Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

Ferat. 7-14

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

HENRY BOYLE, ESQ.'

SIR,

[graphic]

S the professed design of this work is to entertain its readers in general, without giving offence to any particular person, it would be difficult to find out so proper a patron for it as yourself, there being none whose merit is more universally acknowledged by all parties, and who has made himself more friends and fewer enemies. Your great abilities and unquestioned integrity in those high employments which you have passed

1 Henry Boyle, third and youngest son of Charles, Lord Clifford, became Chancellor of the Exchequer in March 1701, and held that post until February 1708, when he was made a Secretary of State. He was Lord Treasurer of Ireland from 1704 to 1710, when he went out of office, but on the accession of George I. he was created Lord Carleton, and was made President of the Council. He died, unmarried, on March 14, 1725. Boyle aided Addison in the negotiations with Godolphin respecting the writing of the 'Campaign' in 1705, and his life was written by Addison's cousin Budgell, in his Memoirs of the Family of the Boyles.'

131420

through, would not have been able to have raised you this general approbation, had they not been accompanied with that moderation in an high fortune, and that affability of manners which are so conspicuous through all parts of your life. Your aversion to any ostentatious arts of setting to show those great services which you have done the public,

has not likewise a little contributed to that universal acknowledgment which is paid you by your country.

The consideration of this part of your character is that which hinders me from enlarging on those extraordinary talents which have given you so great a figure in the British Senate, as well as on that elegance and politeness which appear in your more retired conversation. I should be unpardonable if, after what I have said, I should longer detain you with an address of this nature; I cannot, however, conclude it without owning those great obligations which you have laid upon,

SIR,

Your most obedient, humble Servant,

THE SPECTATOR.

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

In amore hæc omnia insunt vitia: injuriæ,
Suspiciones, inimicitiæ, inducia,

Bellum, pax rursum.-TER., Eun., Act i. sc. 1.

PON looking over the letters of my female correspondents, I find several from women complaining of jealous husbands, and at the same time protesting their own innocence, and desiring my advice on this occasion. I shall therefore take this subject into my consideration, and the more willingly, because I find that the Marquis of Halifax, who in his Advice to a Daughter 1 has instructed a wife how to behave herself towards a false, an intemperate, a choleric,

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

1 Miscellanies,' by George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1704), pp. 18-31.

[blocks in formation]

a sullen, a covetous, or a silly husband, has not spoken one word of a jealous husband.

Jealousy1 is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves. Now, because our inward passions and inclinations can never make themselves visible, it is impossible for a jealous man to be thoroughly cured of his suspicions. His thoughts hang at best in a state of doubtfulness and uncertainty; and are never capable of receiving any satisfaction on the advantageous side; so that his inquiries are most successful when they discover nothing. His pleasure arises from his disappointments, and his life is spent in pursuit of a secret that destroys his happiness if he chance to find it.

An ardent love is always a strong ingredient in this passion; for the same affection which stirs up the jealous man's desires, and gives the party

6

1 In 1864 the late Mr. Dykes Campbell published at Glasgow 250 copies of a pamphlet, Some Portions of Essays contributed to the Spectator by Mr. Joseph Addison. Now first printed from his MS. Note-Book.' The MS. was an old octavo volume bought from a bookseller's catalogue in 1858, and believed to have come from Bilton Hall. The opening leaves are wanting, but thirty-one leaves remain, containing an early draft of essays on the Imagination (Nos. 411-421), on Jealousy (Nos. 170, 171), and on Fame (Nos. 255, 256). The text, on the right-hand side of the book, is in a beautiful print-like hand,' which Sir F. Madden thought -probably erroneously-might be Addison's, and on the reverse side there are additions which are certainly in Addison's writing. There are also occasional passages in a third hand, which form part of the essays as finally printed. When Mr. Dykes Campbell announced his discovery one or two papers questioned the genuineness of the MS.; but the most experienced judges felt no doubt, and after enjoying an opportunity-thanks to the courtesy of its present owner, Mr. Yeo Bruton-of examining the book, I am satisfied that we have here drafts of the papers afterwards used in the Spectator, with additions and corrections in Addison's own

[ocr errors]

beloved so beautiful a figure in his imagination, makes him believe she kindles the same passion in others, and appears as amiable to all beholders. And as jealousy thus arises from an extraordinary love, it is of so delicate a nature that it scorns to take up with anything less than an equal return of love. Not the warmest expressions of affection, the softest and most tender hypocrisy, are able to give any satisfaction, where we are not persuaded that the affection is real and the satisfaction mutual. For the jealous man wishes himself a kind of deity to the person he loves. He would be the only pleasure of her senses, the employment of her thoughts; and is angry at everything she admires, or takes delight in, besides himself.

Phædria's request to his mistress, upon his leaving her for three days, is inimitably beautiful and natural :

Cum milite isto præsens, absens ut sies:
Dies, noctesque me ames: me desideres :
Me somnies me exspectes: de me cogites:
Me speres me te oblectes: mecum tota sis:

Meus fac sis postremo animus, quando ego sum tuus.

-TER., Eun.1

The jealous man's disease is of so malignant a nature, that it converts all he takes into its own

hand. I cannot suggest who copied out the main body of the MS., nor whose is the third writing already mentioned; but I found a passage (not noticed by Mr. Dykes Campbell) which I believe to be in Steele's writing (see facsimile in my Life of Steele,' i. 321).

[ocr errors]

Addison wrote,

The MS. contains few variations in No. 170. but obliterated, Ovid's words, 'Credula res amor est,' and added the lines from Terence. The closing words in the MS. are, 'as is [very well worth ye separating, & will prove very considerable to her yt ha's art and inclination to recover it from its alloy.'

1 Act i. sc. 2.

« PředchozíPokračovat »