[3] Nichols suggests that this and the following number were by
Addison, who had sent Steele another packet or two from Ireland since
the appearance of No. 32. Perhaps Steele made one paper, headed "The
History of Orlando the Fair," serve for two numbers (50, 51). The
personal character of these papers may have caused Steele to omit them
in the list of Addison's papers which he gave to Tickell. See _Tatler_,
No. 32.
[4] Dr. Radcliffe; see Nos. 44, 46, 47.
[5] See No. 46.
[6] Robert Feilding, commonly known by the name of Beau Feilding, a
handsome and very comely gentleman, was tried for felony at the Old
Bailey, December 4, 1706. He had married, as the indictment sets forth,
on November 25, 1705, Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, having a former
wife then living. In the course of the evidence at this trial, it
appears, that sixteen days before, viz. November 9, 1705, Mrs. Villars,
a very bad woman, had artfully drawn him into a marriage with one Mary
Wadsworth, spinster, in the mistaken belief of her being Mrs. Deleau,
a widow, with a fortune of £60,000. His marriage with the duchess
was therefore set aside, and her Grace was allowed the liberty of
marrying again. He craved the benefit of his clergy, and when sentence
was given, that he should be burnt in his hand, produced the Queen's
warrant to suspend execution, and was admitted to bail. In his will,
dated April 9, 1712, and proved on May 12 following, he is styled
"Robert Feilding, of Feilding Hall, in the county of Warwick, Esq.,"
and appears to have had some estates at Lutterworth. He is mentioned
by Swift among those who have made "mean figures" on some remarkable
occasions. Feilding, having injured his fortune by his gallantry and
extravagance in early life, repaired the breaches he had made in it,
by his first marriage with the Countess of Purbeck, a widow lady of an
ancient and noble family in Ireland, who had a large fortune of her
own, to which she had added considerably by a former marriage; she was
the only daughter and heiress of Barnham Swift, Lord Carlingford, who
was of the same family with the Dean of St. Patrick's. Feilding is said
to have lived happily for some years with this lady, who was a zealous
Roman Catholic, and could have no great difficulty in inducing a man
who had no religion to profess himself a proselyte to her religious
persuasion. See No. 51 (Nichols).--On July 29, 1706, Lady Wentworth
wrote to Lord Raby that the Duchess of Cleveland had got Feilding sent
to Newgate "for threatning to kill her two sons for taking her part,
when he beet her and broke open her closet door and took four hundred
pd. out.... He beat her sadly and she cried out murder in the street
out of the window, and he shot a blunderbuss at the people" ("Wentworth
Papers," pp. 58-9). See, too, Luttrell's "Diary," June, July, and
October, 1706, _passim_.
[7] The side-boxes were usually reserved for men, ladies sitting in the
front boxes, and Pope describes men ogling and bowing from the side
boxes. See, too, the _Spectator_, Nos. 311, 377. But Swift ("Polite
Conversation," 1738) writes: "Pray, Mr. Neverout, what lady was that
you were talking with in the side box?" A wench in a side-box was
looked upon with suspicion. See Nos. 145, 217. In the _Theatre_ (No. 3)
Steele says: "Three of the fair sex for the front boxes, two gentlemen
of wit and pleasure for the side boxes, and three substantial citizens
for the pit!"
[8] Barbara, daughter and heiress to William Villiers, Viscount
Grandison. She became the mistress of Charles II., who made her
husband--Roger Palmer--Earl of Castlemain, and afterwards made her
Duchess of Cleveland. On Lord Castlemain's death in 1705 she married
Beau Feilding, from whom she was subsequently divorced. She died of
dropsy on October 9, 1709.
[9] An allusion to Cardell Goodman, the actor (died 1699), one of the
"mighty persons" favoured by the duchess, whose paramour he became. His
chief parts were Julius Cæsar and Alexander the Great.
[10]
"She what was honour knew,
And with obsequious majesty approved
My pleaded reason."
"Paradise Lost," viii. 507-9.
[11] The Feildings were Counts of the German Empire.
[12] See No. 44: "Our friend the _Tatler_, under the notion of Mr.
Powell at the Bath, has, in my mind, entered into the depth of the
argument in dispute [between Hoadly and the Bishop of Exeter] and
given a complete answer to all that the reverend Bishop either can or
will say upon the subject; and Ben should have referred his lordship
to be mumbled, as he calls it, by Mr. Bickerstaff, as his lordship
had threatened him with that usage, from the worthy author of Timothy
and Philatheus." (Letter from Thomas Sergeant, Esq. to Hughes;
"Correspondence of John Hughes, Esq.," 1772, i. 38.)--[Nichols.] A MS.
note, which may have been written any time after 1734, when Hoadly was
made Bishop of Winchester, has been added in my copy of the original
folio number, at the end of this letter: "Written by Dr. Hoadly, Bp: of
Winchster." It seems not improbable that Hoadly did himself write this
letter.
[13] These words occur in the "Bishop of Exeter's Answer to Mr.
Hoadly's Letter," 1709, p. 3.
