go to it, to guess only what She would if she could, the play has always been well received. It lifts a heavy empty sentence, where there is added to it a lascivious gesture of body; and when it is to 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 secret in reserve to create a laugh, or raise a clap. I, who know nothing of woman but from seeing plays, can give great guesses at the whole structure of the fair sex, by being innocently placed in the pit, and insulted by the petticoats of their dancers; the advantages of whose pretty persons are a great help to a dull play. When a poet flags in writing lusciously, a pretty girl can move lasciviously, and have same good consequence for the author. Dull poets in this case use their audiences, as dull parasites do their patrons; when they cannot long divert them with their wit or humor, they bait their ears with something which is agreeable to their temper, though below their understanding. Apicius cannot resist being pleased, if you give him an account of a delicious meal; or Clodius, if you describe a wanton beauty: though at the same time, if you do not awake those inclinations in them, no men are better judges of what is just and delicate in conversation. But, as I have before observed, it is easier to talk to the man, than to the man of sense. It is remarkable, that the writers of least learning are best skilled in the luscius way. The poetesses of the age have done wonders in this kind; and we are obliged to the lady who writ Ibraham,* for introducing a preparatory scene to the very action, when the Emperor throws his handkerchief as a signal for his mistress to follow him into the most retired part of the * Mrs Mary Pix. seraglio. It must be confessed his Turkish Majesty went off with good air; but, methought, we made but a sad figure who waited without. This ingenious gentlewoman, * in this piece of bawdry, refined upon an author of the same sex, who, in the Rover, makes a country-squire strip to his Holland drawers. But Blunt is disappointed, and the Emperor is understood to go on to the utmost. The pleasantry of stripping almost naked has been since practised (where indeed it should have been begun) very successfully at Bartholomew fair. It is not here to be omitted, that in one of the abovementioned female compositions, the Rover is very frequently sent on the same errand; as I take it, above once every act. This is not wholly unnatural; for they say, the men-authors draw themselves in their chief characters, and the woman-writers may be allowed the same 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 struts off upon the same account, and leaves us to consider what good office he has put us to, or to employ ourselves as we please. 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 successful rakes. When the actors make their exit on this good occasion, the ladies are sure to have an examining glance from the pit, to see how they relish what passes; and a few lewd fools are very ready to employ their talents upon the composure or freedom of their looks. Such incidents as these make some ladies wholly absent themselves from the playhouse; and others never miss the first day of a play, lest it * Mrs. Behn. should prove too luscious to admit their going with any countenance to it on the second. If men of wit, who think fit to write for the stage, instead of this pitiful way of giving delight, would turn their thoughts upon raising it from such good natural impulses as are in the audience, but are choaked up by vice and luxury, they would not only please, but befriend us at the same time. If a man had a mind to be new in his way of writing, might not he who is now represented as a fine gentleman, though he betrays the honour and bed of his neighbour and friend, and lies with half the women in the play, and is at last rewarded with her of the best character in it: I say upon giving the comedy another cast, might not such 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 seldom a person devoted to above one darling vice at a time, so that there is room enough to catch at men's hearts to their good and advantage, if the poets will attempt it with the honesty which becomes their characters. There is no man who loves his bottle or his mistress, in a manner so very abandoned, as not to be capable of relishing an agreeable character, that is no way a slave to either of those pursuits. A man that is temperate, generous, valiant, chaste, faithful, and honest, may, at the same time, have wit, humour, mirth, good breeding, and gallantry. While he exerts these latter qualities, twenty occasions might be invented to shew he is master of the other noble virtues. Such characters would smite and reprove the heart of a man of sense, when he is given up to his pleasures. He would see he has been mistaken all this while, and be convinced that a sound constitution and an innocent mind are the true ingredients for becoming and enjoying life. All men of true taste would call a man of wit, who should turn his ambition this way, a friend and benefactor to his country; but I am at a loss what name they would give him, who makes use of his capacity for contrary purposes. R No. 52. MONDAY, April 30. BY STEELE. Omnes ut tecum meritis pro talibus annos VIRG. Æn. 1. v. 78. To crown thy worth, she shall be ever thine, AN ingenious correspondent, like a sprightly wife, will always have the last word. I did not think my last letter to the deformed fraternity would have occasioned any answer, especially since I had promised them so sudden a visit: but as they think they cannot shew too great a veneration for my person, they have already sent me up an answer. As to the proposal of a marriage between myself and the matchless Hecatissa, I have but one objection to it; which is, that all the society will expect to be acquainted with her; and who can be sure of keeping a woman's heart long, where she may have so much choice? I am the more alarmed at this, because the lady seems particularly smitten with men of their make. I believe I shall set my heart upon her; and think never the worse of my mistress for an epigram a smart fellow writ, as he thought, against her: it does but the more recommend her to me. At the same time I cannot but discover that his malice is stolen from Martial. Tacta places, audita places, si non videare Tota places, neutro, si videare, places. Your letter to us we have received as a signal mark of your favor and brotherly affection. We shall be heartily glad to see your short face in Oxford; and since the wisdom of our legislature has 'been immortalized in your speculations, and our personal deformities in some sort by you recorded to * all posterity; we hold ourselves in gratitude bound to receive, with the highest respect, all such per6 sons, as for their extraordinary merit you shall think fit, from time to time, to recommend unto the board. As for the Pictish damsel, we have an easy chair 'prepared at the upper end of the table, which we doubt not but she will grace with a very hideous aspect, and much better become the seat in the native and unaffected uncomeliness of her person, than with all the superficial airs of the pencil, which (as 6 you have very ingeniously observed) vanish with a 'breath, and the most innocent adorer may deface the shrine with a salutation; and, in the literal sense of our poets, snatch and imprint his balmy kisses, and devour her melting lips: in short, the only faces of the Pictish kind that will endure the weather, must be of Dr. Carbuncle's dye; though his, in truth, has cost him a world the painting; but then he boasts with Zeuxes, in æternitatem pingo; and oft jocesely • tells the fair ones, would they acquire colours that 'would stand kissing, they must no longer paint, bus ⚫ drink for a complexion: a maxim that in this our age has been pursued with no ill success; and has been |