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black man, whom no-body knows. He generally leans forward on a huge oaken plant with great attention to every thing that paffes upon the stage. He is never feen to fmile; but upon hearing any thing that pleases him, he takes up his staff with both hands, and lays it upon the next piece of timber that stands in his way with exceeding vehemence: after which he composes himself in his former posture, until fuch time as something new fets him again at work.

It has been obferved, his blow is fo well-timed, that the moft judicious critic could never except against it. As foon as any fhining thought is expreffed in the poet, or any uncommon grace appears in the actor, he fmites the bench or wainscot. If the audience does not concur with him, he smites a second time, and if the audience is not yet awaked, looks round him with great wrath, and repeats the blow a third time, which never fails to produce the clap. He fometimes lets the audience begin the clap of themselves, and at the conclufion of their applaufe ratifies it with a single thwack.

He is of fo great ufe to the play-house, that it is faid a former director of it, upon his not being able to pay his attendance by reafon of fickness, kept one in pay to officiate for him until such time as he recovered; but the perfon fo employed, though he laid about him with incredible violence, did it in fuch wrong places, that the audience foon found out that it was not their old friend the trunk-maker.

It has been remarked, that he has not yet exerted himfelf with vigour this feafon. He fometimes plies at the opera; and upon Nicolini's first appearance, was faid to have demolished three benches in the fury of his applause. He has broken half a dozen oaken planks upon Dogget, and feldom goes away from a tragedy of Shakespeare, without leaving the wainscot extremely fhattered.

The players do not only connive at his obftreperous approbation, but very chearfully repair at their own coft whatever damages he makes. They had once a thought of erecting a kind of wooden anvil for his ufe, that fhould be made of a very founding plank, in order to render his ftrokes more deep and mellow; but as this might not have been diftinguished from the mufic of a kettle-drum, the project was laid aside.

In the mean while, I cannot but take notice of the great ufe it is to an audience, that a perfon fhould thus prefide over their heads like the director of a concert, in order to awaken their attention, and beat time to their applauses; or, to raise my fimile, I have fometimes fancied the trunk-maker in the upper-gallery to be like Virgil's ruler of the winds, feated upon the top of a mountain, who when he ftruck his fceptre upon the fide of it, roufed an hurricane, and set the whole cavern in an up

roar.

It is certain the trunk-maker has faved many a good play, and brought many a graceful actor into reputation, who would not otherwife have been taken notice of. It is very visible, as the audience is not a little abashed, if they find themselves betrayed into a clap, when their friend in the upper-gallery does not come into it; fo the actors do not value themselves upon the clap, but regard it as a mere brutum fulmen, or empty noife, when it has not the found of the oaken plant in it. I know it has been given out by thofe who are enemies to the trunkmaker, that he has fometimes been bribed to be in the intereft of a bad poet, or a vicious player; but this is a furmife which has no foundation; his ftrokes are always juft, and his admonitions seasonable; he does not deal about his blows at random, but always hits the right nail upon the head. The inexpreffible force wherewith he lays them on, fufficiently fhews the evidence and ftrength of his conviction. His zeal for a good author is indeed outrageous, and breaks down every fence and partition, every board and plank, that ftands within the expreffion of his applause.

As I do not care for terminating my thoughts in barren fpeculations, or in reports of pure matter of fact, without drawing fomething from them for the advantage of my countrymen, I shall take the liberty to make an humble propofal, that whenever the trunk-maker fhall depart this life, or whenever he fhåll have loft the fpring of his arm by fickness, old age, infirmity, or the like, fome able-bodied critic fhould be advanced to this post, and have a competent salary settled on him for life, to be furnifhed with bamboos for operas, crabtree-cudgels for comedies, and oaken plants for tragedy, at the public expence. And to the end that this place fhould be always

No 236. difpofed of according to merit, I would have none preferred to it, who has not given convincing proofs both of a found judgment and a ftrong arm, and who could not, upon occafion, either knock down an ox, or write a comment upon Horace's Art of Poetry. In short, I would have him a due compofition of Hercules and Apollo, and fo rightly qualified for this important office, that the trunk-maker may not be miffed by our pofterity. C.

N° 236.

Friday, November 30.

—Dare jura maritis.

HOR. Ars Poet. v. 398.

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With laws connubial tyrants to restrain.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

You OU have not spoken in fo direct a manner upon the fubject of marriage as that important cafe deserves. It would not be improper to obferve upon the peculiarity in the youth of Great-Britain, of railing and laughing at that inftitution; and when they fall into it, from a profligate habit of mind, being infenfible of the fatis'faction in that way of life, and treating their wives 'with the most barbarous disrespect.