[14] "And till I can hear of a better reason, &c., I shall not forbear
thinking that the true reason of it was, because I am (though unworthy,
yet by God's permission and the Queen's favour) a Bishop; and a
Bishop is thought by some people to be a sort of an ecclesiastical
governor."--("Answer," p. 5.)
[15] Filmer, in his work on Patriarchal Government, contended that all
government ought to be absolute and monarchical.
[16] "Why, sir, 1. As to other answer, I don't know but that I might
answer it by an action of _scand. mag._, but that I should scorn
to fight an adversary with unequal weapons."--("Bishop of Exeter's
Answer," &c., p. 27.)
[17] "If your reply shall be about original contracts, revolutions,
&c., I tell you plainly that I ain't at leisure, nor I shan't be at
leisure, nor I won't be at leisure, to write you so much as one single
line about such matters."--("Answer to Mr. Hoadly's Considerations,"
&c.)
[18] The allusion is to Oldisworth's "Timothy and Philatheus, in which
the principles and projects of a late whimsical book, entitled, 'The
Rights of the Christian Church,' &c. [by Dr. Tindal] are fairly stated
and answered in their kinds. Written by a Layman." London, three vols.
1709.
[19] "Referring myself to be tried by God and my country, not excepting
against any one person's being on the panel, but only Mr. Benjamin
Hoadly, Rector of St. Peter's Poor."--("Answer," p. 22.)
[20] "Note: that proper cuts for the historical part of the paper are
now almost finished, by an engraver lately arrived from Paris, and will
be sold at all the toy shops in London and Westminster." (Folio.)
No. 51. [STEELE.
From _Thursday, August 4_, to _Saturday, August 6, 1709_.
_White's Chocolate-house, August 5._
_The History of Orlando the Fair.[21] Chap. II._
Fortune being now propitious to the gay Orlando, he dressed, he spoke,
he moved, as a man might be supposed to do in a nation of pigmies, and
had an equal value for our approbation or dislike. It is usual for
those who profess a contempt of the world, to fly from it and live in
obscurity; but Orlando, with a greater magnanimity, contemned it, and
appeared in it to tell them so. If therefore his exalted mien met with
an unwelcome reception, he was sure always to double the cause which
gave the distaste. You see our beauties affect a negligence in the
ornament of their hair, and adjusting their head-dresses, as conscious
that they adorn whatever they wear. Orlando had not only this humour
in common with other beauties, but also had a neglect whether things
became him or not, in a world he contemned. For this reason, a noble
particularity appeared in all his economy, furniture, and equipage.
And to convince the present little race, how unequal all their
measures were to an antediluvian, as he called himself, in respect of
the insects which now appear for men, he sometimes rode in an open
tumbril,[22] of less size than ordinary, to show the largeness of his
limbs, and the grandeur, of his personage, to the greater advantage:
at other seasons, all his appointments had a magnificence, as if it
were formed by the genius of Trimalchio[23] of old, which showed itself
in doing ordinary things with an air of pomp and grandeur.[24] Orlando
therefore called for tea by beat of drum; his valet got ready to shave
him by a trumpet "To horse"; and water was brought for his teeth when
the sound was changed to "Boots and saddle."
In all these glorious excesses from the common practice, did the happy
Orlando live and reign in an uninterrupted tranquillity, till an
unlucky accident brought to his remembrance, that one evening he was
married before he courted the nuptials of Villaria.[25] Several fatal
memorandums were produced to revive the memory of this accident, and
the unhappy lover was for ever banished her presence, to whom he owed
the support of his just renown and gallantry. But distress does not
debase noble minds; it only changes the scene, and gives them new glory
by that alteration. Orlando therefore now raves in a garret,[26] and
calls to his neighbour-skies to pity his dolors, and find redress for
an unhappy lover. All high spirits, in any great agitation of mind,
are inclined to relieve themselves by poetry. The renowned porter of
Oliver[27] had not more volumes around his cell in the College of
Bedlam, than Orlando in his present apartment. And though inserting
poetry in the midst of prose be thought a licence among correct writers
not to be indulged, it is hoped, the necessity of doing it to give a
just idea of the hero of whom we treat, will plead for the liberty
we shall hereafter take, to print Orlando's soliloquies in verse and
prose, after the manner of great wits, and such as those to whom they
are nearly allied.
