The Coverley Papers, From 'The Spectator'
Chapter 5
I'll perform it To the last article.
Now concrete in sense: a material object.
23. _Conversation_. v. note on p. 23, 1. 16.
30. _modish._ Fashionable. Sc p. 64, 1. 2, 'Men of mode,' and p. 63, 1, 3, 'People of mode.'
Page 64.
31. _the country are_. Properly _is_.
Page 65.
3. _upon the western circuit_. As judge.
SPECTATOR 120.
Page 65.
29. _demonstrative._ Conclusive. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry V._, II. iv. 89: In every branch truly demonstrative.
Page 66.
11. _the leaving a posterity_. Mixed construction. _Leaving_ should be used either as a gerund, _leaving a posterity,_ or as a verbal noun, _the leaving of a posterity._
14. _nicer_. More delicate.
17. _birth_. That which they bear, their offspring. Cf. Shakespeare, _Othello_, I. iii. 410:
Hell and night Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.
30. _temper_. Temperature.
Page 67.
34. _which_. sc. a circumstance which.
Page 68.
1. _as it spreads_. To the degree in which it spreads.
16. _Take a brute out of his instinct_. Consider an animal in matters outside the range of his instinct.
Page 69.
18. _do not carry an immediate regard to_. Have no immediate bearing on.
SPECTATOR 121.
Page 70.
7. _stepmother_. Properly foster-mother.
17. _A modern philosopher_. M. Bernard, who quotes the Latin saw, is himself quoted by Bayle in a long discussion appended to the articles on _Pereira_ and _Rosarius_ in his Historical Dictionary, a translation of which was printed in 1710. Jacob Tonson, the publisher, declares that the Dictionary was Addison's constant companion.
26. _Dampier_, the great navigator, printed in 1691 a book entitled _A New Voyage round the World_.
Page 72.
4. _Mr. Locke_. v. note on p. 28, 1. 25. The reference is to ii. 9, 13.
19. _Dr. More_ was one of the original members of the Royal Society. He died in 1687.
_Cardan_ or Cardano, was an Italian philosopher of the sixteenth century. The citation is from _De Rerum Subtilitate_, x.
Page 73.
13. _Mr. Boyle_. A famous natural philosopher, and member of the Royal Society, who died in 1691. The citation is from _A Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things_.
18. _one humour_. The typical eye of the higher animals consists of a lens and two humours or fluids, known as the aqueous and the vitreous.
33. _our Royal Society_. Founded in 1662.
Page 74.
2. _original_. Origin. Cf. Shakespeare, _2 Henry IV_, I. ii. 131, 'It hath its original from much grief.'
3. _policies_. v. note on p. 61, 1. 26.
14. _Howling Wilderness and Great Deep_. Deuteronomy, xxxii. 10, 'He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness.' Psalm li. 10, 'The waters of the great deep.'
25. _Tully_. v. note on p. 7, 1. 29.
29. _nice_. Accurate, precise. Cf. Shakespeare, _Much Ado about Nothing_, v. i. 75:
Despite his nice fence and his active practice.
SPECTATOR 122.
Page 75.
8. _approbations_. Not now used in the plural.
21. _assizes_, v. note on p. 36, 1. 22.
23. _rid_. v. note on p. 24, 1. 17.
28. _the game-act_, v. note on p. 7, 1. 12.
Page 76.
3. _shoots flying_. This accomplishment was just coming into fashion, and was not yet common.
4. _the petty-jury_, which actually gives a verdict on cases tried. The _grand jury_ decides whether cases shall be sent up for trial.
8. _quarter-sessions_, v. note on p. 7, 1. 10.
14. _cast and been cast_. To defeat or be defeated or condemned in a trial or law-suit. Cf. Milton, _Eikonoklastes_, 'The Commons by far the greatest number cast him.'
34. _was sat_. Was seated.
Page 77.
2. _for_. For the sake of, in order to enhance.
Page 78.
11. _be at the charge_. Bear the expense.
29. _conjuring_. Urging. Cf. Shakespeare, _Comedy of Errors_, iv. iii. 68:
I conjure you to leave me and be gone.
SPECTATOR 123.
Page 80.
8. _a novel_ at this time meant a short fictitious tale, generally of love.
9. _Eudoxus and Leontine_. This charming story is reminiscent of Shakespeare's _Winter's Tale_. Leontine, the friend who has a daughter, may well trace his descent from Leontes, King of Sicilia. Eudoxus must stand for Polixenes, King of Bohemia, since his son Florio is certainly the shadow of Prince Florizel. The plot hinges on the fact that both of the children, like the daughter of Leontine's prototype, grow up in ignorance of their parentage, and in both cases there is an apparent inequality of fortune between the lovers.
In a letter of the same date addressed to Mr. Wortley, Addison writes: 'When you have a son I shall be glad to be his Leontine, as my circumstances will probably be like his.' He had just sustained heavy losses.
32. _turned of_. We should now say _turned_.
