and swear "Before George," is still fresh in every one's memory. There are at present, in several parts of this city, what they call street-clubs, in which the chief inhabitants of the street converse together every night. I remember, upon my inquiring after lodgings in Ormond street, the landlord, to recommend that quarter of the town, told me there was at that time a very good club in it; he also told me, upon farther discourse with him, that two or three noisy country 'squires, who were settled there the year before, had considerably sunk the price of house-rent; aad that the club (to prevent the like inconveniences for the future) had thoughts of taking every house that became vacant into their own hands, till they had found a tenant for it, of a sociable nature and good conversation. The Hum-drum club, of which I was formerly an unworthy member, was made up of very honest gentlemen of peaceable dispositions, that used to sit together, smoke their pipes, and say nothing until midnight. The Mum club (as I am informed) is an institution of the same nature, and as great an enemy to noise. After these two innocent societies, I cannot forbear mentioning a very mischievous one, that was erected in the reign of King Charles the Second; I mean the club of Duelists, in which none was to be admitted that had not fought his man. The president of it was said to have killed half a dozen in single combat; and as for the other members, they took their seats according to the number of their slain. There was likewise a side-table, for such as had only drawn blood, and shown a laudable ambition of taking the first opportunity to qualify themselves for the first table. This club, consisting only of men of honor, did not continue long, most of the members of it being put to the sword, or hanged, a little after its insti tution. Our modern celebrated clubs are founded upon eating and drinking, which are points wherein most men agree, and in which the learned and the illiterate, the dull and the airy, the philosopher and the buffoon, can all of them bear a part. The Kitcat* itself is said to have taken its original from a mutton-pie. The beef-steak+ and October clubs are neither of them averse to eating and drinking, if we may form a judgment of them from their respective titles. When men are thus knit together, by a love of society, not a spirit of faction, and do not meet to censure or annoy those that are absent, but to enjoy one another; when they are thus combined for their own improvement, or for the good of others, or at least to relax themselves from the business of the day by an innocent and cheerful conversation, there may be something very useful in these little in-titutions and establishments. I cannot forbear concluding this paper with a scheme of laws that I met with upon a wall in a An account of this club, which took its name from Christopher Cat, the maker of their mutton-pies, has been given little alehouse. How I came thither I may inform my reader at a more convenient time. These laws were enacted by a knot of artisans and mechanics, who used to meet every night; and as there is something in them which gives us a pretty picture of low life, I shall transcribe them word for word. Rules to be observed in the Two-penny Club, erected in this place for the preservation of friendship and good neighborhood. 1. Every member at his first coming in shall lay down his two-pence. 2. Every member shall fill his pipe out of his own box. 3. If any member absents himself, he shall forfeit a penny for the use of the club, unless in case of sickness or imprisonment. 4. If any member curses or swears, his neighbor may give him a kick upon the shins. 5. If any member tells stories in the club that are not true, he shall forfeit for every third lie a half-penny. 6. If any member strikes another wrongfully, he shall pay his club for him. 7. If any member brings his wife into the club, he shall pay for whatever she drinks or smokes. 8. If any member's wife comes to fetch him home from the club, she shall speak to him without the door. 9. If any member calls another a cuckold, he shall be turned out of the club. 10. None shall be admitted into the club that is of the same trade with any member of it. 11. None of the club shall have his clothes or shoes made or mended, but by a brother member. 12. No non-juror shall be capable of being a member. The morality of this little club is guarded by such wholesome laws and penalties, that I question not but my reader will be as well pleased with them as he would have been with the Leges Convivales of Ben Jonson, the regulations of an old Roman club cited by Lipsius, or the rules of a Symposium in an ancient Greek author, No. 10.] MONDAY, MARCH 12, 1710-11. So the boat's brawny crew the current stem, Ir is with much satisfaction that I hear this great city inquiring day by day after these my papers, and receiving my morning lectures with a becoming seriousness and attention. My publisher tells me, that there are already three thousand of them distributed every day: so that if I allow twenty readers to every paper, which I look upon in the new edition of the Tatler, with notes, in 6 vols. The portraits of its members were drawn by Kneller, who was as a modest computation, I may reckon about himself one of their number, and all portraits of the same threescore thousand disciples in London and dimensions and form, are at this time called kit-cat pictures, Westminster, who I hope will take care to distinThe original portraits are now the property of William Ba-guish themselves from the thoughtless herd of ker, Esq., to whom they came by