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public writer was owing to his connexions with herst, were possessed of great abilities, yet they Mr. Addison, yet after their intimacy was formed, were suffered to feel all the miseries that usually Steele sunk in his merit as an author. This was attend the ingenious and the imprudent, that atnot owing so much to the evident superiority on tend men of strong passions, and no phlegmatic rethe part of Addison, as to the unnatural efforts serve in their command. which Steele made to equal or eclipse him. This At present, were a man to attempt to improve emulation destroyed that genuine flow of diction his fortune, or increase his friendship, by poetry, which is discoverable in all his former composi- he would soon feel the anxiety of disappointment. tions. The press lies open, and is a benefactor to every sort of literature but that alone.

Whilst their writings engaged attention and the favour of the public, reiterated but unsuccessful en- I am at a loss whether to ascribe this falling off deavours were made towards forming a grammar of the public to a vicious taste in the poet, or in of the English language. The authors of those them. Perhaps both are to be reprehended. The efforts went upon wrong principles. Instead of poet, either drily didactive, gives us rules which endeavouring to retrench the absurdities of our lan- might appear abstruse even in a system of ethics. guage, and bringing it to a certain criterion, their or triflingly volatile, writes upon the most unworthy grammars were no other than a collection of rules subjects; content, if he can give music instead of attempting to naturalize those absurdities, and sense; content, if he can paint to the imagination bring them under a regular system. without any desires or endeavours to affect: the Somewhat effectual, however, might have been public, therefore, with justice, discard such empty done towards fixing the standard of the English sound, which has nothing but a jingle, or, what is language, had it not been for the spirit of party. worse, the unmusical flow of blank verse to recomFor both whigs and tories being ambitious to stand mend it. The late method, also, into which our at the head of so great a design, the Queen's death newspapers have fallen, of giving an epitome of happened before any plan of an academy could be every new publication, must greatly damp the resolved on. writer's genius. He finds himself, in this case, at Meanwhile the necessity of such an institution the mercy of men who have neither abilities nor became every day more apparent. The periodical learning to distinguish his merit. He finds his and political writers, who then swarmed, adopted own composition mixed with the sordid trash of the very worst manner of L'Estrange, till not only every daily scribbler. There is a sufficient speciall decency, but all propriety of language, was lost men given of his work to abate curiosity, and yet in the nation. Leslie, a pert writer, with some wit so mutilated as to render him contemptible. His and learning, insulted the government every week first, and perhaps his second work, by these means with the grossest abuse. His style and manner, sink, among the crudities of the age, into oblivion. both of which were illiberal, were imitated by Rid- Fame he finds begins to turn her back: he therepath, De Foe, Dunton, and others of the opposite fore flies to profit which invites him, and he enparty, and Toland pleaded the cause of atheism rols himself in the lists of dulness and of avarice and immorality in much the same strain; his subject seemed to debase his diction, and he ever failed most in one when he grew most licentious in the other.

for life.

Yet there are still among us men of the greatest abilities, and who in some parts of learning have surpassed their predecessors: justice and friendship Towards the end of Queen Anne's reign, some might here impel me to speak of names which will of the greatest men in England devoted their time shine out to all posterity, but prudence restrains to party, and then a much better manner obtained me from what I should otherwise eagerly embrace. in political writing. Mr. Walpole, Mr. Addison, Envy might rise against every honoured name I Mr. Mainwaring, Mr. Steele, and many members should mention, since scarcely one of them has not of both houses of parliament, drew their pens for those who are his enemies, or those who despise the whigs; but they seem to have been overmatch- him, etc. ed, though not in argument yet in writing, by Bolingbroke, Prior, Swift, Arbuthnot, and the other friends of the opposite party. They who oppose a Fainistry have always a better field for ridicule and reproof than they who defend it.

OF THE OPERA IN ENGLAND.

