lady may put on; but no author, except this, has made fure work of it, and put the imaginations of the audience upon this one purpose, from the beginning to the end of the comedy. It has always fared accordingly; for whether it be, that all who go to this piece would if they could, or that the innocent go to it, to guess only what he would if he could, the play has been always well received. It lifts an heavy empty fentence, when there is added to it a lascivious gefture of body; and, when it is too low to be raised even by that, a flat meaning is enlivened by making it a double one. Writers, who want genius, never fail of keeping this fecret in referve, to create a laugh,, or raife a clap. I, who know nothing of women but from seeing plays, can give great gueffes at the whole ftructure of the fair fex, by being innocently placed in the pit, and infulted by the petticoats of their dancers; the advantages of whofe pretty perfons are a great help to a dull play. When a poet flags in writing lufcioufly, a pretty girl can move lafciviously, and have the fame good confequence for the author. Dull poets, in this cafe, ufe their audiences as dull parafites do their patrons: when they cannot longer divert them with their wit or humour, they bait their ears with fomething which is agreeable to their temper, though below their understanding.. Apicius cannot refift being pleafed, if you give him. an account of a delicious meal; or Clodius, if you describe a wanton beauty: though, at the fame time, if you do not awake thofe inclinations in them, no men are better judges of what is juft and delicate in conversation. But, as I have before obferved, it is easier to talk to the man, than to the man of fenfe. It is remarkable, that the writers of leaft learning are beft fkilled in the luscious way. The poet-efies of the age have done wonders in this kind; * T 3 and and we are obliged to the lady who writ Ibrahim, for introducing a preparatory fcene to the very action, when the Emperor throws his handkerchief as a fignal for his mistress to follow him into the moft retired part of the feraglio. It must be confeffed his Turkifb Majefty went off with a good air, but, methought, we made but a fad figure who waited without. This ingenious gentlewoman, in this piece of bawdry, refined upon an author of the fame fex, who, in the Rover, makes a country-fquire ftrip to his Holland-drawers. For Blunt is difappointed, and the Emperor is understood to go on to the utmoft. The pleafantry of ftripping almost naked has been fince practifed (where indeed it fhould have begun) very fuccefsfully at Bartholomew fair. It is not here to be omitted, that in one of the above-mentioned female compofitions, the Rover is very frequently fent on the fame errand; as I take it, above once every act. This is not wholly unnatural; for, they fay, the men-authors draw themfelves in their chief characters, and the womenwriters may be allowed the fame liberty. Thus, as the male-wit gives his hero a good fortune, the female gives her heroine a good gallant, at the end of the play. But, indeed, there is hardly a play one can go to, but the hero or fine gentleman of it truts off upon the fame account, and leaves us to confider what good office he has put us to, or to employ ourfelves as we pleafe. To be plain, a man who frequents plays would have a very refpectful motion of himfelf, were he to recollect how often he has been used as a pimp to ravishing ty rants, or fuccessful rakes. When the actors make their exit on this good occafion, the ladies are fure to have an examining glance from the pit, to fee hrow they relith what paffes; and a few lewd fools are very ready to employ their talents upon the composure or freedom of their looks. Such incidents as these these make some ladies wholly abfent themselves from the playhoufe; and others never mifs the first day of a play, left it fhould prove too luscious to admit their going with any countenance to it on the fecond. If men of wit, who think fit to write for the stage, instead of this pitiful way of giving delight, would turn their thoughts upon raifing it from good natural impulfes as are in the audience, but are choaked. up by vice and luxury, they would not only please but befriend us at the fame time. If a man had a mind to be new in his way of writing, might not he who is now represented as a Fine Gentleman, though he betrays the honour and bed of his neighbour and friend, and lies with half the women in the play, and is at laft rewarded with her of the beft character in it; I fay, upon giving the comedy another caft, might not fuch a one divert the audience quite as well, if, at the catastrophe, he were found out for a traitor, and met with contempt accordingly? There is feldom a perfon devoted to above one darling vice at a time, so that there is room enough to catch at men's hearts to their good and advantage, if the poets will attempt it with the honefty which becomes their characters. There is no man who loves his bottle or his miftress, in a manner fo very abandoned, as not to be capable of relifhing an agreeable character, that is no way a slave to either of those pursuits. A man that is temperate, generous, valiant, chafte, faithful and Honeft, may, at the fame time, have wit, humour, mirth, good-breeding, and gallantry. While he exerts thefe latter qualities, twenty occafions might be invented to fhew he is mafter of the other noble virtues. Such characters would fmite and reprove the heart of a man of fenfe, when he is given up to his pleafures. He would fee he has been miftaken all this while, and be convinced that a found conftitution and an innocent mind are the true ingredients for becoming and enjoying life. All men of of true taste would call a man of wit, who fhould turn his ambition this way, a friend and benefactor to his country; but I am at a lofs what name they would give him, who makes ufe of his capacity for contrary purposes. R No. 52. MONDAY, APRIL 30. Omnes ut tecum meritis pro talibus annos To crown thy worth, the fhall be ever thine, A N ingenious correfpondent, like a sprightly wife, will always have the laft word. I did not think my last letter to the deformed fraternity would have occafioned any anfwer, efpecially fince I had promifed them fo fudden a vifit: but, as they think they cannot fhow too great a veneration for my perfon, they have already sent me up an answer. As to the propofal of a marriage between myfelf and the matchlefs Hecatiffa, I have but one objection to it, which is, That all the fociety will expect to be acquainted with her; and who can be fure of keeping a woman's heart long, where the may have fo much choice? I am the more alarmed at this, becaufe the Lady feems particularly fmitten with men. of their make. I believe I fhall fet my heart upon her; and think never the worse of my mistress for an Epigram a fmart fellow writ, as he thought, againft her; it does but the more recommend her to me. At the fame time, I cannot but difcover that his malice is ftollen from Martial Tacta Tata places, audita places, fi non videare Whilft in the dark on thy foft hand I hung, Your letter to us we have received, as a fignal mark of your favour and brotherly affection. We fhall be heartily glad to see your fhort face in Oxford: and fince the wifdom of our legislature has been immortalized in your fpeculations, and our • perfonal deformities in fome fort by you recorded to all pofterity; we hold ourselves in gratitude bound to receive, with the highest respect, all fuch • perfons as for their extraordinary merit you shall think fit, from time to time, to recommend untó the board. As for the Pictish damfel, we have an eafy-chair prepared at the upper end of the table ; which we doubt not but she will grace with a very hideous afpect, and better become the feat in the native and unaffected uncomelinefs of her perfon, than with all the fuperficial airs of the pencil, which (as you have very ingenioufly observed) vanifh with a breath, and the most innocent adorer may deface the fhrine with a falutation; and, in the literal fenfe of our poets, fnatch and imprint his balmy kiffes, and devour her melting lips. In fhort, the only faces of the Pictif kind that will endure the weather, must be of Dr. Carbuncle's dye; though his, in truth, has coft him a world the painting; but then he boafts with Zeuxes, In • æternitatem pingo: and oft jocofely tells the fair ones, would they acquire colours that would ftand kifling, they muft no longer paint, but drink for a complexion: a maxim that in this our age has been 'purfued with no ill fuccefs; and has been as ad mirable in its effects, as the famous cosmetic men |