tice that, amidst these wild remarks, there now and then appears fomething very reafonable. I cannot likewife forbear obferving, that we are all guilty in fome measure of the fame narrow way of thinking which we meet with in this abftract of the Indian Journal, when we fancy the customs, dreffes, and manners of other countries are ridiculous and extravagant, if they do not refemble thofe of our own. C No. LI. SATURDAY, APRIL 28. Torquet ab obfcenis jam nunc fermonibus aurem. He from the taste obfcene reclaims our youth. HOR. РОРЕ. • Mr. Spectator, MY fortune, quality, and perfon, are such as render me as confpicuous as any young woman in town. It is in my power to enjoy it in all its vanities; but I have, from a very careful education, contracted a great • averfion to the forward air and fashion which is practifed in all public places and affemblies. I attribute • this very much to the stile and manners of our plays. I was last night at the Funeral, where a confident lover in the play, fpeaking of his mistrefs, cries out" O "that Harriot! to fold thefe arms about the wafte of "that beauteous, ftruggling, and at last yielding fair!" Such an image as this, ought by no means to be prefented to a chafte and regular audience. I expect your opinion of this fentence, and recommend to your con• fideration, as a Spectator, the conduct of the stage at prefent with relation to chastity and modesty. "Your conftant reader and well-wifher.' The complaint of this young lady is fo juft, that the offence is grofs enough to have difpleafed perfons who cannot cannot pretend to that delicacy and modefty of which fhe is m ftrefs. But there is a great deal to be said in behalf of an author. If the audience would but confider the difficulty of keeping up a sprightly dialogue for five acts together, they would allow a writer, when he wants wit, and can't please any otherwise, to help it out with a little fmuttinefs. I will answer for the poets, that no one ever writ bawdry for any other reafon but dearth of invention. When the author cannot ftrike out of himfelf any more of that which he has superior to those who make up the bulk of the audience, his natural recourse is to that which he has in common with them; and a defcription which gratifies a fenfual appetite will please, when the author has nothing about him to delight a refined imagination. It is to fuch a poverty we muft impute this and all other sentences in plays, which are of this kind, and which are commonly termed luscious expreffions. This expedient, to fupply the deficiencies of wit, has been used more or lefs, by most of the authors who have fucceeded on the stage; tho' I know but one who has profeffedly writ a play upon the basis of the defire of multiplying our fpecies, and that is the polite Sir George Etherege; if I understand what the lady would be at, in the play called She would if She could. Other poets have, here and there, given an intimation that there is this defign, under all the disguises and affectations which a lady may put on ; but no author, except this, has made fure work of it, and put the imaginations of the audience upon this one purpofe, from the beginning to the end of the comedy. It has always fared accordingly; for whether it be, that all who go to this piece would if they could, or that the innocents go to it, to guefs only what She would if She could, the play has always been well received. It lifts an heavy empty fentence, where there is added to it a lafcivious gefture of body; and when it is too low to be raised even by that, a flat meaning is enlivened by making it a double one. Writers who want genius, never fail of keeping this fecret in referve, to create a laugh, laugh, or raise a clap. I, who know nothing of women but from feeing plays, can give great gueffes at the whole ftructure of the fair fex, by being innocently placed in the pit, and infulted by the petticoats of their dancers; the advantages of whofe pretty perfons are a great help to a dull play. When a poet flags in writing lufciously, a pretty girl can move lafciviouЛly, and have the fame good confequence for the author. Dull poets in this cafe ufe their audiences as dull parafites do their patrons; when they cannot long divert them with their wit or humour, they bait their ears with fomething which is agreeable to their temper, though below their underftanding. Apicius cannot refift being pleased, if you give him an account of a delicious meal; or Clodius, if you defcribe a wanton beauty; tho' at the fame time, if you do not awake thofe inclinations in them, no men are better judges of what is juft and delicate in converfation. But, as I have before obferved, it is easier to talk to the man, than to the man of fenfe. It is remarkable, that the writers of leaft learning are beft fkilled in the lufcious way. The poeteffes of