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and says, they cannot defend him from his love. Why, prythee, Isaac, who ever thought they could? Place me your loving monarch in a solitude; let him have no sense at all of his grandeur, but let it be eaten up with his passion. He must value himself as the greatest of lovers, not as the first of princes: and then let him say a more tender thing than ever man said before—for his feather and eagle's beak are nothing at all. The man is to be expressed by his sentiments and affections, and not by his fortune or equipage. You are also to take care, that at his first entrance he says something which may give us an idea of what we are to expect in a person of his way of thinking. Shakspeare is your pattern. In the tragedy of Cæsar he introduces his hero in his nightgown. He had at that time all the power of Rome : deposed consuls, subordinate generals, and captive princes might have preceded him; but his genius was above such mechanic methods of showing greatness. Therefore he rather presents that great soul debating upon the subject of life and death with his intimate friends, without endeavouring to prepossess his audience with empty show and pomp. When those

who attend him talk of the many omens which had appeared that day, he answers:

"Cowards die many times before their deaths:

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,

Will come, when it will come."

When the hero has spoken this sentiment, there is nothing that is great which cannot be expected from one whose first position is the contempt of death to so high a degree as to make his exit a thing

wholly indifferent, and not a part of his care, but that of heaven and fate."

ST. JAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE, AUGUST 10.

LETTERS from Brussels of the 15th instant N. S. say that major-general Ravignan returned on the 8th, with the French king's answer to the intended capitulation for the citadel of Tournay; which is that he does not think fit to sign that capitulation, except the allies will grant a cessation of arms in general, during the time in which all acts of hostility were to have ceased between the citadel and the besiegers. Soon after the receipt of this news, the cannon on each side began to play. There are two attacks against the citadel, commanded by general Lottum and general Schuylemberg, which are both carried on with great success; and it is not doubted but the citadel will be in the hands of the allies before the last day of this month. Letters from Ipres say, that on the 9th instant, part of the garrison of that place had mutinied in two bodies, each consisting of two hundred; who being dispersed the same day, a body of eight hundred appeared in the market-place at nine the night following, and seized all manner of provisions, but were with much difficulty quieted. The governor has not punished any of the offenders, the dissatisfaction being universal in that place; and it is thought the officers foment those disorders, that the ministry may be convinced of the necessity of paying those troops, and supplying them with provisions. These advices add, that on the 14th, the marquis d'Este passed express through Brussels from the duke of Savoy, with advice that the army of his royal highness had forced the retrenchments of the enemy in Savoy, and defeated that body of men

which guarded those passes under the command of the marquis de Thouy.

No. 54. SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1709*.

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OF THE GOVERNMENT OF AFFECTION.

WHEN labour was pronounced to be the portion of man, that doom reached the affections of his mind, as well as his person, the matter on which he was to feed, and all the animal and vegetable world about him. There is, therefore, an assiduous care and cultivation to be bestowed upon our passions and affections; for they, as they are the excrescences of our souls, like our hair and beards, look horrid or becoming, as we cut or let them grow. All this grave preface is meant to assign a reason in nature for the unaccountable behaviour of Duumvir2, the husband and keeper. Ten thousand follies had this unhappy man escaped, had he made a compact with himself

* STEELE'S.-The motto in the folio Tat. was from VIRG. Ecl. iv. 1. — paulo majora canamus.

z' On soupçonna que ce Duumvir etoit le même Duc dont il s'agissoit dans l'article precedent, et que comme la Reine auroit fort souhaite que ce Seigneur qu'elle consideroit beaucoup d'ailleurs, n'eût pas donné les mauvais exemples d'un si mauvais menage, l'auteur crut faire plaisir à cette princesse de traiter ce sujet plus d'une fois, et de plus d'une maniere.'-Le Nouvelliste Philosophe.

