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FROM MY OWN APARTMENT, APRIL 13.
I FIND it of great ufe, now I am
fetting up for a writer of news, that I am
an adept in aftrological fpeculations; by
which means I avoid fpeaking of things
which may offend great perfons. But,
at the fame time, I must not prcftitute
the liberal sciences fo far, as not to utter
the truth in cafes which do immediately
concern the good of my native country.
I must therefore contradict what has
been fo affuredly reported by the news-
writers of England, that France is in
the most deplorable condition, and that
their people die in great multitudes. I
will therefore let the world know, that
my correfpondent, by the way of Bruf-
fels, informs me, upon his honour, that
the gentleman who writes the Gazette of
Paris, and ought to know as well as

any man, has told him, that ever fince
the king has been past his fixty-third
year, or grand climacteric, there has
not died one man of the French nation
who was younger than his majesty, ex-
cept very few, who were taken fudden--
ly near the village of Hocket in Ger-
many; and fome more, who were strait-
ened for lodging at a place called Ra-
melies, and died on the road to Ghent
and Bruges. There are alfo other things
given out by the Allies, which are fhifts
below a conquering nation to make use
of. Among others it is faid, there is a
general murmuring among the people
of France, though at the fame time all
my letters agree, that there is fo good
an understanding among them, that
there is not one morfel carried out of
any market in the kingdom but what
is delivered upon credit.

No III. SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1709.

WILL'S COFFEE-HOUSE, APRIL 14.

TH
HIS evening the comedy called
the Country Wife was acted in
Drury Lane, for the benefit of Mrs.
Bignell. The part which gives name
to the play was performed by herfelf.
Through the whole action fhe made a
very pretty figure, and exactly entered
into the nature of the part. Her huf-
band, in the drama, is reprefented to
be one of thofe debauchees who run
through the vices of the town, and be-
lieve, when they think fit, they can
marry and fettle at their eafe. His own
knowledge of the iniquity of the age
makes him chufe a wife wholly ignorant
of it, and place his fecurity in her want
of fkill to abufe him. The poet, on
many occafions, where the propriety of
the character will admit of it, infinuates,
that there is no defence against vice, but
the contempt of it; and has, in the na-
tural ideas of an untainted innocent,
fhown the gradual steps to ruin and de-
ftruction, which perions of condition
run into, without the help of a good
éducation to form their conduct. The
torment of a jealous coxcomb, which
arifes from his own falfe maxims, and
the aggravation of his pain, by the very
words in which he fees her innocence,
makes a very pleafant and inftructive
atire. The character of Horner, and

the defign of it, is a good reprefentation
of the age in which that comedy was
written; at which time love and wench-
ing were the bufinefs of life, and the
Το
gallant manner of pursuing women was
the beft recommendation at court.
this only it is to be imputed, that a
gentleman of Mr. Wycherley's charac-
ter and fenfe condefcends to reprefent
the infults done to the honour of the bed
without juft reproof; but to have drawn
a man of probity with regard to fuch
confiderations, had been a monster; and
a poet had at that time difcovered his
want of knowing the manners of the
court he lived in, by a virtuous cha-
racter in his fine Gentleman, as he would
fhow his ignorance, by drawing a vi-
cious one to please the prefent audience.
Mrs. Bignell did her part very happily,
and had a certain grace in her rufticity,
which gave us hopes of feeing her a very
fkilful player, and in fome parts fupply
our lofs of Mrs. Verbruggen. I cannot
be of the fame opinion with my friends
and fellow-labourers, the reformers of
manners, in their feverity towards plays;
but muft allow, that a good play acted
before a well-bred audience must raise
very proper incitements to good beha-
viour, and be the most quick and most
prevailing method of giving young peo
ple a turn of fenfe and breeding. But
as I have fet up for a weekly hiftorian,

I re

I refolve to be a faithful one; and therefore take this public occafion to admonith a young nobleman, who came fluftered into the box laft night, and let him know how much all his friends were out of countenance for him. The women fat in terror of hearing something that should shock their modefty, and all the gentlemen in as much pain out of compaffion to the ladies, and perhaps refentment for the indignity which was offered in coming into their prefence in fo difrefpectful a manner. Wine made

him fay nothing that was rude, therefore he is forgiven, upon condition he never will hazard his offending more in this kind. As I just now hinted, I own myfelf of the fociety for reformation of manners. We have lower inftruments than those of the family of Bickerstaff, for punishing great crimes, and expofing the abandoned. Therefore, as I defign to have notices from all public affemblies, I fhall take upon me only indecorums, improprieties, and negligences, in fuch as fhould give us better examples. After this declaration, if a fine lady thinks fit to giggle at church, or a great beau come in drunk to a play, either fhall be fure to hear of it in my enfuing paper. For, merely as a well-bred man, I cannot bear thefe enormities.

