Motto."In [his] side is fixed the fatal arrow."—Virgil,Æneid, iv. 73.
Motto."In [his] side is fixed the fatal arrow."—Virgil,Æneid, iv. 73.
Motto."In [his] side is fixed the fatal arrow."—Virgil,Æneid, iv. 73.
Motto."In [his] side is fixed the fatal arrow."
—Virgil,Æneid, iv. 73.
Motto."The city they call Rome, I had been foolish enough, Melibæus, to suppose like this town of ours."—Virgil,Eclogues, i. 20.
140: 11.The fashionable world is grown free and easy.This tendency in manners began to be more marked after the Restoration, 1660. Some reaction toward a more formal and elaborate courtesy in the world of fashion could be seen about the middle of the eighteenth century, under the influence of such men as Lord Chesterfield.
For some account of manners in the Queen Anne time, see Ashton,Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Chaps. vii, viii; Trail'sSocial England, Chaps. xvi, xvii. For telling contemporary satire, see Swift'sPolite Conversation.
143: 2.Red coats and laced hatswere fashionable twenty years before Addison was writing. In 1711 the coat was likely to be of some more quiet color, though in great variety of shades. At just this time the skirts were "wired" to make them stand out—as may be seen by a reference inSpectator, No. 145. The laced hat had been replaced by a low-crowned, black felt hat, with very wide brim, which was looped up or "cocked." For the variety of shapes into which the dandy would cock his hat, and other information on the hat, seeSpectator, No. 319.
143: 4.The height of their head-dresses.The head-dress had evidently been much lowered within a few years. Addison, inSpectator, No. 98, declares that "within my own memory I have known it rise and fall about thirty degrees." In the latter half of the century, about 1775, it again attained proportions even more startling than in Addison's day.
Motto."A jovial companion on the way is as good as a carriage."—Publius Syrus,Maxims.
144: 9.Assizes.The periodical sessions held by at least one of the superior judges in every county in England. For a brief but clear description of the English judicial system, see Woodrow Wilson'sThe State, sections 731-745.
144: 16.Just within the Game Act.This act, passed in the reign of James I, provided that no person who had not an income of forty pounds a year, or two hundred pounds' worth of goods and chattels, should be allowed to shoot game. The law continued in force until 1827.
144: 23.Petty jury.The twelve men selected to determine cases, civil or criminal, in court, according to the evidence presented to them; called petty (or petit) jury to distinguish them from thegrand jury, whose principal function is to decide whether the evidence against a suspected person is sufficient to warrant holding him for trial by a petty jury.
144: 27.Quarter sessions.A criminal court held by the justices of the peace once a quarter in an English county.
145: 20.Much might be said on both sides.Sir Roger's decision has passed into a proverb.
146: 12.A look of much business and great intrepidity.One of Addison's best bits of description.
147: 19.The Saracen's Head.In early days, before city streets were numbered, not only inns but shops usually were designated by some sign painted or carved at the door. In the case of inns this practice still survives, and most English inns of the county towns bear the name of some object that once served as a sign, as the Angel (Lincoln), the Fountain (Canterbury), the Bull (Cambridge), the Three Swans (Salisbury). Ever since the time of the Crusades the head of a Saracen, or Turk, had been a favourite sign. Readers of Boswell'sLife of Samuel Johnsonwillrecall the Turk's Head Tavern in Gerrard Street, London, where the most famous of clubs used to meet.
Motto."Learning improves native genius, and right training strengthens the character; but bad morals will bring to shame the best advantages of truth."—Horace,Odes, iv. 33.
149: 23.A story I have heard.Addison probably invented this story, and he certainly thought well of it himself. On the same day this paper was printed he sent to his friend Edward Wortley Montague a letter beginning thus: "Being very well pleased with this day'sSpectator, I cannot forbear sending you one of them, and desiring your opinion of the story in it. When you have a son, I shall be glad to be his Leontine, as my circumstances will probably be like his." The tone of discouragement in the last clause is explained by Addison's statements, later in the letter, that he has recently lost large sums of money, "and what is worse than all the rest, my mistress." The Countess of Warwick was evidently not smiling upon him just then, and Addison saw himself in the future—if not like Leontine, a widower—a bachelor in humble circumstances.
