The Censor having lately received intelligence, that the ancient
simplicity in the dress and manners of that part of this island, called
Scotland, begins to decay; and that there are at this time in the good
town of Edinburgh, beaus, fops, and coxcombs: his late correspondent[153]
from that place is desired to send up their names and characters with
all expedition, that they may be proceeded against accordingly, and
proper officers named to take in their canes, snuff-boxes, and all other
useless necessaries commonly worn by such offenders.
[Footnote 151: Cf. Steele's "Lover," No. 13: "I might have been a king
at questions and commands." This game is mentioned several times in the
_Spectator_.]
[Footnote 152: General Cornelius Wood, son of the Rev. Seth Wood, was
born in 1636. He served for four years as a private soldier, before he
was advanced to be a sub-brigadier; after which his rise was rapid,
owing entirely to his signal valour, his strict justice, and extensive
humanity. The Prince of Orange, on his accession to the throne, gave him
a troop of horse, in the regiment commanded by George Lord Huet; he was
made a colonel of horse in 1693; and a brigadier-general in 1702. His
conduct and conversation in Ireland rendered him very acceptable to
Marshal Schomberg; his valour was conspicuous at the Battle of Blenheim,
after which the Duke of Marlborough declared him a major-general; it was
no less signally manifested at Ramillies in 1706; the year following he
was made a lieutenant-general of horse, in which post he arrived to be
the eldest. In 1708, he was Governor of Ghent, and honoured by the
burghers, in testimony of their singular satisfaction, with a large
piece of plate, which he left as a legacy to the Duke of Ormond, to
evince his gratitude for services received, and his esteem for that
nobleman's illustrious character. In 1709, he gathered fresh laurels in
the bloody field of Tanieres, and next year was again appointed Governor
of Ghent; but in his march to that garrison, an unruly horse on which he
rode, reared on end, and fell backwards upon him; his collar-bone was
broken, and his stomach so bruised by this accident, that he never was
well after. He languished about two years, and died at the Gravel-pits
near Kensington, on the 17th of May 1712, in the 75th year of his age.
He never married (Nichols). Prior, in his poem on the Battle of
Blenheim, says:
"Let generous Sylvius stand for honest Wood."
]
[Footnote 153: "Osyris"; see No. 143.]
No. 145. [STEELE.
From _Saturday, March 11_, to _Tuesday, March 14, 1709-10_.
Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos.
VIRG., Eclog. iii. 103.
* * * * *
_White's Chocolate-house, March 13._
This evening was allotted for taking into consideration a late request
of two indulgent parents, touching the care of a young daughter, whom
they design to send to a boarding-school, or keep at home, according to
my determination;[154] but I am diverted from that subject by letters
which I have received from several ladies, complaining of a certain sect
of professed enemies to the repose of the fair sex, called Oglers. These
are, it seems, gentlemen who look with deep attention on one object at
the playhouses, and are ever staring all round them in churches. It is
urged by my correspondents, that they do all that is possible to keep
their eyes off these ensnarers; but that, by what power they know not,
both their diversions and devotions are interrupted by them in such a
manner, as that they cannot attend either without stealing looks at the
persons whose eyes are fixed upon them. By this means, my petitioners
say, they find themselves grow insensibly less offended, and in time
enamoured, of these their enemies. What is required of me on this
occasion, is, that as I love and study to preserve the better part of
mankind, the females, I would give them some account of this dangerous
way of assault, against which there is so little defence, that it lays
ambush for the sight itself, and makes them seeingly, knowingly,
willingly, and forcibly go on to their own captivity.