After the play, we naturally stroll to this coffee-houfe, in hopes of meeting some new poem, or other entertainment, among the men of wit and pleasure, where there is a dearth at prefent. But it is wonderful there fhould be fo few writers, when the art is become merely mechanic, and men may make themfelves great that way, by as certain and infallible rules as you may be a joiner or a mafon. There happens a good inftance of this in what the hawker has juft now offered to fale, to wit,

In* ftructions to Vanderbank-A Sequel to the Advice to the Poets-A Poem, ⚫ occafioned by the glorious Succefs of her Majesty's Arms, under the Com'mand of the Duke of Marlborough, the laft Year in Flanders.' Here you are to understand, that the author, finding the poets would not take his advice, troubles himself no more about them; but has met with one Vanderbank, who works in arras, and makes very good tapestry-hangings: therefore, in order to celebrate the hero of the age, he claps together all that can be faid of a man that makes hangings:

Then, artist, who doft Nature's face exprefs
In filk and gold, and fcenes of action dress;
Doft figur'd arras animated leave,
Spin a bright ftory, or a paffion weave;
By mingling threads, can't mingle shade and
light,

Delineate triumphs, or defcribe a fight?

Why, to thew how great an hero the Well, what fall this workman do? poet intends, he provides him a very good horfe

Champing his foam, and bounding on the plain,

Arch his high neck, and graceful fpread his

mane.

Now, as to the intrepidity, the calm courage, the conftant application of the hero, it is not neceffary to take that upon yourfelf; you may, in the lump, bid him you employ raife him as high as he can, and if he does it not, let him anfwer for difobeying orders.

Let fame and victory in inferior sky
Hover with balanc'd wings, and fmiling fly
Above his head, &c.

A whole poem of this kind may be ready against an enfuing campaign, as well as a space left in the canvas of a piece of tapestry for the principal figure, while the under parts are working; fo that in effect the advifer copies after the man he pretends to direct. This method fhould, methinks, encourage young beginners: for the invention is fo fitted to all capacities, that by the help of it a man may make a receipt for a poem. A young man may obferve, that the jig of the thing is, as I faid, finding out all that can be faid in his way whom you employ to fet forth your worthy. Waller and Denham had worn out the expedient of advice to a painter: this author has transferred the work, and fent his advice to the poets; that is to fay, to the turners of verse, as he calls them. Well, that thought is worn out alio; therefore he directs his genius to the loom, and will have a new set of hangings in honour of the last year in Flanders. I muft own to you, I approve extremely this invention, and it might be improved for the benefit of manufactory: as, fuppofe an ingenious gentleman fhould write a poem of advice to a callico-printer, do you think there is a girl in England that would wear any thing but the Taking of Lifle, or the

B 2

Battle

upon

Battle of Oudenarde: they would certainly be all the fashion, until the heroes abroad had cut out fome more patterns. I should fancy finall skirmishes might do for under-petticoats, provided they had a fiege for the upper. If our advifer were well imitated, many induftrious people might be put to work. Little Mr. Dactile, now in the room, who formerly writ a fong and an half, is a week gone in a very pretty work, this hint: he is writing an epigram to a young virgin who knits very well: (it is a thousand pities he is a Jacobite) but his epigram is by way of advice to this damfel, to knit all the actions of the Pretender and the Duke of Burgundy's laft campaign, in the clock of a ftocking. It were endless to enumerate the many hands and trades that may be employed by poets, of fo ufeful a turn as this advifer. I fhall think of it; and, in this time of taxes, fhall confult a great critic employed in the Cuftom-houfe, in order to propofe what tax may be proper to put upon knives, feals, rings, hangings, wrought-beds, gowns and petticoats, where any of thefe commodities bear mottos that are worked upon poetical grounds.

ST. JAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE, APRIL 15.

LETTERS from Turin of the third inftant, N. S. inform us, that his Royal Highnets employs all his addrefs ́in alarming the enemy, and perplexing their peculations concerning his real designs the enfuing campaign. Contracts are entered into with the merchants of Milan, for a great number of mules to transport his provifions and ammunition. His Royal Highnefs has or

I th

dered the train of artillery to be conveyed to Sufa before the twenty-fixth of next month. In the mean time, all act counts agree, that the enemy are very backward in their preparations, and almoft incapable of defending themselves against an invalion, by reason of the ge neral murmurs of their own people; which, they find, are no way to he quieted but by giving them hopes of a fptedy peace. When thefe letters were difpatched, the Marthal de Theffe was arrived at Genoa, where he has taken much pains to keep the correfpondents of the merchants of France in hopes that meafures will be found out to fupport the credit and commerce between that ftate and Lyons: but the late declaration of the agents of Monfieur Ber nard, that they cannot discharge the demands made upon them, has quite difpirited all thofe who are engaged in the remittances of France.

