against fringed Gloves. To be brief, there is scarce an Ornament of either Sex which one or other of my Correspondents has not inveighed against with some Bitterness, and recommended to my Observation. I must therefore, once for all inform my Readers, that it is not my Intention to sink the Dignity of this my Paper with Reflections upon Red-heels or Top-knots, but rather to enter into the Passions of Mankind, and to correct those depraved Sentiments that give Birth to all those little Extravagancies which appear in their outward Dress and Behaviour. Foppish and fantastick Ornaments are only Indications of Vice, not criminal in themselves. Extinguish Vanity in the Mind, and you naturally retrench the little Superfluities of Garniture and Equipage. The Blossoms will fall of themselves, when the Root that nourishes them is destroyed. I shall therefore, as I have said, apply my Remedies to the first Seeds and Principles of an affected Dress, without descending to the Dress it self; though at the same time I must own, that I have Thoughts of creating an Officer under me to be entituled, The Censor of small Wares, and of allotting him one Day in a Week for the Execution of such his Office. An Operator of this Nature might act under me with the same Regard as a Surgeon to a Physician; the one might be employ'd in healing those Blotches and Tumours which break out in the Body, while the other is sweetning the Blood and rectifying the Constitution. To speak truly, the young People of both Sexes are so wonderfully apt to shoot out into long Swords or sweeping Trains, bushy Head-dresses or full-bottom'd Perriwigs, with several other Incumbrances of Dress, that they stand in need of being pruned very frequently [lest they should1] be oppressed with Ornaments, and over-run with the Luxuriency of their Habits. I am much in doubt, whether I should give the Preference to a Quaker that is trimmed close and almost cut to the Quick, or to a Beau that is loaden with such a Redundance of Excrescencies. I must therefore desire my Correspondents to let me know how they approve my Project, and whether they think the erecting of such a petty Censorship may not turn to the Emolument of the Publick; for I would not do any thing of this Nature rashly and without Advice. Bundle of Letters in Womens Hands that are full of Blots and Calumnies, insomuch that when I see the Name Calia, Phillis, Pastora, or the like, at the Bottom of a Scrawl, I conclude on course that it brings me some Account of a fallen Virgin, a faithless Wife, or an amorous Widow. I must therefore inform these my Correspondents, that it is not my Design to be a Publisher of Intreagues and Cuckoldoms, or to bring little infamous Stories out of their present lurking Holes into broad Day light. If I attack the Vicious, I shall only set upon them in a Body; and will not be provoked by the worst Usage that I can receive from others, to make an Example of any par ticular Criminal. In short, I have so much of a Drawcansir' in me, that I shall pass over a single Foe to charge whole Armies. It is not Lais or Silenus, but the Harlot and the Drunkard, whom I shall endeavour to expose; and shall consider the Crime as it appears in a Species, not as it is circumstanced in an Individual. I think it was Caligula who wished the whole City of Rome had but one Neck, that he might behead them at a Blow. I shall do out of Humanity what that Emperor would have done in the Cruelty of his Temper, and aim every Stroak at a collective Body of Offenders. At the same Time I am very sensible, that nothing spreads a Paper like private Calumny and Defamation; but as my Speculations are not under this Necessity, they are not exposed to this Temptation. In the next Place I must apply my self to my Party-Correspondents, who are continually teazing me to take Notice of one anothers Proceedings. How often am I asked by both Sides, if it is possible for me to be an unconcerned Spectator of the Rogueries that are committed by the Party which is opposite to him that writes the Letter. About two Days since I was reproached with an old Grecian Law, that forbids any Man to stand as a Neuter or a Looker-on in the Divisions of his Country. However, as I am very sensible [my 2] Paper would lose its whole Effect, should it run into the Outrages of a Party, I shall take Care to keep clear of every thing [which] looks that Way. If I can any way asswage private Inflammations, or allay publick Ferments, I shall apply my self to it with my utmost Endeavours; but will never let my Heart reproach me with having done There is another Set of Correspondents to whom I must address my self, in the second I Drawcansir in the Duke of Buckingham's Place; I mean such as fill their Letters with private Rehearsal parodies the heroic drama of the ReScandal, and black Accounts of particular Per-storation, as by turning the lines in Dryden's sons and Families. The world is so full of Ill- 'Tyrannic Love,' nature, that I have Lampoons sent me by People [who] cannot spell, and Satyrs compos'd by