the age have done wonders in this kind, and we are obliged to the lady who writ Ibrahim, for introducing a preparatory fcene to the very action, when the emperor throws his handkerchief as a fignal for his mistress to follow him into the most retired part of the feraglio. It must be confeffed his Turkish majefty went off with a good air, but, methought, we made but a fad figure who waited without. This ingenious gentlewoman, in this piece of bawdry, refined upon an author of the fame fex, who, in the Rover, makes a country 'fquire ftrip to his drawers. But Blunt is disappointed, and the emperor is understood to go on to the utmoft. The pleafantry of tripping almoft naked has been fince practifed, where indeed it should have begun, very fuccefsfully at Bartholomewfair. It is not here to be omitted, that in one of the abovementioned female compofitions, the Rover is very frequently fent on the fame errand; as I take it, above once every act. This is not wholly unnatural; for, they fay, T the the men-authors draw themfelves in their chief characters, and the women-writers may be allowed the fame liberty. Thus, as the male wit gives his hero a good fortune, the female gives her heroine a good gallant at the end of the play. But, indeed, there is hardly a play one can go to, but the hero or fine gentleman of it ftruts off upon the fame account, and leaves us to con fider what good office he has put us to, or to employ our felves as we pleafe. To be plain, a man who frequents plays would have a very respectful notion of himself, were he to recollect how often he has been used as a pimp to ravishing tyrants, or fuccefsful rakes. When the actors make their exit on this good occafion, the ladies are fure to make an examining glance from the pit, to fee how they relifh what paffes; and a few lewd fools are very ready to employ their talents upon the compofure or freedom of their looks. Such incidents as these make fome ladies wholly abfent themfelves from the play-house; and others never miss the first day of a play, left it should prove too luscious to admit their going with any countenance to it on the fecond. If men of wit, who think fit to write for the stage, inftead of this pitiful way of giving delight, would turn their thoughts upon raifing it from fuch good natural impulfes as are in the audience, but are choked up by vice and luxury, they would not only please, but befriend us at the fame time. If a man had a mind to be new in his way of writing, might not he who is now reprefented as a fine gentleman, tho' he betrays the honour and bed of his neighbour and friend, and lies with half the women in the play, and is at laft rewarded with her of the best character in it,-I fay, upon giving the comedy another caft, might not fuch a one divert the audience quite as well, if at the catastrophe he were found out for a traitor, and met with contempt accordingly? There is feldom a perfon devoted to above one darling vice at a time, fo that there is room enough to catch at mens hearts to their good and advantage, if the poets will attempt it with the honefty which becomes their characters. There There is no man who loves his bottle or his mistress in a manner fo very abandoned, as not to be capable of relithing an agreeable character, that is no way a ilave to either of thofe purfuits. A man that is temperate, generous, valiant, chafte, faithful, and honeft, may at the fame time have wit, humour, mirth, good-breeding, and gallantry. While he exerts thefe latter qualities, twenty occafions might be invented to thew he is mafter of the other noble virtues. Such characters would fmite and reprove the heart of a man of fenfe when he is given up to his pleasures. He would fee he has been mistaken all this while, and be convinced that a found conftitution and an innocent mind are the true ingredients for becoming and enjoying life. All men of true tafte would call a man of wit, who fhould turn his ambition this way, a friend and benefactor to his country; but I am at a lofs what name they would give him who makes ufe of his capacity for contrary purposes R No. LII. MONDAY, MARCH 30. Omnes ut tecum meritis pro talibus annos To crown thy worth, the fhall be ever thine, VIRG. AN ingenious correfpondent, like a fprightly wife, will always have the lift word. I did not think my laft letter to the deformed fraternity would have occafioned any anfwer, efpecially fince I had promifed them fo fudden a vifit; but as they think they cannot fhew too great a veneration for my perfon, they have already fent me up an answer. As to the propofal of a marriage between myfelf and the matchlefs Hecatiffa, I have but one objection to it; which is, that all the fociety will expect to be acquainted with her; and who can be fure of keeping a woman's heart long, where the may have fo much choice? T 2 |