The Tatler, Volume 1

186

"Trim", in original editions.

187

See No. 9.

188

"Philips writeth verses in a sledge upon the frozen sea," wrote Swift, "and transmits them hither to thrive in our warm climate under the shelter of my Lord Dorset." Addison refers to this poem by Ambrose Philips in No. 223 of the Spectator, and Pope commends it.

189

The sixth and last volume of Tonson's "Miscellany" opens with Philips' Pastorals, and closes with those of Pope.

190

"Almanzor and Almahide; or, The Conquest of Granada. The Second Part," act i. sc. I.

191

Ovid's "Epistles," 1709; translation of "Helen's Epistle to Paris," by the Earl of Mulgrave and Dryden.

192

An original for Philander has been found in Lord Halifax. See No. 49.

193

See No. 9. "If the Whigs were now restored to power, the bill [for a general naturalisation] now to be repealed, would then be re-enacted, and the birthright of an Englishman reduced again to the value of twelve pence."—(Examiner, vol. i. No. 26.)

194

Sir Richard Blackmore. See No. 3.

195

Sir John Holt (see Examiner, vol. iv. No. 14) was born in 1642, made Recorder of London and knighted in 1686, and appointed Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1689, a position which he filled very ably and impartially for twenty-one years. He died March 5, 1710.

196

Britain.

197

According to a MS. note in the copy of the Tatler referred to in a note to No. 4, these justices were "Sir H. C– and Mr. C–r." Who the latter was I do not know; the former appears to be meant for Sir Henry Colt, of whom Luttrell gives some particulars. In April 1694, a Bill was found against Sir Henry Colt and Mr. Lake, son to the late Bishop of Chichester, for fighting a duel in St. James's Park; the trial was to be on May 31. Sir Henry Colt, a Justice of the Peace, had a duel with Beau Feilding on the 11th January, 1696, and Colt was run through the body. A reward of £200 was offered for Feilding's arrest, and he was captured in March; but in the following month he was set at liberty upon Colt promising not to prosecute. In July 1698, Colt unsuccessfully contested Westminster, and in December the Committee of Privileges decided that his petition against the return of Mr. Chancellor Montague and Mr. Secretary Vernon was vexatious, frivolous and scandalous; and Colt was put out of the commission of the peace for Westminster and Middlesex. In 1701, he became M.P. for Westminster, for one Parliament only. In August 1702, he was again displaced from being a Justice for Westminster. In July 1708, he was defeated at Westminster, and the petition which he lodged against Mr. Medlicot's election was dismissed, after Huggins, the head bailiff, had been examined.

198

By John Banks, 1685.

199

Robert Wilks died in 1732, age 62. See No. 182, and the Spectator, Nos. 268, 370: "When I am commending Wilks for representing the tenderness of a husband and a father in 'Macbeth', the contrition of a reformed prodigal in 'Harry the Fourth', the winning emptiness of a young man of good-nature and wealth in 'The Trip to the Jubilee', the officiousness of an artful servant in 'The Fox', when thus I celebrate Wilks, I talk to all the world who are engaged in any of those circumstances."

200

Ben Jonson's "Alchemist" was published in 1610.

201

Duncan Campbell, who is best known through Defoe's "History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, a gentleman, who, though deaf and dumb, writes down any strange name at first sight, with their future contingencies of fortune," 1720. Several other books about Campbell appeared, and some said that he only pretended to be deaf and dumb. Campbell had a very large number of clients (Spectator, No. 560). He died in 1730.

202

The name of this quack was Kirleus. He pretended to extraordinary endowments, on the score of his having been introduced into the world by means of the Cesarean operation. In the Examiner, vol. i. No. 49, original edition in folio, there is among the advertisements subjoined, July 5, 1711, notice given that some of his nostrums, which had been tested for fifty years, were to be had of "Mary Kirleus, widow of John Kirleus, son of Dr. Tho. Kirleus, a sworn physician in ordinary to K. Charles II." Nichols says that there were two male and two female quacks of the name of Kirleus; Thomas the father, and his son John, Susannah the widow of Thomas, and Mary the relict of John; but it does not appear that any of them all were rich. The women, after the decease of their husbands, engaged in a paper war, which was carried on about this time in polemical advertisements. Dr. Kirleus and Dr. Case (see No. 20) are said to have been sent for to prescribe to Partridge in his last illness. Garth ("Dispensary," canto iii.) wrote:

"Whole troops of quacks shall join us on the place,From great Kirleus down to Doctor Case."