149: 27.Like a novel.The wordnovelwas introduced into English in the sixteenth century as a name for the Italiannovelle, or short tales, translations of which were then very numerous in England. In Addison's time it was still used to designate a short story as distinguished from the longer romances like those in theLadies Library(V of this volume). The modern novel, an extended narrative of real life, with careful plot usually having for its central motion the passion of love, was not yet written in English. It is usually said to begin with the work of Richardson and Fielding, 1740-1750.
150: 14.Gazette.The official journal of the government.Steele, it will be remembered, had been gazetteer from May, 1707, to October, 1710, when the Whigs went out of power.
150: 23.According to Mr. Cowley."You would advise me not to precipitate that resolution [of retiring from public life] but to stay a while longer with patience and complaisance, till I had gotten such an estate as might afford me (according to the saying of that person whom you and I love very much and would believe as soon as another man) 'cum dignitate otium.' That were excellent advice to Joshua, who could bid the sun stay too. But there is no fooling with life when it is once turned beyond forty. The seeking for a fortune then is but a desperate after-game."—Cowley's Essay,The Danger of Procrastination. Also see note, p. 234.
150: 29.Of three hundred a year,i.e.yielding an income of three hundred pounds a year.
152: 19.Inns of Court.See note, p. 221.
Motto."This thirst of kindred blood, my sons, detest,Nor turn your force against your country's breast."—Virgil,Æneid, vi. 832. Dryden's tr.
Motto."This thirst of kindred blood, my sons, detest,Nor turn your force against your country's breast."—Virgil,Æneid, vi. 832. Dryden's tr.
Motto."This thirst of kindred blood, my sons, detest,Nor turn your force against your country's breast."—Virgil,Æneid, vi. 832. Dryden's tr.
Motto."This thirst of kindred blood, my sons, detest,
Nor turn your force against your country's breast."
—Virgil,Æneid, vi. 832. Dryden's tr.
155: 1.The malice of parties.Party feeling had perhaps never been more bitter in England than just at this time; and it was probably all the more bitter and personal because there were no very clear questions at issue between the two parties. Swift, writing in the ToryExaminera few months before the date of this paper (November 16, 1710), says, "Let any one examine a reasonable honest man, of either side, upon those opinions in religion and government, which both parties daily buffet each other about, he shall hardly find one material point in difference between them." The principal questions upon which Whig and Tory had once actively differed, and still continued to differ in theory, were two. The first was the nature of the monarchy and its relation to the other parts of the government. The extreme Tories held that the kinghad a divine right to his throne, by hereditary succession; that this was indefeasible, and implied the duty of unconditional obedience from the subject. The extreme Whigs held that the king was the creation of the people, and held his office purely by act of Parliament. But it would have been difficult to find many such extreme Tories or extreme Whigs. The doctrine of the divine right of kings had been practically refuted by the Revolution of 1688; if there were any such right, then the crown belonged, not to Anne, but to the Pretender, son of James II. On the other hand, few Whigs would have denied that the monarchy was an essential part of the English system of government, and not the mere creature of parliament.
The other and more important subject of difference between the two parties was the relation of the Church to the State and to Dissent. The Tories were Churchmen, and held that the interests of the Church and of religion demanded more constant and detailed attention from the State, and more stringent measures to repress dissent. They always called themselves the Church party; Queen Anne never called them anything else. The Whigs, on the other hand, though many of them were good Churchmen, apprehended less danger from dissent and were more liberal toward it. The Dissenters themselves, of course, were all Whigs.
There was, however, another difference between the two parties quite as important as any speculative question, and daily growing more important. As was stated in the Introduction, the most significant social fact in the England of the first half of the eighteenth century is the growth of a great middle, commercial class, who were gaining wealth rapidly and filling up the towns. At the bottom of much political controversy between 1700 and 1715 was the undefined jealousy between this class and the landed class. It was trade against land, new wealth against old aristocracy, town against country. For this commercial class almost to a man were Whigs; the landed gentry and their dependants, country squires and country parsons, almost to a man, were Tories.
