N° 30 Wednesday, April 4. Si, Mimnermus uti cenfet, fine amore jocifque HOR. Ep. I. vi. 56. If nothing, as Mimnermus ftrives to prove, CREECH. ON NE common calamity makes men extremely affect each other, though they differ in every other particular. The paffion of love is the moft general concern among men; and I am glad to hear by my last advices from Oxford, that there are a fet of fighers in that univerfity, who have erected themselves into a fociety, in honour of that tender paffion. These gentlemen are of that fort of inamoratos, who are not fo very much loft to common fenfe, but that they underftand the folly they are guilty of; and for that reafon feparate themfelves from all other company, because they will enjoy the pleasure of talking incoherently, without being ridiculous to any but each other. When a man comes into the club, he is not obliged to make any introduction to his difcourfe, but at once, as he is feating himself in his chair, speaks in the thread of his own thoughts," She gave me a very obliging glance, "the never looked fo well in her life as this evening;' or the like reflection, without regard to any other member of the fociety; for in this affembly they do not meet to talk to each other, but every man claims the full liberty of talking to himfelf. Inftead of fnuff-boxes and canes, which are usual helps to difcourfe with other young fellows, thefe have each fome piece of ribbon, a broken fan, or an old girdle, which they play with while they talk of the fair perfon remembered by each refpective token. According to the reprefentation of the matter from my letters, the company appear like fo many players rehearfing behind the fcenes; one is fighing and lamenting his destiny in befeeching terms, another declaring he will break his chain, and another in dumb-fhow ftriving to exprefs his paffion by his gefture. It is very ordinary in the affembly for one of a fudden to rife and make a difcourfe concerning his paffion in general, and describe the temper of his mind in fuch a manner, as that the whole company fhall join in the defcription, and feel the force of it. In this cafe, if any man has declared the violence of his flame in more pathetic terms, he is made prefident for that night, out of refpect to his fuperior passion. We had fome years ago in this town a fet of people who met and dreffed like lovers, and were diftinguished by the name of the Fringe-glove Club; but they were perfons of fuch moderate intellects, even before they were impaired by their paffion, that their irregularities could not furnish fufficient variety of folly to afford daily new impertinencies; by which means that inftitution dropped. Thefe fellows could exprefs their paffion in nothing but their drefs; but the Oxonians are phantaftical now they are lovers, in proportion to their learning and understanding before they became fuch. The thoughts of the ancient poets on this agreeable phrenzy, are tranflated in honour of fome modern beauty; and Chloris is won to-day by the fame compliment that was made to Lefbia a thousand years ago. But as far as I can learn, the patron of the club is the renowned Don Quixote. The adventures of that gentle knight are frequently mentioned in the fociety, under the colour of laughing at the paffion and themselves; but at the fame time, tho' they are fenfible of the extravagances of that unhappy warrior, they do not obferve, that to turn all the reading of the best and wifeft writings into rhapfodies of love, is a phrenzy no lefs diverting than that of the aforefaid accomplished Spaniard. A gentleman who, I hope, will continue his correfpondence, is lately admitted into the fraternity, and fent me the following letter. 6 SIR, SINCE I find you take notice of clubs, I beg leave to give you an account of one in Oxford, which you have no where mentioned, and perhaps never ‹ heard of. We diftinguish ourselves by the title of the Amorous Club, are all votaries of Cupid, and • admirers of the fair fex. The reafon that we are fo little known in the world, is the fecrecy which we are obliged to live under in the univerfity. Our conftitution runs counter to that of the place wherein we live; for in love there are no doctors, and we all profefs fo high paffion, that we admit of no graduates in it. Our prefidentship is bestowed according to the dignity of paffion; our number is unlimited; and our ftatutes are like thofe of the Druids, recorded in our < own breasts only, and explained by the majority of the company. A miftrefs, and a poem in her praise, will introduce any candidate; without the latter no one can be