"In Grays-Inn-lane in Plow-yard, the third door, lives Dr. Thomas Kirleus, a Collegiate Physician and sworn Physician in Ordinary to King Charles the Second until his death; who with a drink and pill (hindring no business) undertakes to cure any ulcers," &c. &c. "Take heed whom you trust in physick, for it's become a common cheat to profess it. He gives his opinion to all that writes or comes for nothing" (Athenian Mercury, February 13, 1694). See also Tatler, Nos. 41, 226, 240.

203

See No. 11.

204

"Castabella's complaint is come to hand" (folio). See No. 16.

205

Probably William Oliver, M.D., F.R.S., who published a Dissertation on Bath waters, and cold baths, in 1709 (Flying Post, Feb. 10 to 12, 1709). Sir John Floyer's "Inquiry into the right Use and Abuses of the Hot, Cold, and Temperate Baths in England, &c.," appeared in 1697.

206

By Mrs. Susannah Centlivre, a lady of Whig views, who was possessed of considerable beauty. (See also No. 19.) Isaac Bickerstaff had promised a prologue to "The Busy Body" before it was to be first played, as appears from a poetical epistle of Mrs. Centlivre, claiming the performance of such a promise, printed by Charles Lillie ("Orig. Letters to Tatler and Spectator" vol. ii. pp. 33, 34). Leigh Hunt ("The Town") suggests that Pope put Mrs. Centlivre in the "Dunciad" (ii. 410—"At last Centlivre felt her voice to fail") on account of her intimacy with Steele and other friends of Addison. Mrs. Centlivre (1667-1723) married, as her second husband, Mr. Carrol, a gentleman of the army, and afterwards Mr. Joseph Centlivre, principal cook to Queen Anne, 1706.

207

Virgil, "Georgics," ii. 492.

208

In November 1709, James Viscount Dursley was raised to the rank of Vice-Admiral of the Blue. Next year he succeeded his father in the title of Earl of Berkeley.

209

The nickname of a waiter at White's (see No. 1).

210

"The Rival Queens; or, Alexander the Great," by Nathaniel Lee, 1677.

211

The following advertisement is among the Harleian MSS. (Bayford's Coll. 5931): "At Crawley's show at the Golden Lion, near St. George's Church, during the time of Southwark Fair, will be presented the whole story of the old 'Creation of the World, or Paradise Lost,' yet newly revived with the addition of 'Noah's Flood'; &c. The best known puppet-show man was Martin Powell. (See No. 236.)

212

So in the folio and original collected editions. "Prue" was Steele's favourite name for his wife; here it means "prude," and no doubt Steele sometimes thought "dear Prue" was unnecessarily and unreasonably particular.

213

See Tacitus, "Annals," i. 8.

214

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

215

Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery.

216

Luke vi. 26.

217

Like Nichols, I have not been able to see a copy of this pamphlet, or the defence of it, mentioned in No. 21; but a letter from Peter Wentworth to Lord Raby, dated 20 May, 1709, throws some light on the matter: "Dear Brother, … Brigadeer Crowder of late has made some talk in the Coffee Houses upon a peice he has lately been pleased to print, he did me the favour to show it me some time agoe in manuscript, and I complymented him with desiring a coppy of it, that I might have the pleasure of reading it more than once, and that I might communicate the like sattisfaction to you by sending it to Berlin. He told me it had the approbation of very ingenious men and good scholars, and his very good friends who had persuaded him to print it, and then you, as he always esteem'd to be such, shou'd be sure to have one. The day before yesterday he perform'd his promise but desir'd I wou'd not tell you directly who was the author, but recommend it to you with his most humble service, as from a friend of his. Yesterday came out this Tatler, and tho' I reckon myself a little base after all the fine complyments he made me upon my great judgment, I can't forbear sending it you as a fine peice of rallery upon his elaborate work, which I can assure you he has not been a little proud of. I han't seen him since to know if this Tatler has given him any mortification. I know before he was prepar'd for the censorious, for he said lett people say what they wou'd, he was sure the intention was good, and his meaning for the service of the public. I am sorry he has printed, for he's very civill to me, and always profess a great respect for you, and I wou'd have none that does so exposed" ("Wentworth Papers," pp. 86-7). See No. 46. A writer in "Notes and Queries" (7 S. iii. 526), in reply to a question of mine, stated that there is a copy of "Naked Truth," 4to, 1709, in the Bamburgh Castle Library. The pamphlet is anonymous, but is ascribed in the catalogue to Colonel Crowder. In May 1710, Thomas Crowther was made a Major-General (Pointer's "Chron. History," ii. 679).

