• Against fir Hugh Montgomery The gray-goofe wing that was thereon This fight did laft from break of day For when they rung the ev'ning-bell One may obferve likewife, that in the catalogue of the lain the author has followed the example of the greatest ancient poets, not only in giving a long lift of the dead, but by diverfifying it with little characters of particular perfons. And with earl Douglas there was flain "Sir Charles Carrel, that from the field Sir Charles Murrel of Ratcliff too, • His fifter's fon was he; 'Sir David Lamb, fo well efteem'd, The familiar found in these names deftroys the majesty of the description; for this reason I do not mention this part of the poem but to fhew the natural caft of thought which appears in it, as the two laft verfes look almoft like a tranflation of Virgil. -Cadit & Ripheus, juftiffimus unus ་ EN. ii. 426. • Then Ripheus fell in the unequal fight, DRYDEN. In the catalogue of the English who fell, Witherington's behaviour is in the fame manner particularized very artfully, as the reader is prepared for it by that account which is given of him in the beginning of the battle'; tho' I am fatisfied your little buffoon readers, who have feen that paffage ridiculed in Hudibras, will not be able to take the beauty of it: for which reason I dare not fo much as quote it. We meet with the fame heroic fentiments in Virgil: Non pudet, O Rutuli, cunctis pro talibus unam ? ÆN. xii. 229. For fhame, Rutilians, can you bear the fight Can we, before the face of heav'n, confefs 'Our courage colder, or our numbers lefs?"DRYDEN, What can be more natural or more moving, than the circumstances in which he describes the behaviour of those women who had loft their husbands on this fatal day? Next day did many widows come Their husbands to bewail; They wash'd their wounds in brinish tears, 'Their bodies bath'd in purple blood, ་ They bore with them away; They kifs'd them dead a thousand times, Thus we see how the thoughts of this poem, which naturally arife from the fubject, are always fimple, and fometimes exquifitely noble; that the language is often very founding; and that the whole is written with a true poetical spirit. If this fong had been written in the Gothic manner, which is the delight of all our little wits, whether writers or readers, it would not have hit the taste of so many ages, and have pleafed the readers of all ranks and conditions. I fhall only beg pardon for fuch a profufion of Latin quotations; which I fhould not have made ufe of, but that I feared my own judgment would have looked too fingular on fuch a fubject, had not I fupported it by the practice and authority of Virgil. N° 75. Saturday, May 26. Omnis Ariftippum decuit color, & ftatus, & res. HOR. Ep. I. xvii. 23. All fortune fitted Ariftippus well. CREECH. IT was with fome mortification that I fuffered the rail lery of a fine lady of my acquaintance, for calling, in one of my papers, Dorimant à clown. She was fo unmerciful as to take advantage of my invincible taciturnity, and on that occafion, with great freedom to confider the air, the height, the face, the gefture of him who could pretend to judge fo arrogantly of gallantry. She is full of motion, janty, and lively in her impertinence, and one of thofe that commonly pafs, among the ignorant, for perfons who have a great deal of humour. She had the play of fir Fopling in her hand, and after fhe had faid it was happy for her there was not fo charming a creature as Dorimant now living, fhe began with a theatrical air and tone of voice to read, by way of triumph over me, fome of his fpeeches. 'Tis fhe; that lovely air, that eafy fhape, those wanton eyes, and all thofe melting charms about her mouth, which Medley fpoke of; I'll follow the lottery, and put in for a prize with my friend Bellair.' In love the victors from the vanquish'd fly; They fly that wound, and they pursue that die.' Then turning over the leaves, the reads alternately, and fpeaks, And you and Loveit to her coft fhall find 'I fathom all the depths of womankind.' Oh the fine gentleman! But here, continues fhe, is the paffage I admire moft, where he begins to teize Loveit, and mimic fir Fopling: Oh the pretty fatire, in his refolving to be a coxcomb to pleafe, fince noise and nonfenfe have fuch powerful charms. I that I may fuccefsful prove, Then how like a man of the town, fo wild and gay is that! • The wife will find a diff'rence in our fate, You wed a woman, I a good