The Spectator Volume Iii Part 63

T.

[Footnote 1: Addison.]

[Footnote 2: The Temple of Fame.]

[Footnote 3: Pope republished this in his 'Letters' in 1735, adding a metrical translation of Adrian's lines:

Ah, fleeting spirit! wandering fire, That long hast warm'd my tender breast, Must thou no more this frame inspire?

No more a pleasing, cheerful guest?

Whither, ah, whither art thou flying, To what dark, undiscovered sh.o.r.e?

Thou seem'st all trembling, s.h.i.+vering, dying, And wit and humour are no more.

Two days after the insertion of this letter from Pope, Steele wrote to the young poet (Nov. 12):

'I have read over your "Temple of Fame" twice; and cannot find anything amiss of weight enough to call a fault, but see in it a thousand thousand beauties. Mr. Addison shall see it to-morrow: after his perusal of it I will let you know his thoughts. I desire you would let me know whether you are at leisure or not? I have a design which I shall open a month or two hence, with the a.s.sistance of a few like yourself. If your thoughts are unengaged I shall explain myself further.'

This design was the _Guardian_, which Steele was about to establish as the successor to the _Spectator_; and here we find him at work on the foundations of his new journal while the finis.h.i.+ng strokes are being given to the _Spectator_. Pope in his reply to Steele said (Nov. 16):

'I shall be very ready and glad to contribute to any design that tends to the advantage of mankind, which, I am sure, all yours do. I wish I had but as much capacity as leisure, for I am perfectly idle (a sign I have not much capacity). If you will entertain the best opinion of me, be pleased to think me your friend. a.s.sure Mr. Addison of my most faithful service; of every one's esteem he must be a.s.sured already.'

About a fortnight later, returning to the subject of Adrian's verses, Pope wrote to Steele in reply to subsequent private discussion of the subject (Nov. 29):

'I am sorry you published that notion about Adrian's verses as mine; had I imagined you would use my name, I should have expressed my sentiments with more modesty and diffidence. I only wrote to have your opinion, and not to publish my own, which I distrusted.'

Then after defending his view of the poem, and commenting upon the Latin diminutives, he adds,

'perhaps I should be much better pleased if I were told you called me "your little friend," than if you complimented me with the t.i.tle of "a great genius," or "an eminent hand," as Jacob [Tonson] does all his authors.'

Steele's genial reply produced from Pope, as final result of the above letter to the _Spectator_, one of the most popular of his short pieces.

Steele wrote (Dec. 4):

'This is to desire of you that you would please to make an ode as of a cheerful dying spirit; that is to say, the Emperor Adrian's "_animula vagula_," put into two or three stanzas for music. If you will comply with this, and send me word so, you will very particularly oblige RICHARD STEELE.'

This was written two days before the appearance of the last number of his _Spectator_. Pope answered,

'I do not send you word I will do, but have already done the thing you desire of me,'

and sent his poem of three stanzas, called THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL.

'Vital spark of heavenly flame,' &c.

These two letters were published by Warburton, but are not given by Pope in the edition of his correspondence, published in 1737, and the poem has no place in the collected works of 1717. It has been said that if the piece had been written in 1712 Steele would have inserted it in the _Spectator_. But it was not received until the last number of the _Spectator_ had been published. Three months then elapsed before the appearance of the _Guardian_, to which Pope contributed eight papers.

Pope, on his part, would be naturally unwilling to connect with the poem the few words he had sent with it to Steele, saying,

'You have it (as Cowley calls it) just warm from the brain. It came to me the first moment I waked this morning. Yet, you will see, it was not so absolutely inspiration, but that I had in my head not only the verses of Adrian, but the fine fragment of Sappho, &c.'

The &c. being short for Thomas Flatman, whose name would not have stood well by that of Sappho, though he was an accomplished man in his day, who gave up law for poetry and painting, and died in 1688, one of the best miniature painters of his time, and the author of 'Songs and Poems,' published in 1674, which in ten years went through three editions. Flatman had written:

'_When on my sick-bed I languish, Full of sorrow, full of anguish, Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying, Panting, groaning, speechless, dying; Methinks I hear some gentle spirit say, "Be not fearful, come away_!"']

[Footnote 4: From Thomas Tickell.]

No. 533. Tuesday, November 11, 1712. Steele.

'Immo duas dabo, inquit ille, una si parum est: Et si duarum paenitebit, addentur duae.'

Plaut.

_To the_ SPECTATOR.

_SIR,_

'You have often given us very excellent Discourses against that unnatural Custom of Parents, in forcing their Children to marry contrary to their Inclinations. My own Case, without further Preface, I will lay before you, and leave you to judge of it. My Father and Mother both being in declining Years, would fain see me, their eldest Son, as they call it settled. I am as much for that as they can be; but I must be settled, it seems, not according to my own, but their liking. Upon this account I am teaz'd every Day, because I have not yet fallen in love, in spite of Nature, with one of a neighbouring Gentleman's Daughters; for out of their abundant Generosity, they give me the choice of four. _Jack_, begins my Father, Mrs. _Catherine_ is a fine Woman--Yes, Sir, but she is rather too old--She will make the more discreet Manager, Boy. Then my Mother plays her part. Is not Mrs.