218

It is very possible that the first article in this number (see the allusion to medals) is by Addison, as well as the account of the Distress of the News-writers.

219

There is much about medals in Addison's "Remarks on several Parts of Italy," 1705. His "Dialogues on Medals" was published posthumously by Tickell.

220

Stocks Market was so named from a pair of stocks which were erected there as early as the 13th century. The two statues referred to were really very unlike. The one was of white marble; the other, of brass, was originally intended for John Sobieski, King of Poland, but being bought by Sir Robert Viner in 1672, it was altered and erected in honour of King Charles II. The Turk underneath the horse was metamorphosed into Oliver Cromwell; but his turban escaped unnoticed or unaltered, to testify the truth. The statue in Stocks Market, with the conduit and all its ornaments, was removed to make way for the Mansion House in 1739. Marvell refers to these statues in his "Satires."

221

Heidegger. See No. 12.

222

The remainder of this paper is by Addison. See Steele's Preface, and his Dedication of "The Drummer" to Congreve.

223

"There's but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins, tacked together, and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host of St. Alban, or the red-nosed innkeeper of Daintry. But that's all one, they'll find linen enough on every hedge." (1 Henry IV., act iii. sc. 2).

224

The Tory Postboy was published by Abel Roper; and the Whig Flying Post by George Ridpath:

"There Ridpath, Roper, cudgelled might ye view,The very worsted still looked black and blue."

("Dunciad," ii. 149.) It is remarkable that both Roper and Ridpath died on the same day, Feb. 5, 1726. Swift and others sometimes contributed to Roper's paper for party purposes.

225

Abel Boyer (1667-1729), author of "The Political State of Great Britain," was a Whig journalist towards whom Swift felt bitterly. "The Secretary promises me to swinge him," he wrote in 1711; "I must make that rogue an example for a warning to others." Boyer compiled a valuable French and English dictionary.

226

Samuel Buckley was printer of the London Gazette, Daily Courant, and Spectator. He died in 1741.

227

Drawcansir, in "The Rehearsal," is described by another character as "a great hero, who frights his mistress, snubs up kings, baffles armies, and does what he will, without regard to number, good sense, or justice."

228

John Dyer was a Jacobite journalist who issued a news-letter to country subscribers, among whom was Sir Roger de Coverley (Spectator, No. 127), by whom he was held in high esteem. Defoe (Review, vi. 132) says that Dyer "did not so much write what his readers should believe, as what they would believe." Vellum, in Addison's "The Drummer" (act ii. sc. i), cannot but believe his master is living, "because the news of his death was first published in Dyer's Letter." See also Spectator, Nos. 43 and 457. At the trial of John Tutchin for seditious libel (Howell's "State Trials," xiv. 1150), on complaint being made by counsel that Dyer had charged him with broaching seditious principles, Lord Chief Justice Holt said, "Dyer is very familiar with me too sometimes; but you need not fear such a little scandalous paper of such a scandalous author."

229

Ichabod Dawks was another "epistolary historian" (see Spectator, No. 457, and Tatler, No. 178). Dawks and Dyer are both introduced by Edmund Smith, author of "Phædra and Hippolitus," in his poem, "Charlettus Percivallo suo":

"Scribe securus, quid agit Senatus,Quid caput stertit grave Lambethanum,Quid comes Guilford, quid habent novorum."Dawksque Dyerque."

230

The Daily Courant, our first daily newspaper, was begun in 1702.