_Will's Coffee-house, August 5._
A great deal of good company of us were this day to see, or rather
to hear, an artful person[28] do several feats of activity with his
throat and windpipe. The first thing wherewith he presented us, was a
ring of bells, which he imitated in a most miraculous manner; after
that he gave us all the different notes of a pack of hounds, to our
great delight and astonishment. The company expressed their applause
with much noise; and never was heard such an harmony of men and dogs:
but a certain plump merry fellow, from an angle of the room, fell a
crowing like a cock so ingeniously, that he won our hearts from the
other operator in an instant. As soon as I saw him, I recollected I
had seen him on the stage, and immediately knew it to be Tom Mirrour,
the comical actor.[29] He immediately addressed himself to me, and
told me, he was surprised to see a _virtuoso_ take satisfaction in
any representations below that of human life; and asked me, whether
I thought this acting bells and dogs was to be considered under the
notion of wit, humour, or satire? "Were it not better," continued he,
"to have some particular picture of man laid before your eyes, that
might incite your laughter?" He had no sooner spoke the word, but he
immediately quitted his natural shape, and talked to me in a very
different air and tone from what he had used before; upon which all
that sat near us laughed; but I saw no distortion in his countenance,
or anything that appeared to me disagreeable. I asked Pacolet, what
meant that sudden whisper about us? For I could not take the jest. He
answered: "The gentleman you were talking to, assumed your air and
countenance so exactly, that all fell a laughing to see how little you
knew yourself, or how much you were enamoured with your own image. But
that person," continued my monitor, "if men would make the right use
of him, might be as instrumental to their reforming errors in gesture,
language, and speech, as a dancing-master, linguist, or orator. You see
he laid yourself before you with so much address, that you saw nothing
particular in his behaviour: he has so happy a knack of representing
errors and imperfections, that you can bear your faults in him as well
as in yourself: he is the first mimic that ever gave the beauties, as
well as the deformities, of the man he acted. What Mr. Dryden said of a
very great man[30] may be well applied to him:
_He is
Not one, but all mankind's epitome._"
You are to know, that this pantomime may be said to be a species of
himself. He has no commerce with the rest of mankind, but as they are
the objects of imitation; like the Indian fowl, called the mock-bird,
who has no note of his own, but hits every sound in the wood as soon as
he hears it; so that Mirrour is at once a copy and an original. Poor
Mirrour's fate (as well as talent) is like that of the bird we just now
spoke of. The nightingale, the linnet, the lark, are delighted with his
company; but the buzzard, the crow, and the owl, are observed to be
his mortal enemies. Whenever Sophronius meets Mirrour, he receives him
with civility and respect, and well knows, a good copy of himself can
be no injury to him; but Bathillus shuns the street where he expects to
meet him; for he that knows his every step and look is constrained and
affected, must be afraid to be rivalled in his action, and of having it
discovered to be unnatural, by its being practised by another as well
as himself.
_From my own Apartment, August 5._
Letters from Coventry and other places have been sent to me, in answer
to what I have said in relation to my antagonist Mr. Powell,[31] and
advise me, with warm language, to keep to subjects more proper for me
than such high points. But the writers of these epistles mistake the
use and service I propose to the learned world by such observations:
for you are to understand, that the title of this paper gives me a
right in taking to myself, and inserting in it, all such parts of any
book or letter which are foreign to the purpose intended, or professed
by the writer: so that suppose two great divines should argue, and
treat each other with warmth and levity unbecoming their subject or
character, all that they say unfit for that place is very proper to
be inserted here. Therefore from time to time, in all writings which
shall hereafter be published, you shall have from me extracts of all
that shall appear not to the purpose; and for the benefit of the gentle
reader, I will show what to turn over unread and what to peruse. For
this end I have a mathematical sieve preparing, in which I will sift
every page and paragraph, and all that falls through I shall make bold
with for my own use. The same thing will be as beneficial in speech;
for all superfluous expressions in talk fall to me also: as, when a
pleader at the Bar designs to be extremely impertinent and troublesome,
and cries, "Under favour of the Court----With submission, my lord----I
humbly offer----" and, "I think I have well considered this matter;
for I would be very far from trifling with your lordship's time, or
trespassing upon your patience----However, thus I will venture to
say"--and so forth. Or else, when a sufficiently self-conceited coxcomb
is bringing out something in his own praise, and begins, "Without
vanity, I must take this upon me to assert." There is also a trick
which the fair sex have, that will greatly contribute to swell my
volumes: as, when a woman is going to abuse her best friend, "Pray,"
says she, "have you heard what I said of Mrs. such a one: I am heartily
sorry to hear anything of that kind, of one I have so great a value
for; but they make no scruple of telling it; and it was not spoken of
to me as a secret, for now all the town rings of it." All such flowers
in rhetoric, and little refuges for malice, are to be noted, and
naturally belong only to Tatlers. By this method you will immediately
find volumes contract themselves into octavos, and the labour of a
fortnight got over in half a day.
_St. James's Coffee-house, August 5._
Last night arrived a mail from Lisbon, which gives a very pleasing
account of the posture of affairs in that part of the world, the enemy
having been necessitated wholly to abandon the blockade of Olivenza.
These advices say that Sir John Jennings[32] was arrived at Lisbon.
When that gentleman left Barcelona, his Catholic Majesty was taking all
possible methods for carrying on an offensive war. It is observed with
great satisfaction in the Court of Spain, that there is a very good
intelligence between the general officers; Count Staremberg and Mr.
Stanhope[33] acting in all things with such unanimity, that the public
affairs receive great advantages from their personal friendship and
esteem to each other, and mutual assistance in promoting the service of
the common cause.
This is to give notice that if any able-bodied Palatine will enter into
the bonds of matrimony with Betty Pepin,[34] the said Palatine shall be
settled in a freehold of 40s. per annum in the County of Middlesex.[35]