_Mr._ SPECTATOR,
"The other Day, walking in _Pancras_ Churchyard, I thought of your Paper wherein you mention Epitaphs, and am of opinion this has a Thought in it worth being communicated to your Readers.
"Here Innocence and Beauty lies, whose Breath Was s.n.a.t.c.h"d by early, not untimely Death.
Hence did she go, just as she did begin Sorrow to know, before she knew to sin.
Death, that does Sin and Sorrow thus prevent, Is the next Blessing to a Life well spent."
[I am, SIR, Your Servant.]
[Footnote 1: [Publick. _I am, Sir, your Servant.]]
No. 539. Tuesday, November 18, 1712. Budgell.
"Heteroclyta sunto.--Quae Genus."
_Mr._ SPECTATOR,
"I am a young Widow of a good Fortune and Family, and just come to Town; where I find I have Cl.u.s.ters of pretty Fellows come already to visit me, some dying with Hopes, others with Fears, tho" they never saw me. Now what I would beg of you, would be to know whether I may venture to use these pert Fellows with the same Freedom as I did my Country Acquaintance. I desire your Leave to use them as to me shall seem meet, without Imputation of a Jilt; for since I make Declaration that not one of them shall have me, I think I ought to be allowed the Liberty of insulting those who have the Vanity to believe it is in their power to make me break that Resolution. There are Schools for learning to use Foils, frequented by those who never design to fight; and this useless way of aiming at the Heart, without design to wound it on either side, is the Play with which I am resolved to divert my self: The Man who pretends to win, I shall use like him who comes into a Fencing-School to pick a Quarrel. I hope, upon this Foundation, you will give me the free use of the natural and artificial Force of my Eyes, Looks, and Gestures. As for verbal Promises, I will make none, but shall have no mercy on the conceited Interpreters of Glances and Motions. I am particularly skill"d in the downcast Eye, and the Recovery into a sudden full Aspect, and away again, as you may have seen sometimes practised by us Country Beauties beyond all that you have observed in Courts and Cities. Add to this, Sir, that I have a ruddy heedless Look, which covers Artifice the best of any thing. Tho"
I can dance very well, I affect a tottering untaught way of walking, by which I appear an easy Prey and never exert my instructed Charms till I find I have engaged a Pursuer. Be pleased, Sir, to print this Letter; which will certainly begin the Chace of a rich Widow: The many Foldings, Escapes, Returns and Doublings which I make, I shall from time to time communicate to you, for the better Instruction of all Females who set up, like me, for reducing the present exorbitant Power and Insolence of Man."
_I am, SIR,
Your faithful Correspondent_,
Relicta Lovely.
_Dear Mr._ SPECTATOR,
"I depend upon your profess"d Respect for virtuous Love, for your immediate answering the Design of this Letter; which is no other than to lay before the World the Severity of certain Parents who desire to suspend the Marriage of a discreet young Woman of eighteen, three Years longer, for no other reason but that of her being too young to enter into that State. As to the consideration of Riches, my Circ.u.mstances are such, that I cannot be suspected to make my Addresses to her on such low Motives as Avarice or Ambition. If ever Innocence, Wit and Beauty, united their utmost Charms, they have in her. I wish you would expatiate a little on this Subject, and admonish her Parents that it may be from the very Imperfection of Human Nature it self, and not any personal Frailty of her or me, that our Inclinations baffled at present may alter; and while we are arguing with our selves to put off the Enjoyment of our present Pa.s.sions, our Affections may change their Objects in the Operation. It is a very delicate Subject to talk upon; but if it were but hinted, I am in hopes it would give the Parties concern"d some Reflection that might expedite our Happiness. There is a Possibility, and I hope I may say it without Imputation of Immodesty to her I love with the highest Honour; I say, there is a Possibility this Delay may be as painful to her as it is to me. If it be as much, it must be more, by reason of the severe Rules the s.e.x are under in being denied even the Relief of Complaint. If you oblige me in this, and I succeed, I promise you a Place at my Wedding, and a Treatment suitable to your Spectatorial Dignity."
_Your most humble Servant_,
Eustace.
_SIR_,
"I Yesterday heard a young Gentleman, that look"d as if he was just come to the Town, and a Scarf, upon Evil-speaking; which Subject, you know, Archbishop _Tillotson_ has so n.o.bly handled in a Sermon in his _Folio_. As soon as ever he had named his Text, and had opened a little the Drift of his Discourse, I was in great hopes he had been one of Sir ROGER"S Chaplains. I have conceived so great an Idea of the charming Discourse above, that I should have thought one part of my Sabbath very well spent in hearing a Repet.i.tion of it. But alas! Mr.
SPECTATOR, this Reverend Divine gave us his Grace"s Sermon, and yet I don"t know how; even I, that I am sure have read it at least twenty times, could not tell what to make of it, and was at a loss sometimes to guess what the Man aim"d at. He was so just indeed, as to give us all the Heads and the Sub-divisions of the Sermon; and farther I think there was not one beautiful Thought in it but what we had. But then, Sir, this Gentleman made so many pretty Additions; and he could never give us a Paragraph of the Sermon, but he introduced it with something which, methought, look"d more like a Design to shew his own Ingenuity, than to instruct the People. In short, he added and curtailed in such a manner that he vexed me; insomuch that I could not forbear thinking (what, I confess, I ought not to have thought of in so holy a Place) that this young Spark was as justly blameable as _Bullock_ or _Penkethman_ when they mend a n.o.ble Play of _Shakespear_ or _Johnson_.
Pray, Sir, take this into your Consideration; and if we must be entertained with the Works of any of those great Men, desire these Gentlemen to give them us as they find them, that so, when we read them to our Families at home, they may the better remember they have heard them at Church."
_SIR,
Your humble Servant_.
No. 540. Wednesday, November 19, 1712. Steele.
"--Non Deficit Alter--"
Virg.
_Mr._ SPECTATOR,
"There is no Part of your Writings which I have in more Esteem than your Criticism upon _Milton_. It is an honourable and candid Endeavour to set the Works of our n.o.ble Writers in the graceful Light which they deserve. You will lose much of my kind Inclination towards you, if you do not attempt the Encomium of _Spencer_ also, or at least indulge my Pa.s.sion for that charming Author so far as to print the loose Hints I now give you on that Subject.
"Spencer"s general Plan is the Representation of six Virtues, Holiness, Temperance, Chast.i.ty, Friendship, Justice and Courtesy, in six Legends by six Persons. The six Personages are supposed under proper Allegories suitable to their respective Characters, to do all that is necessary for the full Manifestation of the respective Virtues which they are to exert.
"These one might undertake to shew under the several Heads, are admirably drawn; no Images improper, and most surprizingly beautiful.
The Red-cross Knight runs through the whole Steps of the Christian Life; _Guyon_ does all that Temperance can possibly require; _Britomartis_ (a Woman) observes the true Rules of unaffected Chast.i.ty; _Arthegal_ is in every Respect of Life strictly and wisely just; _Calidore_ is rightly courteous.
"In short, in _Fairy-Land_, where Knights Errant have a full Scope to range, and to do even what _Ariosto"s_ or _Orlando"s_ could not do in the World without breaking into Credibility, _Spencer"s_ Knights have, under those six Heads, given a full and a truly Poetical System of Christian, Public, and Low Life.
"His Legend of Friendship is more diffuse, and yet even there the Allegory is finely drawn, only the Heads various, one Knight could not there support all the Parts.