ment to be the meaneft author in it. Forgive me, my Lord, for taking this occafion of telling all the world how ardently I love and honour You; and that I am, with the utmoft gratitude for all your favours, My LORD, Your Lordship's moft obliged, mot obedient, and moft bumble Servant, The SPECTATOR. THE SPECTATOR. N° 81 Saturday, June 2, 1711. Qualis ubi audito venantûm murmure tigris: A's when the tigrefs hears the hunter's din,, A Statius. BOUT the middle of laft winter I went to see an opera at the theatre in the Haymarket, where I could not but take notice of two parties of very fine women, that had placed themselves in the oppofite fideboxes, and feemed drawn up in a kind of battle-array one against another. After a fhort furvey of them, I found they were patch'd differently; the faces on one hand being spotted on the right fide of the forehead, and thofe upon the other on the left. I quickly perceived that they caft hoftile glances upon one another; and that their patches were placed in thofe different fituations, as party-fignals to diftinguish friends from foes. In the middle-boxes, between these two oppofite bodies, were feveral ladies who patched indifferently on both fides of their faces, and seem'd to fit there with no other intention but to fee the opera. Upon enquiry I found, that the body of Amazons on my right hand, were Whigs, and those on my left, Tories: And that thofe who had placed themfelves in the middle boxes were a neutral party, whofe faces had not yet declared themfees. Thefe laft, however, as I afterwards found, diminished daily, and took their party with one fide or the other; infomuch that I obferved in several of them, the patches, which were before difperfed equally, are now all gone over to the whig or tory fide of the face. The cenforious fay, That the men whose hearts are aimed at, are very often the occafions that one part of the face is thus difhonoured, and lies under a kind of difgrace, while the other is fo much fet off and adorned by the owner; and that the patches turn to the right or to the left, according to the principles of the man who is meft in favour. But whatever may be the motives of a few fantaftical coquettes, who do not patch for the publick good fo much as for their own private advantage, it is certain, that there are feveral women of honour who patch out of principle, and with an eye to the interest of their country. Nay, I am informed that fome of them adhere fo ftedfaftly to their party, and are fo far from facrificing their zeal for the publick to their paffion for any particular perfon, that in a late draught of marriagearticles a lady has ftipulated with her husband, That, whatever his opinions are, the fhall be at liberty to patch on which fide the pleafes. I must here take notice, that Rosalinda, a famous whig partizan, has most unfortunately a beautiful mole on the tory part of her forehead; which being very confpicuous, has occafioned many mistakes, and given an handle to her enemies to mifreprefent her face, as tho' it had revolted from the whig intereft. But, whatever this natural patch may seem to infinuate, it is well known that her notions of government are fill the fame. This unlucky mole, however, has mifled feveral coxcombs ; and like the hanging out of falfe colours, made fome of thein converfe with Rojalinda in what they thought the fpirit of her party, when on a fudden fhe has given them an |