told me, he was surprised to see a virtuoso take satisfaction in any representations below that of human life; and asked me, whether I thought this acting bells and dogs was to be considered under the notion of wit, humour, or satire?"Were it not better," continued he, "to have some particular picture of man laid before your eyes, that might incite your laughter?" He had no sooner spoke the word, but he immediately quitted his natural shape, and talked to me in a very different air and tone from what he had used before; upon which all that sat near us laughed; but I saw no distortion in his countenance, or anything that appeared to me disagreeable. I asked Pacolet, what meant that sudden whisper about us? For I could not take the jest. He answered: "The gentleman you were talking to, assumed your air and countenance so exactly, that all fell a laughing to see how little you knew yourself, or how much you were enamoured with your own image. But that person, continued my monitor, "if men would make the right use of him, might be as instrumental to their reforming errors in gesture, language, and speech, as a dancing-master, linguist, or orator. You see he laid yourself before you with so much address, that you saw nothing particular in his behaviour: he has so happy a knack of representing errors and imperfections, that you can bear your faults in him as well as in yourself: he is the first mimic that ever gave the beauties, as well as the deformities, of the man he acted. What Mr. Dryden said of a very great man' may be well applied to him: 1 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. See "Absalom and Architophel," p. 545: "A man so various that he seemed to be He is Not one, but all mankind's epitome. You are to know, that this pantomime may be said to be a species of himself. He has no commerce with the rest 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 sound in the wood as soon as he hears it; so 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 just now spoke of. The nightingale, the linnet, the lark, are delighted with his company; but the buzzard, the crow, and the owl, are observed to be his mortal enemies. Whenever Sophronius meets Mirrour, he receives him with civility and respect, and well knows, a good copy of himself can be no injury to him; but Bathillus shuns the street where he expects to meet him; for he that knows his every step and look is constrained and affected, must be afraid to be rivalled in his action, and of having it discovered to be unnatural, by its being practised by another as well as himself. L From my own Apartment, August 5. etters from Coventry and other places have been sent to me, in answer to what I have said in relation to my antagonist Mr. Powell,' and advise me, with warm language, to keep to subjects more proper for me than such high points. But the writers of these epistles mistake the use and service I propose to the learned world by such observations for you are to understand, that the title of this paper gives me a right in taking to myself, and inserting in it, all such parts of any book or letter which are foreign to the purpose intended, or professed by the writer : 1 Dr. Blackall. See No. 45. VOL. II. 17 B so that suppose two great divines should argue, and treat each other with warmth and levity unbecoming their subject or character, all that they say unfit for that place is very proper to be inserted here. Therefore from time to time, in all writings which shall hereafter be published, you shall have from me extracts of all that shall appear not to the purpose; and for the benefit of the gentle reader, I will show what to turn over unread and what to For this end I have a mathematical sieve preparperuse. ing, in which I will sift every page and paragraph, and all that falls through I shall make bold with for my own use. The same thing will be as beneficial in speech; for all superfluous expressions in talk fall to me also: as, when a pleader at the Bar designs to be extremely impertinent and troublesome, and cries, "Under favour of the CourtWith submission, my lord-I humbly offer- and, "I think I have well considered this matter; for I would be very far from trifling with your lordship's time, or trespassing upon your patience- However, thus I will venture to say "-and so forth. Or else, when a sufficiently self-conceited coxcomb is bringing out something in his own praise, and begins, "Without vanity, I must take this upon me to assert. There is also a trick which the fair sex have, that will greatly contribute to swell my volumes : as, when a woman is going to abuse her best friend, “Pray,' says she, “have you heard what I said of Mrs. such a one: I am heartily sorry to hear anything of that kind, of one I have so great a value for; but they make no scruple of telling it; and it was not spoken of to me as a secret, for now all the town rings of it." All such flowers in rhetoric, and little refuges for malice, are to be noted, and naturally belong only to Tatlers. By this method you will immediately find volumes contract themselves into octavos, and the labour of a fortnight got over in half a day. L St. James's Coffee-house, August 5. ast night arrived a mail from Lisbon, which gives a very pleasing account of the posture of affairs in that part of the world, the enemy having been necessitated wholly to abandon the blockade of Olivenza. These advices say that Sir John Jennings' was arrived at Lisbon. When that gentleman left Barcelona, his Catholic Majesty was taking all possible methods for carrying on an offensive war. It is observed with great satisfaction in the Court of Spain, that there is a very good intelligence between the general officers; Count Staremberg and Mr. Stanhope acting in all things with such unanimity, that the public affairs receive great advantages from their personal friendship and esteem to each other, and mutual assistance in promoting the service of the common cause. This is to give notice that if any able-bodied Palatine will enter into the bonds of matrimony with Betty Pepin,3 the said Palatine shall be settled in a freehold of 40s. per annum in the County of Middlesex.' 1 Admiral Sir John Jennings (1664-1743) was employed during 1709-10 in watching the Straits of Gibraltar. Afterwards he was made one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and Governor of Greenwich Hospital. 2 In August James Stanhope, afterwards first Earl Stanhope (16731721), went to Gibraltar to command an expedition against Cadiz ; but the idea was abandoned. See No. 24, and "Pylades and Corinna," i. 67. 4 This is an animadversion, says Nichols, on the method of securing votes, and extending his influence in Middlesex, adopted by a knight near Brentford. In the copy of the Tatler, in folio, with old MS. notes, mentioned in a note to No. 4, Palatine is said to have been "Mr. A- -n, K―t of the shire"; and this appears to be correct, for on March 3, 1708-9, at Brentford, John Austin, Esq., was unanimously chosen knight of the shire for Middlesex, in the room of Sir John Wolstenholm, deceased (Luttrell's "Diary," vi. 414). Mr. Austin was not re-elected after the dissolution in 1710. No. 52. [STEELE. From Saturday, August 6, to Tuesday, August 9, 1709. White's Chocolate-house, August 7. Delamira resigns her Fan.1 3 Long had the crowd of the gay and young stood in suspense as to their fate in their passion to the beauteous Delamira; but all their hopes are lately vanished by the declaration that she has made of her choice to take the happy Archibald for her companion for life. Upon her making this public, the expense of sweet powder and jessamine are considerably abated; and the mercers and milliners complain of her want of public spirit, in not concealing longer a secret which was so much to the benefit of trade. But so it has happened; and no one was in confidence with her in carrying on this treaty but the matchless Virgulta, whose despair of ever entering the matrimonial state, made her, some nights before Delamira's resolution was made known to the world, address herself to her in the following manner : "Delamira, you are now going into that state of life, wherein the use of your charms is wholly to be applied to 1 This article may be by Addison; see note to No. 50. 2 Probably Lord Archibald Hamilton, son to William, third Duke of Hamilton. He was M.P. for Lanarkshire, and afterwards Governor of Jamaica. He married Lady Jane Hamilton, youngest daughter of James, sixth Earl of Abercorn, and died in 1754. 3 Charles Lillie ("British Perfumer," p. 191) gives directions for making jessamine hair powder. It was usually prepared from orange flowers, which had been sifted from orange-flower hair powder, placed between alternate layers of starch powder. |