The heavy marginal figures stand for page, and the lighter ones for line
Motto."He does not lavish at a blaze his fire,Sudden to glare and in a smoke expire;But rises from a cloud of smoke to light,And pours his specious miracles to sight."—Horace,Ars Poetica, 143. P. Francis's tr.
Motto."He does not lavish at a blaze his fire,Sudden to glare and in a smoke expire;But rises from a cloud of smoke to light,And pours his specious miracles to sight."—Horace,Ars Poetica, 143. P. Francis's tr.
Motto."He does not lavish at a blaze his fire,Sudden to glare and in a smoke expire;But rises from a cloud of smoke to light,And pours his specious miracles to sight."—Horace,Ars Poetica, 143. P. Francis's tr.
Motto."He does not lavish at a blaze his fire,
Sudden to glare and in a smoke expire;
But rises from a cloud of smoke to light,
And pours his specious miracles to sight."
—Horace,Ars Poetica, 143. P. Francis's tr.
That is, a well-planned work of art will not begin with a flash and end in smoke; but, beginning modestly, will grow more lucid and brilliant as it proceeds. Horace, in the lines immediately preceding these, quotes in translation the opening words of theOdysseyas an example of a good introduction.
The mottoes of the Spectator papers—nearly all chosen from the Latin poets—are usually, as in this case, very apt. They give a certain air of dignity and easy scholarship to the treatment of familiar themes. In a later paper (No. 221, written by Addison) the Spectator defends himself with charming humour against any charge of pedantry in the use of them.
45: 12.My own history.In this paper Addison of course is not giving us his own history; but heisgiving us a truthful picture of his own temperament. His love of reading and of travel, his dignified composure, his taciturnity, his habit of quiet observation—they are all faithfully set down.
47: 20.The measure of a pyramid.Addison perhaps had in mind the works on this subject by John Greaves (1602-1652), amathematician and antiquary; a posthumous pamphlet by him had recently (1706) been published. Addison's own travels never extended farther than Italy.
47: 28.Place of general resort.The coffee-houses played a very important part in the London life of Queen Anne's time. They were frequented by all classes,—wits and scholars, divines, politicians, men of business, and men of fashion. Each of the more famous houses had its own class of patrons, and thus served as a kind of club. Men frequently had their letters left there—as Swift used to do, instead of at his lodgings—and could count on meeting congenial acquaintances there at any time. An observant French traveler, Henri Misson, whose book was translated in 1719, gives a pleasant glimpse of the coffee-house interior: "You have all Manner of Newes there: You have a good Fire, which you may sit by as long as you please; You have a Dish of Coffee; You meet your Friends for the Transaction of Business; and all for a Penny, if you don't Care to spend more." In the better houses, cards or dicing were not allowed, and swearing and quarrelling were punished by fines.
The coffee-houses mentioned in the text were, in 1710, those most widely known. Will's, at the corner of Bow and Great Russell streets, near the Drury Lane Theatre, was the famous house where, during the last decade of the seventeenth century, the great Dryden had held his chair as literary dictator, and it was still a favourite resort both for men of letters and men of affairs; it was from Will's that Steele dated all those papers inThe Tatlerwhich were concerned with poetry. Child's, in St. Paul's church-yard, was frequented by the clergy and by men of learning; the Grecian, in Devereaux Court, just off the Strand, was also the resort of scholars and of barristers from the Temple—Steele dated from there all "accounts of learning" in hisTatler. The St James, near the foot of St. James Street, was a thoroughly Whig house, as the Cocoa Tree on the opposite side of the street was a Tory. Jonathan's, in Exchange Alley, near the heart of the city, was the headquarters ofstockjobbers. All these were coffee-houses, except the Cocoa Tree, which called itself a chocolate-house. The chocolate-houses were few in number, higher in prices, and less popular than the coffee-houses.
Steele gives a pleasant account of coffee-house customs inSpectator, No. 49. See also two papers by Addison on coffee-house talk,Spectator, Nos. 403, 568.
For a fuller account of London Coffee-houses in Addison's time, see Ashton'sSocial Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Chap. xviii, and Besant'sLondon in the Eighteenth Century, Chap. xii.
48: 5.The Postman.One of the little newspapers of the Queen Anne time, issued thrice a week and edited by a French Protestant named Fontive.
48: 11.Drury Lane and the Haymarket.These two famous theaters were, in 1710, the only ones open in London.