those who scarce know how to write. By the last Post in particular I receiv'd a Packet of Scandal that is not legible; and have a whole trade with the business of barber, which he had been carrying on under the same roof. Farr was made rich by his Coffee-house, which soon monopolized the Rainbow. Its repute was high in the Spectator's time; and afterwards, when coffee-houses became taverns, it lived on as a reputable tavern till the present day. I [that they may not] [that] Spite of myself, I'll stay, fight, love, despair; And all this I can do, because I dare, into I drink, I huff, I strut, look big and stare; And all this I can do, because I dare. When, in the last act, a Battle is fought between Foot and great Hobby-Horses At last, Draw'cansir comes in and Kills them all on both 'Sides,' explaining himself in lines that begin, Others may boast a single man to kili; But I the blood of thousands daily spill. 2 [that my] 3 [that] any thing towards [encreasing1] those Feuds and Animosities that extinguish Religion, deface Government, and make a Nation miserable. What I have said under the three foregoing Heads, will, I am afraid, very much retrench the Number of my Correspondents: I shall therefore acquaint my Reader, that if he has started any Hint which he is not able to pursue, if he has met with any surprizing Story which he does not know how to tell, if he has discovered any epidemical Vice which has escaped my Observation, or has heard of any uncommon Virtue which he would desire to publish; in short, if he has any Materials that can furnish out an innocent Diversion, I shall promise him my best Assistance in the working of them up for a publick Entertainment. This Paper my Reader will find was intended for an answer to a Multitude of Correspondents; but I hope he will pardon me if I single out one of them in particular, who has made me so very humble a Request, that I cannot forbear complying with it. 6 SIR, To the SPECTATOR. March 15, 1710-11. 'I Am at present so unfortunate, as to have 'nothing to do but to mind my own Business; 'and therefore beg of you that you will be pleased 'to put me into some small Post under you. I 'observe that you have appointed your Printer 'and Publisher to receive Letters and Advertisements for the City of London, and shall think 'my self very much honoured by you, if you will appoint me to take in Letters and Advertisements for the City of Westminster and the 'Dutchy of Lancaster. Tho' I cannot promise 'to fill such an Employment with sufficient Abilities, I will endeavour to make up with 'Industry and Fidelity what I want in Parts and 'Genius. I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant, No. 17.] Tuesday, March 20, 1711. SING [Steele. Tetrum ante Omnia vultum.—Juv. INCE our Persons are not of our own Making, when they are such as appear Defective or Uncomely, it is, methinks, an honest and laudable Fortitude to dare to be Ugly; at least to keep our selves from being abashed with a Consciousness of Imperfections which we cannot help, and in which there is no Guilt. I would not defend an haggard Beau, for passing away much time at a Glass, and giving Softnesses and Languishing Graces to Deformity. All I intend is, that we ought to be contented with our Countenance and Shape, so far, as never to give our selves an uneasie Reflection on that Subject. It is to the I [the encreasing] ordinary People, who are not accustomed to make very proper Remarks on any Occasion, matter of great Jest, if a Man enters with a prominent Pair of Shoulders into an Assembly, or is distinguished by an Expansion of Mouth, or Obliquity of Aspect. It is happy for a Man, that has any of these Oddnesses about him, if he can be as merry upon himself, as others are apt to be upon that Occasion: When he can possess himself with such a Chearfulness, Women and Children, who were at first frighted at him, will afterwards be as much pleased with him. As it is barbarous in others to railly him for natural Defects, it is extreamly agreeable when he can Jest upon himself for them. Madam Maintenon's first Husband was an Hero in this Kind, and has drawn many Pleasantries from the Irregularity of his Shape, which he describes as very much resembling the Letter Z.1 He diverts himself likewise by representing to his Reader the Make of an Engine and Pully, with which he used to take off his Hat. When there happens to be any thing ridiculous in a Visage, and the Owner of it thinks it an Aspect of Dignity, he must be of very great Quality to be exempt from Raillery: The best Expedient therefore is to be pleasant upon himself. Prince Harry and Falstaffe, in Shakespear, have carried the Ridicule upon Fat and Lean as far as it will go. Falstaffe is Humourously called Woolsack, Bedpresser, and Hill of Flesh; Harry a Starveling, an Elves-Skin, a Sheath, a Bowcase, and a Tuck. There is, in several incidents of the Conversation between them, the Jest still kept up upon the Person. Great Tenderness and Sensibility in this Point is one of the greatest Weaknesses of