admitted; for he that is not in love enough to rhyme, is unqualified for our fociety. To fpeak dif· refpectfully of any woman is expulfion from our gentle fociety. As we are at prefent all of us gown-men, inftead of duelling when we are rivals, we drink together the health of our miftrefs. The manner of doing this fometimes indeed creates debates; on fuch occafions we have recourfe to the rules of love among the ancients. Naevia fex cyathis, feptem Juftina bibatur. MART. Epig. i. 72. Six cups to Naevia, to Justina feven. This method of a glafs to every letter of her name, 'occafioned the other night a difpute of fome warmth. A young ftudent, who is in love with Mrs. Elizabeth Dimple, was fo unreasonable as to begin her health under the name of Elizabetha; which fo exafperated the club, that by common confent we retrenched it to Betty. We look upon a man as no company, that • does not figh five times in a quarter of an hour; and look upon a member as very abfurd, that is fo much • himself as to make a direct answer to a question. In fine, the whole affembly is made up of abfent men, that is, of fuch perfons as have loft their locality, and whofe minds and bodies never keep company with one another. As I am an unfortunate member " of this distracted fociety, you cannot expect a very regular account of it; for which reafon, I hope you 'will pardon me that I fo abruptly fubfcribe myself, • Sir, Your most obedient humble fervant; 'T. B. I forgot to tell you, that Albina, who has fix votaries in this club, is one of your readers.' What I have heard, permit me to relate. AST night, upon my going into a coffee-house myfelf for above half an hour with over-hearing the difcourfe of one, who, by the fhabbinefs of his dress, the extravagance of his conceptions, and the hurry of his fpeech, I discovered to be of that fpecies who are generally diftinguished by the title of projectors. This gentleman, for I found he was treated as fuch by his audience, was entertaining a whole table of lifteners with the project of an opera, which he told us had not coft him above two or three mornings in the contrivance, and which he was ready to put in execution, provided he might find his account in it. He faid, that he had obferved the great trouble and inconvenience which ladies were at, in travelling up and down to the feveral shows that are exhibited in different quarters of the town. The dancing monkies are in one place; the puppet-fhow in another; the opera in a third; not to mention the lions, that are almoft a whole day's jour ney from the politer part of the town. By this means people of figure are forced to lofe half the winter after their coming to town, before they have feen all the ftrange fights about it. In order to remedy this great inconvenience, our projector drew out of his pocket the fcheme of an opera, entitled, "The Expedition "of Alexander the Great;" in which he had difpofed all the remarkable fhows about town among the fcenes and decorations of his piece. The thought, he confeffed, was not originally his own, but that he had taken the hint of it from feveral performances which he had feen upon our stage; in one of which there was a raree-fhow; in another, a ladder-dance; and in others a posture-man, a moving picture, with many curiofities of the like nature. This Expedition of Alexander opens with his confulting the Oracle at Delphos, in which the dumb conjurer, who has been vifited by fo many perfons of quality of late years, is to be introduced as telling him his fortune at the fame time Clinch of Barnet is reprefented in another corner of the temple, as ringing the bells of Delphos, for joy of his arrival. The tent of Darius is to be peopled by the ingenious Mrs. Salmon, where Alexander is to fall in love with a piece of waxwork, that reprefents the beautiful Statira. When Alexander comes into that country in which Quintus Curtius tells us the dogs were fo exceeding fierce that they would not lofe their hold, tho' they were cut to pieces limb by limb, and that they would hang upon their prey by their teeth when they had nothing but a mouth left, there is to be a scene of Hockley in the Hole, in which is to be represented all the diverfions of that place, the Bull-baiting only excepted, which cannot poffibly be exhibited in the theatre, by reason of the lowness of the roof. The feveral woods in Afia, which Alexander must be fuppofed to pass through, will give the audience a fight of monkies dancing upon ropes, with many other pleafantries of that ludicrous fpecies. At the fame time, if there chance to be any ftrange animals in town, whether |