33. Cowley, Essay X, 'But there is no fooling with life when it is once turned beyond forty.'
Page 81.
1. _In order to this_. In order to accomplish this.
Page 82.
1. _dictated_. Dictated to, counselled. Not now used transitively of persons.
Page 83.
26. _relish_, v. note on p. 44, 1. 7.
30. _discoveries_, v. note on p. 5, 1. 12.
SPECTATOR 125.
Page 84.
19. _St. Anne's Lane_. Turning out of Aldersgate Street.
24. _prickeared_. A contemptuous term applied to Roundheads, in allusion to the effect produced by the shortness of their hair, and borrowed from its ordinary use as applied to mongrel dogs.
Page 85.
7. _prejudice of the land-tax_. The land-tax was first levied in 1699 to pay for the French War. It was carried by Whig feeling in opposition to the Tory landholders.
_the destruction of the game_, which would proceed while the country gentlemen were occupied with their party differences.
19. _sinks_. Used transitively, _lowers, diminishes_. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry VIII_., iii. ii. 383, 'A load would sink a navy.'
28. _Plutarch_, the great Greek moralist and biographer of the first century of our era. The quotation is from _De Inimicorum Utilitate_.
Page 86.
2. _that great rule_. St. Luke, vi. 27, 'Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.'
10. _the regard of_. A regard for.
19. _an object seen in two different mediums_. For instance, a straight stick partly immersed in water appears as if bent at the point at which it enters the water. The rays of light reflected from the position under water, by which we see that portion, are bent when they leave the water and enter the air in such a way as to make that part of the stick appear nearer to our eye than it would appear in air.
Page 87.
4. _postulatums_. The word has now become Anglicized in a different form, _postulate_, plural _postulates_.
15. _Guelfes and Gibellines_. The opposing political parties in Germany and Italy from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. In Italy they were the adherents of the Pope and the Emperor respectively.
16. _the League_. The Holy League, formed in 1576, in the Roman Catholic interest.
17. _unhappy_. Unfortunate. Cf. Shakespeare, _Comedy of Errors_, IV. iv. 126, 'O most unhappy day!'
SPECTATOR 126.
Page 89.
7. _such persons, that_. Mixed construction: _all persons that_ or _such persons as_. Frequent in Shakespeare; cf. _Measure for Measure_, II. ii. 147:
Such things That want no ear but yours.
16. _retainers_. Followers, adherents.
28. _Diodorus Siculus_, a Greek historian of the last century B.C. The citation is from his universal history, a work in forty books, i. 35. 7.
30. _Ichneumon_. An animal belonging to the same family as the civets. The Egyptian ichneumon, known also as Pharaoh's cat, was held sacred among the ancient Egyptians because of its propensity for destroying crocodiles' eggs, but unfortunately for Addison's illustration, it is now proved that the degenerate ichneumon does actually 'find his account' in feeding upon the eggs which he breaks, whether they be those of crocodiles or merely of the barn-door fowl.
34. _finds his account_. Receives any recompense or advantage.
Page 90.
8. _the wild Tartars_. The Tartars are a race of Russians, of Turkish and Mongolian origin. Some of them adhere to the religion of the Greek church, some are Moslems, and some Shamanites. The reference is probably to some Shaman belief, for magic and the spirits of the dead play a very large part in this religion.
12. _of course_. In due course, in consequence. Cf. Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_, III. i. 259, 'This being granted in course, now follows all.'
27. _cock-match_. Match between fighting-cocks.
_humour_, v. note on p. 22, 1. 26.
30. _quarter-sessions_, v. note on p. 7, 1. 10.
34. _the landed and ... the monied interest_. The land-owner would naturally be a Tory, and the merchant a Whig.
Page 91.
6. _interest_. Political position, by virtue of which he was returned for his county.
11. _such an one_. v. note on p. 26, 1. 30. Here, the Tory candidate for the district.
19. _take up with_. Put up with.
30. _a very fair bettor_. Quite a good bettor or better.
32. _disagreeable_. Unpleasing, unpopular.
34. _correspondence_. v. note on p. 20, 1. 35.
Page 92.
10. _fanatick_. A madman. Will Wimble suspects the Spectator of unsoundness in politics, that is, of not being of the Tory persuasion.
SPECTATOR 127.
Page 92.
24. _the post_ would have reached Sir Roger in Worcester twice a week, on Thursdays and Saturdays (Report for 1809.)
25. _Dyer's letter_. Dyer's _News Letter_ was published three times a week. It dealt more in domestic news than did the regular newspapers, such as _The Postman_, and was sometimes driven to fill up space by relating fictitious events. Cf. _Tatler_ 18, in which Steele and Addison declare that Dyer is famous for whales in the Thames!
29. _under the quality of_. In the office of. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry V_., III. vi. 146, 'What is thy name? I know thy quality.'
Page 93.
2. _ordinary_. Used as an adverb.
5. _expence_. Now expense, v. note on _chace_, p. 46, 1. 22.