Self-love; for my own part, I am a little unhappy in the Mold of my Face, which is not quite so long as it is broad: Whether this might not partly arise from my opening my Mouth much seldomer than other People, and by Consequence not so much lengthning the Fibres of my Visage, I am not at leisure to determine. However it be, I have been often put out of Countenance by the Shortness of my Face, and was formerly at great Pains in concealing it by wearing a Periwigg with an high Foretop, and I Abbé Paul Scarron, the burlesque writer, high in court favour, was deformed from birth, and at the age of 27 lost the use of all his limbs. In 1651, when 41 years old, Scarron married Frances d'Aubigné, afterwards Madame de Maintenon; her age was then 16, and she lived with Scarron until his death, which occurred when she was 25 years old and left her very poor. Scarron's comparison of himself to the letter Z is in his address 'To the Reader who has Never seen Me,' prefixed to his 'Relation Véritable de tout ce qui s'est passé en l'autre Monde, au combat des Parques et des Poëtes, sur la Mort 'de Voiture.' This was illustrated with a burlesque plate representing himself as seen from the back of his chair, and surrounded by a wondering and mocking world. His back, he said, was turned to the public, because the convex of his back is more convenient than the concave of his stomach for receiving the inscription of his name and age. letting my Beard grow. But now I have thoroughly got over this Delicacy, and could be contented it were much shorter, provided it might qualify me for a Member of the Merry Club, which the following Letter gives me an Account of. I have received it from Oxford, and as it abounds with the Spirit of Mirth and good Humour, which is natural to that Place, I shall set it down Word for Word as it came to me. Most Profound Sir, 'Having been very well entertained, in the last 'of your Speculations that I have yet seen, by your Specimen upon Clubs, which I therefore 'hope you will continue, I shall take the Liberty 'to furnish you with a brief Account of such a 'one as perhaps you have not seen in all your 'Travels, unless it was your Fortune to touch upon 'some of the woody Parts of the African Con'tinent, in your Voyage to or from Grand Cairo. 'There have arose in this University (long since you left us without saying any thing) several of 'these inferior Hebdomadal Societies, as the Punning Club, the Witty Club, and amongst the rest, 'the Handsom Club; as a Burlesque upon which, 'a certain merry Species, that seem to have come 'into the World in Masquerade, for some Years 'last past have associated themselves together, 'and assumed the name of the Ugly Club: This 'ill-favoured Fraternity consists of a President 'and twelve Fellows; the Choice of which is not 'confin'd by Patent to any particular Foundation (as St. John's Men would have the World 'believe, and have therefore erected a separate 'Society within themselves) but Liberty is left to 'elect from any School in Great Britain, pro vided the Candidates be within the Rules of the 'Club, as set forth in a Table entituled The Act of Deformity. A Clause or two of which I shall 'transmit to you. 'I. That no Person whatsoever shall be ad 'mitted without a visible Quearity in his Aspect, 'or peculiar Cast of Countenance; of which the 'President and Officers for the time being are to 'determine, and the President to have the casting 'Voice. 'II. That a singular Regard be had, upon Examination, to the Gibbosity of the Gentlemen that offer themselves, as Founders Kinsmen, or to the Obliquity of their Figure, in what 'sort soever. 6 portraiture they have in full Proportion, or 'rather Disproportion, over the Chimney; and 'their Design is, as soon as their Funds are sufficient, to purchase the Heads of Thersites, Duns Scotus, Scarron, Hudibras, and the old Gen'tleman in Oldham, 2 with all the celebrated ill 'Faces of Antiquity, as Furniture for the Club 'Room. 'As they have always been profess'd Admirers ' of the other Sex, so they unanimously declare 'that they will give all possible Encouragement 'to such as will take the Benefit of the Statute, 'tho' none yet have appeared to do it. 'The worthy President, who is their most devoted Champion, has lately shown me two Copies of Verses composed by a Gentleman of 'his Society; the first, a Congratulatory Ode 'inscrib'd to Mrs. Touchwood, upon the loss of 'her two Fore-teeth; the other, a Panegyrick upon Mrs. Andiron's left Shoulder. Mrs. Vizard (he says) since the Small Pox, is grown tolerably ugly, and a top Toast in the Club; 'but I never hear him so lavish of his fine things, trils, a short neck, thick lips, was black, pot'bellied, bow-legged, and hump-backed; perhaps even uglier than Homer's Thersites.' 