FROM MY OWN APARTMENT, APRIL 15,

IT is a very natural paffion in all good members of the commonwealth, to take what care they can of their families, Therefore, I hope the reader will forgive me, that I defire he would go to the play called the Stratagem, this evening, which is to be acted for the benefit of my near kinfman Mr. John Bickerstaff. I protest to you, the gentleman has not spoke to me to defire this favour; but I have a refpect for him, as well in regard to confanguinity, as that he is an intimate friend of that famous and heroic actor, Mr. George Powel; who formerly played Alexander the Great in all places, though he is lately grown fo reserved, as to act it only on the stage.

N° IV. TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 1709.

T is ufual with perfons who mount the ftage, for the cure or information of the crowd about them, to make folemn profeffions of their being wholly difinterested in the pains they take for the public good. At the fame time thofe very men, who make harangues in plufh doublets, and extol their own abilities and generous inclinations, tear their lungs in vending a drug, and how no act of bounty, except it be, that they lower a demand of a crown to fix, nay,

to one penny. We have a contempt for fuch paultry barterers, and have there-fore all along informed the public, that we intend to give them our advices for our own fakes, and are labouring to make our Lucubrations come to fome price in money, for our more convenient fupport in the fervice of the public. It is certain that many other schemes have been propofed to me; as a friend offered to fhew me in a treatife he had writ, which he called, The whole Art of

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that fhows fhe is confcious of, but not affected with, her perfections. Clariffa is a fhepherdefs, Chloe a country girl. I must own, the defign of Chloe's picture fhows, to me, great mastery in the painter; for nothing could be better imagined than the drefs he has given her of a ftraw-hat and a ribband, to represent that fort of beauty which enters the heart. with a certain familiarity, and cheats it into a belief that it has received a lover as well as an object of love. The force of their different beauties is seen alfo in the effects it makes on their lovers. The admirers of Chloe are eternally gay and well-pleased; thofe of Clarissa melancholy and thoughtful. And as this paffion always changes the natural man into a quite different creature from what he was before, the love of Chloe makes coxcombs; that of Clariffa, madmen. There were of each kind juft now in this room. Here was one that whistles, laughs, fings, and cuts capers, for love of Chloe. Another hath just now writ three lines to Clariffa, then taken a turn in the garden, then came back again, then tore his fragment, then called for fome chocolate, then went away withit.

Life; or, the Introduction to great Men,
illustrated in a Pack of Cards.' But
beng a novice at all manner of play, I
declined the offer. Another advifed me,
for want of money, to fet up my coach,
and practife phyfic; but having been
bred a fcholar, I feared I should not
fucceed that way neither, therefore re-
folved to go on in my prefent project.
But you are to understand, that I fhall
not pretend to raife a credit to this work
upon the weight of my politic news on-
ly, but, as my Latin fentence in the
title-page informs you, fhall take any
thing that offers for the fubject of my
difcourfe. Thus new perfons, as well
as new things, are to come under my
confideration; as when a toaft or wit is
first pronounced fuch, you fhall have
the freshest advice of their preferment,
from me, with a defcription of the Beau-
ty's manners, and the Wit's ftile; as alfo
in whofe places they are advanced. For
this town is never good-natured enough
to raise one without depreffing another.
But it is my defign to avoid faying any
thing of any perfon which ought juftly
to difpleafe; but shall endeavour, by the
variety of the matter and tile, to give
entertainment for men of pleafure, without
out offence to thofe of business.

WHITE'S CHOCOLATE-HOUSE, APRIL 18.

ALL hearts at prefent pant for two ladies only, who have for fome time engroffed the dominion of the town. They are indeed both exceeding charming, but differ very much in their excellencies. The beauty of Clariffa is foft, that of Chloe piercing. When you look at Clariffa, you fee the most exact harmony of feature, complexion, and shape; you find in Chloe nothing extraordinary in any one of thofe particulars, but the whole woman irrefiftible; Clariffa looks languifhing; Chloe killing; Clariffa never fails of gaining admiration; Chloe of moving defire. The gazers at Clariffa are at first unconcerned, as if they were obferving a fine picture: they who behold Chloe, at the first glance difcover tranfport, as if they met with their dearest friend. Thefe different perfections are fuitably reprefented by the laft great painter Italy has fent us, Mr. Jervafe. Clariffa is by that fkilful hand placed in a manner that looks artlefs, and innocent of the torments the gives; Chloe is drawn with a liveliness

Chloe has fo many admirers in the houfe at prefent, that there is too much noife to proceed in my narration: fo that the progrefs of the loves of Clarissa and Chloe, together with the bottles that are drank each night for the one, and the many fighs which are uttered, and fongs written on the other, must be our fubject on future occafions.