inheritance from J. Tonson, who was secretary to the club. It was originally formed in Shire-lane, about the time of the trial of the seven bishops, for a little free evening conversation; but in Queen Anne's reign comprehended above forty noblemen and gentlemen of the first rank for quality, merit, and fortune, firm friends of the Hanoverian succession. Of this club, it is said, that Mrs. Woffington, the only woman in it, was president; Richard Estcourt, the comedian, was their providore, and as an honorable badge of his office, were a small gridiron of gold hung round his neck with a green silk ribbon. their ignorant and inattentive brethren. Since I have raised to myself so great an audience, I shall spare no pains to make their instruction agreeable, and their diversion useful. For which reasons I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality, that my readers may, if possible, both ways find their account in the speculation of the day. And to the end that their virtue and discretion may not be short, transient, intermitting starts of thought, I have resolved to refresh their memories from day to day, till I have recovered them out of that desperate state of vice and folly, into which the age is fallen. The mind that lies fallow for a single day, sprouts up in follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous culture. It was said of Socrates, that he brought Philosophy down from heaven, to inhabit among men; and I shall be ambitious to have it said of me, that I have brought Philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and in coffee-houses. I would therefore in a very particular manner recommend these my speculations to all well regulated families, that set apart an hour every morning for tea and bread and butter; and would earnestly advise them for their good to order this paper to be punctually served up, and to be looked upon as a part of the tea-equipage. Sir Francis Bacon observes, that a well written book, compared with its rivals and antagonists, is like Moses' serpent, that immediately swallowed up and devoured those of the Egyptians. I shall not be so vain as to think, that where the Spectator appears, the other public prints will vanish; but shall leave it to my reader's consideration, whether it is not much better to be let into the knowledge of one's self, than to hear what passes in Muscovy or Poland; and to amuse ourselves with such writings as tend to the wearing out of ignorance, passion, and prejudice, than such as naturally conduce to inflame hatreds, and make enmities irreconcilable. In the next place I would recommend this paper to the daily perusal of those gentlemen whom I cannot but consider as my good brothers and allies, I mean the fraternity of Spectators, who live in the world without having anything to do in it; and either by the affluence of their fortunes, or laziness of their dispositions, have no other business with the rest of mankind, but to look upon them. Under this class of men are comprehended all contemplative tradesmen, titular physicians, fellows of the royal society, Templars that are not given to be contentious, and statesmen that are out of business; in short, every one that considers the world as a theater, and desires to form a right judgment of those who are the actors on it. There is another set of men that I must likewise lay a claim to, whom I have lately called the blanks of society, as being altogether unfurnished with ideas, till the business and conversation of the day has supplied them. I have often considered these poor souls with an eye of great commiseration, when I have heard them asking the first man they have met with, whether there was any news stirring? and by that means gathering together materials for thinking. These needy persons do not know what to talk of, till about twelve o'clock in the morning; for by that time they are pretty good judges of the weather, know which way the wind sets, and whether the Dutch mail be come in. As they lie at the mercy of the first man they meet, and are grave or impertinent all the day long, according to the notions which they have imbibed in the morning, I would earnestly entreat of them not to stir out of their chambers till they have read this paper, and do promise them that I will daily instill into them such sound and wholesome sentiments, as shall have a good effect on their conversation for the ensuing twelve hours. But there are none to whom this paper will be more useful than to the female world. I have often thought there has not been sufficient pains taken in finding out proper employment and diversions for the fair ones. Their amusements seem trived for them, rather as they are women, th they are reasonable creatures; and are more ted to the sex than to the species. The to their great scene of business, and the righ justing of their hair the principal employme their lives. The sorting of a suit of ribb reckoned a very good morning's work; and i make an excursion to a mercer's or a toy-sh great a fatigue makes them unfit for anythin all the day after. Their more serious occup are sewing and embroidery, and their g drudgery the preparation of jellies and meats. This, say, is the state of ordina men; though I know there are multitudes of of a more elevated life and conversation move in an exalted sphere of knowledge an tue, that join all the beauties of the mind ornaments of dress, and inspire a kind of av respect, as well as love, into their male beh I hope to increase the number of these by pu ing this daily paper, which I shall always en to make an innocent if not an improving tainment, and by that means, at