13. _You praised them_. v. _Spectator_ 98, On Ladies' Headdresses.
14. _the humour_. The fluid which causes the disease.
30. _Sir George Etherege_. v. note on p. 6, 1. 22. His first comedy, 1664, was entitled _The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub_. The reference is to IV. vi.
Page 94.
2. _the farthingale_ was a framework for extending the skirt of a woman's dress. It was introduced in 1545, and finally assumed a perfectly cylindrical shape.
_the ruin of the Spanish monarchy_. The defeat and dispersal of the Armada in 1558.
5. _the tail of a blazing star_. Comets have always been held to foretell disaster.
11. _into meetings and conventicles_. That is, to Dissent.
12. _trunk-breeches_. Very full, short breeches, reaching to the knee or half-way down the thigh.
16. _it is recorded of Alexander the Great_ in Plutarch's _Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans_. 'He first contrived many vain and sophistical things to serve the purposes of fame; among which were arms much bigger than his men could use ... left scattered up and down.' This report is probably baseless, as it is opposed to the magnanimity of Alexander's character.
28. _Rotunda_. A building of circular shape both outside and inside, such as the Pantheon in Rome.
31. _a little black monkey enshrined_. Each Egyptian village had its sacred animal or fetish.
Page 95.
8. _the sensitive plant_. _Mimosa pudica_, whose leaflets fold together at a touch.
SPECTATOR 128.
Page 96.
9. _from thence_. A redundant expression. _Thence_ is in itself equivalent to _from there_. Cf. Shakespeare, _Comedy of Errors_, IV. iv. 79, 'Did not I in rage depart from thence?'
Page 97.
4. _carries it_. Succeeds. Cf. Shakespeare, _Troilus and Cressida_, II. iii. 228, 'Shall pride carry it?'
Page 98.
3. _the younger Faustina_, the profligate wife of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
25. _your_ was frequently used instead of _the_ in naming an object as typical of its class, especially when the speech carries any flavour of pleasantry. Cf. Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_, IV. ii. 46, 'Every true man's apparel fits your thief.'
Page 99.
1. _Aristus_. aristos, best.
_Aspasia_. The mistress of Pericles, and the inspiration of his greatness.
SPECTATOR 129.
Page 99.
17. _periwig_. v. note on p. 8, 1. 8.
Page 100.
1. _habits_, v. note on p. 10, 1. 20.
5. _the mode_. v. note on p. 62, 1. 30.
12. _engage_. Undertake.
23. _circuit_. v. note on p. 65, 1. 3.
28. _Stains_, now spelt _Staines_, in Middlesex, ten miles from London.
29. _commode_. A wire erection to raise the front of the hair and the cap. First worn by Mlle. Fontange, at the court of Louis XIV. In _Spectator_ 98, Addison notes that head-dresses have diminished in height.
33. _the Ramilie cock._ A particular way of folding back the flaps of a cocked hat invented after Marlborough's victory at Ramillies, 1706.
Page 101.
10. _a Friezland hen._ Probably _frizzled hen_ (_Gallus crispus_) whose feathers stand outward from the body, giving it a much beruffled aspect.
15. _retrenching_. Cutting back, diminishing. Cf. Milton, _Paradise Regained_, i. 454:
But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched.
18. _franked by a parliament-man_. Members of Parliament were privileged to send and receive postal matter free of charge. The custom began in 1660, and was regulated by law in 1764. Until 1837 the member had simply to write his name on the corner of the envelope, and often presented his friends with parcels of franked envelopes. The privilege was abolished in 1840.
22. _next_. Most recent, last. Obsolete in this sense. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry VIII_., I. i. 17, 'Each following day became the next day's master.'
26. _in buckle_. In curl.
Page 102.
4. _astonishments_. The plural form is not now in use.
7. _bob-wig_. A wig with short curls or _bobs_, to imitate natural curly hair.
18. _Monmouth cock_. Another fashion of cocking the hat, named after the Duke of Monmouth. v. note on p. 10, 1. 30.
23. _night-cap wig_. A periwig with a short tie and a small round head.
Page 103.
1. _the Steenkirk_ was a black silk cravat, tied so as to produce an effect of negligence, in imitation of the victorious French generals, when a sudden attack summoned them hastily to the field at the battle of Steinkirk. v. note on _Spectator_ 335.
SPECTATOR 130.
Page 103.
10. _exert the Justice of the Peace_. Exercise the authority of a justice of the peace.
Page 104.
15. _A Cassandra_. A prophetess. Cassandra, daughter of Priam, King of Troy, was inspired by Apollo with the divine frenzy.
17. _in a corner_. Secretly. Cf. Acts of the Apostles, xxvi. 26, 'This thing was not done in a corner.'
Page 105.
21. _our monthly accounts about twenty years ago_. From 1681 monthly publications began to appear, the most notable being _The Gentleman's Journal_, issued by Peter Mottuex, 1691-4, which proved to be the germ of our entire magazine literature.