estate.' It would have been a very wild endeavour for a man of my temper to offer any oppofition to fo nimble a fpeaker as my fair enemy is; but her difcourfe gave me very many reflections, when I had left her company. Among others, I could not but confider, with fome attention, the falle impreffions the generality, the fair fex more especially, have of what should be intended, when they fay a fine gentleman; and could not help revolving that fubject in my thoughts, and fettling, as it were, an idea of that character in my own imagination. No man ought to have the efteem of the rest of the world, for any actions which are difagreeable to those maxims which prevail, as the ftandards of behaviour, in the country wherein he lives. What is oppofite to the eternal rules of reason and good fenfe, must be excluded from any place in the carriage of a well-bred man. I did not, I confefs, explain myself enough on this subject, when I called Dorimant a clown, and made it an instance of it, that he called the orange wench, Double Tripe: I fhould have fhewed, that humanity obliges a gentleman to give no part of human-kind reproach, for what they, whom they reproach, may poffibly have in common with the moft virtuous and worthy among us. When a gentleman fpeaks coarfely, he has dreffed himself clean to no purpofe: the clothing of our minds certainly ought to be regarded before that of our bodies. To betray in a man's talk a corrupted imagination, is a much greater offence againft the converfation of a gentleman, than any negligence of drefs imaginable. But this fenfe of the matter is fo far from being received among people even of condition, that Vocifer pafies for a fine gentleman. He is loud, haughty, gentle, foft, lewd, and obfequious by turns, juft as a little understanding and great impudence prompt him at the prefent moment. He paffes among the filly part of our women for a man of wit, because he is generally in doubt. He contradicts with a fhrug, and confutes with a certain fufficiency, in profeffing fuch and fuch a thing is above his capacity. What makes his character the pleafanter is, that he is a profeff 305 ed deluder of women; and because the empty coxcomb has no regard to any thing that is of itself facred and inviolable, I have heard an unmarried lady of fortune fay, it is pity fo fine a gentleman as Vocifer is fo great an atheist. The crouds of fuch inconfiderable creatures, that infeft all places of affembling, every reader will have in his eye from his own obfervation; but would it not be worth confidering what fort of figure a man who formed himself upon those principles among us, which are agreeable to the dictates of honour and religion, would make in the familiar and ordinary occurrences of life? I hardly have obferved any one fill his feveral duties of life better than Ignotus. All the under parts of his behaviour, and fuch as are exposed to common obfervation, have their rife in him from great and noble motives. A firm and unfhaken expectation of another life, makes him become this. Humanity and good-nature, fortified by the sense of virtue, has the fame effect upon him, as the neglect of all goodness has upon many others. Being firmly established in all matters of importance, that certain inattention which makes mens actions look easy appears in him with greater beauty: by a thorough contempt of little excellencies, he is perfectly mafter of them. This temper of mind leaves him under no neceflity of ftudying his air, and he has this peculiar diftinction, that his negligence is unaffected. He that can work himself into a pleasure in confidering this being as an uncertain one, and think to reap an advantage by its difcontinuance, is in a fair way of doing all things with a graceful unconcern, and gentleman-like eafe. Such a one does not behold his life as a fhort, tranfient, perplexing state, made up of trifling pleasures, and great anxieties; but fees it in quite another light; his griefs are momentary, and his joys immortal. Reflection upon death is not a gloomy and fad thought of refigning every thing that he delights in, but it is a fhort night followed by an endless day. What I would here contend for is, that the more virtuous the man is, the nearer he will naturally be to the character of genteel and agreeable. A man whofe fortune is plentiful, fhews an ease in his countenance, and confidence in his behaviour, which he that is under wants and difficulties cannot |