This jealousy became extremely bitter about 1710. During allthe reign of Anne, England had been engaged in the great war of the Spanish succession, the real object of which was to prevent the virtual union of the crowns of France and Spain. The war was heartily supported from the first by the Whigs, but opposed, or only languidly supported, by the Tories. A successful war is always popular, and strengthens the party that favours it most; accordingly, through the earlier years of the reign, when the English general Marlborough was winning his famous victories, the Whigs had everything their own way, and by 1708 the government was entirely in their hands. But as the war, however successful, seemed no nearer ending, and its burdens began to press more heavily, Tory opposition strengthened, and party feeling grew more and more intense. The financial load fell mostly on the Tory or landed class; for, as the Tories said, so soon as ever a trading Whig could get a thousand pounds, he put it into government securities, which he had to pay no tax upon, while the land had to pay him a handsome rate of interest. This opposition to the Whigs, strengthened by a feeling that the cause of the church and of religion was endangered by Whig supremacy, grew to such volume that in the memorable elections of 1710 the Whigs were defeated, and a Tory majority brought into the Commons. The Whig ministers were dismissed; Marlborough, the great general, a little later was recalled from the army; and finally the queen took the unprecedented step of creating twelve new Tory peers, and so making a Tory majority in the House of Lords also.
It was in these stormy years thatThe Spectatorappeared. In the tumult of partisan controversy Addison succeeded in keeping his paper out of the strife. He was a pronounced Whig himself, and his preferences are plainly enough to be seen even in these papers; but he sincerely deprecated the rancorous tone of party writing, and he wisely refused to allowThe Spectatorto become the organ of a party. Steele had more difficulty in restraining his pen, and finally retired fromThe Spectatorrather than remain quiet on public questions.
155: 4.Roundheads and Cavaliers.The Puritans, during the term of the Civil War, were nicknamed Roundheads because they wore their hair short (as everybody does now), instead of allowing it to fall over their shoulders as was the fashion with the Royalists or Cavaliers.
155: 6.St. Anne's Lane.Probably the lane of that name in Westminster, near the Abbey.
155: 12.Prick-eared cur.A dog with pointed ears. The epithet was applied to the Puritans, because they wore their hair short, and their ears were not covered by long locks.
156: 4.Tend to the prejudice of the land-tax.Sir Roger naturally finds the mischiefs of parties to come mostly from the Whigs, who support the war, and so raise the land tax.
156: 25.Plutarch.The Greek historian and moralist, born about 46A.D.HisLivesare perhaps the most interesting work of biography in the world. The quotation in the text is from his other principal work, theMorals.
157: 5.That great rule.Lukevi. 27-29.
157: 8.Many good men ... alienated from one another.It is probable Addison had especially in mind his own old friendship with Swift, which had grown very chill of late on account of their political differences. As early as December 14, 1710, when he began to be intimate with the new Tory ministry, Swift writes in theJournal to Stella, "Mr. Addison and I are as different as black and white, and I believe our friendship will go off by this damned business of party." A month later, January 14, 1711, he says, "At the coffee-house talked coldly awhile with Mr. Addison; all our friendship and dearness are off; we are civil acquaintances, talk words, of course, of when we shall meet, and that is all."
158: 26.Guelphs and Ghibellines.The two great political parties in Italy, fiercely opposed to each other from the middle of the twelfth to the end of the fifteenth century. The Guelphs or popular party, supported the pope; the Ghibellines, or aristocratic party, the emperor.
158: 27.The League.The Holy Catholic League, formed in France, 1546, to resist the claims of Henry IV to the throne, and check the advance of Protestantism.
Motto."Trojan or Rutulian, it shall be the same to me."—Virgil,Æneid, x. 108.