least, dive minds of my female readers from greater At the same time, as I would fain give som ishing touches to those which are alread most beautiful pieces in human nature, I sh deavor to point out all those imperfection are the blemishes, as well as those virtues are the embellishments of the sex. In the while, I hope these my gentle readers, wh so much time on their hands, will not! throwing away a quarter of an hour in a day this paper, since they may do it without an derance to business. I know several of my friends and well-w are in great pain for me, lest I should not h to keep up the spirit of a paper which I myself to furnish every day; but to make easy in this particular, I will promise them fully to give it over as soon as I grow dull. I know will be matter of great raillery to the wits, who will frequently put me in mind promise, desire me to keep my word, assu that it is high time to give over, with many little pleasantries of the like nature, whic of a little smart genius cannot forbear thr out against their best friends, when they hav a handle given them of being witty. them remember, that I do hereby enter my against this piece of raillery.—Č. B No. 11.] TUESDAY, MARCH, 13, 1710 Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas.—Juv., Si The doves are censur'd, while the crows are spar'd. ARIETTA is visited by all persons of both who have any pretense to wit and gallantry is in that time of life which is neither a with the follies of youth, nor infirmities o and her conversation is so mixed with gaye prudence, that she is agreeable both to the of the young. Her behavior is very frank, w being in the least blamable: and as she is the track of any amorous or ambitious pursu her own, her visitants entertain her with ac of themselves very freely, whether they c their passions or their interests. I made visit this afternoon, having been formerly duced to the honor of her acquaintance b friend Will Honeycomb, who has prevailed her to admit me sometimes into her assemb a civil, inoffensive man. I found her accomp with one person only, a common-place talker upon my entrance, arose, and after a very civility sat down again; then turning to A pursued his discourse, which I found was upon the old topic of constancy in love. He went on with great facility in repeating what he talks every day of his life; and with the ornaments of insignificant laughs and gestures, enforced his arguments by quotations out of plays and songs, which allude to the perjuries of the fair, and the general levity of women. Methought he strove to shine more than ordinarily in his talkative way, that he might insult my silence, and distinguish himself before a woman of Arietta's taste and understanding. She had often an inclination to interrupt him, but could find no opportunity, till the larum ceased of itself, which it did not till he had repeated and murdered the celebrated story of the Ephesian Matron. Arietta seemed to regard this piece of raillery as an outrage done to her sex; as indeed I have always observed that women, whether out of a nicer regard to their honor, or what other reason I cannot tell, are more sensibly touched with those general aspersions which are cast upon their sex, than men are by what is said of theirs. When she had a little recovered herself from the serious anger she was in, she replied in the following manner: agreeable, a ruddy vigor in his countenance, strength in his limbs, with ringlets of fair hair loosely flowing on his shoulders. It happened, in the course of the voyage, that the Achilles, in some distress, put into a creek on the main of America, in search of provisions. The youth, who is the hero of my story, among others went on shore on this occasion. From their first landing they were observed by a party of Indians, who hid themselves in the woods for that purpose. The English unadvisedly marched a great distance from the shore into the country, and were intercepted by the natives, who slew the greatest number of them. Our adventurer escaped among others, by flying into a forest. Upon his coming into a remote and pathless part of the wood, he threw himself, tired and breathless, on a little hillock, when an Indian maid rushed from a thicket behind him. After the first surprise they appeared mutually agreeable to each other. If the European was highly charmed with the limbs, features, and wild graces of the naked American; the American was no less taken with the dress, complexion, and shape of a European, covered from head to foot. The Indian grew immediately enamored of him, and consequently solicitous for "Sir, when I consider how perfectly new all his preservation. She therefore conveyed him to you have said on this subject is, and that the a cave, where she gave him a delicious repast of story you have given us is not quite two thousand fruits, and led him to a stream to slake his thirst. In years old, I cannot but think it a piece of presump- the midst of these good offices, she would sometion to dispute it with you; but your quotations times play with his hair, and delight in the opposiput me in mind of the fable of the lion and the tion of its color to that of her fingers: then open man. The man walking with that noble animal, his bosom, then laugh at him for covering it. She showed him, in the ostentation of human superi- was, it seems, a person of distinction, for she ority, a sign of a man killing a lion. Upon which, every day came to him in a different dress, of the the lion said very justly, We lions are none of most beautiful shells, bugles, and beads. She us painters, else we could show a hundred men likewise