6 2 The description of Thersites in the second book of the Iliad is thus translated by Professor Blackie : Grecian host. The most Ill-favoured wight was he, I ween, of all the With hideous squint the railer leered: on one Forward before his narrow chest his hunching foot he was lame; shoulders came; Slanting and sharp his forehead rose, with shreds of meagre hair. Controversies between the Scotists and Thomists, followers of the teaching of Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas, caused Thomist perversion of the name of Duns into its use as Dunce and tradition of the subtle Doctor's extreme personal Doctor Subtilis was translated The ugliness. Lath Doctor. Scarron we have just spoken of. Hudibras's outward gifts are described in Part I., Canto i., lines 240-296 of the poem. His beard A sudden view, it would beguile: The old Gentleman in Oldham' is Loyola, as described in Oldham's third satire on the Jesuits, when Summon'd together, all th' offiicious band The orders of their bedrid chief attend. Raised on his pillow he greets them, and, says Oldham, Like Delphic Hag of old, by Fiend possest, as upon old Nell Trot, who constantly officiates Taste of Italian Musick. The great Success this at their Table; her he even adores, and extolls Opera met with, produced some Attempts of as the very Counterpart of Mother Shipton; forming Pieces upon Italian Plans, [which] ' in short, Nell (says he) is one of the Extraordin- should give a more natural and reasonable Enary Works of Nature; but as for Complexion, tertainment than what can be met with in the 'Shape, and Features, so valued by others, they elaborate Trifles of that Nation. This alarm'd are all meer Outside and Symmetry, which is the Poetasters and Fidlers of the Town, who 'his Aversion. Give me leave to add, that the were used to deal in a more ordinary Kind of 'President is a facetious, pleasant Gentleman, Ware; and therefore laid down an establish'd and never more so, than when he has got (as Rule, which is receiv'd as such to this [Day, 2] he calls 'em) his dear Mummers about him; That nothing is capable of being well set to 'and he often protests it does him good to meet Musick, that is not Nonsense. a Fellow with a right genuine Grimmace in his 'Air, (which is so agreeable in the generality of 'the French Nation;) and as an Instance of his Sincerity in this particular, he gave me a sight ' of a List in his Pocket-book of all of this Class, 'who for these five Years have fallen under his Observation, with himself at the Head of 'em, and in the Rear (as one of a promising and im'proving Aspect), Sir, Oxford, Your Obliged and March 12, 1710. Humble Servant, R. No. 18.] Wednesday, March 21, 1711. [Addison. IT This Maxim was no sooner receiv'd, but we immediately fell to translating the Italian Operas ; and as there was no great Danger of hurting the Sense of those extraordinary Pieces, our Authors would often make Words of their own [which 3] were entirely foreign to the Meaning of the Passages [they 4] pretended to translate; their chief Care being to make the Numbers of the English Verse answer to those of the Italian, that both of them might go to the same Tune. Thus the famous Song in Camilla, Barbara si t' intendo, &c. Barbarous Woman, yes, I know your Meaning, which expresses the Resentments of an angry Lover, was translated into that English lamentation And it was pleasant enough to see the most re- T is my Design in this Paper to deliver down to Posterity a faithful Account of the Italian Opera, and of the gradual Progress which it has made upon the English Stage: For there is no Question but our great Grand-children will be very curious to know the Reason why their Fore-that fathers used to sit together like an Audience of Foreigners in their own Country, and to hear whole Plays acted before them in a Tongue which they did not understand. Arsinoe was the first Opera that gave us a 1 Arsinoe was produced at Drury Lane in 1705, with Mrs. Tofts in the chief character, and her Italian rival, Margarita de l'Epine, singing Italian songs before and after the Opera. The drama was an Italian opera translated into English, and set to new music by Thomas Clayton, formerly band master to William III. No. 20 of the Spectator and other numbers from time to time advertised 'The Passion of Sappho, and 'Feast of Alexander: Set to Musick by Mr. Thomas Clayton, as it is performed at his 'house in York Buildings.' It was the same Clayton who set to music Addison's unsuccessful opera of Rosamond, written as an experiment in substituting homegrown literature for the fashionable nonsense illustrated by Italian music. Thomas Clayton's music to Rosamond was described as 'a jargon of sounds.' Camilla, composed by Marco Antonio Buononcini, and said to contain beautiful music, was produced at Sir John Vanbrugh's Haymarket opera in 1705, And turn'd my Rage into Pity; which the English for Rhime sake translated, And into Pity turn'd my Rage. By this Means the soft Notes that were adapted and sung half in English, half in Italian; Mrs. In monosyllables his thunders roll, The next Step to our Refinement, was the introducing of Italian Actors into our Opera; who sung their Parts in their own Language, at the same Time that our Countrymen perform'd theirs in our native Tongue. The King or Hero of the