161: 24.Diodorus Siculus.A Greek historian of the first century, born—as the name implies—in Sicily. He wrote aHistorical Library, of which only a part is preserved.
162: 19.The spirit of party reigns more in the country.Here speaks the Whig prejudice of Addison; Sir Roger himself might have thought differently.
162: 29.Tory fox hunters.See Addison's account of a typical Tory fox hunter inThe Freeholder, No. 22.
164: 23.Fanatic.The term was frequently applied to the Puritans, and later to Dissenters.
Motto."They find their constant delight in gathering new spoils, and living upon plunder."—Virgil,Æneid, vii. 748.
166: 2.Set the heads of our servant-maids so agog,i.e.by telling their fortunes.
166: 6.Crosses their hands with a piece of silver.It was customary to make the sign of the cross upon the hand of the gipsy with the coin given him—probably with a view to avert any evil influence from such doubtful characters.
166: 23.A Cassandra of the crew.Cassandra, daughter of Priam, king of Troy, had been given by Apollo the gift of prophecy; but the god, afterward offended by her, rendered the gift futile by decreeing that she should never be believed.
Motto."Once more, ye woods, farewell."—Virgil,Eclogues, x. 63.
171: 2.Spring anything to my mind.The metaphors in this and the following lines are drawn from the chase. To "spring" is to rouse game from cover; to "put up" has much the same meaning.
171: 6.Foil the scent.When a variety of game is started, and their trails cross, the dogs become confused and cannot follow any one.
171: 14.My love of solitude, taciturnity.See paper I of this volume.
171: 28.White Witch.Called "white" because doing good; most witches were believed to practise a black art.
172: 10.Some discarded Whig.Discarded, or he would not have been staying in the country among Tories.
173: 19.Stories of a cock and a bull.Any idle or absurd story. The phrase in this form or in the other now more common, "a cock-and-bull story," has been common in English for nearly three hundred years; but its origin is not known.
173: 25.Make every mother's son of us Commonwealth's men.Sir Andrew Freeport, it will be remembered, was a pronounced Whig, and the Whigs were charged with having inherited the doctrines and traditions of the Commonwealth.
Motto."We call that man impertinent who does not see what the occasion demands, or talks too much, or makes a display of himself, or does not have regard for the company he is in."—Cicero,De Oratore, ii. 4.
174: 5.Ready for the stage-coach.By 1710 coaches ran regularly between London and most larger towns in England. The best were called "flying-coaches," were drawn by six horses, and sometimes made eighty miles a day. They did not run at night. The fare was about three pence the mile.
174: 7.The chamberlainwas the chief servant of an inn.
174: 9.Mrs. Betty Arable.The titleMrs.was applied to unmarried ladies, the termMissbeing reserved for young girls and for people who misbehaved themselves.
174: 13.Ephraim, the Quaker.The name was frequently applied to Quakers, because Ephraim "turned his back in battle." SeePsalmlxxviii.
177: 26.The right we had of taking place.Roads were very narrow, and two coaches meeting often found it difficult to pass; hence disputes of the coachmen as to the right of way.
Motto."I recall the argument, and remember that Thyrsis was vanquished."—Virgil,Eclogues, vii. 69.
179: 9.The old Roman fable.The fable of the Belly and the Members, told in Livy, Bk. ii, Chap. xxxii; retold by Shakespeare inCoriolanus, i. 1. 99.
179: 13.The landed and trading interest.See note, p. 242.
180: 3.Carthaginian faith.Punica fides, a phrase used by the Romans to characterize the treachery of the Carthaginians.
183: 21.Throws down no man's enclosure, and tramples upon no man's corn, as country gentlemen do when hunting over the grounds of their neighbours or their tenants.
184: 22.His family had never been sullied by a trade.It will be remembered that Sir Roger was sensitive on this point. See IX, p. 89.
Motto."Simplicity, in our age most rare."—Ovid,Ars Amoris, i. 241.
Motto."Simplicity, in our age most rare."—Ovid,Ars Amoris, i. 241.
Motto."Simplicity, in our age most rare."—Ovid,Ars Amoris, i. 241.