brought him a great many spoils, which killed by lions for one lion killed by a man.' You her other lovers had presented to her, so that his men are writers, and can represent us women as cave was richly adorned with all the spotted skins unbecoming as you please in your works, while of beasts, and most party-colored feathers of fowls, we are unable to return the injury. You have which that world afforded. To make his confinetwice or thrice observed in your discourse, that ment more tolerable, she would carry him in the hypocrisy is the very foundation of our education; dusk of the evening, or by the favor of moonlight, and that an ability to dissemble our affections is to unfrequented groves and solitudes, and show a professed part of our breeding. These and such him where to lie down in safety, and sleep amidst other reflections are sprinkled up and down the the falls of waters and melody of nightingales.writings of all ages, by authors, who leave behind Her part was to watch and hold him awake in her them memorials of their resentment against the arms, for fear of her countrymen, and wake him scorn of particular women, in invectives against on occasions to consult his safety. In this manthe whole sex. Such a writer, I doubt not, was ner did the lovers pass away their time, till they the celebrated Petronius, who invented the pleas- had learned a language of their own, in which the ant aggravations of the Ephesian lady; but when voyager communicated to his mistress how happy we consider this question between the sexes, he should be to have her in his country, where she which has been either a point of dispute or rail- should be clothed in such silks as his waistcoat lery ever since there were men and women, let us was made of, and be carried in houses drawn by take facts from plain people, and from such as horses, without being exposed to wind or weather. have not either ambition or capacity to embellish All this he promised her the enjoyment of, withtheir narrations with any beauties of imagination. out such fears and alarms as they were there torI was the other day amusing myself with Lig- mented with. In this tender correspondence these non's Account of Barbadoes; and, in answer to lovers lived for several months, when Yarico, inyour well-wrought tale, I will give you (as it structed by her lover, discovered a vessel on the dwells upon my memory), out of that honest trav-coast, to which she made signals; and in the eler, in his fifty-fifth page, the history of Inkle and Yarico. night, with the utmost joy and satisfaction, accompanied him to a ship's crew of his countrymen bound to Barbadoes. When a vessel from the main arrives in that island, it seems the planters come down to the shore, where there is an immediate market of the Indians and other slaves, as with us of horses and oxen. "Mr. Thomas Inkle, of London, aged twenty years, embarked in the Downes, in the good ship called the Achilles, bound for the West Indies, on the 16th of June, 1647, in order to improve his fortune by trade and merchandise. Our adventurer was the third son of an eminent citizen, who To be short, Mr. Thomas Inkle, now coming had taken particular care to instill into his mind into English territories, began seriously to reflect an early love of gain, by making him a perfect upon his loss of time, and to weigh with himself master of numbers, and consequently giving him how many days' interest of his money he had lost a quick view of loss and advantage, and prevent- during his stay with Yarico. This thought made ing the natural impulses of his passions, by pre- the young man pensive, and careful what account possession toward his interests. With a mind he should be able to give his friends of his voyPhus turned, young Inkle had a person every way age. Upon which consideration, the prudent and frugal young man sold Yarico to a Barbadian mer- I remember last winter there were sever chant; notwithstanding that the poor girl, to incline him to commiserate her condition, told him that she was with child by him: but he only made use of that information, to rise in his demands upon the purchaser.' I was so touched with this story (which I think should be always a counterpart to the Ephesian matron) that I left the room with tears in my eyes, which a woman of Arietta's good sense did, I am sure, take for greater applause than any compliments I could make her.-R. No. 12.] WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1710-11. Voteres avias tibi de pulmone revello. girls of the neighborhood sitting about with my landlady's daughters, and tellin of spirits and apparitions. Upon my op door the young women broke off their but my landlady's daughters telling ther was nobody but the gentleman (for that is which I go by in the neighborhood, as w the family), they went on without min I seated myself by the candle that stood at one end of the room; and pretending book that I took out of my pocket, hear dreadful stories of ghosts, as pale as as had stood at the feet of a bed, or walke church-yard by moonlight; and of others been conjured into the Red sea for disturb ple's rest, and drawing their curtains at mi with many other old women's fables of I root th' old woman from thy trembling heart. nature. As one spirit raised another, I Ar my coming to London, it was some time be- that at the end of every story the whole fore I could settle myself in a house to my liking. closed their ranks, and crowded about th I was forced to quit my first lodgings, by reason took notice in particular of a little boy, of an officious landlady, that would be asking me so attentive to every story, that I