der him." Accordingly the whole Spectator, No. 517, consists of nothing else but an account of the old knight's death, and some moving circumstances that attended it.

CONTINUATION OF THE SPECTATOR.

WHEN the old Spectator was laid down by those hands which at first composed it, the paper was immediately set on foot again by some of the greatest wits in England; several of whose writings, of different kinds, had been received with the utmost applause by the public; yet even these gentlemen, to their great surprise, found the thing would not do; and had the good sense, not only to drop their design, but to conceal their names.1 Addison said, upon this occasion, that he looked upon the undertaking to write Spectators to be like the attempt of Penelope's lovers to shoot with the bow of Ulysses; who soon found that nobody could shoot well in that bow but the hand which used to draw it.

CURIOUS ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE SPECTATOR.

THE following advertisements are inserted in the 537th No. of the Spectator, in folio, November 15th, 1712:

"Continued to be sold, neat French brandy, full proof and of fine flavour, at £94 per tun, and at 8s. a gallon for any quantity less than half a hogshead."

"An incomparable pleasant tincture to restore the sense of smelling, though lost for many years. A few drops snuffed the nose infallibly cures those who have lost their smell, let it proceed from what cause soever.'

up

In No. 546, dated the 25th of the same month, is advertised, "At Punch's Theatre, the Blind Beggar of BethnalGreen. No persons to be admitted with masks or ridinghoods." Then follows a distinction as to women of the town.

TRANSLATIONS OF THE SPECTATOR, TATLER, &C.

THE Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian have been translated into most of the European languages, and have given birth to several papers, in imitation of them, in foreign countries. The French had for some time their Babillard, or Tatler; the Dutch their Spectator; and the Germans had for several 1 The Spectator, vol. ix., was commenced January 3rd, 1715, and dropped at the 63rd number.

years together their Guardians. This last paper was printed at Hamburgh, and composed by a society of gentlemen who understood English: they translated many of the Spectators, which had not before appeared in the German language; and this gave their Guardians so great a reputation, that nine or ten thousand of them were usually sold.

DEDICATION TO THE GUARDIAN.

MR. Addison, in his dedication of the second volume of the Guardian, addressed to Mr. Pultney, has the following beautiful sentiment-" Zeal for the public good is the characteristic of a man of honour and a gentleman, and must take place of pleasures, profits, and all other private gratifications; whosoever wants these motives is an open enemy, or an inglorious neuter to mankind, in proportion to the misapplied advantages with which nature and fortune have blessed him."

CHARLES LILLIE.

THIS man kept a shop at the corner of Beaufort-buildings in the Strand, where he sold snuff of various kinds, perfumes, &c., and took in letters for the Tatler, Spectator, &c., and which were directed for him at the desire of Steele, who befriended him greatly.

When the original publication of the Tatler, Spectator, &c. in folio was discontinued, Charles Lillie was permitted to print for his own benefit the remaining letters not made use of in them, under such restrictions as Steele, from principle, seems to have laid down for himself. Accordingly many, if not all, of these letters, some of them from eminent persons, and well worthy of preservation, were published in two volumes, 8vo in 1725, with a dedication full of respect and gratitude to Sir Richard Steele. The knight's permission of the publication, prefixed to the first volume, seems to have been written hastily, and is as follows:

"March 2, 1723-4, York-buildings. "Mr. Lillie, you have communicated to me a design you have to print letters to the Tatler and Spectator, not made use of in them. I have a great deal of business, and very ill health, therefore must desire you to excuse me from look

ing over them; but if you take care that no person or family is offended at any of them, or anything in them be published contrary to religion and good manners, you have my leave to do what you please with them. I wish ali you prosperity, &c.

(Signed)

"RICHARD STEELE."

ADDISON'S CONVERSATIONAL POWERS.

Sept. 14, 1711.

"It is reported to have been one of the most exquisite entertainments to the choice spirits in the beginning of this century, to get Addison and Steele together in company for the evening. Steele entertained them till he was tipsy: when the same wine that stupified him only served to elevate Addison, who took up the ball just as Steele dropped it, and kept it up for the rest of the evening."-Connoisseur, 92.

ADDISON'S INTIMACY WITH THE TORIES.

Of the friendly manner in which Addison lived with the Tory wits, the following is an instance. Dr. Arbuthnot's eldest son, by his will, bequeaths to his cousin John Arbuthnot, of Ravensbury, near Mitcham, in Surrey, "the large silver cup given to my father by Mr. Addison.""

BLANK VERSE versus RHYME.