48: 16.Never open my lips but in my own club."Addison was perfect good company with intimates; and had something more charming in his conversation than I ever knew in any other man; but with any mixture of strangers, and sometimes only with one, he seemed to preserve his dignity much, with a stiff sort of silence." Pope, quoted in Spence'sAnecdotes, p. 38. It will be noticed that while this taciturnity and reserve were characteristics of Addison, they were utterly foreign to the disposition of Steele. Steele often talked too soon and too fast, and he threw himself most heartily into the game of life.
48: 27.Neutrality between the Whigs and Tories.The Spectator kept this resolve, though the restriction was difficult for Steele.
50: 19.Mr. Buckley's in Little Britain.Samuel Buckley was a printer who, in 1702, had started the first English daily newspaper,The Daily Courant, a little sheet 14 by 8 inches in size. He undertook to printThe Spectatorfor Steele and Addison. Little Britain is the name of a short street in London, near Smithfield.
50: 24.C.All Addison's papers inThe Spectatorare signedwith some one of the four letters forming the word Clio, the name of the muse of history. Steele's are signed R or T. InSpectator, No. 221, Addison gives a droll comment upon these "Capital Letters placed at the End of the papers."
Motto."But other six and more call out with one voice."—Juvenal,Satires, vii, 167.
51: 2.Sir Roger de Coverley."The still popular dance-tune from which Addison borrowed the name of Sir Roger de Coverley inThe Spectator, is contained in Playford'sDivision Violin, 1685; inThe Dancing Masterof 1696, and all subsequent editions."—Chappell,Popular Music of the Olden Time.
Steele says it was Swift who made the happy suggestion of calling the old knight by the name of the popular dance.
51: 4.Country-dance.This seems to be the original form of which contre-dance and contra-dance are perversions, naturally arising from the fact that in such dances the men and women stand in lines facing each other.
51: 14.Soho Square.Since the time of Charles II this had been a fashionable quarter of London, but fell into comparative disfavour as a place of residence before the close of the eighteenth century.
We do not hear again of this town residence of Sir Roger; he is considered as a country gentleman, who only makes short visits to London, and then lodges in Norfolk buildings off the Strand.
52: 1.My Lord Rochester and Sir George Etherege.John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680), and Sir George Etherege (1634-1694) enjoyed some little reputation as poets and more notoriety as rakes during the reign of Charles II. Etherege had considerable dramatic ability; but both men covered with a veneer of fine manners essentially vulgar lives, and both died drunkards.
53: 2.Bully Dawson."A swaggering sharper of Whitefriars."—Morley.
53: 2.Inner Temple.The Inns of Court are legal societies in London which have the exclusive right of admitting candidates to the bar, and provide instruction and examinations for that purpose. There are four of these Inns of Court,—Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, the Middle Temple, and the Inner Temple. The last two derive their names from the fact that they occupy buildings and gardens on the site formerly belonging to the military order of Knights Templar, which was dissolved in the fourteenth century. The famous Temple Church is the only one of the buildings of the great Knights Templar establishment that now remains. We hear but little of the Templar in the following papers; Steele did not find the character as interesting as it might have been expected he would.
53: 8.Aristotle(384-322B.C.), the greatest of Greek philosophers in his influence upon later thought, was also perhaps the greatest, as he was the first, of literary critics. The Templar probably cared quite as much for Aristotle'sRhetoricandPoeticsas for his philosophical works.
53: 9.Longinus(210-273) was the author of a treatiseOn the Sublime, more admired two centuries ago than it is to-day.
53: 9.Littleton.Sir Thomas Littleton (1402-1481), a noted English jurist, author of a famous work in French onTenures.
53: 10.Coke.The Institutes of Sir Edward Coke(1552-1634), a reprint and translation of Littleton's book, with copious comment,—hence popularly known asCoke on Littleton,—are a great authority upon the law of real property.
53: 17.Tully.Marcus Tullius Cicero.
53: 29.Exactly at five.In the Queen Anne days the play began at six, or often as early as five. The Templar is going to the Drury Lane Theatre. He passes New Inn, which was one of the buildings of the Middle Temple, crosses the Strand, and through Russell Court reaches Will's Coffee-house, where he looks in forcoffee and the news, and he has his shoes rubbed and his wig powdered at the barber's by the Rose Tavern, which stood just beside the theatre.
54: 6.Sir Andrew Freeport.Steele's Whig sympathies may be seen in this picture of the intelligent and enterprising merchant. The trading classes of England belonged then almost entirely to the Whig party; the landed aristocracy, on the other hand, country squire and country parson, were almost always Tories. See note on p. 242.
54: 22.A penny got.This would seem to be the source of Franklin's Poor Richard's maxim, "A penny saved is a penny earned."