Motto."Simplicity, in our age most rare."
—Ovid,Ars Amoris, i. 241.
185: 15.Gray's Inn Walks.The walks and gardens of Gray's Inn (see note, p. 221) were a favourite resort.
185: 18.Prince Eugene.Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), a famous Austrian general. He had fought side by side with Marlborough through several campaigns in the great War of the Spanish Succession that was now drawing to a close. At this time Marlborough had just been dismissed from his command in the army (see p. 244), and the English Tory ministry were making negotiations for a peace. Prince Eugene visited London to urge the continuance of the war and the restoration of Marlborough, but his mission was futile.
186: 5.Scanderbeg.Corrupt form of Iskander (Alexander) Bey; a noted Albanian chief, whose name was George Castriota, born 1404. He won many victories against the Turks.
186: 24.Out of Dr. Barrow.See VI, p. 79. Dr. Isaac Barrow (1630-1677) was one of the most eloquent divines of his age.
187: 1.Tobacco stopper.A small plug, made of wood or bone, to pack the tobacco in the bowl of a pipe.
188: 14.The late Act of Parliament, theAct to repress Occasional Conformity, passed 1710. By the Test Act of 1673 it was required of every person filling any civil office that he should take the sacrament, at certain times, according to the forms of the Church of England. The object, of course, was to exclude all Romanists and all Dissenters from office. But it was found that many Dissenters did not feel themselves forbidden by conscience to take the sacrament occasionally from the hands of a priest of the Church of England, if only so they could qualify for office. A bill to prevent this "Occasional Conformity" was warmly urged through all the earlier years of the reign of Anne; but so long as the Whigs were in power, it was impossible to pass it. When the Tories came in, in 1710, they naturally passed it at once.
188: 19.Plum-porridge.Extreme Dissenters looked with disfavour upon all Christmas festivities as savouring of Romish observance.
188: 28.The Pope's Procession.November 17, the anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth, was long celebratedby parades and processions in which the pope and Catholic traditions were turned into ridicule. These parades were often the occasion of popular tumult; but, in 1711, some of the more violent Whigs planned an especially offensive demonstration, which had to be suppressed by the authorities. Swift writes on the evening of the day: "This is Queen Elizabeth's birth-day" [he was in error there; it was not her birth, but her accession, that was celebrated], "usually kept in this town by apprentices, etc.; but the Whigs designed a mighty procession by midnight, and had laid out a thousand pounds to dress up the pope, devil, cardinals, Sacheverel, etc., and carry them with torches about, and burn them.... But they were seized last night, by order of the secretary; you will have an account of it, for they bawl it about the streets already. They had some very foolish and mischievous designs; and it was thought they would have put the rabble upon assaulting my lord treasurer's house, and the secretary's; and other violences. The militia was raised to prevent it, and now, I suppose, all will be quiet."—Journal to Stella, November 17, 1711.
Addison naturally rather minimizes the disturbance by the absurd question of Sir Roger.
189: 10.Baker's Chronicle.See note, p. 226. TheChroniclewas a favourite authority with Sir Roger; in the next paper we find him quoting it at length.
189: 16.Squire's.A coffee-house in Holborn, near Gray's Inn, specially frequented by the benchers of the inn.
189: 23.The Supplement.A newspaper of the time, issued on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Motto."Yet we must go whither Numa and Ancus have gone before."—Horace,Epistles, I. vi. 27.
190: 2.Paper upon Westminster Abbey,Spectator, No. 26. That paper with this one perhaps show Addison, in two different moods, at his very best.
190: 17.The Widow Trueby's Water.The "strong waters" of that time, like many of the patent medicines of ours, owed their vogue largely to the fact that they were made of distilled spirits. See Addison's account of some of the quack medicines of the day inTatler, No. 224.
191: 11.The sickness being at Dantzic.The great plague there in 1709.