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'Particular circumftances and caft of temper, must teach a man the probability of mighty uneafineffes in that ftate, for unquestionably fome there are whofe very ⚫ difpofitions are strangely averse to conjugal friendship: ' but no one, I believe, is by his own natural complex⚫ion prompted to teaze and torment another for no reafon but being nearly allied to him and can there be any thing more bafe, or ferve to fink a man fo much ⚫ below his own diftinguishing characteristic, I mean rea⚫fon, than returning evil for good in so open a manner, as that of treating an helpless creature with unkindness, 'who has had fo good an opinion of him as to believe what he said relating to one of the greatest concerns of life, by delivering her happiness in this world to his care and protection? Muft not that man be abandoned even to all manner of humanity, who can deceive a woman

'with appearances of affection and kindness, for no ⚫ other end but to torment her with more ease and authority? Is any thing more unlike a gentleman, than when his honour is engaged for the performing his promises, because nothing but that can oblige him to < it, to become afterwards falfe to his word, and be alone the occafion of mifery to one whofe happiness he but lately pretended was dearer to him than his own? Ought fuch a one to be trufted in his common affairs, or treated but as one whofe honefty consisted only in his incapacity of being otherwife?

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'There is one cause of this usage no less abfurd than common, which takes place among the more unthinking men; and that is the defire to appear to their friends free and at liberty, and without those trammels they have so much ridiculed. To avoid this, they fly ⚫ into the other extreme, and grow tyrants that they may ⚫ feem masters. Because an uncontroulable command of ⚫ their own actions is a certain fign of intire dominion, they will not fo much as recede from the government, even in one muscle of their faces. A kind look they ⚫ believe would be fawning, and a civil answer yielding the fuperiority. To this muft we attribute an aufterity they betray in every action: what but this can put a man out of humour in his wife's company, though he is fo diftinguishingly pleafant every where elfe? The ⚫ bitterness of his replies, and the feverity of his frowns to the tendereft of wives, clearly demonftrate, that an ill-grounded fear of being thought too fubmiffive, is at the bottom of this, as I am willing to call it, affected 'moroseness: but if it be fuch only, put on to convince his acquaintance of his intire dominion, let him take care of the confequence, which will be certain, and 'worfe than the prefent evil; his feeming indifference 'will by degrees grow into real contempt, and, if it doth not wholly alienate the affections of his wife for ever 'from him, make both him and her more miserable than if it really did fo.

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However inconfiftent it may appear, to be thought a well-bred perfcn has no fmall fhare in this clownifh behaviour: a difcourfe therefore relating to goodbreeding towards a loving and a tender wife, would be

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of great ufe to this fort of gentlemen. Could you but < once convince them, that to be civil at least is not be'neath the character of a gentleman, nor even tender affection towards one who would make it reciprocal, betrays any softness or effeminacy that the most masculine difpofition need be afhamed of; could you fatisfy them of the generofity of voluntary civility, and the I greatnefs of foul that is confpicuous in benevolence ⚫ without immediate obligations; could you recommend to people's practice the faying of the gentleman quoted in one of your fpeculations, "That he thought it in'cumbent upon him to make the inclinations of a woman of merit go along with her duty :" could you, I fay, perfuade these men of the beauty and reasonablenefs of this fort of behaviour, I have fo much charity 'for fome of them at least, to believe you would con'vince them of a thing they are only afhamed to allow :* befides, you would recommend that ftate in its trueft, and confequently its moft agreeable colours; and the gentlemen who have for any time been fuch profeffed "enemies to it, when occafion fhould ferve, would return you their thanks for affifting their intereft in prevailing over their prejudices. Marriage in general would by this means be a more eafy and comfortable condition; the husband would be no where fo well fatisfied as in his own parlour, nor the wife fo pleasant as in the company of her hufband: a defire of being agreeable in the lover would be increafed in the husband, and the 'mistress be more amiable by becoming the wife. Besides ⚫ all which, I am apt to believe we should find the race of men grow wifer as their progenitors grew kinder, and the affection of their parents would be confpicuous in the wisdom of their children; in short, men would in general be much better humoured than they are, 'did not they fo frequently exercise the worft turns of "their temper where they ought to exert the beft.'

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

'I AM a woman who left the admiration of this whole town, to throw myself, for love of wealth, into the arms of a fool. When I married him, I could have had

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