57: 6.Hoods.The hood was an important article of woman's attire at this time. See Addison's delightful paper,Spectator, No. 265.
57: 12.The Duke of Monmouth.The natural son of Charles II, who, during the reign of James II, in 1685, invaded England and attempted to seize the crown; but was defeated in the battle of Sedgemoor,—the last battle fought on English soil,—taken prisoner, and executed on Tower Hill. He was a young man of little ability; but his personal beauty and engaging manners won him many friends. See the portrait of him as Absalom in Dryden'sAbsalom and Achitophel, 29, 30:
"His motions all accompanied with grace,And Paradise was opened in his face."
"His motions all accompanied with grace,And Paradise was opened in his face."
"His motions all accompanied with grace,And Paradise was opened in his face."
"His motions all accompanied with grace,
And Paradise was opened in his face."
58: 23.R.One of Steele's signatures. See note, p. 219.
Motto."They used to think it a great crime, even deserving of death, if a young man did not rise up in the presence of an elder."—Juvenal,Satires, xiii. 54.
59: 6.Wit and sense.These were reckoned in the Queen Anne time the cardinal virtues not only of literature, but of society.Keenness and quickness of intellect, grace of form in letters, urbanity and good breeding, brilliancy of converse in society—these were the qualities the age most admired. This paper is one of many written by Steele to protest against the divorce of these qualities from morality and religion.
59: 9.Abandoned writings of men of wit.Steele probably has especially in mind the drama of his time. English comedy was never so witty and never so abandoned as in the fifty years following the Restoration.
60: 8.Lincoln's Inn Fields.A large square just west of Lincoln's Inn, at this time much frequented by beggars and sharpers.
61: 24.Sir Richard Blackmore(1650-1729), a dull, long-winded poet of the time, whose verse has little beside its virtue to recommend it. In the Preface to his long philosophical poem,The Creation, published a few months after this paper was written, he inveighs at great length against the licentiousness and atheism of men of wit and letters; but the sentences in the text seem to be quoted, though inaccurately, from the Preface to his earlier epic,Prince Arthur(1695).
Motto."A wild beast spares his own kind."—Juvenal,Satires, xv. 159.
65: 13.The opera and the puppet-show.The absurd unrealities of the Italian opera, then recently introduced into England, were a subject of frequent sarcastic comment inThe Spectator. "Audiences," says Addison, "have often been reproached by writers for the coarseness of their taste; but our present grievance does not seem to be the want of a good taste, but of common sense." For strictures on the opera, see Nos. 1, 13, 18, 22, 29, 31.
65: 15.Dress and equipage of persons of quality.Perhaps he refers to No. 16, in which the Spectator had ventured somecriticism upon muffs and garters and fringed gloves and other "foppish ornaments."
65: 19.The city.Technically "the city" is that part of London north of the Thames from Temple Bar on the west to the Tower on the east, and extending as far as Finsbury on the north, which constituted the original walled city of London. It is the part of London under the immediate control of the lord mayor and aldermen, and its residents are "citizens." The trade and business of London was in Addison's time almost entirely—and still is very largely—included in this area.
Sir Andrew Freeport, as a merchant, of course stands up for the city.
66: 4.The wits of King Charles's time.The comedies of the writers of the time of Charles II—Farquhar, Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh—usually turn upon intrigue of which the wives and daughters of citizens are the victims.
66: 6.Horace(65-8B.C.) andJuvenal(circa60-140A.D.), the masters of Latin satire;Boileau(1636-1711), a French satirist and critic.
66: 12.Persons of the Inns of Court.SeeSpectator, No. 21.
66: 25.Fox hunters.Whatever Mr. Spectator may have said in private, it does not seem that he had thus far written any paper disparaging fox hunters. A later essay, No. 474,—not written by Addison,—is rather severe upon them. Addison's famous picture of the Tory fox hunter is found inThe Freeholder, No. 22.
67: 23.Vices ... too trivial for the chastisement of the law, and too fantastical for the cognizance of the pulpit.This is an admirable indication of the range and purpose of the Spectator's satire.
68: 16.The Roman triumvirate.Octavius, Antony, Lepidus. For the account of their "debate," see Plutarch'sLife of Mark Antonyor Shakespeare's version of it inJulius Cæsar, iv. 1.
68: 27.Punch.One Robert Powell, a hunchbacked dwarf, kept a puppet show, or "Punch's theatre," in Covent Garden. Thespeech of Punch was often very broad. See Ashton'sSocial Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, p. 215.
