SIR,

T

TO THE ADVENTURER.

O be courteous to all, but familiar with few, is a maxim which I ence despised, as originally proceeding from a mean and contracted mind, the frigid caution of weakness and timidity. A tame and indifcriminate civility I imputed to a dread of the contempt or the petulance of others, to fears from which the wit and the gentleman are exempted by a consciousness of their own dignity, by their power to reprefs infolence and filence ridicule; and a general fhynefs and referve I confidered as the reproach of our country, as the effect of an illiberal education, by which neither a polite addrefs, an eafy confidence, or a general acquaintance with public life, is to be acquired. This opinion, which continued to flatter the levity and pride that produced it, was ftrengthened by the example of those whose manner in the diffidence of youth I wished to imitate, who entered a mixed company with an air of ferene familiarity, accofted every man like an old acquaintance, and thought only of making fport for the reft of any with whom their caprice fhould happen to be offended, without regard to their age, character, or condition.

But I now with, that I had regulated my conduct by the maxim which I defpifed, for I fhould then have escaped a misfortune which I can never retrieve; and the fefe of which I am now endeavouring to fufpend, by relating it to you as a leffon to others, and confidering my lofs of happiness as an acquifition of wisdom.

While I was in France with a travelling tutor, I received a letter which acquainted me that my father, who had been long declining, was dead; and that it was neceffary I should immediately return to England to take poffeffion of his eftate, which was not inconfiderable, though there were mortgages upon it to near half it's value.

When I arrived, I found a letter which

OVID.

the old gentleman had written and directed to me with his own hand. It contained fome general rules for my conduct, and fome animadverfions upon his own. He took notice of the incumbrance under which he left me the paternal inheritance, which had defcended through many generations, and expreffed the moit earneft defire, that it might yet be transmitted intire to pofterity: with this view, he faid he had negotiated a marriage between me and the only daughter of his old friend, Sir George Homestead of the North, an amiable young lady, whose alliance would be an honour to my family, and whofe fortune would much more than redeem my estate.

He had given the knight a faithful account of his affairs, who, after having taken fome time to confider the propofal and consult his friends, had consented to the match, upon condition that his daughter and I fhould be agreeable to each other, and my behaviour should confirm the character which had been given of me. My father added, that he hoped to have lived till this alliance had taken place; but as Providence had otherwife determined, he intreated, as his laft request, that as foon as my affairs fhould be fettled and decency would permit, I would make Sir George a vifit, and neglect nothing to accomplish his purpose.

I was touched with the zeal and tendernefs of parental affection, which was then directing me to happiness, after the heart that felt it had ceafed to beat, and the hand that expreffed it was mouldering in the duft. I had alfo feen the lady, not indeed fince we were children; but I remember that her perfon was agree. able, and her teinper fweet: I did not therefore hesitate a moment, whether my father's injunction fhould be obeyed. I proceeded to fettle his affairs; I took an account of his debts and credits, vifited the tenants, recovered my ufual gaiety, and at the end of about nine months fet out for Sir George's feat in the north; having before opened an epiftolary correfpondence,

refpondence, and expreffed my impatience to poffefs the happinefs which my father had fo kindly fecured.

I was better pleafed to be well mounted, than to loll in a chariot, or be jumbled in a poft-chaife; and I knew that Sir George was an old fpertfman, a plain hearty blade, who would like me better in a pair of buckskin breeches on the back of a good hunter, than in a trimmed fuit and a gaudy equipage: I therefore fet out on horfeback with only one fervant, and reached Stilton the first night.

In the morning, as I was mounting, a gentleman, who had just got on horfeback before ine, ordered his fervant to make fome enquiry about the road, which I happened to overhear, and told him with great familiarity, that I was going the fame way, and if he pleafed we would travel together: to this he confented, with as much franknefs, and as little ceremony; and I fet forward, greatly delighted that chance had afforded me a companion.

We immediately entered into converfation, and I foon found that he had been abroad: we extolled the roads and the policy of France, the cities, the palaces, and the villas; entered into a critical examination of the most celebrated feats in England, the peculiarities of the building and fituation, crofs ways, market towns, the impofition of innkeepers, and the fports of the field; topics by which we mutually recommended ourfelves to each other, as we had both opportunities to discover equal knowledge, and to display truth with fuch evidence as prevented diverfity of opinions.

