady should not be the very finest woman about his business. MADAM, with at an opera or an assembly. They are likewise 'The lady soon after coming into the parlour, consistent with a moderate share of wit, a plain and seeing her monkey look upon a paper dress, and a modest air. But when the very brains great earnestness, took it up, and to this day is in of the sex are turned, and they place their ambi- some doubt,' says Will, whether it was written by tion on circumstances, wherein to excel is no addi- Jack, or the monkey.' tion to what is truly commendable, where can this end, but, as it frequently does, in their placing all their industry, pleasure, and ambition, on things Nor having the gift of speech, I have a long time which will naturally make the gratifications of life waited in vain for an opportunity of making my last, at best, no longer than youth and good for- self known to you; and having at present the contune? And when we consider the least ill conse-veniences of pen, ink, and paper, by me, I gladly quence, it can be no less than looking on their own take the occasion of giving you my history in writ condition, as years advance, with a disrelish of life, ing, which I could not do by word of mouth. You and falling into contempt of their own persons, or must know, madam, that about a thousand years being the derision of others. But when they con- ago I was an Indian brachman, and versed in all sider themselves as they ought, no other than an those mysterious secrets which your European phiadditional part of the species (for their own hap-losopher, called Pythagoras, is said to have learned piness and comfort, as well as that of those for from our fraternity. I had so ingratiated myself, whom they were born,) their ambition to excel by my great skill in the occult sciences, with a will be directed accordingly: and they will in no demon whom I used to converse with, that he propart of their lives want opportunities of being mised to grant me whatever I should ask of him. shining ornaments to their fathers, husbands, bro-I desired that my soul might never pass into the thers, or children. PYTHAG. ap, OVID, Metam. l. xv. ver. 165. DRYDEN. body of a brute creature; but this, he told me, was not in his power to grant me. I then begged, that into whatever creature I should chance to transmigrate, I might still retain my memory, and be conscious that I was the same person who lived in different animals. This, he told me, was within his power, and accordingly promised, on the word of a demon, that he would grant me what I de sired. From that time forth I lived so very unblameably, that I was made president of a college of brachmans, an office which I discharged with great integrity, till the day of my death. I was then shuffled into another human body, and acted my part so very well in it, that I became first minister to a prince who reigned upon the WILL HONEYCOMB, who loves to show upon occa- the inno banks of the Ganges. I here lived in great honour sion all the little learning he has picked up, told cence of the brachman, being obliged to rife an us yesterday at the club, that he thought there oppress the people to enrich my sovereign; till at might be a great deal said for the transmigration length I became so odious, that my master, to r of souls, and that the eastern parts of the world cover his credit with his subjects, shot me believed in that doctrine to this day. Sir Paul the heart, with an arrow, as I was one day address Rycaut,' says he, gives us an account of several ing myself to him at the head of his army. well-disposed Mahometans that purchase the free through Upon the next remove, I found myself in the hey see confined much by it, as we s ny of our countrme 5. You must cause they conside ister in disguse, mi bliged to extend under such men -ou,' says Will woods under the shape of a jackal, and soon listed made love to you about six years since. You may myself in the service of a lion. I used to yelp near remember, madam, how he masked, and danced, his den about midnight, which was his time of rous- and sung, and played a thousand tricks to gain ing and seeking after his prey. He always fol-you; and how he was at last carried off by a cold lowed me in the rear, and when I had run down that he got under your window one night in a a fat buck, a wild goat, or an hare, after he had serenade. I was that unfortunate young fellow feasted very plentifully upon it himself, would whom you were then so cruel to. Not long after now and then throw me a bone that was but half my shifting that unlucky body, I found myself picked for my encouragement; but upon my being upon a hill in Æthiopia, where I lived in my preunsuccessful in two or three chases, he gave me sent grotesque shape, till I was caught by a servant such a confounded gripe in his anger that I died of the English factory, and sent over into Great of it. Britain. I need not inform you how I came into 'In my next transmigration, I was again set your hands. You see, madam, this is not the first hat this profesin upon two legs, and became an Indian tax-gatherer; time that you have had me in a chain: I am, howbut having been guilty of great extravagancies, ever, very happy in this my