his cell in his college of Bedlam, than Orlando in his present apartment. And though inferting poetry in the midst of profe be thought a licence among correct writers not to be indulged, it is hoped the neceffity of doing it, to give a juft idea of the hero of whom we treat, will plead for the liberty we fhall hereafter take, to print Orlando's foliloquies in verse and profe, after the manner of great wits, and fuch as those to whom they are nearly allied.

Will's Coffee-houfe, Auguft 5.

A GOOD Company of us were this day to fee, or rather to hear, an artful perfon do several feats of activity with his throat and windpipe. The first thing wherewith he prefented us, was a ring of bells, which he imitated in a most miraculous manner; after that, he gave us all the different notes of a pack of hounds, to our

In King's Remarks on the Tale of a Tub,' there is the following paffage: The book was written (fays one) by a furgeon's man who had married a midwife's nurfe. But (cries another) Oliver's Porter had an amanuenfis in Bedlam, who ufed to tranfcribe what he dictated; and may not these be fome fcattered notes of his master's?' To which all replied, that though Oliver's Porter was crazed, his misfortune never made him forget that he was a Chriftian.' Dr. King's Works,' 1776, vol. i. p. 217, 1 et feq.*

8 The Annotator has been informed, on very respectable authority, that the artful perfon' here alluded to, was a man well known at that time under the name of Clench of Barnet. In the London Daily Poft, 1734, it appears that on Dec. 11, in that year, died, aged about 70, the famous Mr. Clench, of Barnet, who diverted the town many years with imitating a drunken man, old woman, pack of hounds, &c.

a

great delight and aftonifhment. The company
expreffed their applaufe with much noife; and
never was heard fuch a harmony of men and
dogs: but a certain plump merry fellow, from
an angle of the room, fell a crowing like a
cock fo ingenioufly, that he won our hearts
from the other operator in an instant. As foon
as I saw him, I recollected I had seen him on
the ftage, and immediately knew it to be Tom
Mirrour, the comical actor. He immediately
addreffed himself to me, and told me,
he was
surprised to fee a virtuofo take fatisfaction in
any reprefentations below that of human life;'
and asked me, whether I thought this acting
bells
nd dogs was to be confidered under the
notion of wit, humour, or fatire? Were it n
better,' continued he, to have fome particular
picture of man laid before your eyes, that might
incite your laughter? He had no fooner spoke
the word, but he immediately quitted his na-
tural thape, and talked to me in a very dif
ferent air and tone from what he had ufed
before: upon which, all that fat near
laughed; but I faw no diftortion in his coun-
tenance, or any thing that appeared to me dif-
agreeable. I asked Pacolet, what meant that
fudden whisper about us? for I
Could not take
the jeft.' He answered,
fe anfwered, The gentleman you
were talking to affumed your air and coun-
tenance fo exactly, that all fell a-laughing to

x2

not

us

h Mr. Richard Eftcourt, commonly called Dick Eftcourt, celebrated for his mimic powers, in which he was inimitable. See Tatler, N° 20, and Spect. Nos 358, 468, and Supplement to Swift's Works,' vol. ii. p. 437.

fee how little you knew yourself, and how much you were enamoured with your own image. But that person,' continued my monitor, if men would make the right ufe of him, might be as inftrumental to their reforming errors in gefture, language, and speech, as a dancing-master, linguift, or orator. You fee he laid yourself before you with fo much addrefs, that you faw nothing particular in his behaviour; he has fo happy a knack of reprefenting errors and imperfections, that you can bear your faults in him as well as in yourself: he is the firft mimic that ever gave the beauties, as well as the deformities, of the man he acted. What Mr. Dryden faid of a very great man, may be well applied to him ;

He feems to be

Not one, but all mankind's epitome.'

You are to know, that this Pantomime may be faid to be a fpecies of himfelf: he has no commerce with the reft of mankind, but as they are the objects of imitation; like the Indian fowl, called the Mock-bird, who has no note of his own, but hits every found in the wood as foon as he hears it; fo that Mirrour is at once a copy and an original. Poor Mirrour's fate, as well as talent, is like that of the bird we juft now spoke of; the nightingale, the linnet, the lark, are delighted with his company; but the buzzard, the crow, and the owl, are obferved to be his mortal enemies. Whenever Sophronius meets Mirrour, he receives him with civility and refpect, and well knows a

good copy of himself can be no injury to him; but Bathillus fhuns the ftreet where he expects to meet him; for he, that knows his every step. and look is

conf and affected, must be

afraid to be rivalled in his action, and of having it difcovered to be unnatural, by its being practifed by another as well as himfelf.

From my own Apartment, Auguft 5.

LETTERS from Coventry and other places have been fent to me, in anfwer to what I have faid in relation to my antagonist Mr. Fowell; and advife me, with warm language, to keep. to fubjects more proper for me than fuch high points'. But the writers of thefe epiftles mistake the ufe and fervice I proposed to the learned world by fuch obfervations: for you are to understand, that the title of this paper* gives me a right in taking to myself, and inferting in it, all fuch parts of any book or letter which are foreign to the purpose intended, or profeffed, by the writer; fo that fuppofe two great divines fhould argue, and treat each other with warmth and levity unbecoming their fubject or character, all that they fay unfit for that place is very proper to be inferted here. Therefore, from time to time, in all writings which fhall hereafter be published, you fhall

See Examiner,' vol. i. No 12, ad finem; and vol. iv. N° 40. A thing like a crown-officer was an emnet with a white ftraw, and Punch was introduced when he found himself at leifure to meddle with the rights of epifcopacy.

* See Dedication' to Tatler, vol. i. Tatler, No. 3, 5, 9, 64, Letter figned Jofiah Couplet; and No 271.

have from me extracts of all that shall appear not to the purpofe; and for the benefit of the gentle reader, I will fhew what to turn over unread, and what to perufe, For this end I have a mathematical fieve preparing, in which I will fift every page and paragraph; and all that falls through I fhall make bold with for my own use. The fame thing will be as beneficial in fpeech; for all fuperfluous expreffions in talk fall to me alfo as when a pleader at the bar defigns to be extremely impertinent and troublesome, and cries, Under favour of the court- with fubmiffion, my lord-I humbly offer' -and, I think I have well confidered this matter; for I would be very far from trifling with your lordship's time, or trefpaffing upon your patience however, thus I will venture to fay and fo forth. Or elfe, when a fufficient felf-conceited coxcomb is bringing out fomething in his own praife, and begins, Without vanity, I must take this which upon me to affert." This is alfo a trick. the fair fex have, that will greatly contribute to fwell my volumes: as, when a woman is going to abuse her beft friend, Pray,' fays fhe, have you heard what is faid of Mrs. fuch-a-one? I am heartily forry to hear any thing of that kind of one I have fo great a value for; but they make no fcruple of telling it; and it was not spoken of to me as a fecret, for now all the town rings of it.' All fuch flowers in rhetorick, and little refuges for malice, are to be noted, and naturally belong only to Tatlers. By this