After we had rode about two hours, we overtook another gentleman, whom we accofted with the fame familiarity that we had used to each other; we asked him how far he was going and which way, at what rate he travelled, where he put up, and many other questions of the fame kind. The gentleman, who appeared to be near fifty, received our addrefs with great coolness, returned fhort and indirect answers to our enquiries, and, often looking with great attention on us both, fometimes put forward that he might get before us, and fometimes checked his horfe that he might remain behind. But we were refolved to difappoint him; and, finding that his referve encreased, and he was vifibly dif pleased, we winked at each other, and

determined the old put fhould afford us fome sport. After we had rode together upon very ill terms more than half an hour, my companion, with an air of ceremonious gravity, afked him if he knew any houfe upon the road where he might be accommodated with a wench. The gentleman, who was, I believe, afraid of giving us a pretence to quarrel, did not refent this infult any otherwife than by making no reply. I then began to talk to my companion as if we had been old acquaintance, reminding him that the gentleman extremely refembled a perfon, from whom we had taken a girl that he was carrying to a bagnio, and, indeed, that his prefent referve made me suspect him to be the fame; but that as we were willing to afk his pardon, we hoped it would be forgot, and that we should still have the pleasure of dining together at the next inn. The gentleman was still filent; but as his perplexity and refentment vifibly increased, he proportionably increased our entertainment, which did not however laft long, for he fuddenly turned down a lane; upon which we fet up a horfe laugh, that continued till he was out of hearing, and then purfuing our journey, we talked of our adventure, which afforded us converfation and merriment for the rest of the day.

The next morning we parted, and in the evening I arrived at Homestead Hall. The old knight received me with great affection, and immediately introduced me to his daughter, whom I now thought

the finest woman I had ever feen. I could eafily difcover, that I was not welcome to her merely upon her father's recommendation, and I enjoyed by anticipation the felicity which I confidered as within my grafp. But the pleasing fcene, in which I had fuffered my imagination to wander, fuddenly difappeared as by the power of enchantment; without any vifible motive, the behaviour of the whole family was changed, my affiduities to the lady were repreffed, the was never to be found alone, the knight treated me with a cold civility, I was no longer a party in their vifits, nor was I willingly attended even by the fervants. I made many attempts to difcover the caufe of this misfortune, but without fuccefs; and one morning, when I had drawn Sir George into the garden by himself, and was about to urge him upon the fubject, he prevented me by faying, that his promife to my father, for whom

he

-Blafts and fogs upon thee! Th`untented woundings of a father's curfe Pierce every fenfe about thee!

He ftops a little and reflects:

Ha! is it come to this?

Let it be fo! I have another daughter,
Who, I am fure, is kind and comfortable.
When the fhall hear this of thee, with her nails
She'll flea thy wɔlfish visage——————

He was, however, mistaken; for the first direct he encounters in the cattle of the Earl of Gloucester, whither he fled to et his other daughter, was his fervant in the flocks; froin whence he may easily coniecture what reception he is to meet with:

-Death on my ftate! Wherefore
Should he fit here?

He adds immediately afterwards→→→
Ome, my heart! my rifing heart!-but down.

By which fingle line, the inexpreffible arquish of his mind, and the dreadful conflict of oppofite paffions with which it is agitated, are more forcibly expreffed, tan by the long and laboured fpeech,

merating the caufes of his anguish, that Rowe and other modern tragic writers would certainly have put into mouth. But Nature, Sophocles, and Shakespeare, reprefent the feelings of the heart in a different manner; by a broken ent, a short exclamation, a word, or a

kok:

They mingle not, 'mid deep-felt fighs and

groans,

Defcriptions gay, or quaint comparifone, No Bowery far-fetch'd thoughts their scenes admit;

Its conceit with paffion, woe with wit. Here paffion prompts each fhort, expreffive fperch;

Or filence paints what words can never reach. J. W. When Jocafta, in Sophocles, has difcovered that Oedipus was the murderer ef her husband, the immediately leaves the ftage; but in Corneille and Dryden the continues on it during a whole (cene, to bewail her destiny in fet fpeeches. I would be guilty of infenfibility and in

fice, if I did not take this occafion to acknowledge, that I have been more ved and delighted, by hearing this fagle line fpoken by the only actor of the age who understands and relifhês

thefe little touches of nature, and therefore the only one qualified to perfonate this most difficult character of Lear, than by the most pompous declaimer of the moft pompous fpeeches in Cato or Tamerlane.

In the next scene the old king appears forms Regan, whom he believes to be in a very distressful situation. He inftill actuated by filial tenderness, of the cruelties he had fuffered from her fifter Gonerill, in very pathetic terms:

-Beloved Regan,

Thy fifter's naught-O Regan' she hath tied Sharp-tooth'd unkindness,like a vulture, here. I fcarce can speak to thee-theu `lt not believe With how deprav'd a quality—O Regan!

It is a ftroke of wonderful art in the poet to reprefent him incapable of specifying the particular ill ufage he has received, and breaking off thus abruptly, as if his voice was choaked by tenderness and refentment.

When Regan counfels him to ask her fifter forgiveness, he falls on his knees afks her how fuch fupplicating language with a very striking kind of irony, and

as this becometh him:

Dear daughter. I confess that I am old;
Age is unneceffary: on my knees I beg,
That you'll vouchfafe me raiment, bed, and
food.

But being again exhorted to fue for reconciliation, the advice wounds him to the quick, and forces him into execrations against Gonerill, which, though they chill the foul with horror, are yet well fuited to the impetuofity of his temper:

She hath abated me of half my train; Look'd black upon mè; ftruck me with her tongue,

Moft ferpent like, upon the very heart

All the ftor'd vengeances of heaven fall
On her ungrateful top! Strike her young

bones,