THE rise and fall of our amusements pretty Since that period, our writers have either been much resemble that of empire. They this day encouraged above their merits or below them. flourish without any visible cause for such vigour; Some who were possessed of the meanest abilities the next, they decay without any reason that can acquired the highest preferments, while others who be assigned for their downfal. Some years ago the seemed born to reflect a lustre upon the age, perish-Italian opera was the only fashionable amusement ed by want and neglect. More, Savage, and Am- among our nobility. The managers of the play

houses dreaded it as a mortal enemy, and our very |ther Corelli nor Pergolesi ever permitted them, sud poets listed themselves in the opposition: at present they even begin to be discontinued in Italy, where the house seems deserted, the castrati sing to empty they first had their rise. benches, even Prince Vologese himself, a youth of great expectations, sings himself out of breath, and rattles his chain to no purpose.

And now I am upon the subject: our composers also should affect greater simplicity; let their bass cliff have all the variety they can give it; let the To say the truth, the opera as it is conducted body of the music (if I may so express it) be as vaamong us, is but a very humdrum amusement: in rious as they please; but let them avoid ornamentother countries, the decorations are entirely magnifi- ing a barren ground-work; let them not attempt cent, the singers all excellent, and the burlettas or by flourishing to cheat us of solid harmony. interludes quite entertaining; the best poets comThe works of Mr. Rameau are never heard pose the words, and the best masters the music, but without a surprising effect. I can attribute it only with us it is otherwise; the decorations are but tri- to the simplicity he every where observes, insomuch fling and cheap; the singers, Matei only excepted, that some of his finest harmonies are only octave but indifferent. Instead of interlude, we have those and unison. This simple manner has greater sorts of skipping dances, which are calculated for powers than is generally imagined; and were not the galleries of the theatre. Every performer sings such a demonstration misplaced, I think, from the his favourite song, and the music is only a medley of principles of music it might be proved to be most old Italian airs, or some meagre modern Capriccio. agreeable. When such is the case, it is not much to be But to leave general reflection. With the present wondered if the opera is pretty much neglected; set of performers, the operas, if the conductor thinks the lower orders of people have neither taste nor proper, may be carried on with some success, since fortune to relish such an entertainment; they they have all some merit, if not as actors, at least as would find more satisfaction in the Roast Beef singers. Signora Matei is at once both a perfect of Old England than in the finest closes of a eu-actress and a very fine singer. She is possessed nuch; they sleep amidst all the agony of recita- of a fine sensibility in her manner, and seldom intive; on the other hand, people of fortune or taste dulges those extravagant and unmusical flights of can hardly be pleased, where there is a visible poverty in the decorations, and an entire want of taste in the composition.

voice complained of before. Cornacini, on the other hand, is a very indifferent actor, has a most unmeaning face, seems not to feel his part, is infected Would it not surprise one, that when Metasta- with a passion of showing his compass; but to resio is so well known in England, and so universal- compense all these defects, his voice is melodious, ly admired, the manager or the composer should have recourse to any other operas than those written by him? I might venture to say, that written by Metastasio, put up in the bills of the day, would alone be sufficient to fill a house, since thus the admirers of sense as well as sound might find entertainment.

The performers also should be entreated to sing only their parts without clapping in any of their own favourite airs. I must own, that such songs are generally to me the most disagreeable in the world. Every singer generally chooses a favourite air, not from the excellency of the music, but from difficulty; such songs are generally chosen as surprise rather than please, where the performer may show his compass, his breath, and his volubility.

he has vast compass and great volubility, his swell and shake are perfectly fine, unless that he continues the latter too long. In short, whatever the defects of his action may be, they are amply recompensed by his excellency as a singer; nor can I avoid fancying that he might make a much greater figure in an oratorio than upon the stage.

However, upon the whole, I know not whether ever operas can be kept up in England; they seem to be entirely exotic, and require the nicest management and care. Instead of this, the care of them is assigned to men unacquainted with the genius and disposition of the people they would amuse, and whose only motives are immediate gain. Whether a discontinuance of such entertainments would be more to the loss or advantage of the nation, I will Hence proceed those unnatural startings, those not take upon me to determine, since it is as much unmusical closings, and shakes lengthened out to our interest to induce foreigners of taste among us a painful continuance; such indeed may show a on the one hand, as it is to discourage those trifling voice, but it must give a truly delicate ear the ut- members of society who generally compose the most uneasiness. Such tricks are not music; nei-operatical dramatis persona on the other.

MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS,

[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1765.]

THE PREFACE.

have been objected to the following Essays, and it must be owned in some measure that the charge THE following Essays have already appeared at is true. However, I could have made them more different times, and in different publications. The metaphysical had I thought fit; but I would ask, pamphlets in which they were inserted being gen- whether, in a short Essay, it is not necessary to be erally unsuccessful, these shared the common fate, superficial? Before we have prepared to enter without assisting the bookseller's aims, or extend-into the depths of a subject in the usual forms, we ing the writer's reputation. The public were too have arrived at the bottom of our scanty page, and strenuously employed with their own follies to be thus lose the honours of a victory by too tedious a assiduous in estimating mine; so that many of my preparation for the combat. best attempts in this way have fallen victims to the transient topic of the times-the Ghost in Cock-fles, which, I fear, will not be so easily pardoned. lane, or the siege of Ticonderoga.

There is another fault in this collection of tri

It will be alleged, that the humour of them (if any But though they have passed pretty silently in- be found) is stale and hackneyed. This may be to the world, I can by no means complain of their true enough, as matters now stand; but I may circulation. The magazines and papers of the with great truth assert, that the humour was new day have indeed been liberal enough in this re- when I wrote it. Since that time, indeed, many spect. Most of these essays have been regularly of the topics, which were first stated here, have reprinted twice or thrice a year, and conveyed to been hunted down, and many of the thoughts the public through the kennel of some engaging blown upon. In fact, these Essays were considercompilation. If there be a pride in multiplied edi-ed as quietly laid in the grave of oblivion; and our tions, I have seen some of my labours sixteen modern compilers, like sextons and executioners, times reprinted, and claimed by different parents think it their undoubted right to pillage the dead.

as their own.

I have seen them flourished at the

beginning with praise, and signed at the end with the names of Philautos, Philalethis, Phileleutheros, and Philanthropos. These gentlemen have kindly stood sponsors to my productions, and, to flatter me more, have always passed them as their own. It is time, however, at last to vindicate my claims; and as these entertainers of the public, as they call themselves, have partly lived upon me for some years, let me now try if I can not live a little upon myself. I would desire, in this case, to imitate that fat man whom I have somewhere heard of in a shipwreck, who, when the sailors, pressed by famine, were taking slices from his posteriors to satisfy their hunger, insisted, with great justice, on having the first cut for himself.

Yet, after all, I can not be angry with any who have taken it into their heads, to think that whatever I write is worth reprinting, particularly when I consider how great a majority will think it scarcely worth reading. Trifling and superficial are terms of reproach that are easily objected, and that carry an air of penetration in the observer. These faults

However, whatever right I have to complain of the public, they can, as yet, have no just reason to complain of me. If I have written dull Essays, they have hitherto treated them as dull Essays. Thus far we are at least upon par, and until they think fit to make me their humble debtor by praise, I am resolved not to lose a single inch of my selfimportance. Instead, therefore, of attempting to establish a credit amongst them, it will perhaps be wiser to apply to some more distant correspondent; and as my drafts are in some danger of being protested at home, it may not be imprudent, upon this occasion, to draw my bills upon Posterity.

MR. POSTERITY,

SIR, Nine hundred and ninety-nine years after sight hereof, pay the bearer, or order, a thousand pounds worth of praise, free from all deductions whatsoever, it being a commodity that will then be very serviceable to him, and place it to the account of, etc.

ESSAY I.

something touched off to a nicety, for Mr. Sprig gins was going to give us Mad Tom in all its glory. Mr. Spriggins endeavoured to excuse himself; I REMEMBER to have read in some philosopher for as he was to act a madman and a king, it was (I believe in Tom Brown's works), that, let a impossible to go through the part properly without man's character, sentiments, or complexion be a crown and chains. His excuses were overruled what they will, he can find company in London to by a great majority, and with much vociferation. match them. If he be splenetic, he may every The president ordered up the jack-chain, and inday meet companions on the seats in St. James's stead of a crown, our performer covered his brows Park, with whose groans he may mix his own, with an inverted jorden. After he had rattled his and pathetically talk of the weather. If he be pas-chain, and shook his head, to the great delight of sionate, he may vent his rage among the old ora- the whole company, he began his song. As tors at Slaughter's Coffee-house, and damn the have heard few young fellows offer to sing in comnation because it keeps him from starving. If he pany, that did not expose themselves, it was no be phlegmatic, he may sit in silence at the hum- great disappointment to me to find Mr. Spriggins drum club in Ivy-lane; and, if actually mad, he among the number; however, not to seem an odd may find very good company in Moorfields, either fish, I rose from my seat in rapture, cried out, at Bedlam or the Foundry, ready to cultivate a bravo! encore! and slapped the table as loud as nearer acquaintance. any of the rest.