22. _Trekschuyt_. Literally _draw-boat_.
_hackney-boat_. Boat plying for hire.
Page 106.
4. _gave him for_. Gave him up for. Cf. Shakespeare, _The Winter's Tale_, III. ii. 96:
Your favour I do give lost.
SPECTATOR 131.
Page 107.
17. _a month's excursion_. In the _Spectator_ for July 2 Addison writes that he went 'last week' to Sir Roger's country-house.
Page 108.
10. _killed a man_. In a duel. Duelling was still the one way of repudiating an insult. The crusade against it was on foot, but it died hard.
11. _visit ... to Moll White_, v. _Spectator_ 117.
13. _cunning_. Learned in magic. Cf. _Spectator_ 505, 'Wizards, gypsies, and cunning men.'
16. _a White Witch_ is a witch who can do no harm, and who sometimes performs beneficent actions. Cf. the use of _white_ in such phrases as _white lie._
21. _harbour a Jesuit_. The last order for the expulsion of the Jesuits was issued in 1602. Those who harboured them in defiance of this order were liable to very heavy penalties.
28. _discarded Whig_, as Salmon points out, is an exact description of Addison at this time.
29. _out of place_. Deprived of his post or office.
31. _disaffected_, to the sovereign.
Page 109.
3. _discovers_, v. note on p. 5, 1. 12.
7. _temper_. Temperament, disposition. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry V_., V. ii. 153, 'A fellow of this temper.'
26. _picking of_. As if the gerund, _a-picking of_.
27. _smelling to_. Now _smelling at_.
33. _stories of a cock and a bull_. Now condensed to _cock-and- bull stories_. Cf. Burton, _Anatomy of Melancholy_, II. 11. iv. 274.
Page 110.
6. _commonwealth's men_. Republicans.
SPECTATOR 132.
Page 110.
23. _chamberlain_. Servant who attends the bedchambers. Cf. Milton, _On the University Carrier_, 1. 14, 'In the kind office of a chamberlin.'
25. _Mrs._ was the early abbreviation of _mistress_, which we have now unhappily abbreviated to _miss_.
Page 111.
8. _half-pike_. A kind of short lance, the weapon of an infantry officer.
10. _equipage_. Train, following.
12. _cloak-bag_. Portmanteau. Cf. Shakespeare, _Cymbeline_, III. iv. 172:
'Tis in my cloak-bag-doublet, hat, hose, all.
_in the seat_. Under the actual seat, in the well of the coach.
Page 112.
1. _the brideman_. Now called the _best man_.
8. _the giving her_. The giving of her.
11. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry V._, IV. iv. 73, 'The saying is true,-- the empty vessel makes the greatest sound.'
19. _countenance_. In its original meaning of bearing, behaviour. Cf. Shakespeare, _Taming of the Shrew_, i. i. 234:
Puts my apparel and my countenance on.
22. _fleer_. Gibe. Cf. Shakespeare, _Much Ado about Nothing_, V. i. 58, 'Never fleer and jest at me.'
28. _hasped up_. Shut up.
30. _Ephraim_ was a generic name for Quakers, given them because they refused to fight, v. Psalm lxxviii. 9, 'The children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle.'
35. _smoky_. The current slang for shrewd. To _smoke_ a plot or a trick was to detect it; in modern slang to _smell a rat_.
Page 113.
4. _ruffle_. Disturbance, commotion.
7. _conduct._ Cf. note on p. 59, 1. 13.
11. _taking place_ of other vehicles was an important privilege, for the road was generally practicable only for one vehicle at a time, so that the displaced one would have to stop till the road should be clear again.
25. _inward_. Pious, earnest. Cf. Thomas a Kempis, _De Imitatione Christi_, II. i. 41, 'a very inward man:' also Penn, _Rise and Progress of the Quakers_, 1690, 'more religious, inward, still.'
32. _thee and I_. The Friends generally employ _thee_ for _thou_. So too in p. 114, 1. 2.
Page 114.
3. _affections_. Dispositions, feelings. Cf. Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_, II. iv. 168:
By the affection that now guides me most.
SPECTATOR 269.
Page 114.
19. _Gray's Inn Walks_ are said to have been planted by Bacon. They are situated on the north side of Holborn, and were the regular promenade of people of fashion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for the air blew straight over from Hampstead, unimpeded by the houses which have since sprung up.
22. _Eugene_, Prince of Savoy, had arrived in London three days before the date of this paper. He had been Marlborough's colleague in the War of the Spanish Succession, and he had come over in order to attempt to repair the overthrow of Marlborough and to prevent the Tory government from concluding peace with France on ruinous and disgraceful terms.
27. _Eugenio_ was regularly employed by Prince Eugene as his signature, in recognition of his Italian family.
28. _Scanderbeg_ was the great Albanian prince and commander of the fifteenth century, who freed his country from the dominion of Turkey.
Page 115.
15. _made_. Preached, delivered.
16. _Dr. Barrow_, v. p. 15, 1. 12.