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to be upon his guard, and not permitted his vagrant eye to let in so many different inclinations upon him, as all his days he has been perplexed with. But indeed, at present, he has brought himself to be confined only to one prevailing mistress; between whom and his wife Duumvir passes his hours in all the vicissitudes which attend passion and affection, without the intervention of reason. Laura his wife, and Phillis his mistress, are all with whom he has had, for some months, the least amorous commerce. Duumvir has passed the noon of life; but cannot withdraw from those entertainments which are pardonable only before that stage of our being, and which after that season are rather punishments than satisfactions: for palled appetite is humorous, and must be gratified with sauces rather than food. For which end Duumvir is provided with an haughty, imperious, expensive, and fantastic mistress, to whom he retires from the conversation of an affable, humble, discreet, and affectionate wife. Laura receives him after absence with an easy and unaffected complacency; but that he calls insipid. Phillis rates him for his absence, and bids him return from whence he came; this he calls spirit and fire. Laura's gentleness is thought mean; Phillis's insolence, sprightly. Were you to see him at his own home and his mistress's lodgings; to Phillis he appears an obsequious lover, to Laura an imperious master. Nay, so unjust is the taste of Duumvir, that he owns Laura has no

a

a 'J'ai souvent ouï-dire que le duc d'Ormond s'etoit quelque fois exprimé d'une maniere approchante.' Le Nouvelliste Philosophe. See Tat. No. 53. note.

James Butler, duke of Ormond, was married, at the age of 18, to a daughter of lord Hyde, afterwards earl of Rochester, who left him a widower in 1685; he was married soon after to lady Mary Somerset, daughter to the duke of Beaufort. Perhaps there might be some ground for this repeated insinuation of the French translator; but there is nothing of this VOL. II.

D

ill quality, but that she is his wife; Phillis no good one, but that she is his mistress. And he has himself often said, were he married to any one else, he would rather keep Laura than any woman living; yet allows, at the same time, that Phillis, were she a woman of honour, would have been the most insipid animal breathing. The other day Laura, who has a voice like an angel, began to sing to him; Fie, madam,' he cried, we must be past all these gaieties.' Phillis has a note as rude and as loud as that of a milk-maid:

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nature said or surmised in The Life of the Duke of Ormond, 1747, 8vo. The author mentions that his grace was every where and always remarkable for his magnificence; so that there seems to be a better foundation for the French note on lord Timon, in Tatler, No. 9. From the work abovementioned, the following account of this unfortunate nobleman is chiefly taken. He was born April 29, 1665; sent into France at ten years of age, and on his return placed in the college of Christ-church, Oxford, of which university he was afterwards chancellor. He succeeded to the title of his grandfather July 21, 1688; in 1689 he was made a gentleman of the bedchamber, captain of the second troop of guards, and knight of the garter. In 1702 he was appointed generalissimo of the forces against Spain; lordlieutenant of Ireland Feb. 4, 1702-3, and again Oct. 19, 1710; captaingeneral Jan. 1, 1711-12; he had the first regiment of guards, was lord warden of the Cinque Ports, and constable of Dover Castle, and had, as Burnet observes, the same appointments which were voted criminal in the duke of Marlborough.' On the arrival of George I. the duke came with uncommon splendour to pay his court, but was told by lord Townshend, ⚫ the king had no longer occasion for his service in the quality of captaingeneral, but that his majesty would be glad to see him at court.' Withdrawing into France, he was attainted Aug. 20, 1715; his name was erased from the list of peers, his arms also were erased, his achievements as knight of the garter were taken down from St. George's chapel at Windsor, and all his real and personal estates were vested in the crown. Stripped of all support in a foreign country, necessity compelled him to enter into the service and pay of Spain. He headed some troops designed to make a descent upon England in support of the Pretender. Failing in this enterprise, he retired to Avignon, on a pension of 2000 pistoles, where he lived in a very religious manner, and died Nov. 16, 1745, in the 81st year of his age, after having been in exile upwards of 50 years. His body was conveyed into England as a bale of goods, lodged in the Jerusalem-chamber, and buried in the vault of his very illustrious ancestors, in king Henry the Seventh's chapel; the bishop of Rochester, attended by a full choir, performed the funeral service. N.

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