231

Chelsea Hospital, for old soldiers, was founded in 1682.

232

See No. 13.

233

Mrs. Centlivre. See No. 15.

234

Wilks took the part of Sir Harry Wildair in Farquhar's "The Constant Couple; or, A Trip to the Jubilee," 1699.

235

Horatio Walpole, Secretary to the Embassy at the Hague, and brother of Sir Robert Walpole.

236

This letter is a pure invention.

237

John Case, astrologer and friend of John Partridge, succeeded to Saffold's habitation in Blackfriars gateway, opposite to Ludgate Church, whence he issued many advertisements. "Their old physician begged they would not forget him—he gives his advice for nothing—his cures are private. At Lilly's Head, &c., is the only place to obtain health, long life, and happiness, by your old friend Dr. Case, who extirpates the foundation of all diseases":

"At the Golden Ball and Lillie's HeadJohn Case lives though Saffold's dead."

His handbills were commonly adorned with a variety of emblematic devices and poetry. See note on Kirleus, in No. 14; and Nos. 216, 240. Case's most important book was his "Compendium Anatomicum nova methodo institutum," 1695.

238

By Farquhar; first acted in 1706.

239

Richard Estcourt (1668-1712), whom Farquhar specially selected to act the part of Sergeant Kite, is celebrated by Steele in a well-known paper in the Spectator (No. 468; see also No. 390). Estcourt was providore of the Beefsteak Club, and wrote two or three dramatic pieces. See No. 51.

240

See No. 4. This article was printed by Tickell among Addison's works.

241

In 1704, Pinkethman advertised that at his booth he would speak an epilogue upon an elephant between nine and ten feet high, arrived from Guinea, led upon the stage by six blacks.

242

This may be either the Royal Exchange or the New Exchange, in the Strand. There were shops for the sale of trinkets and toys at both places.

243

"Baby" was a term often applied to dolls.

244

Mrs. Katherine Tofts sang in English to Nicolini's Italian, in Buononcini's opera of "Camilla," but this absurdity was forgiven on account of the charm of their voices. In 1709, in the height of her beauty, Mrs. Tofts left the stage, owing to her intellect becoming disordered; but afterwards she married Mr. Joseph Smith, a gentleman who lived in great state; but his wife's mind again gave way, and she spent hours walking and singing in a garden attached to a remote part of the house. She died in 1760. See Spectator, Nos. 18, 22 and 443, where there is a letter purporting to be from Mrs. Tofts, at Venice.

245

In act iii. sc. 2 of "The Rehearsal," Prince Volscius falls in love at first sight with Parthenope, who says:

"My mother, sir, sells ale by the town-walls,And me her dear Parthenope she calls;"

whereupon Volscius (repeating words from Davenant's "Siege of Rhodes") replies:

"Can vulgar vestments high-born beauty shroud?Thou bring'st the morning pictured in a cloud."

246

Edward Alleyn, the actor, who died in 1626, aged 61, founded Dulwich Hospital.

247

Mrs. Bracegirdle; see No. 1.

248

"It is said that Monsieur Torcy, when he signed this instrument broke into this exclamation: 'Would Colbert have signed such a treaty for France?' On which a Minister present was pleased to say, 'Colbert himself would have been proud to have saved France in these circumstances on such terms'" (folio).

249

Ben Jonson's "Volpone; or, The Fox."

250

The comedy, "Love in a Hollow Tree; or, The Lawyer's Fortune," was published by William, Lord Viscount Grimston (1683-1756), when he was twenty-two years of age. On the occasion of a contested election for the borough of St. Albans (1736), it was reprinted—by the Duchess of Marlborough, it is said—with notes attacking the author, and adorned with the frontispiece of an elephant dancing on a rope. The viscount bought up as nearly as he could the whole edition. "This worthy notleman was a good husband to one of the best of wives, an indulgent father of a numerous offspring, a kind master to his servants, a generous friend, and an affable, hospitable neighbour." (Biog. Dram.)

251

See No. 17

252

Probably the Hon. Edward Howard, second son of Henry, fifth Earl of Suffolk. On the death of his nephew without issue in 1722, he became eighth Earl of Suffolk, but he died unmarried in 1731.

253

See No. 7.