18. _thirty merks_. Twenty pounds. A merk or mark was worth 13s 4d. It was not a coin, but only a convenient name, as _guinea_ is now.
21. _fob_. A small pocket, usually intended to hold a watch.
22. _tobacco-stopper_. A small plug for pressing down the tobacco in the bowl of the pipe.
28. _Tom Touchy_. v. _Spectator_ 122.
31. _Moll White_. v. _Spectator_ 117.
Page 116.
8. _hogs-puddings_. Large sausage-shaped bags stuffed with minced pork.
18. _for twelve days_, that is, till Twelfth Night, January 6, which puts an end to the Christmas festivities.
22. _smutting_. A trick, the victim of which is made unconsciously to blacken his own face. Cf. Goldsmith:
The swain mistrustless of his smutted face While secret laughter tittered round the place.
27. _the late act of Parliament for securing the Church of England_. The Act of Occasional Uniformity, 1710, attempted to exclude Dissenters from political power and office by strengthening the Test Act of 1673. Dissenters who had once taken the sacrament in order to qualify for civil, military, or magisterial office, were prohibited under very severe penalties from appearing afterwards in sectarian places of worship.
28. _securing_. Making safe. Cf. Shakespeare, _Tempest_, II. i. 310, 'We stood here securing your repose.'
Page 117.
6. _the Pope's procession_ was a Whig demonstration performed annually on November 17, the anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth, to relieve the feelings of the Anti-Papal party. This year a particularly riotous procession had been prepared, but it was prevented by the seizure of all the images and accessories by the police in the middle of the preceding night.
17. _Baker's Chronicle_. Sir Richard Baker, who died in 1645, was the author of _A Chronicle of the Kings of England_. The observations which Sir Roger applied to Prince Eugene had not, of course, been written with regard to him.
23. _Squire's_. v. Appendix I.
25. _waited on_. Attended. Cf. Shakespeare, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, III. ii. 96:
We'll wait upon your grace till after supper.
30. _the Supplement_ was 'an alternative edition of _The Postboy_, by Jacob Abellius, a postscriptorian, otherwise Boyer.' (Fox Bourne.)
SPECTATOR 329.
Page 118.
5. _my paper upon Westminster Abbey_. _Spectator_ 26.
8. _promised another paper upon the Tombs_. 'I have left the repository of our English kings for the contemplation of another day.'
Page 119.
3. _the sickness_. The plague, which was at Dantzick in 1709.
5. _a hackney-coach_. A coach let out on hire, the precursor of the modern cab. The hackney-coach was introduced into London in 1625, and in 1715 their number had to be restricted to seven hundred. Cf. p. 105, 1. 22, _hackney-boat_.
15. _engaged_ in my affections, not betrothed. Cf. p. 13, 1. 13.
34. _Sir Cloudesly Shovel_, the admiral, who was wrecked off the Scilly Isles in 1707.
Page 120.
2. _Dr. Busby_, the famous flogging head master, who ruled Westminster School for fifty-five years, 1640-95.
6. _the little chapel on the right hand_. St. Edmund's Chapel.
9. _the lord who had cut off the king of Morocco's head_, or who was supposed to have done so on the evidence of his crest.
'a Moor's head orientally crowned,' was Sir Bernard Brocas, a knight of the fourteenth century.
12. _the statesman Cecil_, in the Chapel of St. Nicholas. Lord Burleigh was Secretary of State to Edward VI., and Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth.
14. _that martyr to good housewifery, who died by the prick of a needle_. Elizabeth Russell, whose effigy is sculptured with one finger extended, in reality to direct attention to the death's-head at her feet. Cf. Goldsmith, _The Citizen of the World_, Letter xiii., in which the guide to the Abbey 'talked of a lady who died by pricking her finger; of a king with a golden head, and twenty such pieces of absurdity'.
21. _the two coronation chairs_. The ancient chair was made for Edward I. to enclose the stone of Scone, which he had brought from Scotland. It was the sacred coronation stone of the Scottish kings, and was supposed to have come originally from Palestine. Unfortunately for this theory it consists of Scotch sandstone, and, as Wills remarks, 'Sir Roger's question was extremely pertinent.' All succeeding sovereigns have been crowned on this chair and stone. It is now railed in, but in Addison's time it was a source of revenue to the guides, who demanded a fine of any person who should sit in it. The second chair was made for the coronation of William III. and Mary.
24. _Jacob's pillar_, or pillow, v. Genesis, xxviii. 11, 18, and 22.
30. _trepanned_. In the two earliest editions spelt _trapanned_, that is, _entrapped_. In later editions its spelling was influenced by the word _trepan_, a surgical operation.
Page 121.
1. _Edward the Third's sword_. A mighty weapon, seven feet long and weighing eighteen pounds, in the Chapel of Edward the Confessor.
