The Tatler Volume Iii Part 40

No. 193. [STEELE.[335]

From _Sat.u.r.day, July 1_, to _Tuesday, July 4, 1710_.

Qui didicit, patriae quid debeat et quid amicis, Quo sit amore parens, quo frater amandus, et hospes ...

Scribere[336] personae scit convenientia cuique.

HOR., Ars Poet. 312.

_Will's Coffee-house, July 3._

I have of late received many epistles, wherein the writers treat me as a mercenary person, for some late hints concerning matters which they think I should not have touched upon but for sordid considerations. It is apparent, that my motive could not be of that kind; for when a man declares himself openly on one side, that party will take no more notice of him, because he is sure; and the set of men whom he declares against, for the same reason are violent against him. Thus it is folly in a plain-dealer to expect, that either his friends will reward him, or his enemies forgive him. For which reason, I thought it was the shortest way to impartiality, to put myself beyond further hopes or fears, by declaring myself, at a time when the dispute is not about persons and parties, but things and causes. To relieve myself from the vexation which naturally attends such reflections, I came hither this evening to give my thoughts quite a new turn, and converse with men of pleasure and wit, rather than those of business and intrigue. I had hardly entered the room, when I was accosted by Mr. Thomas Doggett, who desired my favour in relation to the play which was to be acted for his benefit on Thursday. He pleased me in saying it was "The Old Bachelor,"[337] in which comedy there is a necessary circ.u.mstance observed by the author, which most other poets either overlook or do not understand, that is to say, the distinction of characters. It is very ordinary with writers to indulge a certain modesty of believing all men as witty as themselves, and making all the persons of the play speak the sentiments of the author, without any manner of respect to the age, fortune, or quality of him that is on the stage. Ladies talk like rakes, and footmen make similes: but this writer knows men, which makes his plays reasonable entertainments, while the scenes of most others are like the tunes between the acts. They are perhaps agreeable sounds, but they have no ideas affixed to them. Doggett thanked me for my visit to him in the winter,[338] and, after his comical manner, spoke his request with so arch a leer, that I promised the droll I would speak to all my acquaintance to be at his play.

Whatever the world may think of the actors, whether it be that their parts have an effect on their lives, or whatever it is, you see a wonderful benevolence among them towards the interests and necessities of each other. Doggett therefore would not let me go, without delivering me a letter from poor old Downes the prompter,[339] wherein that retainer to the theatre desires my advice and a.s.sistance in a matter of concern to him. I have sent him my private opinion for his conduct; but the stage and the State affairs being so much canva.s.sed by parties and factions, I shall for some time hereafter take leave of subjects which relate to either of them, and employ my care in consideration of matters which regard that part of mankind who live without interesting themselves with the troubles or pleasures of either. However, for a mere notion of the present posture of the stage, I shall give you the letter at large as follows:

"HONOURED SIR, _July 1, 1710._

"Finding by divers of your late papers, that you are a friend to the profession of which I was many years an unworthy member, I the rather make bold to crave your advice, touching a proposal that has been lately made me of coming into business, and the sub-administration of stage affairs. I have, from my youth, been bred up behind the curtain, and been a prompter from the time of the Restoration.[340] I have seen many changes, as well of scenes as of actors, and have known men within my remembrance arrive to the highest dignities of the theatre, who made their entrance in the quality of mutes, joint-stools, flowerpots, and tapestry hangings. It cannot be unknown to the n.o.bility and gentry, that a gentleman of the Inns of Court, and a deep intriguer, had some time since worked himself into the sole management and direction of the theatre.[341] Nor is it less notorious, that his restless ambition, and subtle machinations, did manifestly tend to the extirpation of the good old British actors, and the introduction of foreign pretenders; such as harlequins, French dancers, and Roman singers; which, though they impoverished the proprietors, and imposed on the audience, were for some time tolerated, by reason of his dexterous insinuations, which prevailed upon a few deluded women, especially the vizard masks, to believe that the stage was in danger. But his schemes were soon exposed, and the great ones that supported him withdrawing their favour, he made his exit, and remained for a season in obscurity. During this retreat the Machiavelian was not idle, but secretly fomented divisions, and wrought over to his side some of the inferior actors, reserving a trap-door to himself, to which only he had a key. This entrance secured, this cunning person, to complete his company, bethought himself of calling in the most eminent of strollers from all parts of the kingdom. I have seen them all ranged together behind the scenes; but they are many of them persons that never trod the stage before, and so very awkward and ungainly, that it is impossible to believe the audience will bear them. He was looking over his catalogue of plays, and indeed picked up a good tolerable set of grave faces for counsellors, to appear in the famous scene of 'Venice Preserved,'

when the danger is over; but they being but mere outsides, and the actors having a great mind to play 'The Tempest,' there is not a man of them, when he is to perform anything above dumb show, is capable of acting with a good grace so much as the part of Trinculo. However, the master persists in his design, and is fitting up the old 'storm'; but I am afraid he will not be able to procure able sailors or experienced officers for love or money.