Motto."She had not accustomed her woman's hands to the distaff or the skeins of Minerva."—Virgil,Æneid, vii. 305.
69: 13.Leonora.A letter from a Leonora, perhaps the lady of this paper, is to be found inSpectator, No. 91.
70: 4.Great jars of china.The craze for collecting china was then at its height. It is satirized by Steele inTatler, No. 23, and by Addison in No. 10 ofThe Lover.
70: 17.Scaramouches.The Scaramouch is a typical buffoon in Italian farces; the name is derived from Scaramuccia, a famous Italian clown of the last half of the seventeenth century.
70: 20.Snuff box.This indicates that the habit of snuff taking had been adopted by fine ladies. It would seem, however, to have been a new fashion, at all events with ladies. See Steele's criticism upon the habit inSpectator, No. 344. For curious facts with reference to the use of tobacco in the Queen Anne time, see Ashton,Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Chap. xvii.
71: 3.Looking into the books, etc. The humour consists largely, of course, in the odd miscellany of books suited "to the lady and the scholar."
71: 9.Ogilby's Virgil, the first complete translation of Virgil, 1649.
71: 10.Dryden's Juvenal, 1693.
71: 11, 12, 13.Cassandra,Cleopatra, andAstraeawere translations of long-winded, sentimental French romances, the first two by La Calprenède, the third by Honoré D'Urfé.
71: 15.The Grand CyrusandCleliawere even more famous romances, by Mademoiselle de Scudéry, each in ten volumes. For delightful satire upon the taste for this sort of reading, see Steele's comedy,The Tender Husband; the heroine, Miss Biddy Tipkin, has been nourished upon this delicate literature.
71: 17.Pembroke's Arcadia.Written in 1580-1581, by Sir Philip Sidney, but published, after his death, by his sister, the Countess of Pembroke. It is the best of the Elizabethan prose romances.
71: 18.Locke.John Locke'sEssay on the Human Understanding, an epoch-making work in philosophy, published in 1690. Locke was one of the authors Leonora had "heard praised," and may have "seen"; but she evidently found better use for his book than to read it. The "patches" were bits of black silk or paper, cut in a variety of forms, which ladies stuck upon their faces, presumably to set off their complexions. SeeSpectator, No. 81. Notice the pun in this use of Locke.
71: 22.Sherlock.William Sherlock (1641-1707), dean of St. Paul's.
71: 23.The Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony, a translation of a French book of the fifteenth century,Quinze Joies de Mariage.
71: 24.Sir William Temple's Essays, published 1692.
71: 25.Malebranche's Search after Truthhad been translated from the French not long before.
72: 1.The Ladies' Calling, a popular religious book, anonymous, but ascribed to the unknown author of the most widely circulated religious book of the seventeenth century,The Whole Duty of Man.
72: 2.Mr. D'Urfey.Thomas D'Urfey (1650-1720), a playwright and humorous verse writer. His poetical writings were collected, 1720, under the title,Pills to purge Melancholy. In 1704 he publishedTales, Tragical and Comical, which is probably the book here referred to.
72: 6.Clelia.See note on 71: 15.
72: 8.Baker's Chronicle.Sir Richard Baker's Chronicleof the kings of England, 1634. Sir Roger was very familiar with this dull book. SeeSpectator, No. 329, XXVIII of this volume.
72: 9.Advice to a Daughter.By George Saville, Marquis of Halifax.
72: 10.The New Atalantis.By Mrs. Manley, who had an unsavoury reputation in London journalism during the reign of Anne. This was a scandalous romance, attacking prominent persons, especially of the Whig party, under feigned names.
72: 11.Mr. Steele's Christian Hero.See Introduction.
72: 14.Dr. Sacheverell's Speech.A Tory high-church preacher who was impeached before the House of Lords for two violent sermons assailing the Whig party. His trial caused great excitement, and was one of the events immediately preceding the downfall of the Whigs in 1710. The "speech" here mentioned is that delivered in his own defence. It is said to have been written for him by Samuel Wesley, father of John Wesley.
72: 15.Fielding's Trial.One Robert Fielding, tried for bigamy early in the century.
72: 16.Seneca's Morals.The Moral Essays of Seneca(4B.C.-65A.D.). The translation of Roger L'Estrange was popular at this time.
72: 17.Taylor's Holy Living and Dying.Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), the most eloquent of English divines.
74: 22.To give me their thoughts upon it.Some of "their thoughts" may be found in Nos. 92 and 340.
Motto."Hence shall flow to the full for thee, from kindly horn, a wealth of rural honours."—Horace,Odes, I. xvii. 14-17.