8. _touched for the evil_. _The evil_ is scrofula. Cf. the use of _the sickness_, p. 119, 1. 3, for the plague. It was long held to be cured by the royal touch. Dr. Johnson remembered being taken to London to be touched by Queen Anne when he was a small child. She was the last sovereign who practised touching for the evil. Cf. _Macbeth_, IV. iii. 140-56.
_Henry the Fourth's_ tomb is at Canterbury Cathedral, Henry III. is probably intended.
10. _fine reading in the casualties of that reign_. In Baker's _Chronicle_ the chapter on _The Reign of King Henry IV_ contains a paragraph entitled _Casualties happening in his time_, relating the appearance of a 'blazing star', a visit of the Devil 'in the likeness of a Gray Friar', a flood, a fire, and finally a winter so severe 'that almost all small birds died through hunger'.
12. _the figure of one of our English kings without an head_. The effigy of Henry V. was made of oak covered with silver, but the head was of solid silver, and was stolen at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, 1536-9.
33. _Norfolk-Buildings_, in Norfolk Street, Strand, were originally the property of the Howards. For Sir Roger's residence, v. also _Spectator_ 2, p. 6, 1. 17.
SPECTATOR 335.
Page 122.
9. _the Committee_ was a play by Sir Robert Howard, 1662, the motive of which is ridicule of the Puritans.
12. _Distressed Mother_, an adaptation by Ambrose Philips of Racine's _Andromaque_, had been produced on March 17.
15. _at the end of the dictionary_, where biographical notices of famous persons used to be inserted.
18. _the Mohocks_. Ever since the Restoration the streets of London had been infested at night with bands of dissolute young men who assaulted and injured men and women by wounding and beating them. No sort of mischief came amiss to them; they effected endless damage by the breaking of windows, and so forth, and a favourite diversion consisted in binding a woman in a barrel, and rolling it down Snow Hill or Ludgate Hill. Their name was derived from the Mohawks, a tribe of North American Indians, and was used to denote savages in general. An especially flagrant outbreak of this Hooliganism was in progress at this time (v, _Spectator_ 324, 332), and on March 17 a royal proclamation against the Mohocks had been issued.
20. _black_, v. note on p. 1, 1. 9.
21. _Fleet Street_ ran beside the river Fleet, which is now covered over.
22. _put on_. Hastened.
24. _to hunt me_. The View Hallo was a favourite and doubtless a very amusing pastime of the Mohocks. The person elected to share in the game was run down and surrounded by a circle of sportsmen, who kept him rotating like a top by pricking him with their swords. Cf. _Spectator_ 332.
26. _in King Charles the Second's time_ the marauders were known as Muns and Tityre-Tus.
Page 123.
8. _about four o'clock_. For the time of the play, v. note on p. 8, 1. 5.
14. _the battle of Steenkirk_, 1692, in which the French defeated the allies under William III.
16. _oaken plants_. Cudgels.
22. _the pit_ was the resort of the critics and people of fashion.
30. _Pyrrhus_, son of Achilles, was one of the warriors who entered Troy in the wooden horse. He killed Priam, and was given Andromache, the widow of Hector, as his share of the spoil. The play goes on to depict how Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen, was forced by her parents to marry him, and how in consequence her lover Orestes raised the Delphians and killed him.
31. _the King of France_, whom Sir Roger regards as the leader of fashion.
32. _a better strut_. By reference to an advertisement of the play in the _Spectator_ for March 17, we learn that the happy possessor of this strut was a certain Mr. Booth.
Page 124.
9. _Pyrrhus his_. This form of the possessive was in frequent use, especially after proper names ending in _s_.
21. _begun_. Obsolete in prose; now _began_.
25. _the widow_. Andromache.
27. _Astyanax_, the son of Hector and Andromache.
35. _a very remarkable silence_. For an account of the talking and disturbance that usually went on, v. _Spectator_ 45 and 240.
Page 125.
6. _Pylades_, the close friend of Orestes.
9. _the old fellow in whiskers_. Phoenix, counsellor to Pyrrhus, a minor character.
12. _smoke_, make a butt of, amuse themselves with. Cf. modern schoolboy slang, _roast_.
26. _justling_. Hustling, jostling. Cf. Shakespeare, _Tempest_, III. ii. 29, 'I am in case to justle a constable.'
SPECTATOR 359.
Page 126.
16. _that once_. We should say _that for once_.
Page 127.
13. _I had formerly boarded with a surgeon_, and so was presumably not a strong man.
14. _Put_. A Devonshire word, the old _wretch_.
19. _waited upon_. Visited.
22. _Lion's-Inn_. An old Inn of Court, destroyed in 1863.
Page 128.
5. _spindle_. Thin like the stick with which the thread is twisted in spinning.
21. _the book I had considered last Saturday_. The Tenth Book of _Paradise Lost_. Addison's famous criticism of this poem, which appeared in the Saturday issue of the _Spectator_ from January 5 to May 3, 1712, was written before Milton had come into his kingdom.
23. _the following lines_. _Paradise Lost_, x. 888-908.
SPECTATOR 383.
