as this was a petition of too great importance to be answered extempore, I left her without a reply, and made the best of my way to Will Honeycomb's lodgings, without whose advice I never communicate any thing to the public of this nature.

X

No. 278. FRIDAY, January 18, 1712.

From the Letter-box.

-Sermones ego mallem

Repentes per humum

HOR. Ep. 1. 1. 2. v. 250.

I rather choose a low and creeping style.

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"SIA,

"Y

OUR having done considerable services in this great city, by rectifying the disorders of families, and several wives having preferred your advice and directions to those of their husbands, emboldens me to apply to you at this time. Ia ma shop-keeper, and though but a young man, I find by experience that nothing but the utmost diligence both of husband and wife (among trading people) can keep affairs in any tolerable order. My wife, at the beginning of our establishment shewed herself very assisting to me in my business, as much as could lie in her way, and I have reason to believe it was with her inclination; but of late she has got acquainted with a schoolman, who values himself for his great knowledge in the Greek tongue. He entertains her frequently in the shop with discourses of the beauties and excellencies of that language, and repeats to her several passages out of the Greek poets; wherein he tells her there

is unspeakable harmony and agreeable sounds, that all other languages are wholly unacquainted with. He has so infatuated her with his jargon, that instead of using her former diligence in the shop, she now neglects the affairs of the house, and is wholly taken up with her tutor in learning by heart scraps of Greek, which she vents upon all occasions. She told me some days ago, that whereas I use some Latin inscriptions in my shop, she advised me, with a great deal of concern, to have them changed into Greek, it being a language less understood, would be more conformable to the mystery of my profession; that our good friend would be assisting to us in this work; and that a certain faculty of gentlemen would find themselves so much obliged to me that they would infallibly make my fortune. In short, her frequent importunities upon this and other impertinencies of the like nature make me very uneasy; and if your remonstrances have no more effect upon her than mine, I am afraid I shall be obliged to ruin myself to procure her a settlement at Oxford with her tutor, for she is already too mad for Bedlam. Now, sir, you see the danger my family is exposed to, and the likelihood of my wife's becoming both troublesome and useless, unless her reading herself in your paper may make her reflect. She is so very learned that I cannot pretend by word of mouth to argue with her. She laughed out at your ending a paper in Greek, and said, 'twas a hint to women of literature, and very civil not to translate it to expose them to the vulgar. You see how it is with,

"Sir, your humble servant."

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"IF you have that humanity and compassion in your nature that you take such pains to make one

think you have, you will not deny your advice to a distressed damsel, who intends to be determined by your judgment in a matter of great importance to her. You must know then, there is an agreeable young fellow, to whose person, wit, and humor, no body makes any objection, that pretends to have been long in love with me. To this I must add, (whether it proceeds from the vanity of my nature, or the seeming sincerity of my lover, I won't pretend to say,) that I verily believe he has a real value for me. which, if true, you'll allow may justly augment his merit with his mistress. In short, I am so sensible of his good qualities, and what I owe to his passion, that I think I could sooner resolve to give up my liberty to him than any body else, were there not an objection to be made to his fortunes, in regard they don't answer the utmost mine may expect, and are not sufficient to secure me from undergoing the reproachful phrase so commonly used, that she has played the fool. Now, though I am one of those few who heartily despise equipage, diamonds, and a coxcomb; yet since such opposite notions from mine prevail in the world, even amongst the best, and such as are esteemed the most prudent people, I can't find in my heart to resolve upon incurring the censure of those wise folks, which I am conscious I shall do, if, when I enter into a married state, I discover a thought beyond that of equalling, if not advancing, my fortunes. Under this difficulty I now labor, not being in the least determined whether I shall be governed by the vain world, and the frequent examples I meet with, or hearken to the voice of my lover, and the motions I find in my heart in favor of him. Sir, your opinion and advice in this affair is the only thing I know can turn the balance; and which

I earnestly entreat I may receive soon; før, till I have your thoughts upon it, I am engaged not to give my swain a final discharge.

"Besides the particular obligation you will lay on me, by giving this subject room in one of your papers, 'tis possible it may be of use to some others of my sex, who will be as grateful for the favor as, sir, "Your humble servant,

"FLORINDA."

"P. S. To tell you the truth, I am married to him already; but pray say something to justify me."

“MR. SPECTATOR,

"You will forgive us professors of music if we make a second application to you, in order to promote our design of exhibiting entertainments of music in York-buildings. It is industriously insinuated, that our intention is to destroy operas in general; but we beg of you to insert this plain explanation of ourselves in your paper. Our purpose is only to improve our circumstances, by improving the art which we profess. We see it utterly destroyed at present; and as we were the persons who introduced operas, we think it a groundless imputation that we should set up against the opera itself. What we pretend to assert is, that the songs of different authors, injudiciously put together, and a foreign tone and manner which are expected in every thing now performed amongst us, has put music itself to a stand; insomuch that the ears of the people cannot now be entertained with any thing but what has an impertinent gaiety without any just spirit, or a languishment of notes without any passion or common We hope those persons of sense and quality, who have done us the honor to subscribe, will not be ashamed of their patronage towards us, and not

sense.

receive impressions that patronizing us is being for or against the opera, but truly promoting their own diversions in a more just and elegant manner than has been hitherto performed.

"We are, Sir,

"Your most humble servants,

"THOMAS CLAYTON,

"NICOLINO HAYM,

"CHARLES DIEUPART."

"There will be no performances in York-Buildings till after that of the subscription."

T

W

E have already taken a general survey of the fable and characters in Milton's Paradise Lost. The parts which remain to be considered, according to Aristotle's method, are the sentiments and the language. Before I enter upon the first of these, I must advertise my reader, that it is my design, as soon as I have finished my general reflections on these four several heads, to give particular instances out of the poem which is now before us of beauties and imperfections which may be observed under each of them, as also of such other particulars as may not properly fall under any of them. This I thought fit to premise, that the reader may not judge too hastily of this piece of criticism, or look upon VOL. V.

I