am mi every morning how I had slept. I then fell into he ventures to go to bed by himself this an honest family, and lived very happily for above month. Indeed they talked so long, that a week; when my landlord, who was a jolly, good- ginations of the whole assembly were m natured man, took it into his head that I wanted crazed, and, I am sure, will be the worse company, and therefore would frequently come long as they live. I heard one of the g into my chamber, to keep me from being alone. had looked upon me over her shoulder, as This I bore for two or three days; but telling me company how long I had been in the r one day that he was afraid I was melancholy, I whether I did not look paler than I use thought it was high time for me to be gone, and This put me under some apprehension that accordingly took new lodgings that very night. be forced to explain myself, if I did not r About a week after, I found my jolly landlord, which reason I took the candle into my h who, as I said before, was an honest, hearty man, went up into my chamber, not without w had put me into an advertisement in the Daily at this unaccountable weakness in reasona Courant, in the following words: "Whereas a mel-tures, that they should love to astonish ancholy man left his lodgings on Thursday last, in the afternoon, and was afterward seen going to ward Islington: if any one can give notice of him to R. B., fishmonger in the Strand, he shall be very well rewarded for his pains." As I am the best man in the world to keep my own counsel, and my landlord the fishmonger not knowing my name, this accident of my life was never discovered to this very day. rify one another. Were I a father, I sho a particular care to preserve my child these little horrors of imagination, which apt to contract when they are young, and able to shake off when they are in years. known a soldier that has entered a br frighted at his own shadow, and look pal little scratching at his door, who the da had marched up against a battery of I am now settled with a widow woman, who There are instances of persons who have has a great many children, and complies with my rified even to distraction at the figure of humor in everything. I do not remember that we the shaking of a bulrush. The truth of have exchanged a word together these five years; look upon a sound imagination as the my coffee comes into my chamber every morning blessing of life, next to a clear judgmen without asking for it; if I want fire I point to good conscience. In the meantime, sin my chimney, if water, to my basin; upon which are very few whose minds are not more or my landlady nods, as much as to say, she takes ject to these dreadful thoughts and appreł my meaning, and immediately obeys my signals. we ought to arm ourselves against then She has likewise modeled her family so well, that dictates of reason and religion, "to pull when her little boy offers to pull me by the coat woman out of our hearts" (as Persius exp or prattle in my face, his eldest sister immediately in the motto of my paper), and extingui calls him off, and bids him not to disturb the gen-impertinent notions which we imbibed a tleman. At my first entering into the family, I that we were not able to judge of their at was troubled with the civility of their rising up Or, if we believe, as many wise and go to me every time I came into the room; but my have done, that there are such phantoms landlady observing that upon these occasions I paritions as those I have been speaking always cried Pish, and went out again, has for- endeavor to establish to ourselves an interes bidden any such ceremony to be used in the house; who holds the reins of the whole creatio so that at present I walk into the kitchen or par- hands, and moderates them after such a lor, without being taken notice of, or giving any that it is impossible for one being to bre interruption to the business or discourse of the upon another, without his knowledge a family. The maid will ask her mistress (though mission. I am by) whether the gentleman is ready to go to dinner, as the mistress (who is indeed an excellent housewife) scolds at the servants as heartily before my face as behind my back. In short, I move up and down the house, and enter into all companies with the same liberty as a cat, or any other domestic animal, and am as little suspected of telling anything that I hear or see. For my own part, I am apt to join in the with those who believe that all the region ture swarm with spirits; and that we hav tudes of spectators on all our actions, v think ourselves most alone; but instead fying myself with such a notion, I am won pleased to think that I am always engag such an innumerable society in searching wonders of the creation, and joining in the same which will not seem strange, waen I acquaint my concert of praise and adoration. reader that the lion has been changed upon the Milton has finely described this mixed commu-audience three several times. The first lion was a nion of men and spirits in Paradise; and had doubtless his eye upon a verse in old Hesiod, which is almost word for word the same with his third line in the following passage: Nor think, though men were none, That heav'n would want spectators, God want praise; candle-snuffer, who being a fellow of a testy, choleric temper, overdid his part, and would not suffer himself to be killed so easily as he ought to have done; beside, it was observed of him, that he grew more surly every time that he came out of the lion; and having dropped some words in ordinary conversation, as if he had not fought his best, that he suffered himself to be thrown upon his back in the scuffle, and that he would wrestle with Mr. Nicolini for what he pleased out of his lion's skin, it was thought proper to discard him: and it is verily believed to this day, that had he been brought upon the stage another time, he would certainly have done mischief. Beside, it was objected against the first lion, that he reared himself so high upon his hinder paws, and walked in so erect a posture, that he looked more like an old man than a lion. The second lion was a tailor by trade, who be No. 13.] THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1710-11. longed to the play-house, and had the character of Die mihi, si fueris tu leo, qualis eris?