77: 7.The nature of a chaplain.The religious influence of the clergy, especially of the country clergy, was doubtless very small in the Queen Anne time. For their condition and work, see Macaulay's famous Chapter iii. in hisHistory of England; Lecky'sHistory of England in the Eighteenth Century, Chap. ii; Ashton'sSocial Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Chap. xxxii; Besant'sLondon in the Eighteenth Century, chapter on Church and Chapel. Abundant confirmation of this low estimate of the character and influence of the clergy may be found in contemporary literature. For example, see Swift'sProject for the Advancement of Religion, his satiricalArgument against the Abolishing of Christianity, andLetter to a Young Clergyman.
Yet it must be remembered that the Whig prejudices of Addison inclined him, in his kindly satire, to belittle the attainments and the influence of the country clergy, who were, almost to a man, Tories.
79: 3.Bishop of St. Asaphmay have been either William Beveridge (1637-1708) or his successor, William Fleetwood (1656-1723); both had, before this time, published volumes of sermons.
79: 4.Dr. South.Robert South (1633-1716), a very high churchman and a very eloquent preacher.
79: 6.Tillotson.John Tillotson (1630-1694), made Archbishop of Canterbury three years before his death.
79: 7.Saunderson.Robert Saunderson (1587-1663), Bishop of Lincoln.
79: 7.Barrow.Isaac Barrow (1630-1677) was eminent both as a theologian and a mathematician.
79: 7.Calamy.Edmund Calamy (1600-1666) is the only one in the chaplain's list of preachers who was not a Churchman; Calamy was a Presbyterian, though a liberal one, who served a little time as chaplain of Charles II.
Motto."The Athenians raised a colossal statue to Æsop, though a slave, and placed it on a lasting foundation, to show that the path of Honor is open to all."—Phaedrus,Epilogue, 2.
80: 4.Corruption of manners in servants.For interesting details, see Ashton'sSocial Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Chap. vi, Servants. Steele had already written a paper on the subject,Spectator, No. 88.
83: 4.Put his servants into independent livelihoods.Notethe inconsistency of the statement with those of the previous paper. The two papers were written at the same time,—they were printed on two consecutive days,—and Steele and Addison, it is evident, did not very carefully avoid slight inconsistencies.
Motto."Out of breath for naught; doing many things, yet accomplishing nothing."—Phaedrus,Fables, II. v. 3.
85: 6.Wimble.A wimble is a gimlet—the two words are probably from the same root. Possibly, as some of his editors have suggested, Addison meant to indicate that Will Wimble was a small bore. Quite as possibly he meant that the fellow was always turning about, yet making a very small hole.
86: 1.Eton.The most famous of English schools; in sight of Windsor Castle.
86: 8.Younger brother.By English law the eldest son succeeds to the family estate and titles.
86: 21.A tulip-root.About the middle of the seventeenth century there was a craze for tulips in England. The bulbs were grown in Holland, and were sold for fabulous prices. Dealing in them became a kind of speculation, and tulip bulbs were bought and sold on the exchange, as stocks are now, without changing hands at all. As much as a thousand pounds has been paid, it is said, for a single bulb. The Dutch government finally passed a law that no more than two hundred francs should be charged for one bulb. By the time this paper was written the mania had mostly passed, yet tulips were still highly prized. InThe Tatler, Addison has a pleasant paper (No. 218) telling of a cook maid who mistook a "handful of tulip-roots for a heap of onions and by that means made a dish of pottage that cost above a thousand pounds sterling." Forty years later, young Oliver Goldsmith, when a medical student in Leyden, almost beggared himself by the purchase of a parcel of tulip-roots to send to his good uncle Contarine in Ireland.
89: 1.Trading nation, like ours.In such passages as this Addison betrays his Whig sympathies. The trading and moneyed classes, it will be remembered, were all in the Whig party; the landed aristocracy, in the Tory party. InSpectator, No. 21,—referred to in the closing lines of this paper,—he dwells at length on the opportunities and advantages of the business life as compared with the overcrowded professions.
Motto."Wise, but not by rule."—Horace.Satires, II. ii. 3.
90: 19.Harry the Seventh.Henry VII, king of England, 1485-1509.
90: 19.Yeomen of the guard.The bodyguard of the sovereign, numbering one hundred, who attend him at banquets and other state occasions. They are popularly called "beefeaters," and still wear the uniform here described. The wardens of the Tower of London wear a uniform differing but slightly from that of the yeomen of the guard.