Play generally spoke in Italian, and his Slaves answered him in English: The Lover frequently made his Court, and gained the Heart of his Princess in a Language which she did not understand. One would have thought it very difficult to have carry'd on Dialogues after this Manner, without an Interpreter between the Persons that convers'd together; but this was the State of the English Stage for about three Years. to be so stupidly fond of the Italian Opera, as scarce to give a Third Days Hearing to that admirable Tragedy? Musick is certainly a very agreeable Entertainment, but if it would take the entire Possession of our Ears, if it would make us incapable of hearing Sense, if it would exclude Arts that have a much greater Tendency to the Refinement of humane Nature: I must confess I would allow it no better Quarter than Plato has done, who banishes it out of his Common-wealth. At present, our Notions of Musick are so very uncertain, that we do not know what it is we like, only, in general, we are transported with any thing that is not English: so if it be of a foreign Growth, let it be Italian, French, or High-Dutch, it is the same thing. In short, our English Musick is quite rooted out, and nothing yet planted in its stead. of Use to a good Architect. I shall take the same Liberty in a following Paper, of giving my Opinion upon the Subject of Musick, which I shall lay down only in a problematical Manner to be considered by those who are Masters in the Art. At length the Audience grew tir'd of understanding Half the Opera, and therefore to ease themselves Entirely of the Fatigue of Thinking, have so order'd it at Present that the whole Opera is performed in an unknown Tongue. We When a Royal Palace is burnt to the Ground, no longer understand the Language of our own every Man is at Liberty to present his Plan for a Stage; insomuch that I have often been afraid, new one; and tho' it be but indifferently put towhen I have seen our Italian Performers chatter-gether, it may furnish several Hints that may be ing in the Vehemence of Action, that they have been calling us Names, and abusing us among themselves; but I hope, since we do put such an entire Confidence in them, they will not talk against us before our Faces, though they may do it with the same Safety as if it [were] behind our Backs. In the mean Time I cannot forbear thinking how naturally an Historian, who writes Two or Three hundred Years hence, and does not know the Taste of his wise Fore-fathers, will make the following Reflection, In the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century, the Italian Tongue was so well understood in England, that Operas were acted on the publick Stage in that Language. No. 19.] C. Thursday, March 22, 1711. [Steele. Dii benefecerunt, inopis me quodque pusilli Hor. One scarce knows how to be serious in the Confutation of an Absurdity that shews itself at the who was an utter Stranger to him, with a BSERVING one Person behold another, first Sight. It does not want any great Measure of Sense to see the Ridicule of this monstrous Cast of his Eye which, methought, expressed an Practice; but what makes it the more astonish- Emotion of Heart very different from what could ing, it is not the Taste of the Rabble, but of Per- be raised by an Object so agreeable as the Gentlesons of the greatest Politeness, which has estab-man he looked at, I began to consider, not with lish'd it. If the Italians have a Genius for Musick above the English, the English have a Genius for other Performances of a much higher Nature, and capable of giving the Mind a much nobler Entertainment. Would one think it was possible (at a Time when an Author lived that was able to write the Phædra and Hippolitus 2) for a People I [was] out some secret Sorrow, the Condition of an It had not moved your Wonder to have seen 2 The Tragedy of Phædra and Hippolitus, acted without success in 1707, was the one play The Epilogue to this play was by Prior. Edwritten by Mr. Edmund Smith, a merchant's son mund Smith's relation to Addison is shown by the who had been educated at Westminster School fact that, in dedicating the printed edition of his and Christ Church, Oxford, and who had ended a Phædra and Hippolitus to Lord Halifax, he dissolute life at the age of 42 (in 1710), very short-speaks of Addison's lines on the Peace of Ryswick ly before this paper was written. Addison's regard for the play is warmed by friendship for the unhappy writer. He had, indeed, written the Prologue to it, and struck therein also his note of war against the follies of Italian Opera. as the best Latin Poem since the Æneid.' I 'We see likewise, the Scripture calleth Envy 'an Evil Eye: And the Astrologers call the evil 'influences of the stars, Evil Aspects; so that 'still there seemeth to be acknowledged, in the act of envy, an ejaculation or irradiation of the Shunned Phædra's Arms, and scorn'd the prof-eye. Nay some have been so curious as to note 'that the times when the stroke or percussion of Had Valentini, musically coy, fer'd Foy, |