-MART. THERE is nothing that of late years has afforded matter of greater amusement to the town then Signior Nicolini's combat with a lion in the Haymarket, which has been very often exhibited to the general satisfaction of most of the nobility and gentry in the kingdom of Great Britain. Upon the first rumor of this intended combat, it was confidently affirmed, and is still believed by many in both galleries, that there would be a tame lion sent from the tower every opera night, in order to be killed by Hydaspes: this report, though altogether groundless, so universally prevailed in the upper regions of the play-house, that some of the most refined politicians in these parts of the audience gave it out in a whisper, that the lion was a cousin-german of the tiger who made his appearance in King William's days, and that the stage would be supplied with lions at the public expense during the whole session. Many likewise were the conjectures of the treatment, which this lion was to meet with from the hands of Signior Nicolini; some supposed that he was to subdue him in recitativo, as Orpheus used to serve the wild beasts in his time, and afterward to knock him on the head; some fancied that the lion would not pretend to lay his paws upon the hero, by reason of the received opinion, that a lion will not hurt a virgin. Several, who pretended to have seen the opera in Italy, had informed their friends, that the lion was to act a part in high Dutch, and roar twice or thrice to a thorough bass, before he fell at the feet of Hydaspes. To clear up a matter that was so variously reported, I have made it my business to examine whether this pretended lion is really the savage he appears to be, or only a counterfeit. But before I communicate my discoveries, I must acquaint the reader, that upon my walking behind the scenes last winter, as I was thinking on something else, I accidentally jostled against a monstrous animal that extremely startled me, and upon my nearer survey of it, appeared to be a lion rampant. The lion, seeing me very much surprised, told me, in a gentle voice, that I might come by him if I pleased: "for," says he, "I do not intend to hurt anybody." I thanked him very kindly, and passed by him; and in a little time after, saw him leap upon the stage, and act his part with very great applause. It has been observed by several, that the lion has changed his manner of acting twice or thrice since his first appearance; a mild and peaceable man in his profession. If the former was too furious, this was too sheepish for his part; inasmuch, that after a short modest walk upon the stage, he would fall at the first touch of Hydaspes, without grappling with him, and giving him an opportunity of showing his variety of Italian trips. It is said, indeed, that he once gave him a rip in his flesh-color doublet: but this was only to make work for himself, in his private character of a tailor. I must not omit, that it was this second lion who treated me with so much humanity behind the scenes. The acting lion at present is, as I am informed, a country gentleman, who does it for his diversion, but desires his name may be concealed. He says very handsomely in his own excuse, that he does not act from gain, that he indulges an innocent pleasure in it; and that it is better to pass away an evening in this manner, than in gaming and in drinking: but at the same time says, with a very agreeable raillery upon himself, that if his name should be known, the ill-natured world might call him, "the ass in the lion's skin." This gentleman's temper is made out of such a happy mixture of the mild and the choleric, that he outdoes both his predecessors, and has drawn together greater audiences than have been known in the memory of man. I must not conclude my narrative, without taking notice of a groundless report that has been raised to a gentleman's disadvantage, of whom I must declare myself an admirer; namely, that Signior Nicolini and the lion have been seen sitting peaceably by one another, and smoking a pipe together behind the scenes; by which their common enemies would insinuate, that it is but a sham combat which they represent upon the stage: but upon inquiry I find, that if any such correspondence has passed between them, it was not till the combat was over, when the lion was to be looked upon as dead, according to the received rules of the drama. Beside, this is what is practiced every day in Westminster-hall, where nothing is more usual than to see a couple of lawyers, who have been tearing each other to pieces in the court, embracing one another as soon as they are out of it. I would not be thought, in any part of this relation, to reflect upon Signior Nicolini, who in acting this part only complies with the wretched taste of his audience; he knows very well, that the lion has many more admirers than himself; as they say of the famous equestrian statue on the Pont Nouf at Paris, that more people go to see |