Page 129.
20. _bounces_. Rough, disorderly knocks.
26. _Spring-Garden_, The new gardens at Vauxhall, not the old Spring Gardens in Whitehall. They are mentioned by Pepys as a place of bad repute.
Page 130.
7. _The Temple Stairs_ were the landing stairs in the grounds of the Temple. Although there was much wheeled traffic in London the river remained a very favourite highway.
14. _bate him_. Let him off, remit him. Cf. Shakespeare, _Tempest_, I. ii. 250:
Thou didst promise To bate me a full year.
22. _Faux-Hall_. The new Spring-Garden took this name from Foukes de Breant, who married the Countess of Albemarle. It is the scene of the matchless Letter XLVI in Fanny Burney's _Evelina_, and the subject of many allusions in literature.
24. _at La Hogue_. The original issue reads in _Bantry Bay_, where the French fleet defeated the English in 1689. The memory of La Hogue, where the French were defeated in 1692 by the English and Dutch, would be more pleasing to the public.
31. _London Bridge_. Not the bridge now standing, which dates from 1825, but the old bridge built in the thirteenth century.
32. _the seven wonders_. The Pyramids, the walls and hanging gardens of Babylon, the tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus, the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the statue of Jupiter by Phidias at Olympia, and the Pharos of Alexandria.
33. _true Englishman_. A phrase made popular by Defoe's _True- born Englishman_, 1701.
Page 131.
4. _Temple-Bar_. The old gateway between the Strand and Fleet Street, where traitors' heads used to be exhibited. _On this side_ would be the western side, outside the city.
6. _the fifty new churches_. By the Act of 1710 a duty was imposed on coal for this and other purposes.
15. _knight of the shire_, v. note on p. 26, 1. 18.
22. _put_. v. note on p. 127, 1. 14.
23. _Thames ribaldry_. The waterway was famous for its verbal interchange, some of which has been recorded by Taylor the Water-Poet, Tom Brown, Swift and Dr. Johnson, and of which the amenities of our omnibus-drivers are but a Bowdlerized version.
34. _Mahometan paradise_. A paradise of the senses.
Page 132.
4. _your nightingale_, v. note on p. 98, 1. 25.
8. _a mask_. A woman in a mask.
16. _hung beef_. Beef preserved in salt or spices
SPECTATOR 517.
Page 133.
5. _sensibly_. Keenly. Cf. Shakespeare, _Hamlet_ IV. v. 150:
And am most sensibly in grief for it.
13-14. _promoting an address ... in which he succeeded_. Urging the adoption of an address which actually was adopted.
27. _you was_. A very frequent use.
29. _country_. Country-side, neighbourhood. Cf. Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor:_
He's a justice of peace in his country.
Page 134.
14. _a lightning before death_. These words occur in Shakespeare, _Romeo and Juliet_, V. iii. 90.
33. _peremptorily_. Authoritatively, positively. Cf. Shakespeare, I _Henry IV_, II. iv. 472:
Peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in that Falstaff.
Page 135.
7. _Quorum_, v. note on p. 7, 1. 9.
16. _quit-rents_. Charges on the estate.
23. _joyed himself_. Enjoyed himself, been cheerful.
Page 136.
3. _Act of Uniformity_. Acts of Uniformity were passed in 1549, 1558, 1662, and 1706.
APPENDIX I
ON COFFEE-HOUSES
The first English coffee-house was opened in Oxford in 1650, and by the beginning of the eighteenth century the coffee-house had become the regular resort of every Londoner who could afford to pay the twopence for the dish of the beverage which admitted him to its society. Men of similar tastes assembled at the same house, so that gradually each of the principal coffee-houses became a centre for a particular kind of society. Thus _Will's_ (p. 3, 1. 17), at the corner of Russell Street and Bow Street, Covent Garden, which had been Dryden's favourite coffee-house, became the haunt of the wits and men of letters; it was from here that Steele dated his articles on poetry for the _Tatler_. _St. James's_ (p. 3, 1. 22) in St. James's Street, was frequented by politicians and men of fashion; it was a Whig house, and the head quarters of the _Tatler's_ foreign and domestic news (cf. _Spectator_ 403). _The Grecian_ (p. 3, 1. 25), Devereux Court, Temple, was the oldest of all the London coffee-houses; here gathered the barristers of the Temple, and here the _Tatler_ finds the material of his papers on learning, while men from the Exchange assembled at _Jonathan's_ (p. 3, 1. 29) in Exchange Alley, and doctors, clerics, and men of science from the Royal Society at _Child's_ (p. 3, 1. 19), in St. Paul's Churchyard. Coffee-houses were very numerous; we find mention within the limits of these papers of two others, _Jenny Mann's_ (p. 24, 1. 24), in the Tilt-Yard, Charing-Cross, and _Squire's_ (p. 117, 1. 23), in Fulwood's Rents, Holborn, and Ashton gives the names of between four and five hundred, while three thousand are known to have existed in 1708.
