[218] See No. 35.
[219] See No. 27.
[220] The great room in the Devil Tavern.
[221] The "Leges Convivales," printed in Jonson's "Works," were
engraved in gold on a wooden panel.
[222] "Paradise Lost," iv. 750.
No. 80. [STEELE.
From _Tuesday, Oct. 11_, to _Thursday, Oct. 13, 1709_.
_Grecian Coffee-house, October 12._
This learned Board has complained to me of the exorbitant price of late
years put upon books, and consequently on learning, which has raised
the reward demanded by learned men for their advice and labour.[223]
In order to regulate and fix a standard in these matters, divines,
physicians, and lawyers have sent in large proposals, which are of
great light and instruction. From the perusal of these memorials, I am
come to this immediate resolution, till I have leisure to treat the
matter at large, viz., in divinity, Fathers shall be valued according
to their antiquity, schoolmen by the pound weight, and sermons by
their goodness. In my own profession, which is mostly physic, authors
shall be rated according to their language. The Greek is so rarely
understood, and the English so well, I judge them of no value, so that
only Latin shall bear a price, and that too according to its purity,
and as it serves best for prescription. In law, the value must be set
according to the intricacy and obscurity of the author, and blackness
of the letter; provided always, that the binding be of calves-skin.
This method I shall settle also with relation to all other writings;
insomuch that even these our lucubrations, though hereafter printed by
Aldus, Elzevir, or Stephanus, shall not advance above one single penny.
_White's Chocolate-house, October 12._
It will be allowed me, that I have all along showed great respect in
matters which concern the fair sex; but the inhumanity with which the
author of the following letter has been used, is not to be suffered.
"SIR,
_October 9._
"Yesterday I had the misfortune to drop in at my Lady Haughty's
upon her visiting day. When I entered the room where she receives
company, they all stood up indeed; but they stood as if they were
to stare at, rather than to receive me. After a long pause, a
servant brought a round stool, on which I sat down at the lower
end of the room, in the presence of no less than twelve persons,
gentlemen and ladies, lolling in elbow-chairs. And to complete
my disgrace, my mistress was of the society. I tried to compose
myself in vain, not knowing how to dispose of either my legs or
arms, nor how to shape my countenance; the eyes of the whole room
being still upon me in a profound silence. My confusion at last
was so great, that without speaking, or being spoken to, I fled
for it, and left the assembly to treat me at their discretion. A
lecture from you upon these inhuman distinctions in a free nation,
will, I doubt not, prevent the like evils for the future, and
make it, as we say, as cheap sitting as standing. I am with the
greatest respect,
"Sir,
Your most humble, and
Most obedient Servant,
J. R."
"_P.S._--I had almost forgot to inform you, that a fair young
lady sat in an armless chair upon my right hand with manifest
discontent in her looks."
Soon after the receipt of this epistle, I heard a very gentle knock
at my door: my maid went down, and brought up word, that a tall,
lean, black man, well dressed, who said he had not the honour to be
acquainted with me, desired to be admitted. I bid her show him up, met
him at my chamber door, and then fell back a few paces. He approached
me with great respect, and told me with a low voice, he was the
gentleman that had been seated upon the round stool. I immediately
recollected that there was a joint-stool in my chamber, which I was
afraid he might take for an instrument of distinction, and therefore
winked at my boy to carry it into my closet. I then took him by the
hand, and led him to the upper end of my room, where I placed him in
my great elbow-chair; at the same time drawing another without arms
to it, for myself to sit by him. I then asked him, at what time this
misfortune befell him? He answered, between the hours of seven and
eight in the evening. I further demanded of him, what he had eaten or
drunk that day? He replied, nothing but a dish of water-gruel, with a
few plums in it. In the next place I felt his pulse, which was very
low and languishing. These circumstances confirmed me in an opinion
which I had entertained upon the first reading of his letter, that
the gentleman was far gone in the spleen. I therefore advised him to
rise the next morning and plunge into the cold bath, there to remain
under water until he was almost drowned. This I ordered him to repeat
six days successively; and on the seventh, to repair at the wonted
hour to my Lady Haughty's, and to acquaint me afterwards with what he
shall meet with there; and particularly to tell me, whether he shall
think they stared upon him so much as the time before. The gentleman
smiled; and by his way of talking to me, showed himself a man of
excellent sense in all particulars, unless when a cane chair, a round
or a joint stool, were spoken of. He opened his heart to me at the same
time concerning several other grievances; such as, being overlooked
in public assemblies, having his bows unanswered, being helped last
at table, and placed at the back part of a coach; with many other
distresses, which have withered his countenance, and worn him to a
skeleton. Finding him a man of reason, I entered into the bottom of his
distemper. "Sir," said I, "there are more of your constitution in this
island of Great Britain than in any other part of the world; and I beg
the favour of you to tell me, whether you do not observe, that you meet
with most affronts in rainy days." He answered candidly, that he had
long observed, that people were less saucy in sunshine than in cloudy
weather. Upon which I told him plainly, his distemper was the spleen;
and that though the world was very ill-natured, it was not so bad as
he believed it. I further assured him, that his use of the cold bath,
with a course of steel which I should prescribe him, would certainly
cure most of his acquaintance of their rudeness, ill-behaviour,
and impertinence. My patient smiled, and promised to observe my
prescriptions, not forgetting to give me an account of their operation.
This distemper being pretty epidemical, I shall, for the benefit of
mankind, give the public an account of the progress I make in the cure
of it.
_From my own Apartment, October 12._
The author of the following letter behaves himself so ingenuously, that
I cannot defer answering him any longer.
"HONOURED SIR,
_October 6._
"I have lately contracted a very honest and undissembled
claudication in my left foot, which will be a double affliction to
me, if (according to your _Tatler_ of this day[224]) it must pass
upon the world for a piece of singularity and affectation. I must
therefore humbly beg leave to limp along the streets after my own
way, or I shall be inevitably ruined in coach-hire. As soon as I
am tolerably recovered, I promise to walk as upright as a ghost
in a tragedy, being not of a stature to spare an inch of height
that I can any way pretend to. I honour your lucubrations, and am,
with the most profound submission,
"Honoured Sir,
Your most dutiful and
Most obedient Servant, &c."
Not doubting but the case is as the gentleman represents, I do hereby
order Mr. Morphew to deliver him out a licence, upon paying his fees,
which shall empower him to wear a cane till the 13th of March next;
five months being the most I can allow for a sprain.
_St. James's Coffee-house, October 12._
We received this morning a mail from Holland, which brings advice, that
the siege of Mons is carried on with so great vigour and bravery, that
we hope very suddenly to be masters of the place. All things necessary
being prepared for making the assault on the hornwork and ravelin of
the attack of Bertamont, the charge began with the fire of bombs and
grenades, which was so hot, that the enemy quitted their post, and we
lodged ourselves on those works without opposition. During this storm,
one of our bombs fell into a magazine of the enemy, and blew it up.
There are advices which say, the court of France had made new offers of
peace to the confederates; but this intelligence wants confirmation.