But, although such as have a knowledge of the The gentleman who sat next me seemed highly town may easily class themselves with tempers pleased with my taste and the ardour of my apcongenial to their own, a countryman, who comes probation; and whispering told me that I had sufto live in London, finds nothing more difficult. fered an immense loss, for had I come a few miWith regard to myself, none ever tried with more nutes sooner, I might have heard Gee ho Dobbin assiduity, or came off with such indifferent suc- sung in a tip-top manner by the pimple-nosed spicess. I spent a whole season in the search, dur-rit at the president's right elbow; but he was evaping which time my name has been enrolled in so-orated before I came.

cieties, lodges, convocations, and meetings, with- As I was expressing my uneasiness at this disout number. To some I was introduced by a appointment, I found the attention of the compafriend, to others invited by an advertisement; to ny employed upon a fat figure, who, with a voice these I introduced myself, and to those I changed more rough than the Staffordshire giant's, was my name to gain admittance. In short, no co- giving us the Softly Sweet in Lydian Measure of quette was ever more solicitous to match her ribands to her complexion, than I to suit my club to my temper; for I was too obstinate to bring my temper to conform to it.

Alexander's Feast. After a short pause of admiration, to this succeeded a Welsh dialogue, with the humours of Teague and Taffy: after that came on Old Jackson, with a story between every The first club I entered upon coming to town stanza; next was sung the Dustcart, and then was that of the Choice Spirits. The name was Solomon's Song. The glass began now to circuentirely suited to my taste; I was a lover of mirth, late pretty freely: those who were silent when sogood-humour, and even sometimes of fun, from ber would now be heard in their turn; every man my childhood. had his song, and he saw no reason why he should

As no other passport was requisite but the pay- not be heard as well as any of the rest; one begged to ment of two shillings at the door, I introduced my-be heard while he gave Death and the Lady in high self without further ceremony to the members, who taste; another sung to a plate which he kept were already assembled, and had for some time trundling on the edges; nothing was now heard begun upon business. The Grand, with a mallet but singing; voice rose above voice; and the whole in his hand, presided at the head of the table. I became one universal shout, when the landlord could not avoid, upon my entrance, making use of came to acquaint the company that the reckoning all my skill in physiognomy, in order to discover was drank out. Rabelais calls the moment in that superiority of genius in men, who had taken which a reckoning is mentioned the most melana title so superior to the rest of mankind. I ex- choly of our lives; never was so much noise so pected to see the lines of every face marked with quickly quelled as by this short but pathetic orastrong thinking; but though I had some skill in tion of our landlord: drank out! was echoed in a this science, I could for my life discover nothing tone of discontent round the table: drank out albut a pert simper, fat or profound stupidity. ready! that was very odd! that so much punch

My speculations were soon interrupted by the could be drank already-impossible! The landGrand, who had knocked down Mr. Spriggins for lord, however, seeming resolved not to retreat from a song. I was upon this whispered by one of the his first assurances, the company was dissolved, company who sat next me, that I should now see and a president chosen for the night ensuing.