90: 28.The Tilt-yardoccupied not only a part of the "common street," now called Whitehall, but the greater part of the "parade ground" in St. James's Park, just behind the Horse Guards building.
91: 14.The coffee-house.Jenny Man's coffee-house, one of the best known in London, stood on the spot now occupied by the paymaster general's office.
91: 24.New-fashioned petticoat.The hooped petticoat has made its appearance, in various forms, at various times, throughout the history of British female attire. Sir Roger's grandmother apparently wore what was called the "wheel farthingale," a drum-shaped petticoat worn in the late sixteenth century. The form in vogue in Addison's time—it came in about 1707—was bell shaped, and of most liberal dimensions. For some admirable fooling upon it, seeSpectator, No. 127, andTatler, No. 116, both by Addison.
92: 4.White-pot.Made of cream, rice, sugar, and cinnamon, etc. It was a favourite Devonshire dish, as the famous "clotted cream" of Devon is now.
93: 9.Sir Andrew Freeport has said.Sir Andrew characteristically stands up for the citizens and the moneyed interest. Later on he reminds Sir Roger of the obligation of his family to trade. SeeSpectator, No. 174, XXVII of this volume.
93: 15.Turned my face.Note the delicate courtesy of the Spectator.
94: 20.The battle of Worcester, September 3, 1651, in which Cromwell defeated the Scots, supporters of Charles II.
Motto."All things are full of horror and affright,And dreadful e'en the silence of the night."—Virgil,Æneid, ii. 755. Dryden's tr.
Motto."All things are full of horror and affright,And dreadful e'en the silence of the night."—Virgil,Æneid, ii. 755. Dryden's tr.
Motto."All things are full of horror and affright,And dreadful e'en the silence of the night."—Virgil,Æneid, ii. 755. Dryden's tr.
Motto."All things are full of horror and affright,
And dreadful e'en the silence of the night."
—Virgil,Æneid, ii. 755. Dryden's tr.
95: 9.Psalms, cxlvii. 9.
96: 20.Mr. Locke, in his chapter.Essay on the Human Understanding, Bk. ii, Chap. xxxiii.
98: 12.The relations of particular persons who are now living.Addison's opinion as to the reality of ghosts and apparitions was shared by most people of his time, the thoughtful and educated as well as the ignorant.
98: 17.Lucretius.A Roman poet of the century before Christ, whose one work,De Rerum Natura, is a philosophic poem, showing much subtlety of thought. The "notion" referred to in the text is found in the early part of the Fourth Book of theDe Rerum Natura.
99: 4.Josephus(37-95A.D.). The Jewish historian. The passage is found in hisAntiquities of the Jews, Bk. xvii, Chap. xiii.
Motto."First honour the immortal gods, as it is commanded by law."—Pythagoras,Fragments.
101: 20.Instruct them rightly in the tunes of the Psalms.The service in the parish churches throughout England at this time was slovenly and spiritless. Samuel Wesley, father of John, who was then rector of the parish of Epworth, complains that his people prefer the "sorry Sternhold Psalms," have "a strange genius at understanding nonsense," and sing decently only "after it has cost a pretty deal to teach them."
103: 10.The clerk's place.In the English parishes the clerk is the layman who leads in reading the responses of the church service.
103: 23.Tithe stealers.Tithes are a tax, estimated as a tenth (tithe) of the annual profits from land and stock, appropriated for the support of the clergy. The tithes in England are now commuted to rent charges.
Motto."(Her) features remain imprinted on (his) heart."—Virgil,Æneid, iv. 4.
105: 1.The perverse widow.Ingenious commentators have thought to identify the lady with a certain Mrs. Catherine Bovey, to whom Steele dedicated the second volume of hisLadies Library; but it seems altogether improbable that Steele and Addison would intend any of their characters as actual portraits.
108: 20.Such a desperate scholar that no country gentleman can approach her.It is probable that Sir Roger's estimate of the scholarship of country gentlemen in his time does them no great injustice. Macaulay says of the country squire at the end of the seventeenth century: "If he went to school and to college, he generally returned before he was twenty to the seclusion of theold hall, and then, unless his mind was very happily constituted by nature, soon forgot his academical pursuits in rural business and pleasures. His chief serious employment was the care of his property.... His chief pleasures were commonly derived from field sports and from unrefined sensuality. His language and pronunciation were such as we should now expect to hear only from the most ignorant clowns."—History of England, Chap. iii.
109: 20.Sphinx.The sphinx was sent by Juno to devastate the country of the Thebans, until some one could answer her riddle, "What animal goes on four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three at night?" [OE]dipus gave the right answer, "Man," and so saved his countrymen.
