(1) THE SPECTATOR. N° 81. Saturday, June 2, 1711. Qualis ubi audito venantum murmure Tigris STAT. Theb. ii. 128. As when the tigrefs hears the hunters' din, ABOUT the middle of laft winter I went to fee an opera at the theatre in the Hay-market, where I could not but take notice of two parties of very fine women, that had placed themfelves in the oppofite fide-boxes, and feemed drawn up in a kind of battle-array one against another. After a fhort furvey of them, I found they were patched differently; the faces on one hand being spotted on the right fide of the forehead, and those upon the other on the left. I quickly perceived that they caft hoftile glances upon one another; and that their patches were placed in those different fituations, as party-fignals to distinguish friends from foes. In the middle-boxes, between these two oppofite bo a Whoever recollects with what violence the fpirit of party raged in the latter end of queen Anne's reign, will not be furprised that it should infect the ladies, or fhew itself in the inftances so pleasantly ridiculed in this paper. P. dies, were feveral ladies who patched indifferently on both fides of their faces, and feemed to fit there with no other intention but to fee the opera. Upon inquiry I found that the body of Amazons on my right hand were whigs, and those on my left, tories; and that those who had placed themselves in the middle boxes were a neutral party, whose faces had not yet declared themselves. Thefe laft, however, as I afterwards found, diminished daily, and took their party with one fide or the other; infomuch that I obferved, in several of them, the patches which were before difperfed equally, are now all gone over to the whig or tory fide of the face. The cenforious fay, that the men, whofe hearts are aimed at, are very often the occasions that one part of the face is thus difhonoured, and lies under a kind of difgrace, while the other is fo much set off and adorned by the owner; and that the patches turn to the right or to the left, according to the principles of the man who is most in favour. But whatever may be the motives of a few fantastical coquettes, who do not patch for the public good fo much as for their own private advantage, it is certain, that there are feveral women of honour who patch out of principle, and with an eye to the intereft of their country. Nay, I am informed that fome of them adhere so stedfastly to their party, and are fo far from facrificing their zeal for the public to their paffion for any particular perfon, that in a late draught of marriage-articles a lady has ftipulated with her husband, that whatever his opinions are, fhe fhall be at liberty to patch on which fide the pleases. I must here take notice, that Rofalinda, a famous whig partizan, has moft unfortunately a very beautiful mole on the tory part of her forehead; which being very confpicuous, has occafioned many mistakes, and given a handle to her enemies to mifreprefent her face, as though it had revolted from the whig interest. But, whatever this natural patch may seem to intimate, it is well known that her notions of government are still the fame. This unlucky mole, however, has mifled several coxcombs; and, like the hanging out of false colours, made fome of them converse with Rofalinda in what they thought the spirit of her party, when on a fudden fhe has given them an unexpected fire, that has funk them all at once. If Rofalinda is unfortunate in her mole, Nigranilla is as unhappy in a pimple, which forces her, against her inclinations, to patch on the whig fide.. I am told that many virtuous matrons, who formerly have been taught to believe that this artificial spotting of the face was unlawful, are now reconciled by a zeal for their cause, to what they could not be prompted by a concern for their beauty. This way of declaring war upon one another, puts me in mind of what is reported of the tigrefs, that feveral fpots rife in her skin when fhe is angry, or as Mr. Cowley has imitated the verfes that ftand as the motto of this paper, She fwells with angry pride, And calls forth all her fpots on every fide.' When I was in the theatre the time above mentioned, I had the curiofity to count the patches on both fides, and found the tory patches to be about twenty ftronger than the whig; but to make amends for this fmall inequality, I the next morning found the whole puppet-show filled with faces fpotted after the whiggish manner. Whether or no the ladies had retreated hither in order to rally their forces I cannot tell; but the next night they came in fo great a body to the opera, that they outnumbered the enemy. This account of party-patches will, I am afraid, appear improbable to those who live at a diftance from the fashionable world; but as it is a diftinction of a very fingular nature, and what perhaps may never meet with a parallel, I think I fhould not have discharged the office of a faithful Spectator, had not I recorded it. I have, in former papers, endeavoured to expofe this party-rage in women, as it only ferves to aggravate the hatreds and animofities that reign among men, and in a great measure deprives the fair fex of thofe peculiar charms with which nature has endowed them. When the Romans and Sabines were at war, and juft upon the point of giving battle, the women, who were allied to both of them, interposed with so many tears and intreaties, that they prevented the mutual flaughter which b Davideis, Book III. page 409. Vol. II. 1710. 8vo. |