A friend of mine, to whom I was complaining and they sometimes whip for a double reckoning. some time after the entertainment I have been de- To this club few recommendations are requisite, scribing, proposed to bring me to the club that he except the introductory fourpence and my landfrequented, which he fancied would suit the gravity lord's good word, which, as he gains by it, he never of my temper exactly. "We have at the Muzzy refuses. Club," says he, "no riotous mirth nor awkward We all here talked and behaved as every body ribaldry; no confusion or bawling; all is conducted else usually does on his club-night; we discussed with wisdom and decency: besides, some of our the topic of the day, drank each other's healths, members are worth forty thousand pounds; men of snuffed the candles with our fingers, and filled our prudence and foresight every one of them: these are pipes from the same plate of tobacco. The comthe proper acquaintance, and to such I will to night pany saluted each other in the common manner; introduce you." I was charmed at the proposal: Mr. Bellows-mender hoped Mr. Currycomb-maker to be acquainted with men worth forty thousand had not caught cold going home the last clubpounds, and to talk wisdom the whole night, were night; and he returned the compliment by hoping offers that threw me into raptures. that young Master Bellows-mender had got well again of the chincough. Dr. Twist told us a story of a parliament-man, with whom he was intimately acquainted; while the bug-man, at the same time, was telling a better story of a noble lord with whom he could do any thing. A gentleman, in a black wig and leather breeches at the other end of the table, was engaged in a long narrative of the Ghost in Cock-lane: he had read it in the papers of the day, and was telling it to some that sat next him, who could not read. Near him Mr. Dibbins was disputing on the old subject of religion with a Jew pedler, over the table, while the president vainly knocked down Mr. Leathersides for a song. Besides the combinations of these voices, which I could hear altogether, and which formed an upper part to the concert, there were several others playing under-parts by themselves, and endeavouring to fasten on some luckless neighbour's ear, who was himself bent upon the same design against some other.

At seven o'clock I was accordingly introduced by my friend, not indeed to the company, for, though I made my best bow, they seemed insensible of my approach, but to the table at which they were sitting. Upon my entering the room, I could not avoid feeling a secret veneration from the solemnity of the scene before me; the members kept a profound silence, each with a pipe in his mouth, and a pewter pot in his hand, and with faces that might easily be construed into absolute wisdom. Happy society, thought I to myself, where the members think before they speak, deliver nothing rashly, but convey their thoughts to each other pregnant with meaning and matured by reflection.

In this pleasing speculation I continued a full half-hour, expecting each moment that somebody would begin to open his mouth: every time the pipe was laid down I expected it was to speak; but it was only to spit. At length resolving to break the charm myself, and overcome their extreme diffidence, for to this I imputed their silence, I rubbed my hands, and, looking as wise as possible, observed that the nights began to grow a little coolish at this time of the year. This, as it was directed to none of the company in particular, none thought himself obliged to answer, wherefore I continued still to rub my hands and look wise. My next effort was addressed to a gentleman who sat next me; to whom I observed, that the beer was extremely good. My neighbour made no reply, but by a large puff of tobacco-smoke.

We have often heard of the speech of a corporation, and this induced me to transcribe a speech of this olub, taken in short-hand, word for word, as it was spoken by every member of the company. It may be necessary to observe, that the man who told of the ghost had the loudest voice, and the longest story to tell, so that his continuing narrative filled every chasm in the conversation.

"So, sir, d'ye perceive me, the ghost giving three loud raps at the bed-post-Says my Lord to me, my dear Smokeum, you know there is no man I now began to be uncasy in this dumb society, upon the face of the earth for whom I have so hightill one of them a little relieved me by observing A damnable false heretical opinion of all sound that bread had not risen these three weeks: "Aye," doctrine and good learning; for I'll tell it aloud, says another, still keeping the pipe in his mouth, and spare not that—Silence for a song; Mr. Leath"that puts me in mind of a pleasant story about ersides for a song-'As I was walking upon the that-hem-very well; you must know-but, be- highway, I met a young damsel'-Then what fore I begin-sir, my service to you-where was brings you here? says the parson to the ghostSanconiathan, Manetho, and Berosus-The whole My next club goes by the name of the Harmo-way from Islington-turnpike to Dog-house barnical Society; probably from that love of order and Dam-As for Abel Drugger, sir, he's damn'd low friendship which every person commends in insti- in it; my 'prentice boy has more of the gentleman tutions of this nature. The landlord was himself than he-For murder will out one time or anothe founder. The money spent is fourpence each;ther and none but a ghost, you know, gentlemen,

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