There were also a few chocolate-houses, notably _White's_ and the _Cocoa-Tree_ (p. 3, 1. 25), the Tory centre, both in St. James's Street. _White's_ was a great gambling-house; Steele dated from it his articles on Gallantry, Pleasure, and Entertainment, and its destruction by fire, which took place in 1723, is depicted as the scene of Plate VI of Hogarth's _The Rake's Progress_, in which the Rake ruins himself by gaming.
APPENDIX II
ON THE _SPECTATOR'S_ ACQUAINTANCE
Various suggestions have been made concerning the identity of the characters drawn in these papers. Tradition reported that Sir Roger was drawn from Sir John Pakington or Packington, Knight of Worcester. This theory was maintained by Tyers in 1783, but has been conclusively disproved by Wills. Mr. R. E. H. Duke has made an exhaustive study to show that his original was Richard Duke, of Bulford, near Milston, where Addison's early years were spent.
For the prototype of Sir Andrew Freeport Mr. Henry Martin has been suggested. He was one of the authors of _The British Merchant_; he contributed No. 180, and probably other papers, to the _Spectator_.
Rumour has also identified Will Honeycomb with Pope's friend, Colonel Cleland; Captain Sentry with Colonel Kempenfeldt, father of Admiral Kempenfeldt of the Royal George; and Will Wimble with Thomas Morecraft, a Yorkshire gentleman introduced to Addison by Steele. Will Wimble seems, however, to be more nearly akin to the Hon. Thomas Gules of the _Tatler_ (256), who 'produced several witnesses that he had never employed himself beyond the twisting of a whip, or the making of a pair of nut-crackers, in which he only worked for his diversion, in order to make a present now and then to his friends'; [Footnote: Cf. p. 20, I, 13 and p. 21, II, 2-11.] and the imaginary nature of Will Honeycomb's existence is sufficiently indicated by the style in which Addison's eighth and supplementary volume of the _Spectator_ is dedicated to him.
The same questionable authority has given to the perverse widow the name of Mrs. Catharine Bovey, or Boevey, of Flaxley Abbey, Gloucestershire, to whom Steele dedicated the second volume of the Ladies' Library.
It is, however, very doubtful that the characters of the _Spectator_ were drawn from individual persons. Budgell certainly says of Theophrastus that he 'was the Spectator of the age he lived in; he drew the pictures of particular men', but Tickell, who was Addison's friend and literary executor, speaks expressly of 'the feigned person of the Author, and of the several characters that compose his club', and the Spectator himself in two papers exhorts every reader 'never to think of himself or any one of his friends or enemies aimed at in what is said', [Footnote: _Spectator_ 34] for 'when I draw a faulty character I ... take care to dash it with such particular circumstances as may prevent all such ill-natured applications.' [Footnote: _Spectator_ 262] The characters are almost certainly created by the Spectator's genius out of the material gathered from his observation of many men.
APPENDIX III
ON THE DEATH OF SIR ROGER
After Sir Roger's visit to town we hear no more of him until the club is startled by the receipt of his butler's letter announcing his death. Some of his admirers have devised a sentimental reason for his decease. In Budgell's _Bee_ we read that "Mr. Addison was so fond of this character that a little before he laid down the _Spectator_ (foreseeing that some nimble gentleman would catch up his pen the moment he quitted it) he said to our intimate friend with a certain warmth in his expression, which he was not often guilty of, 'I'll kill Sir Roger that nobody else may murder him'" Dr. Johnson follows Budgell, and assigns to Addison Cervantes' reason, who finds himself obliged to kill Don Quixote, 'being of opinion that they were born for one another, and that any other hand would do him wrong.'
But there was a more inevitable reason for the death of the knight. Six more weeks saw the end of the original _Spectator_, the joint production of Addison and Steele, and their creators were now engaged in disposing of their characters in various ways. Chalmers remarks that 'The killing of Sir Roger was sufficiently accounted for without supposing that Addison despatched him in a fit of anger; for the work was about to close, and it appeared necessary to close the club.'
APPENDIX IV
ON THE _SPECTATOR'S_ POPULARITY
The great vogue of the _Spectator_ gives some measure of its extraordinary influence. Already in the tenth number we read that the daily circulation is three thousand, and later, in _Spectator_ 124, Addison writes: 'My bookseller tells me the demand for these my papers increases daily.' Of particular papers we know that twenty or thirty thousand were sold, and Mr. Forster estimates that these numbers must be multiplied by six to represent a corresponding popularity in our day.
On July 31, 1712, Addison wrote: 'This is the day on which many eminent authors will probably publish their last words.' On August 1 the Stamp Tax came into operation, and every half-sheet periodical paid a duty of a half-penny. The price of the _Spectator_ rose to twopence, and only half the former number of copies were sold, yet towards the close of the seventh volume about ten thousand copies were being issued daily.
After publication the papers were collected and issued in eight volumes, and nine or ten thousand copies of this first edition were sold at the price of a guinea a volume.