_Betty_ exceeding fair? Yes, Madam, but she is of no Conversation; she has no Fire, no agreeable Vivacity; she neither speaks nor looks with Spirit. True, Son; but for those very Reasons, she will be an easy, soft, obliging, tractable Creature. After all, cries an old Aunt, (who belongs to the Cla.s.s of those who read Plays with Spectacles on) what think you, Nephew, of proper Mrs. _Dorothy_? What do I think? why I think she cannot be above six foot two inches high. Well, well, you may banter as long as you please, but Height of Stature is commanding and majestick. Come, come, says a Cousin of mine in the Family, I'll fit him; _Fidelia_ is yet behind--Pretty Miss _Fiddy_ must please you--Oh! your very humble Servant, dear Cos. she is as much too young as her eldest Sister is too old. Is it so indeed, quoth she, good Mr.

_Pert_? You who are but barely turned of twenty two, and Miss Fiddy in half a Year's time will be in her Teens, and she is capable of learning any thing. Then she will be so observant; she'll cry perhaps now and then, but never be angry. Thus they will think for me in this matter, wherein I am more particularly concerned than any Body else.

If I name any Woman in the World, one of these Daughters has certainly the same Qualities. You see by these few Hints, _Mr._ SPECTATOR, what a comfortable Life I lead. To be still more open and free with you, I have been pa.s.sionately fond of a young Lady (whom give me leave to call _Miranda_) now for these three Years. I have often urged the Matter home to my Parents with all the Submission of a Son, but the Impatience of a Lover. Pray, Sir, think of three Years; what inexpressible Scenes of Inquietude, what Variety of Misery must I have gone thro' in three long whole Years? _Miranda's_ Fortune is equal to those I have mention'd; but her Relations are not Intimates with mine.

Ah! there's the Rub. _Miranda's_ Person, Wit, and Humour, are what the nicest Fancy could imagine; and though we know you to be so elegant a Judge of Beauty, yet there is none among all your various Characters of fine Women preferable to _Miranda_. In a Word, she is never guilty of doing any thing but one amiss, (if she can be thought to do amiss by me) in being as blind to my Faults, as she is to her own Perfections.

_I am, SIR, Your very humble obedient Servant,_ Dustererastus.

_Mr._ SPECTATOR,

'When you spent so much time as you did lately in censuring the ambitious young Gentlemen who ride in Triumph through Town and Country in Coach-boxes, I wished you had employed those Moments in consideration of what pa.s.ses sometimes within-side of those Vehicles.

I am sure I suffered sufficiently by the Insolence and Ill-breeding of some Persons who travelled lately with me in a Stage-Coach out of _Ess.e.x_ to _London_. I am sure, when you have heard what I have to say, you will think there are Persons under the Character of Gentlemen that are fit to be no where else but in the Coach-box. Sir, I am a young Woman of a sober and religious Education, and have preserved that Character; but on Monday was Fortnight it was my Misfortune to come to _London_. I was no sooner clapt in the Coach, but to my great Surprize, two Persons in the Habit of Gentlemen attack'd me with such indecent Discourse as I cannot repeat to you, so you may conclude not fit for me to hear. I had no relief but the Hopes of a speedy End of my short Journey. Sir, form to your self what a Persecution this must needs be to a virtuous and a chaste Mind; and in order to your proper handling such a Subject, fancy your Wife or Daughter, if you had any, in such Circ.u.mstances, and what Treatment you would think then due to such Dragoons. One of them was called a Captain, and entertained us with nothing but silly stupid Questions, or lewd Songs, all the way.

Ready to burst with Shame and Indignation, I repined that Nature had not allowed us as easily to shut our Ears as our Eyes. But was not this a kind of Rape? Why should there be Accessaries in Ravishment any more than Murder? Why should not every Contributor to the Abuse of Chast.i.ty suffer Death? I am sure these shameless h.e.l.l-hounds deserved it highly. Can you exert your self better than on such an Occasion? If you do not do it effectually, I 'll read no more of your Papers. Has every impertinent Fellow a Privilege to torment me, who pay my Coach-hire as well as he? Sir, pray consider us in this respect as the weakest s.e.x, and have nothing to defend our selves; and I think it as Gentleman-like to challenge a Woman to fight, as to talk obscenely in her Company, especially when she has not power to stir. Pray let me tell you a Story which you can make fit for publick View. I knew a Gentleman, who having a very good Opinion of the Gentlemen of the Army, invited ten or twelve of them to sup with him; and at the same time invited two or three Friends, who were very severe against the Manners and Morals of Gentlemen of that Profession. It happened one of them brought two Captains of his Regiment newly come into the Army, who at first Onset engaged the Company with very lewd Healths and suitable Discourse. You may easily imagine the Confusion of the Entertainer, who finding some of his Friends very uneasy, desired to tell them a Story of a great Man, one Mr, _Locke_ (whom I find you frequently mention) that being invited to dine with the then Lords _Hallifax, Anglesey_, and _Shaftsbury_; immediately after Dinner, instead of Conversation, the Cards were called for, where the bad or good Success produced the usual Pa.s.sions of Gaming. Mr. _Locke_ retiring to a Window, and writing, my Lord _Anglesey_ desired to know what he was writing: _Why, my Lords_, answered he, _I could not sleep last Night for the Pleasure and Improvement I expected from the Conversation of the greatest Men of the Age_. This so sensibly stung them, that they gladly compounded to throw their Cards in the Fire if he would his Paper, and so a Conversation ensued fit for such Persons.

This Story prest so hard upon the young Captains, together with the Concurrence of their superior Officers, that the young Fellows left the Company in Confusion. Sir, I know you hate long things; but if you like it, you may contract it, or how you will; but I think it has a Moral in it.