=Motto.= "I bid the skilful poet find his models in actual life; then
his words will have life."--Horace, _Ars Poetica_, v. 327.
=195=: 11. =The Committee.= A play by Sir Robert Howard, brother-in-law
of Dryden. It was a satire on the Puritans, which explains its
reputation as "a good Church of England play."
=195=: 14. =This distressed mother.= The "new tragedy" Sir Roger went
to see was an adaptation by Addison's friend, Ambrose Phillips, of
Racine's _Andromaque_, and bore the title _The Distressed Mother_.
=196=: 1. =The Mohocks.= A company of young swaggerers who roamed the
streets of London at night, committing various insults upon belated
passers. They were specially bold at just this time. Swift has several
entries in the _Journal to Stella_ about them. March 12: "Here is the
devil and all to do with these Mohocks.... My man tells me that one
of the lodgers heard in a coffee-house, publicly, that one design of
the Mohocks was upon me if they could catch me; and though I believe
nothing of it, I forbear walking late." March 16. "Lord Winchelsea told
me to-day at court that two of the Mohocks caught a maid of old Lady
Winchelsea's, at the door of their house in the park, with a candle
and had just lighted out somebody. They cut all her face and beat her
without provocation." March 18. "There is a proclamation out against
the Mohocks. One of those that was taken is a baronet." March 26. "Our
Mohocks go on still, and cut people's faces every night, but they
shan't cut mine. I like it better as it is." Further facts about them
may be found in _Spectators_, Nos. 324, 332, 347. For a full account,
see Ashton's _Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne_, Chap. xxxvi.
=196=:23. =That we may be at the house before it is full.= The play
usually began at five o'clock.
=197=:1. =Battle of Steenkirk=, August 3, 1692, in which the English
were defeated by the French. The battle gave name to a kind of
loose cravat or neckcloth for men, introduced from Paris, which was
fashionable for years, called a "steenkirk" or "steinkirk," because its
careless style suggested the eagerness with which the victorious French
gentlemen rushed into battle half dressed.
=197=:18. =Pyrrhus=, the son of Achilles. In the play, Andromache,
the "widow" of Hector, and "the distressed mother" of young Astyanax,
after the fall of Troy is the captive of Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus wooes her,
promising that if she become his wife, her son Astyanax shall be made
king of Troy. She at last consents, secretly resolving to kill herself
before the marriage can be consummated. But Hermione, betrothed to
Pyrrhus, maddened with jealousy, incites the Greeks to rebellion
against Pyrrhus, with the result that just as Astyanax has been
proclaimed king, Pyrrhus is slain by Orestes, Hermione takes her own
life, and Orestes goes mad.
=198=:4. "=You can't imagine, sir, what 'tis to have to do with a
widow!=" But Addison, just about this time, _did_ know how that was
himself. See Introduction.
=198=: 13. =Your dramatic rules.= Perhaps the knight has in mind the
dramatic "unities" of time, place, and subject; but his next sentence
shows that he has no very definite rules in mind. He only knows that
Mr. Spectator has been writing some learned papers of late on the drama
and poetry; and he cannot see why a play so simple as this admits any
laboured criticism.
=198=: 21. =Are now to see Hector's ghost.= Because at the beginning of
the fourth act Andromache proposes to visit the tomb of Hector.
=199=: 15. =The old fellow in whiskers.= Perhaps Phenix, a friend of
Pyrrhus.