This representation of the present state of affairs between the two
sexes gave me very much alarm; and I had no more to do, but to recollect
what I had seen at any one assembly for some years last past, to be
convinced of the truth and justice of this remonstrance. If there be not
a stop put to this evil art, all the modes of address, and the elegant
embellishments of life, which arise out of the noble passion of love,
will of necessity decay. Who would be at the trouble of rhetoric, or
study the _bon mien_, when his introduction is so much easier obtained
by a sudden reverence in a downcast look at the meeting the eye of a
fair lady, and beginning again to ogle her as soon as she glances
another way? I remember very well, when I was last at an opera, I could
perceive the eyes of the whole audience cast into particular cross
angles one upon another, without any manner of regard to the stage,
though King Latinus was himself present when I made that observation. It
was then very pleasant to look into the hearts of the whole company; for
the balls of sight are so formed, that one man's eyes are spectacles to
another to read his heart with. The most ordinary beholder can take
notice of any violent agitation in the mind, any pleasing transport, or
any inward grief, in the person he looks at; but one of these oglers can
see a studied indifference, a concealed love, or a smothered resentment,
in the very glances that are made to hide those dispositions of thought.
The naturalists tell us, that the rattlesnake will fix himself under a
tree where he sees a squirrel playing; and when he has once got the
exchange of a glance from the pretty wanton, will give it such a sudden
stroke on its imagination, that though it may play from bough to bough,
and strive to avert its eyes from it for some time, yet it comes nearer
and nearer by little intervals of looking another way, till it drops
into the jaws of the animal, which it knew gazed at it for no other
reason but to ruin it. I did not believe this piece of philosophy till
that night I was just now speaking of; but I then saw the same thing
pass between an ogler and a coquette. Mirtillo, the most learned of the
former, had for some time discontinued to visit Flavia, no less eminent
among the latter. They industriously avoided all places where they might
probably meet, but chance brought them together to the playhouse, and
seated them in a direct line over against each other, she in a front
box, he in the pit next the stage. As soon as Flavia had received the
looks of the whole crowd below her with that air of insensibility which
is necessary at the first entrance, she began to look round her and saw
the vagabond Mirtillo, who had so long absented himself from her circle;
and when she first discovered him, she looked upon him with that glance,
which, in the language of oglers, is called the scornful, but
immediately turned her observation another way, and returned upon him
with the indifferent. This gave Mirtillo no small resentment; but he
used her accordingly. He took care to be ready for her next glance. She
found his eyes full in the indolent, with his lips crumpled up in the
posture of one whistling. Her anger at this usage immediately appeared
in every muscle of her face; and after many emotions, which glistened in
her eyes, she cast them round the whole house, and gave them softnesses
in the face of every man she had ever seen before. After she thought she
had reduced all she saw to her obedience, the play began, and ended
their dialogue. As soon as that was over, she stood up with a visage
full of dissembled alacrity and pleasure, with which she overlooked the
audience, and at last came to him: he was then placed in a side-way,
with his hat slouching over his eyes, and gazing at a wench in the
side-box,[155] as talking of that gipsy to the gentleman who sat by him.
But as she was fixed upon him, he turned suddenly with a full face upon
her, and with all the respect imaginable, made her the most obsequious
bow in the presence of the whole theatre. This gave her a pleasure not
to be concealed, and she made him the recovering or second curtsy, with
a smile that spoke a perfect reconciliation. Between the ensuing acts,
they talked to each other with gestures and glances so significant, that
they ridiculed the whole house in this silent speech, and made an
appointment that Mirtillo should lead her to her coach.
The peculiar language of one eye, as it differs from another, as much as
the tone of one voice from another, and the fascination or enchantment
which is lodged in the optic nerves of the persons concerned in these
dialogues, is, I must confess, too nice a subject for one who is not an
adept in these speculations; but I shall, for the good and safety of the
fair sex, call my learned friend Sir William Read[156] to my assistance,
and, by the help of his observations on this organ, acquaint them when
the eye is to be believed, and when distrusted. On the contrary, I shall
conceal the true meaning of the looks of ladies, and indulge in them all
the art they can acquire in the management of their glances: all which
is but too little against creatures who triumph in falsehood, and begin
to forswear with their eyes, when their tongues can be no longer
believed.