254

Dr. Jonathan Goddard, the physician and confidant of Cromwell, a member of the Royal Society, and medical professor of Gresham College, discovered in the course of his chemical experiments, the famous elixir, called here his "drops." Dr. Goddard died of an apoplexy in 1675. "March 24, 1674-5. About 10 o'clock that night, my very good friend, Dr. Jonathan Goddard, reader of the physic lectures at Gresham College, suddenly fell down dead in the street, as he was entering into a coach. He was a pretty corpulent and tall man, a bachelor between 45 and 50 years of age; he was melancholy, inclined to be cynical, and used now and then to complain of giddiness in his head. He was an excellent mathematician, and some time physician to Oliver the Protector" (John Coniers, apothecary, in Shoe Lane. MSS. Sloan. 958). The "drops" were a preparation of spirit of hartshorn, with other things; they were used in fainting, apoplexies, &c.

255

With this satire on the vulgar prejudices concerning witches, may be compared what Addison says in the Spectator (No. 117): "I believe in general that there is and has been such a thing as witchcraft; but at the same time can give no credit to any particular instance of it."

256

The number of advertisements in the Tatler gradually increased; but as a compensation the "news" paragraph was dropped.

257

This name was afterwards applied by the Tory writers to the Earl of Nottingham; and the author of the 'Examiner' (vol. iii. No 48) says that it was Steele who first used the name for this nobleman, "and upon no less an important affair, than the oddness of his buttons." In the 'Guardian (No. 53), however, Steele disavowed any reference to Lord Nottingham: "I do not remember the mention of Don Diego; nor do I remember tht ever I thought of Lord Nottingham in any character drawn in any one paper of Bickerstaff." See also No. 31, below.

258

See Nos. 1, 5, 35, 85.

259

The following advertisement appeared in Nos. 20 and 22: "Mr. Cave Underhill, the famous comedian in the reigns of Charles II., King James II., King William and Queen Mary, and her present Majesty Queen Anne; but now not able to perform so often as heretofore in the playhouse, and having had losses to the value of near £2500, is to have the tragedy of 'Hamlet' acted for his benefit, on Friday, the 3rd of June next, at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, in which he is to perform his original part, the Grave-maker. Tickets may be had at the Mitre Tavern in Fleet Street." Colley Cibber says that Underhill was particularly admired in the character of the Grave-digger; and he adds: "Underhill was a correct and natural comedian; his particular excellence was in characters that may be called still-life; I mean the stiff, the heavy, and the stupid; to these he gave the exactest and most expressive colours, and in some of them looked as if it were not in the power of human passions to alter a feature of him. A countenance of wood could not be more fixed than his, when the blockhead of a character required it; his face was full and long; from his crown to the end of his nose was the shorter half of it, so that the disproportion of his lower features, when soberly composed, threw him into the most lumpish, moping mortal, that ever made beholders merry; not but, at other times, he could be wakened into spirit equally ridiculous." Genest says that Underhill acted again as the Grave-digger on Feb. 23, 1710, at Drury Lane.

260

"Grandfather" (folio).

261

Addison ridiculed the prevalent craze for collecting china in No. 10 of the Lover; and Swift wrote to Steele, "What do I know whether china is dear or not; I once took a fancy of resolving to go mad for it, but now it is off."

262

No. 21.

263

It would seem from the passage in the Examiner (vol. iii. No. 48), that three men of distinction at that time, probably noblemen, were supposed to be denoted under the names of Hogshead, Culverin, and Musket, from Wapping; or, as they are named by the Examiner, "Tun, Gun, and Pistol, from Wapping." They are there mentioned among others, said to have been, "with at least fifty more, sufferers of figure under this author's satire, in the days of his mirth," &c. In the Guardian (No. 53) Steele says, "Tun, Gun, and Pistol from Wapping, laughed at the representation which was made of them, and were observed to be more regular in their conduct afterwards."

264

The kept mistress of a knight of the shire near Brentford, who squandered his estate on women, and in contested elections. He has long since gone into the land of oblivion. See No. 51.—(Nichols.)

265

Several such verses, inscribed on the glasses of the Kit Cat Club, are given in Nichols' "Select Collection of Poems," v. 168-178.