The Tatler, Volume 1, 1899 - George A. Aitken (good books to read for young adults .TXT) 📗

show how great an hero the poet intends, he provides him a very good horse:

Champing his foam, and bounding on the plain,
Arch his high neck, and graceful spread his mane.

Now as to the intrepidity, the calm courage, the constant application of the hero, it is not necessary to take that upon yourself; you may, in the lump, bid him you employ raise him as high as he can, and if he does it not, let him answer for disobeying orders:

Let fame and victory in inferior sky,
Hover with ballanced wings, and smiling fly
Above his head, &c.

A whole poem of this kind may be ready against an ensuing campaign, as well as a space left in the canvas of a piece of tapestry for the principal figure, while the underparts are working: so that in effect, the adviser copies after the man he pretends to direct. This method should, methinks, encourage young beginners: for the invention is so fitted to all capacities, that by the help of it a man may make a receipt for a poem. A young man may observe, that the jig[91] of the thing is, as I said, finding out all that can be said of his way [whom] you employ to set forth your worthy. Waller and Denham had worn out the expedient of "Advice to a Painter."[92] This author has transferred the work, and sent his advice to the Poets; that is to say, to the turners of verse, as he calls them. Well, that thought is worn out also, therefore he directs his genius to the loom, and will have a new set of hangings in honour of the last year in Flanders. I must own to you, I approve extremely this invention, and it might be improved for the benefit of manufactory: as, suppose an ingenious gentleman should write a poem of advice to a calico-printer: do you think there is a girl in England, that would wear anything but the taking of Lille, or the Battle of Oudenarde? They would certainly be all the fashion, till the heroes abroad had cut out some more patterns. I should fancy small skirmishes might do for under-petticoats, provided they had a siege for the upper. If our adviser were well imitated, many industrious people might be put to work. Little Mr. Dactile, now in the room, who formerly writ a song and a half, is a week gone in a very pretty work upon this hint: he is writing an epigram to a young virgin who knits very well ('tis a thousand pities he is a Jacobite); but his epigram is by way of advice to this damsel, to knit all the actions of the Pretender and the Duke of Burgundy last campaign in the clock of a stocking. It were endless to enumerate the many hands and trades that may be employed by poets, of so useful a turn as this adviser's. I shall think of it; and in this time of taxes, shall consult a great critic employed in the custom-house, in order to propose what tax may be proper to put upon knives, seals, rings, hangings, wrought-beds, gowns and petticoats, where any of those commodities bear mottoes, or are worked upon poetical grounds.


St. James's Coffee-house, April 15.

Letters from Turin of the 3rd instant, N.S., inform us, that his Royal Highness employs all his address in alarming the enemy, and perplexing their speculations concerning his real designs the ensuing campaign. Contracts are entered into with the merchants of Milan, for a great number of mules to transport his provisions and ammunition. His Royal Highness has ordered the train of artillery to be conveyed to Susa before the 20th of the next month. In the meantime, all accounts agree, that the enemy are very backward in their preparations, and almost incapable of defending themselves against an invasion, by reason of the general murmurs of their own people; which, they find, are no way to be quieted, but by giving them hopes of a speedy peace. When these letters were dispatched, the Marshal de Thesse was arrived at Genoa, where he has taken much pains to keep the correspondents of the merchants of France in hopes, that measures will be found out to support the credit and commerce between that state and Lyons. But the late declaration of the agents of Monsieur Bernard, that they cannot discharge the demands made upon them, has quite dispirited all those who are engaged in the remittances of France.


From my own Apartment, April 15.

It is a very natural passion in all good members of the commonwealth, to take what care they can of their families. Therefore I hope the reader will forgive me, that I desire he would go to the play, called the "Stratagem,"[93] this evening, which is to be acted for the benefit of my near kinsman, Mr. John Bickerstaff.[94] I protest to you the gentleman has not spoken to me to desire this favour; but I have a respect for him, as well in regard to consanguinity, as that he is an intimate friend of that famous and heroic actor, Mr. George Powell, who formerly played Alexander the Great in all places, though he is lately grown so reserved as to act it only on the stage.[95]


[Footnote 85: By Wycherley, first acted in 1683.]

[Footnote 86: Mrs. Bicknell (or Bignell) was born about 1695. It is not clear whether she was married, or whether the name Bicknell was taken to distinguish her from her sister, Mrs. Young, who was also an actress. We first hear of her acting in 1706; she took parts in which sauciness and coquetry were the chief features. Her last recorded appearance was on the 2nd of April, 1723; and she died in May. She signed a petition "M. Bicknell"; probably her name was Margaret, her mother's name. Steele alludes to her as "pretty Mrs. Bignell" in No. 11, and as his friend in the Guardian , No. 50. She was Miss Prue in Congreve's "Love for Love," and Miss Hoyden in Vanbrugh's "Relapse." In the Spectator (No. 370) Steele praises her dancing.]