191: 14.A hackney-coach.Hackney-coaches, or carriages for hire in the streets, were introduced into London during the latter half of the seventeenth century. By Addison's time they had become common; in 1710, by statute, the number to be licensed in London was fixed at eight hundred. The fare was a mile and a half for a shilling. The coachmen were an uncivil and pugnacious class, which accounts for Sir Roger's preference for an elderly one. Graphic pictures of the manners of coachmen may be found in Gay'sTrivia, ii. 230-240, 311-315; iii. 35-50.
192: 10.A roll of their best Virginia.Tobacco for smoking was made into ropes or short rolls, and had to be cut up for the pipe.
192: 16.Sir Cloudesley Shovel.A famous English admiral, who took a prominent part in the great victory of the combined Dutch and English fleets over the French, off La Hogue, in May, 1692. He was afterward drowned at sea; but his body was recovered and buried in the Abbey. The monument to Sir Cloudesley Shovel Addison, in No. 26, criticizes as in bad taste, and with very good reason.
192: 18.Busby's tomb.Richard Busby (1606-1695), for fifty-five years headmaster of Westminster school. He used to say that "the rod was his sieve, and that whoever could not pass through that was no boy for him." He persistently kept his hat on when Charles II came to visit his school, saying it would never do for his boys to imagine there was anybody superior to himself.
192: 23.The little chapel on the right hand.St. Edmund's, in the south aisle of the choir.
192: 26.The lord who had cut off the King of Morocco's head.An inscription recording this feat—probably legendary—formerly hung over the tomb of Sir Bernard Brocas, who was beheaded on Tower Hill, 1400.
193: 1.Cecil upon his knees.William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth. He is represented "on his knees" at the magnificent tomb of his wife and daughter. This tomb, however, is not in the chapel of St. Edmund, but in the adjoining chapel of St. Nicholas.
193: 3.Who died by the prick of a needle.This story was formerly told of Lady Elizabeth Russell, whose richly decorated tomb is in St. Edmund's chapel.
193: 10.The two coronation chairs.In that chapel of Edward the Confessor which is the heart of the Abbey. One chair is said to have been that of Edward the Confessor; in it every sovereign of England from Edward I to Edward VII has been crowned. The other was made for Mary when she and her husband William were jointly crowned king and queen of England.
193: 11.The stone ... brought from Scotland.The "stone of Scone," traditionally reputed to be that on which Jacob rested his head when he had the vision of the ladder reaching up to heaven. It was brought from Ireland to Scone in Scotland, and all Scottish kings were crowned on it there till Edward I of England brought it to London in 1296, and ordered it enclosed "in a chair of wood," and placed in the Abbey.
193: 25.Edward the Third's sword."The monumental sword that conquered France," as Dryden calls it, stands between the coronation chairs.
194: 2.The Black Prince.Edward, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Edward III, who died in 1376 before his father. He is buried, not in the Abbey, but in the cathedral at Canterbury.
194: 8.Touched for the evil.Scrofula, called "king's evil," because it was supposed that it could be cured by the touch of a legitimate sovereign. King William III, as he was king only by actof Parliament, had not "touched"; but Queen Anne, unquestionably a legitimate monarch, resumed the practice. Samuel Johnson was touched by her in his infancy, but without effect. No sovereign after Anne pretended to this power. The act of "touching" was accompanied by an elaborate ceremony, the ritual for which continued to be included in the Book of Common Prayer until 1719. For an account of the procedure, see Ashton,Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Chap. xxx, pp. 325-326.
194: 12.One of our English kings without an head.Henry V. The head of the effigy, which was of solid silver, was stolen in the reign of Henry VIII, at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries.
195: 4.His lodgings in Norfolk Buildings.In II Sir Roger is said, when in town, to "live in Soho Square," a more aristocratic quarter. That paper was written by Steele; this by Addison.
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'sAndromaque, and bore the titleThe 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 theJournal to Stellaabout 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 theycould 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 inSpectators, Nos. 324, 332, 347. For a full account, see Ashton'sSocial 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,didknow 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.
Motto."The greedy lioness the wolf pursues,The wolf the kid; the wanton kid, the browse."—Virgil,Eclogues, ii. 63. Dryden's tr.