110: 3.Her tucker.The tucker was an edging of muslin or lace at the top of the dress, covering the neck and bosom.
110: 8.Some tansy.A kind of pudding flavored with tansy.
110: 24.Dum tacet hanc loquitur.Even when silent he is speaking of her.
110: 25.Epigram.Martial,Epigram, I. lxviii. The last two lines of the epigram are not quoted.
Motto."The shame of poverty and the fear of it."—Horace,Epistles, I. xviii. 24.
111: 16.The glass was taken ... pretty plentifully.The Queen Anne men were not very temperate. Says Mr. Lecky: "The amount of hard drinking among the upper classes was still very great, and it is remarkable how many of the most conspicuous characters were addicted to it. Addison, the foremost moralist of his time, was not free from it. Oxford, whose private character was in most respects singularly high, is said to have come, not infrequently, drunk into the very presence of the Queen."—England in the Eighteenth Century, Chap. iii.
Swift writes in hisJournal to Stella, October 31, 1710: "I dined with Mr. Addison and Dick Stuart. They were both half fuddled; but not I."
113: 13, 19.Laertes ... Irus.Classical names were frequently taken for imaginary personages by the writers of this time. Laertes, in Homer'sOdyssey, is the father of Ulysses, and Irus is a beggar.
113: 16.Four shillings in the pound.Laertes evidently has to pay three hundred pounds a year interest on his mortgage of six thousand pounds, which is one fifth of his whole income, or "four shillings in the pound."
113: 18.Easier in his own fortune.Because, of course, he has to pay taxes on his whole estate.
114: 25.Mr. Cowley.Abraham Cowley (1618-1667), one of the most popular poets of the second third of the seventeenth century. The vogue of his poetry, however, rapidly declined; but his prose essays are still very pleasant reading. The essay which Steele seems to refer to in the latter part of this paragraph is that onGreatness, which closes with a translation of Horace's Ode,Odi profanum, Bk. iii. 1.
114: 28.The elegant author who published his works.Thomas Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, who issued a complete edition of Cowley's Poetical Works, prefaced with a Life, in 1680. Sprat'sLife of Cowleyis one of the most interesting pieces of biography of the seventeenth century.
115: 5.Great vulgar.The phrase is from the second line of Cowley's translation of theOdi profanumof Horace, above mentioned:
"Hence, ye profane! I hate ye all,Both the great vulgar and the small."
"Hence, ye profane! I hate ye all,Both the great vulgar and the small."
"Hence, ye profane! I hate ye all,Both the great vulgar and the small."
"Hence, ye profane! I hate ye all,
Both the great vulgar and the small."
But Steele's sentence is certainly obscure.
116: 11.If e'er ambition did my fancy cheat, etc. These lines are Cowley's own, and are inserted in the essay onGreatness.
Motto."That there may be a sound mind in a sound body."—Juvenal,Satires, x. 356.
117: 21.Ferments the humours.It was an old medical notion that in the body there are fourhumoursor fluids,—blood, phlegm, choler, and bile,—and that health depended upon the due proportion and mixture of these humours. This conception influenced popular language, after it was in great part discarded by more accurate medical knowledge. It will be noticed throughout this paper that Addison's hygiene is better than his physiology.
117: 28.Refining those spirits.The name animal spirits was given to a subtle fluid which, according to ancient medical notions, permeated the body and served in some way as the medium of sensation and volition. In its looser and more recent use the phrase means little more than nervous energy or sometimes physical vivacity.
118: 3.The spleenwas supposed to be the seat of melancholy or fretfulness, hence was often used for the melancholy itself.
118: 5.Vapours.The blues, especially used of women.
120: 8.Dr. Sydenham.Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), the most noted physician of his time, surnamed "the English Hippocrates."
120: 12.Medicina Gymnastica,or a Treatise concerning the Power of Exercise, by Francis Fuller, published in 1704.
120: 14.Exercise myself an hour every morning.It may be doubted whether Mr. Addison kept up this healthful practice. At all events, like most of the fat club goers of the age, he gave evidence in his later years of the need of more vigorous physical exercise, and he died at the early age of forty-seven.
120: 23.A Latin treatise of exercises.Artis Gymnasticae apud antiquos, by Hieronymus Mercurialis, Venice, 1569.