[Footnote 87: Cibber writes thus of this actress: "Mrs. Mountford, whose second marriage gave her the name of Verbruggen, was mistress of more variety of humour than I ever knew in any one woman actress. This variety, too, was attended with an equal vivacity, which made her excellent in characters extremely different.... She was so fond of humour, in what low part soever to be found, that she would make no scruple of defacing her fair form to come heartily into it." She could act admirably as a Devonshire lass, a pretty fellow, or a fine lady. Mrs. Verbruggen's first husband, the actor Mountford, was killed by Captain Hill, with the assistance of Lord Mohun, in 1692, because Hill, who was making unsuccessful suit to Mrs. Bracegirdle was jealous of her fellow-actor. Mountford was then in his thirty-third year. Mrs. Mountford's second husband, John Verbruggen, is described by Tony Aston as "nature without extravagance." ... "That rough diamond shone more bright than all the artful polished brilliants that ever sparkled on our stage." The same writer says of Mrs. Verbruggen: "She was all art, but dressed so nice, it looked like nature. She was the most easy actress in the world. Her maiden name was Percival."]

[Footnote 88: Various Societies for the Reformation of Manners were founded in the reign of William III. An "Account" of these societies was published in 1699, and Defoe often wrote on the subject. In 1708 the Society for London and Westminster secured the conviction of 3299 "lewd and scandalous" persons, guilty of Sunday trading swearing, drunkenness, &c.]

[Footnote 89: See Steele's apology to Blackmore, author of this poem, in No. 14. Sir Richard Blackmore (died 1729) was a Whig physician who wrote epics on religious and other subjects, and was often at loggerheads with the actors and wits. Though he was not a poet, Addison and Steele praised him on account of the religious tone of his work (see
Spectator , Nos. 6, 339).]

[Footnote 90: Vanderbank, or as his father sometimes wrote his name, Vandrebanc, was a son of Peter Vanderbank, a Parisian, who came into England with Gascar the painter, about 1674, and died at Bradfield, in Hertfordshire, in 1697. His father was admired for the softness of his prints, and still more for the size of them, some of his heads being the largest that had then appeared in England; but the prices he received by no means compensated for the time employed on his works, and he was reduced to want, and died at the house of Mr. Forester, his brother-in-law. After his death, his widow sold his plates to one Brown, a print-seller, who made a great profit by them. His eldest son had some share in the theatre at Dublin; the youngest, William, was a poor labourer, who gave an account of his father and the family to Vertue. The person mentioned in this paper was probably his father's name-son, and might be, as Walpole conjectures, an engraver. Whatever concern the father might have had in any manufacture of tapestry, he could not be the person meant here, for at this time he had been dead above ten years. The suite of tapestry, in the Duke of Ancaster's sale, with Vanderbank's name to it, mentioned by Walpole, must therefore be supposed to belong to the son, who is said, upon the authority of the French translator of the Tatler , to have represented nature very happily in works of tapestry, and to have been a man inimitable in this way. (See Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting," 1782, vol. v. p. 166.)]

[Footnote 91: Trick (the early editions have "gigg").]

[Footnote 92: Waller wrote "Instructions to a Painter" and "Advice to a Painter," and Denham "Directions to a Painter."]

[Footnote 93: Farquhar's "Beaux' Stratagem," 1707.]

[Footnote 94: Bickerstaff acted the part of the Captain in Mrs. Centlivre's farce, "A Bickerstaff's Burying; or, Work for the Upholders" (1713), which was dedicated to the "magnificent Company of Upholders, whom the judicious Censor of Great Britain has so often condescended to mention." In the "British Apollo," vol. ii. No. 107 (Feb. 27 to March 1, 1710), is a "New Prologue to 'Don Quixote' for Mr. Bickerstaff's Benefit at the Theatre Royal, spoken by himself." The prologue ends:

"I need not from the ladies fear my doom,
When it shall thus be said, in my behalf,
He bears the awful name of BICKERSTAFF."

In the Daily Courant for Feb. 4, 1710, there was advertised a performance of the "Comical History of Don Quixote" at Drury Lane, "at the desire of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., for the benefit of his cousin, John Bickerstaff."]

[Footnote 95: George Powell, actor and dramatist, gave way often to drink. He died in 1714. Addison praised his acting of tragic parts in No. 40 of the Spectator . See also No. 31. An order to the comedians in Dorset Gardens forbade them acting till further order, because they had allowed Powell to play after he was committed for drawing his sword on Colonel Stanhope and Mr. Davenant. This is dated May 3, 10 Will. III. (1698); but on May 4 there was another order for the comedians to resume acting. (Lord Chamberlain's Records, Warrant Book No. 19, p. 80.) Cibber's remarks on this incident will be found in his "Apology," chap. x.]


No. 4. [STEELE.

From Saturday April 16