that she behaved herself very much like a gentlewoman. His third mistress was a Dulcimer, who he found took great delight in sighing and languishing, but would go no farther than the preface of matrimony; so that she would never let a lover have any more of her than her heart, which after having won, he was forced to leave her, as despairing of any further success. 'I must confess,' says my friend, 'I have often considered her with a great deal of admiration; and I find her pleasure is so much in this first step of an amour, that her life will pass away in dream, solitude, and soliloquy, until her decay of charms makes her snatch at the worst man that ever pretended to her. In the next place,' says my friend, 'I fell in love with a Kit, who led me such a dance through all the varieties of a familiar, cold, fond, and indifferent behaviour, that the world began to grow censorious, though without any cause; for which reason, to recover our reputations, we parted by consent. To mend my hand,' says he, I made my next application to a Virginal, who gave me great encouragement, after her cautious manner, until some malicious companion told her of my long passion for the Kit, which made her turn me off as a scandalous fellow. At length, in despair,' says he, I betook myself to a Welsh-Harp, who rejected me with contempt, after having found that my great grandmother was a brewer's daughter.' I found, by the sequel of my friend's discourse, that he had never aspired to a Hautboy; that he had been exasperated by a Flagelet; and that, to this very day, he pines away for a Flute. Upon the whole, having thoroughly considered how absolutely necessary it is, that two instruments, which are to play together for life, should be exactly tuned, and go in perfect concert with each other; I would propose matches between the music of both sexes, according to the following Table of Marriage: 1. Drum and Kettle-drum. 2. Lute and Flute. 3. Harpsichord and Hautboy. 5. Bass-viol and Kit. 6. Trumpet and Welsh-Harp. 9. Passing-bell and Virginal. 'Mr. Bickerstaff, in consideration of his ancient friendship and acquaintance with Mr. Betterton, and great esteem for his merit, summonses all his disciples, whether dead or living, mad or tame, Toasts, Smarts, Dappers, Pretty-fellows, Musicians or Scrapers, to 1 In The British Apollo, vol. iii. No 19, we find the following letter, which seems to furnish a proof of the utility of the Tatler, and may be added to that mentioned in No 118, let. 2. GENTLEMEN, READING Mr. Bickerstaff's No 153, I found by inward conviction my own character, being what he there calls a Hunting-horn. My reflections upon the ridiculous figure in which those of this character appear to men of sense, being joined with intimations of some philosophical gentlemen of my acquaintance, to the same purpose, wrought in me a sudden, though secret resolution, of leaving off the pursuit of hares and foxes, and of betaking myself to a more pleasant and profitable amusement; viz. the study of experimental philosophy. For which purpose I apply myself to you, gentlemen, for information, what authors have writ best upon the subject in English. Believe this to proceed from a sincerity not to be rallied.' make their appearance at the playhouse in the Haymarket on Thursday next, when there will be a play2 acted for the benefit of the said Betterton.' ADDISON. No 158. THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1710. Faciunt ne intelligendo, ut nihil intelligant. TER. While they pretend to know more than others, they know nothing in reality. From my own Apartment, April 12. TOM FOLIO is a broker in learning, employed to get together good editions, and stock the libraries of great men. There is not a sale of books begins until Tom Folio is seen at the door. There is not an auction where his name is not heard, and that too in the very nick of time, in the critical moment, before the last decisive stroke of the hammer. There is not a subscription goes forward in which Tom is not privy to 2 The Maid's Tragedy,' in which Mr. Betterton played his celebrated part of Melantius, and died of the gout in his head, on the 28th of the same month. I Thomas Rawlinson, esq. eldest son of Sir Thomas Rawlinson, lord mayor of London in 1706. He lived in Gray's Inn, where he had four chambers so filled with books, both on the shelves, and on the floors, that he was obliged to remove his bed into the passage. Mattaire dedicated his Juvenal to him. Mr. Rawlinson removed from Gray's Inn to London House, in Aldersgate Street, where he died, aged 44, August 6, 1725. the first rough draught of the proposals; nor a catalogue printed, that doth not come to him wet from the press. He is an universal scholar, so far as the title-page of all authors; knows the manuscripts in which they were discovered, the editions through which they have passed, with the praises or censures which they have received from the several members of the learned world. He has a greater esteem for Aldus and Elzevir, than for Virgil and Horace. If you talk of Herodotus, he breaks out into a panegyric upon Harry Stephens. He thinks he gives you an account of an author, when he tells you the subject he treats of, the name of the editor, and the year in which it was printed. Or if you draw him into further particulars, he cries up the goodness of the paper, extols the diligence of the corrector, and is transported with the beauty of the letter. This he looks upon to be sound learning, and substantial criticism. As for those who talk of the fineness of style, and the justness of thought, or describe the brightness of any particular passages; nay, though they themselves write in the genius and spirit of the author they admire; Tom looks upon them as men of superficial learning, and flashy parts. I had yesterday morning a visit from this learned idiot, for that is the light in which I consider every pedant, when I discovered in him some little touches of the coxcomb, which I had not before observed. Being very full of the figure which he makes in the republic of letters, and wonderfully satisfied with his great stock of knowledge, he gave me broad intimations, that he did not believe in all points as his forefathers had done. He then communicated to me a thought of a certain author upon a passage of Virgil's account of the dead, which I made the sub ject of a late paper 2. This thought had taken very much among men of Tom's pitch and understanding, though universally exploded by all that know how to construe Virgil, or have any relish of antiquity. Not to trouble my reader with it, I found, upon the whole, that Tom did not believe a future state of rewards and punishments, because Æneas, at his leaving the empire of the dead, passed through the gate of ivory, and not through that of horn. Knowing that Tom had not sense enough to give up an opinion which he had once received, that I might avoid wrangling, I told him, that Virgil possibly had his oversights as well as another author. Ah! Mr. Bickerstaff,' says he,'' you would have another opinion of him, if you would read him in Daniel Heinsius's edition. I have perused him myself several times in that edition,' continued he; and, after the strictest and most malicious examination, could find but two faults in him, one of them is in the Æneids, where there are two commas instead of a parenthesis; and another in the third Georgic, where you may find a semicolon turned upside down. Perhaps,' said I, these were not Virgil's faults, but those of the transcriber.'-'I do not design it,' says Tom, 'as a reflection on Virgil; on the contrary, I know that all the manuscripts declaim against such a punctuation. Oh! Mr. Bickerstaff,' says he,' what would a man give to see one simile of Virgil writ in his own hand?' I asked him which was the simile he meant ; but was answered, 'Any simile in Virgil.' He then told me all the secret history in the commonwealth of learning; of modern pieces that had the names of ancient authors annexed to them; of all the books 2 N° 154. |