captivity, as you often and being married to an expensive jade of a wife, bestow on me those kisses and caresses which I I ran so cursedly in debt, that I durst not show my would have given the world for when I was a head. I could no sooner step out of my house but man. I hope this discovery of my person will not I was arrested by somebody or other that lay in tend to my disadvantage, but that you will still wait for me. As I ventured abroad one night in continue your accustomed favours to the dusk of the evening, I was taken up and hur'Your most devoted humble servant, ried into a dungeon, where I died a few months old us, that whim, made b away all the lapdogs Upay ng, he write ack,' says be. bere he de avourite m windows; t lie by him b Cress in the re ot coming the wind A ming into t ok upos P, and to th ether it var ch, har tunity of ing at prest paper bra ou mrbs word d'as Ofit a th n, and ve hyour DEST! after. PUGG. 'My soul then entered into a flying-fish, and in 'P. S. I would advise your little shock-dog to that state led a most melancholy life for the space keep out of my way; for as I look upon him to of six years. Several fishes of prey pursued me be the most formidable of my rivals, I may chance when I was in the water; and if I betook myself one time or other to give him such a snap as he to my wings, it was ten to one but I had a flock of won't like.' birds aiming at me. As I was one day flying amidst a fleet of English ships, I observed a huge sea-gull whetting his bill, and hovering just over my head: 1: upon my dipping into the water to avoid him, I fell into the mouth of a monstrous shark, that swallowed me down in an instant. I was some years afterwards, to my great surprise, an eminent banker in Lombard-street; and, remembering how I had formerly suffered for want of money, became so very sordid and avaricious, that the whole town cried shame of me. I was a miserable little old fellow to look upon; for I had in a manner starved myself, and was nothing but skin and bone when I died. ADDISON. N° 344. FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 1712. In solo vivendi causa palato est. JUV. Sat. xi. ver. 11. MR. SPECTATOR, I THINK it has not yet fallen into your way to discourse on little ambition, or the many whimsical 'I was afterwards very much troubled and ways men fall into, to distinguish themselves among amazed to find myself dwindled into an emmet.. I their acquaintance. Such observations, well purwas heartily concerned to make so insignificant a sued, would make a pretty history of low life. I figure, and did not know but some time or other I myself am got into a great reputation, which arose might be reduced to a mite, if I did not mend my (as most extraordinary occurrences in a man's life manners. I therefore applied myself with great seem to do) from a mere accident. I was some diligence to the offices that were allotted me, and days ago unfortunately engaged among a set of was generally looked upon as the notablest ant in gentlemen who esteem a man according to the the whole mole-hill. I was at last picked up, as I quantity of food he throws down at a meal. Now was groaning under a burthen, by an unlucky cock I, who am ever for distinguishing myself according sparrow that lived in the neighbourhood, and had to the notions of superiority which the rest of the before made great depredations upon our common-company entertain, ate so immoderately for their applause, as had like to have cost me my life. wealth. 'I then bettered my condition a little, and lived What added to my misfortune was, that having a whole summer in the shape of a bee; but being naturally a good stomach, and having lived soberly tired with the painful and penurious life I had for some time, my body was as well prepared for undergone in my two last transmigrations, I fell this contention as if it had been by appointment. into the other extreme, and turned drone. As II had quickly vanquished every glutton in comone day headed a party to plunder an hive, we pany but one, who was such a prodigy in his way, were received so warmly by the swarm which de- and withal so very merry during the whole enterfended it, that we were most of us left dead upon tainment, that he insensibly betrayed me to continue his competitor, which in a little time con the spot. I might tell you of many other transmigrations cluded in a complete victory over my rival; after which I went through: how I was a town-rake, which, by way of insult, I ate a considerable proand afterwards did penance in a bay gelding for portion beyond what the spectators thought me ten years; as also how I was a tailor, a shrimp, obliged in honour to do. The effect however of and a tom-tit. In the last of these my shapes, I this engagement, has made me resolve never to eat was shot in the Christmas holidays by a young more for renown; and I have, pursuant to this rejackanapes, who would needs try his new gun solution, compounded three wagers I had depending on the strength of my stomach; which hapBut I shall pass over these and several other pened very luckily, because it was stipulated in stages of life, to remind you of the young beau who our articles either to play or pay, How a man of upon me. L. |