is a stranger to awe and distance. I asked Romana, whether of the two she should have chosen, had they survived? She said, she knew she ought to have taken Constant: but believed she should have chosen Careless. Mr. Bickerstaff gives notice to all persons that dress themselves as they please, without regard to decorum (as with blue and red stockings in mourning, tucked cravats, and night-cap wigs, before people of the first quality), that he has yet received no fine for indulging them in that liberty, and that he expects their compliance with this demand, or that they go home immediately and shift themselves. This is further to acquaint the town, that the report of the hosiers, toy-men, and milliners, having compounded with Mr. Bickerstaff for tolerating such enormities, is utterly false and scandalous.' STEELE. N° 31. TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 1709. Quicquid agunt homines nostri est farrago libelli. Whatever good is done, whatever ill IN JUV. Sat. i. 85, 86. By human kind, shall this collection fill, Grecian Coffee-house, June 18. my dissertation against the custom of single com bat', it has been objected, that there is not learning, or much reading shewn therein, which is the very * See N° 25, 26, 28, 29, 38, and 39. deal, from the Laplanders. It is indeed agreed," said he, the southern and eastern nations never knew any thing of it; for though the ancient Romans would scold and call names filthily, yet there is not an example of a challenge that ever passed among them.' His quoting the eastern nations put another gentleman in mind of an account he had from a boatswain of an East Indiaman; which was, that a Chinese had tricked and bubbled him; and that when he came to demand satisfaction the next morning, and like a true tar of honour called him a son of a whore, lyar, dog, and other rough appellatives used by persons conversant with winds and waves; the Chinese, with great tranquillity, desired him not to come abroad fasting, nor put himself into a heat, for it would prejudice his health. Thus the East knows nothing of this gallantry. There sat at the left of the table a person of a venerable aspect, who asserted, that half the impositions which are put upon these ages have been transmitted by writers who have given too great pomp and magnificence to the exploits of the ancient beargarden, and made their gladiators, by fabulous tradition, greater than Gorman 5 and others of Great Britain.' He informed the company, that he had searched authorities for what he said, and that a learned antiquary, Humphrey Scarecrow, esquire, of Hockley in the Hole, recorder to the bear-garden, was then writing a discourse on the subject. • It s A noted bruiser and prize-fighter. See Lord Lansdowne's Epilogue to the Jew of Venice: ''Tis Shakspeare's play; and if these scenes miscarry, Let Gorman take the stage, or Lady Mary.' Lady Mary was a rope-dancer at May-fair. appears by the best accounts,' says this gentleman, that the high names which are used among us with so great veneration, were no other than stage-fighters, and worthies of the ancient bear-garden. The renowned Hercules always carried a quarterstaff, and was from thence called " Claviger." A learned chronologist is about proving what wood this staff was made of, whether oak, ash, or crab-tree. The first trial of skill he ever performed was with one Cacus, a deer-stealer; the next was with Typhonus, a giant of forty feet four inches. Indeed it was unhappily recorded, that meeting at last with a sailor's wife, she made his staff of prowess serve her own use, and dwindle away to a distaff: she clapped him on an old tar jacket of her husband; so that this great hero drooped like a scabbed sheep. Him his contemporary Theseus succeeded in the bear-garden, which honour he held for many years. This grand duellist went to hell, and was the only one of the sort that ever came back again. As for Achilles and Hector (as the ballads of those times mention), they were pretty smart fellows; they fought at sword and buckler; but the former had much the better of it; his mother, who was an oyster-woman, having got a blacksmith of Lemnos to make her son's weapons. There is a pair of trusty Trojans in a song of Virgil that were famous for handling their gauntlets, Dares and Entellus; and indeed it does appear, they fought no sham-prize.' * * * * * * The Roman bear-garden was abundantly more magnificent than any thing Greece could boast of; it flourished most under those delights of mankind, Nero and Domitian 7. At one time it is recorded Club-bearer. 7 Suetonius mentions this in his life of Nero, sect. 12. four hundred senators entered the list, and thought it an honour to be cudgelled and quarterstaffed. I observed the Lanista were the people chiefly employed, which makes me imagine our bear-garden copied much after this, the butchers being the great est men in it. Thus far the glory and honour of the bear-garden stood secure, until fate, that irresistible ruler of sublunary things, in that universal ruin of arts, and politer learning, by those savage people the Goths and Vandals, destroyed and levelled it to the ground. Then fell the grandeur and bravery of the Roman state, until at last the warlike genius (but accompanied with more courtesy) revived in the Christian world under those puissant champions, saint George, saint Dennis, and other dignified heroes: one killed his dragon, another his lion, and were all afterwards canonized for it, having red letters before them to illustrate their martial temper. The Spanish nation, it must be owned, were devoted to gallantry and chivalry above the rest of the world. What a great figure does that great name, Don Quixote, make in history! How shines this glorious star in the western world! O renowned hero! O mirror of knighthood! 8 Thy brandish'd whinyard all the world defies, I am forced to break off abruptly, being sent for in haste, with my rule, to measure the degree of an affront, before the two gentlemen (who are now in their breeches and pumps ready to engage behind Montague-house) have made a pass. 8 This seems an allusion to the rubricks in the Roman missals. |