From my own Apartment, December 20, 1710.
It would be a good appendix to "The Art of Living and Dying" if any
one would write "The Art of growing Old," and teach men to resign their
pretensions to the pleasures and gallantries of youth in proportion
to the alteration they find in themselves by the approach of age and
infirmities. The infirmities of this stage of life would be much fewer
if we did not affect those which attend the more vigorous and active
part of our days; but instead of studying to be wiser, or being
contented with our present follies, the ambition of many of us is also
to be the same sort of fools we formerly have been. I have often argued,
as I am a professed lover of women, that our sex grows old with a much
worse grace than the other does; and have ever been of opinion that
there are more well-pleased old women than old men. I thought it a good
reason for this, that the ambition of the fair sex being confined to
advantageous marriages, or shining in the eyes of men, their parts were
over sooner, and consequently the errors in the performance of them. The
conversation of this evening has not convinced me of the contrary; for
one or two fop-women shall not make a balance for the crowd of coxcombs
among ourselves, diversified according to the different pursuits of
pleasure and business.
Returning home this evening, a little before my usual hour, I scarce had
seated myself in my easy-chair, stirred the fire, and stroked my cat,
but I heard somebody come rumbling upstairs. I saw my door opened, and a
human figure advancing towards me so fantastically put together that it
was some minutes before I discovered it to be my old and intimate friend
Sam Trusty. Immediately I rose up, and placed him in my own seat; a
compliment I pay to few. The first thing he uttered was, "Isaac, fetch
me a cup of your cherry brandy before you offer to ask any question." He
drank a lusty draught, sat silent for some time, and at last broke out:
"I am come," quoth he, "to insult thee for an old fantastic dotard, as
thou art, in ever defending the women. I have this evening visited
two widows, who are now in that state I have often heard you call an
after-life; I suppose you mean by it an existence which grows out of
past entertainments, and is an untimely delight in the satisfactions
which they once set their hearts upon too much to be ever able to
relinquish. Have but patience," continued he, "till I give you a
succinct account of my ladies and of this night's adventure. They are
much of an age, but very different in their characters. The one of
them, with all the advances which years have made upon her, goes on in a
certain romantic road of love and friendship, which she fell into in her
teens; the other has transferred the amorous passions of her first years
to the love of cronies, pets, and favourites, with which she is always
surrounded; but the genius of each of them will best appear by the
account of what happened to me at their houses. About five this
afternoon, being tired with study, the weather inviting, and time
lying a little upon my hands, I resolved, at the instigation of my evil
genius, to visit them; their husbands having been our contemporaries.
This I thought I could do without much trouble; for both live in the
very next street. I went first to my lady Camomile; and the butler, who
had lived long in the family, and seen me often in his master's time,
ushered me very civilly into the parlour, and told me, though my lady
had given strict orders to be denied, he was sure I might be admitted,
and bid the black boy acquaint his lady that I was come to wait upon
her. In the window lay two letters; one broken open, the other fresh
sealed with a wafer; the first directed to the divine Cosmelia, the
second to the charming Lucinda; but both, by the indented characters,
appeared to have been writ by very unsteady hands. Such uncommon
addresses increased my curiosity, and put me upon asking my old friend
the butler if he knew who those persons were. 'Very well,' says he;
'this is from Mrs. Furbish to my lady, an old schoolfellow and great
crony of her ladyship's: and this the answer.' I inquired in what county
she lived. 'Oh, dear!' says he, 'but just by, in the neighbourhood. Why,
she was here all this morning, and that letter came and was answered
within these two hours. They have taken an odd fancy, you must know, to
call one another hard names; but, for all that, they love one another
hugely.' By this time the boy returned with his lady's humble service to
me, desiring I would excuse her; for she could not possibly see me, nor
anybody else, for it was opera-night."
"Methinks," says I, "such innocent folly as two old women's courtship
to each other should rather make you merry than put you out of humour."
"Peace, good Isaac," says he, "no interruption, I beseech you. I got
soon to Mrs. Feeble's, she that was formerly Betty Frisk; you must needs
remember her; Tom Feeble, of Brazen Nose, fell in love with her for her
fine dancing. Well, Mrs. Ursula, without further ceremony, carries me
directly up to her mistress's chamber, where I found her environed by
four of the most mischievous animals than can ever infest a family; an
old shock dog with one eye, a monkey chained to one side of the chimney,
a great grey squirrel to the other, and a parrot waddling in the middle
of the room. However, for awhile all was in a profound tranquillity.
Upon the mantle-tree, for I am a pretty curious observer, stood a pot of
lambative electuary, with a stick of liquorice, and near it a phial of
rose-water, and powder of tutty. Upon the table lay a pipe filled with
betony and colt's-foot, a roll of wax-candle, a silver spitting-pot, and
a Seville orange. The lady was placed in a large wicker chair, and
her feet wrapped up in flannel, supported by cushions; and in this
attitude--would you believe it, Isaac?--was she reading a romance with
spectacles on. The first compliments over, as she was industriously
endeavouring to enter upon conversation, a violent fit of coughing
seized her. This awakened Shock, and in a trice the whole room was in an
uproar; for the dog barked, the squirrel squealed, the monkey chattered,
the parrot screamed, and Ursula, to appease them, was more clamorous
than all the rest. You, Isaac, who know how any harsh noise affects my
head, may guess what I suffered from the hideous din of these discordant
sounds. At length all was appeased, and quiet restored: a chair was
drawn for me; where I was no sooner seated, but the parrot fixed his
horny beak, as sharp as a pair of shears, in one of my heels, just above
the shoe. I sprang from the place with an unusual agility, and so, being
within the monkey's reach, he snatches off my new bob-wig, and throws
it upon two apples that were roasting by a sullen sea-coal fire. I
was nimble enough to save it from any further damage than singeing the
fore-top. I put it on; and composing myself as well as I could, I drew
my chair towards the other side of the chimney. The good lady, as soon
as she had recovered breath, employed it in making a thousand apologies,
and, with great eloquence, and a numerous train of words, lamented my
misfortune. In the middle of her harangue, I felt something scratching
near my knee, and feeling what it should be, found the squirrel had got
into my coat-pocket. As I endeavoured to remove him from his burrow, he
made his teeth meet through the fleshy part of my forefinger. This gave
me an unexpressible pain. The Hungary water was immediately brought
to bathe it, and goldbeater's skin applied to stop the blood. The lady
renewed her excuses; but, being now out of all patience, I abruptly took
my leave, and hobbling downstairs with heedless haste, I set my foot
full in a pail of water, and down we came to the bottom together." Here
my friend concluded his narrative, and, with a composed countenance,
I began to make him compliments of condolence; but he started from his
chair, and said, "Isaac, you may spare your speeches; I expect no reply.
When I told you this, I knew you would laugh at me; but the next woman
that makes me ridiculous shall be a young one."