WILL'S COFFEE-HOUSE, APRIL 18.

LETTERS from the Haymarket inform us, that on Saturday night last the opera of Pyrrhus and Demetrius was performed with great applause. This intelligence is not very acceptable to us friends of the theatre; for the stage being an entertainment of the reafon and all our faculties, this way of being pleafed with the fufpenfe of them for three hours together, and being given up to the fhallow fatisfaction of the eyes and ears only, feems to arife rather from the degeneracy of our understanding than an improvement of our diverfions. That the understanding has no part in the pleafure, is evident from what these letters very pofitively affert, to wit, that a great part of the performance was

done

done in Italian; and a great critic fell into fits in the gallery, at feeing, not only time and place, but languages and nations, confused in the most incorrigible manner. His fpleen is fo extremely moved on this occafion, that he is going to publifh a treatife againft operas, which, he thinks, have already inclined us to thoughts of peace, and if tolerated, must infallibly difpirit us from carrying on the war. He has communicated his fcheme to the whole room, and declared in what manner things of this kind were first introduced. He has upon this occafion confidered the nature of founds in general, and made a very elaborate digreffion upon the London Cries, wherein he has fhown from reafon and philofophy, why oyiters are cried, card-matches fung, and turneps and all other vegetables neither cried, fung, nor said, but fold, with an accent and tone neither natural to man nor beaft. This piece feems to be taken from the model of that excellent difcourfe of Mrs. Manly the fchool mistress, concerning famplers. Advices from the upper end of Piccadilly fay, that May-fair is utterly abolished; and we hear Mr.Pinkethman has removed his ingenious company of strollers to Greenwich. But other letters from Deptford fay, the company is only making thither, and not yet settled; but that feveral heathen gods and goddeffes,which are to defcend in machines, landed at the King's Head Stairs laft Saturday. Venus and Cupid went on foot from thence to Greenwich; Mars got drunk in the town, and broke his landlord's head, for which he fat in the stocks the whole evening; but Mr. Pinkethman giving fecurity that he should do nothing this enfuing fummer, he was fet at liberty. The moft melancholy part of all was, that Diana was taken in the act of fornication with a boatman, and committed by Juftice Wrathful; which has, it feems, put a stop to the diversions of the theatre of Blackheath. But there goes down another Diana and a Patient Griffel next tide from Billingfgate.

ST. JAMES'S COFFEE HOUSE, APRIL 18.

THEY write from Saxony of the 13th inftant, N.S. that the grand General of the Crown of Poland was fo far from entering into a treaty with King Stanislaus, that he had written circular letters, wherein he exhorted the Palatines

to join against him; declaring that this was the most favourable conjuncture for afferting their liberty,

Letters from the Hague of the 23d inftant, N. S. fay, they have advices from Vienna, which import, that his Electoral Highness of Hanover had fignified to the Imperial Court, that he did not intend to put himself at the head of the troops of the empire, except more effectual meatures were taken for acting vigorouf ly against the enemy the entuing campaign. Upon this reprefentation, the Emperor has given orders to several regiments to march towards the Rhine, and difpatched exprelles to the respective princes of the empire to defire an augmentation of their forces.

These letters add, that an exprefs arrived at the Hague on the 20th instant, with advice, that the enemy having made a detachment from Tournay, of fifteen hundred horfe, each trooper carrying a foot foldier behind him, in order to furprize the garrifon of Aloft; the Allies, upon notice of their march, fent out a ftrong body of troops from Ghent, which engaged the enemy at Afche, and took two hundred of them prifoners, obliging the reft to retire without making any farther attempt. On the 22d in the morning, a fleet of merchant-fhips coming from Scotland, were attacked by fix French privateers at the entrance of the Meufe. We have yet no certain advice of the event: but letters from Rotterdam fay, that a Dutch man of war of forty guns, which was convoy to the faid ficet, was taken; as were also eighteen of the merchants. The Swifs troops in the fervice of the States have compleated the augmentation of their respective companies. Thofe of Wirtemberg and Pruffia are expected on the frontiers within a few days; and the auxiliaries from Saxony, as alfo a battalion of Holsten, and another of Wolfembuttle, are advancing thither with all expedition. On the 21 inftant, the Deputies of the States had a conference near Woerden with the Prefident Rouille, but the matter which was therein debated is not made public. His Grace the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene continue at the Hague.

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