"Besides all this, when he comes to cast the parts, there is so great a confusion amongst them for want of proper actors, that for my part I am wholly discouraged. The play with which they design to open is, 'The Duke and No Duke';[342] and they are so put to it, that the master himself is to act the conjurer, and they have no one for the general but honest George Powell.[343]

"Now, sir, they being so much at a loss for the _dramatis personae_, viz., the persons to enact, and the whole frame of the house being designed to be altered, I desire your opinion, whether you think it advisable for me to undertake to prompt them? For though I can clash swords when they represent a battle, and have yet lungs enough to huzza their victories, I question, if I should prompt them right, whether they would act accordingly. I am

"Your Honour's most humble Servant, "J. Downes.

"P.S. Sir, since I writ this, I am credibly informed, that they design a new house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, near the Popish chapel,[344] to be ready by Michaelmas next; which indeed is but repairing an old one that has already failed. You know the honest man who kept the office is gone already."

[Footnote 335: The authors.h.i.+p of the greater part of this paper is uncertain; see note on next page.]

[Footnote 336: "Reddere" (Horace).]

[Footnote 337: See No. 9.]

[Footnote 338: See Nos. 120, 122. In the continuation of the Tatler which Swift and Harrison conducted (No. 28, March 24, 1710-11) there is this pa.s.sage: "The person produced as mine in the playhouse, last winter, did in no wise appertain to me. It was such a one, however, as agreed well with the impression my writings had made, and served the purpose I intended it for: which was to continue the awe and reverence due to the character I was vested with, and at the same time to let my enemies see how much I was the delight and favourite of this town," &c.]

[Footnote 339: This letter, in ridicule of Harley's newly formed Ministry, has been attributed to the joint authors.h.i.+p of Anthony Henley (see No. 11) and Temple Stanyan. Harley is supposed to be the gentleman referred to in the letter, and Downes, it has been suggested, is Thomas...o...b..rne, first Duke of Leeds. Steele expressly disavowed responsibility for the letter from Downes the prompter. In No. 53 of the _Guardian_ he wrote: "Old Downes is a fine piece of raillery, of which I wish I had been author. All I had to do in it, was to strike out what related to a gentlewoman about the Queen, whom I thought a woman free from ambition, and I did it out of regard to innocence." And in the Preface to the _Tatler_, he said that this letter was by an unknown correspondent. A writer in the _Examiner_ (vol. iv. No. 2) mentions Old Downes among the sufferers of figure under our author's satire. The same writer, or another in the same paper, expresses himself in the following words: "Steele broke his own maxim for trifles in which his country had no manner of concern; and by entering into party disputes, violated the most solemn repeated promises and that perfect neutrality he had engaged to maintain. As a proof that I did not wrong him, he now openly takes upon himself Downes' letter, by wis.h.i.+ng the raillery (as he calls it) were his own." In the "Essays Divine, Moral, and Political" (1714), p.

42, Swift is made to say, "I advised him [Steele] to the publis.h.i.+ng that letter from Downes the prompter, which was the beginning of his ruin, though I here declare I did not write it." Forster ("Biographical Essays," 3rd ed.) concludes that this fict.i.tious letter was certainly by Mainwaring himself. In the "Journal to Stella" (Oct. 22, 1710), Swift wrote: "He [Steele] has lost his place of Gazetteer, three hundred pounds a year, for writing a _Tatler_, some months ago, against Mr.

Harley, who gave it him at first, and raised the salary from sixty to three hundred pounds." See also Swift's "The Importance of the _Guardian_ considered."]

[Footnote 340: John Downes was prompter to "The Duke's Servants" until 1706. In 1708 he published his valuable "Roscius Anglica.n.u.s, or an Historical Review of the Stage."]

[Footnote 341: Christopher Rich, who began life as an attorney. See Nos.

12, 99.]

[Footnote 342: A farce by Nahum Tate, 1685.]

[Footnote 343: See No. 3.]

[Footnote 344: The theatre built by Betterton and his friends in 1695, in Portugal Row, Lincoln's Inn Fields, was pulled down and rebuilt by Christopher Rich in 1714. The Roman Catholic Church here referred to was in Duke (now Sardinia) Street, on the west side of the square.]

END OF VOL. III.