"MR. Addison was not a good-natured man, and very jealous of rivals. Being one evening in company with Phillips, and the poems of Blenheim and the Campaign being talked of, he made it his whole business to run down blank verse. Phillips never spoke till between eleven and twelve o'clock, nor even then could do it in his own defence. It was at Jacob Tonson's, and a gentleman in company ended the dispute, by asking Jacob what poem he ever got the most by? -Jacob immediately named Milton's Paradise Lost."—Ďr. Leigh, who had it from the gentleman who was present.

NAMBY PAMBY.

Spence.

ONE of Addison's favourite companions was Ambrose Philips, a good Whig and a middling poet, who had the honour of bringing into fashion a species of composition which

has been called, after his name, Namby Pamby. [A nickname bestowed by Pope on some Poems of short lines, in which Philips paid his court to all ages and characters, from Walpole," the steerer of the realm," to Miss Pulteney in the Nursery.]

The following humorous and unpublished lines, probably by Dean Swift, as they are contained in a manuscript volume of poetry all in his manner and hand-writing, may be appropriately added:

Namby Pamby, or a Panegyric on the New Versification,
Addressed to Ambrose) P(hilips), Esq.

Namby Pamby, Jack a Dandy,
Stole a piece of Sugar-Candy
From the Grocer's Shoppy-Shop,
And away did Hoppy-hop.

POPE AND PASTORAL PHILIPS.

Not long after the appearance of Pope's Pastorals, many persons of little wit, and less judgment, undertook to decry them, on the ground of wanting that simplicity which is the characteristic of pastoral poetry. To ridicule these objections, Pope privately sent that celebrated essay which was published in the Guardian, and which eventually gave so much offence to Philips. This essay contains an ironical comparison between his own Pastorals and those of Philips, in which he goes so far as to deny that his own have any claim to be called Pastorals; adding, humorously, that "though they were by no means Pastorals, yet they were something better."

Many persons did not discern the irony contained in this essay, but imagined it to be a serious criticism by Steele, who had received it from an unknown hand. All the wits at Button's considered it as such, except Mr. Addison, who saw into the joke immediately; and the next time he met Mr. Pope told him into what a ridiculous situation he had put his friends, who had declared their dislike of having Philips so extolled at the expense of another of the club: which is the language Steele had before held with Pope when he first received the papers.

Some who were weak enough to suppose this comparison serious, thought that it proceeded from a partiality to Mr. In the possession of the publisher.

Philips, for whom Sir Richard was supposed to have a personal kindness. [See more of Ambrose Philips at p. 428-9.]

ADDISON'S OPINION OF POPE'S 66 RAPE OF THE LOCK.'

MR. Caryl (a gentleman who was Secretary to Queen Mary, wife of James II., whose fortune he followed into France, and author of the comedy of Sir Solomon Single, and of several translations in Dryden's miscellanies) originally proposed the subject of this poem to Pope, in the view of putting an end, by this piece of ridicule, to a difference that had arisen between two noble families, those of Lord Petre and Mrs. Fermor, on the trifling occasion of his having cut off a lock of her hair. This little liberty was taken too seriously; and though the two families had long been friends, it occasioned a coolness between them.

The first sketch of this exquisite piece was shown to Addison, who expressed his opinion of it, by calling it merum sal.1 It was written, as we learn from Pope himself, in two

66

'Pure Attic is the literal sense, but as Addison also called the piece 'a delicious little thing," he most probably had in mind the line of LUCRETIUS (1156, Book iv.) which is thus given in an old Dictionary of Quotations under the heading, 'An Attractive Woman.'

Parvula, pumilio, xapírwv pia, tota merum sal.
A little, pretty, witty, charming she.

Creech translates it,

The little dwarf is pretty, grace all o'er.

And Good, (see Class. Lib. ed. p. 187,)

the pigmy dwarf,

A sprightly grace, all energy and wit.

The learned may read Bentley and Gilbert Wakefield's notes on the line. That Lucretius was very popular in the days of Addison may be presumed from the activity with which editions were produced. In 1712 Tonson published two, one splendidly printed in folio with plates, the other in quarto; Maittaire followed in 1713; and in 1714, Creech's translation, of which a fifth edition had already appeared in 1712, was reprinted with large additions. Garth, in 1711, wrote an elaborate Dedication to George I. (then Elector of Brunswick) for an edition promised but never published. The Dedication was printed in the Historical Dictionary, v. 397. Harley, Earl of Oxford, who was on friendly terms with all the literary wits of the day-Addison, Steele, Pope, Swift, Gay, Prior, &c.—is said (by Lamberty) to have made Lucretius his catechism; and to have got it so entirely by heart, that he was constantly quoting it both in his conversation and letters. Our authority adds a natural sequitur: he was not particularly orthodox. ED.