This paper and XXX of the present collection were written by Eustace Budgell. This sanguine, brilliant, but ill-starred young man was a cousin of Addison's, an Oxford graduate, and a writer of considerable promise. He was introduced to public life by Addison, whom he accompanied as clerk when Addison went to Ireland as secretary. For a time Budgell was a member of the Irish Parliament, and seemed to have a successful career in prospect both in politics and in letters; but he became involved in unfortunate financial speculations, especially in the notorious South Sea Bubble, was guilty of forgery in his efforts to extricate himself, and finally, in despair, drowned himself in the Thames.
Motto."Cithaeron calls aloud and the dogs on Mount Taygetus."—Virgil,Georgics, iii. 43.
Cithaeron and Taygetus were mountains, the one in Boeotia and the other in Laconia.
121: 18.The Bastile(modern spelling, Bastille). The famous prison, for prisoners of state, in Paris; destroyed at the beginning of the French Revolution, July 14, 1789. The 14th of July is still a national holiday in France.
123: 19.Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. 1. 124.
126: 20.Threw down his pole.Such of the hunters as followed the chase on foot usually carried long vaulting poles, by the aid of which they could leap hedges, ditches, or miry places, and thus, by going cross country, often keep as close to the dogs as the mounted huntsmen. See Ashton'sSocial Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Chap. xxiii.
127: 7.Pascal.Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French geometrician and philosopher, and one of the most acute thinkers of his century. His later years were passed in the celebrated community of Port Royal, where his metaphysical and religious works were written. After his death, a number of fragmentary papers intendedfor a work in defence of Christianity, which he did not live to finish, were collected and published under the titlePensées de M. Pascal sur la Religion(Thoughts of Pascal upon Religion). It is from the seventh section (Misère de l'homme) of this work that the quotation in the text is taken.
127: 27.Too great an application to his studies in his youth.Pascal wrote a famous Latin treatise on Conic Sections at the age of sixteen, invented a calculating machine at the age of nineteen, and before he was twenty-one was accounted one of the first mathematicians of the world. But he says that from the age of eighteen he never passed a day without pain.
128: 10.Lines out of Mr. Dryden.John Dryden (1631-1700), the representative English poet of the last half of the seventeenth century. The lines quoted are from his Epistle XV, to his cousin of the same name as himself, John Dryden of Chesterton, a robust, fox-hunting bachelor. The epistle is a good example of Dryden's masculine common-sense.
Motto."They make their own visions."—Virgil,Eclogues, viii. 108.
129: 9.The subject of witchcraft.The Spectator was less credulous, on this matter of witchcraft, than most of his contemporaries. The witchcraft craze in Salem, Massachusetts, occurred in 1692; only a few years before this paper was written, two women had been hanged in Northampton, England, for witchcraft; and as late as 1716 a certain Mrs. Hicks and her daughter were executed in Huntingdon for selling their souls to the devil, etc. The statute of James I, 1603, punishing witchcraft by death, was not repealed until 1736; and the belief in witchcraft continued to be common long after that, not only among the ignorant, but among the educated. John Wesley, on most matters a man of very sound practical judgement, writes in hisJournalas late as 1770: "I cannot give up toall the Deists in Great Britain the existence of witchcraft till I give up the credit of all history, sacred and profane. And at the present time I have not only as strong but stronger proofs of this from eye and ear witnesses than I have of murder; so that I cannot rationally doubt of one any more than the other." And Samuel Johnson, when questioned by Boswell on the matter, while he would "not affirm anything positively upon the subject," reminded Mr. Boswell that in support of witchcraft "You have not only the general report and belief, but many solemn, voluntary confessions." (Boswell'sLife of Samuel Johnson, April 9, 1772.)
For an account of the kind of evidence used against alleged witches, see a case cited in Ashton'sSocial Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Chap. x.
130: 19.Otway.Thomas Otway (1651-1685), the best tragic dramatist of the Restoration period. The passage is from his tragedy,The Orphan, ii. 1.
131: 8.Carried her several hundreds of miles.In accordance with the superstition that a witch rode through the air at night on a broomstick. Other superstitions are referred to in the following lines.
131: 15.Take a pin of her.Because bewitched people were frequently said to be tormented with pins, or to be made to vomit pins. The pins that figured so conspicuously in the Salem witchcraft trials may still be seen in the Museum there.
132: 5.A tabby cat.A black cat was traditionally supposed to be a favourite form in which Satan embodied himself, and hence a constant figure in all witchcraft stories.
132: 15.Advising her, as a justice of peace.This sentence admirably indicates Sir Roger's half belief in the preternatural powers of the old woman, and his anxiety to avoid any trouble that would oblige him to come to a conclusion in the matter.
132: 24.Trying experiments with her.Because, if she floated, she was accounted a witch; if she sank, she was probably innocent, and they might pull her out.