Motto."The greedy lioness the wolf pursues,The wolf the kid; the wanton kid, the browse."—Virgil,Eclogues, ii. 63. Dryden's tr.
Motto."The greedy lioness the wolf pursues,The wolf the kid; the wanton kid, the browse."—Virgil,Eclogues, ii. 63. Dryden's tr.
Motto."The greedy lioness the wolf pursues,
The wolf the kid; the wanton kid, the browse."
—Virgil,Eclogues, ii. 63. Dryden's tr.
202: 24.Miss Jenny.Notice the use of the epithet "Miss"; the day before Will Wimble would have said "Mistress Jenny." See note on p. 248.
203: 21.The book I had considered last Saturday, inSpectator, No. 357, April 19, 1712. It was one of the famous series of papers on Milton'sParadise Lost.
203: 23.The following lines.Paradise Lost, x. 888-908. They are not quoted quite accurately.
Motto."Their gardens are maintained by vice."—Juvenal,Satires, i. 75.
Motto."Their gardens are maintained by vice."—Juvenal,Satires, i. 75.
Motto."Their gardens are maintained by vice."—Juvenal,Satires, i. 75.
Motto."Their gardens are maintained by vice."
—Juvenal,Satires, i. 75.
205: 9.Spring Garden.A famous garden and pleasure resort (more commonly called Fox Hall or Vauxhall Gardens), on the south side of the Thames, near where the Vauxhall bridge now spans the river. There was a large garden covering about elevenacres, with arbours, walks shaded by day and lighted at night by lamps festooned from the trees, a miniature lake, booths for the sale of refreshments, and a large central "rotunda" for music. First opened in 1661, Vauxhall was a favourite place of resort all through the eighteenth century; all the lighter literature of that century contains frequent references to it. The Gardens were not finally closed until 1859. For fuller account, see Besant'sLondon in the Eighteenth Century, Chap. iv.
205: 19.Temple Stairs.A boat-landing near the Temple gardens. The most pleasant way of getting from the east of London to the west, in Addison's time, was by boat on the river.
206: 16.La Hogue.See note on Sir Cloudesley Shovel, p. 251.
206: 29.How thick the city was set with churches.The "city" is that part of London originally enclosed by a wall, and extends from the Tower on the east to Temple Bar on the west. Temple Bar was the gateway over that great thoroughfare which is called Fleet Street on the east side of it, and the Strand on the west side. The Bar was demolished in 1878, and its site is marked by a rather ugly monument surmounted by the arms of the city of London.
207: 4.The fifty new churches.The Tories had been brought into power in 1710 very largely by the popular cry, "The Church is in danger." (See note, p. 249.) Accordingly, one of the first acts of the House of Commons, in 1711, was to vote the building of fifty new churches in London.
208: 4.Mahometan paradise, because the chief attraction of the Mahometan heaven is the houris, "the black-eyed," whose beauty never grows old.
208: 28.Member of the quorum.A justice of the peace.
The first number ofThe Bee, a weekly paper set up in 1733, by Addison's friend, Budgell, contains the following statement: "Mr.Addison was so fond of this character [Sir Roger de Coverley] that a little while before he laid downThe Spectator(foreseeing that some nimble gentleman would catch up his pen the moment he quitted it), he said to an intimate friend, with a certain warmth in his expression which he was not often guilty of, 'By G——, I'll kill Sir Roger, that nobody else may murder him.' Accordingly the wholeSpectator, No. 517, consists of nothing else but an account of the old knight's death, and some moving circumstances which attended it."
It seems probable that about this time both Steele and Addison were thinking of bringingThe Spectatorto a close, and this was the first of a series of papers which should dismiss all the members of the Spectator Club. In No. 544—the last of this volume—Captain Sentry succeeds to Sir Roger's estate, and passes from notice; in No. 549 the old clergyman is reported dead, and Sir Andrew Freeport gives up his business and retires into the country to make ready for the end; in No. 555 the Spectator makes his parting bow, and the volume closes.