man he was when they were boys. He uses no artifice in the world, but makes use of men's designs upon him to get a maintenance out of them. This he carries on by a certain peevishness (which he acts very well), that no one would believe could possibly enter into the head of a poor fellow. His mien, his dress, his carriage, and his language, are such, that you would be at a loss to guess whether in the active part of his life he had been a sensible citizen, or scholar that knew the world. These are the great circumstances in the life of Irus, and thus does he pass away his days, a stranger to mankind; and, at his death, the worst that will be said of him will be, that he got by every man who had expectations from him, more than he had to leave him. (6) I have an inclination to print the following letters: for I have heard the author of them has somewhere or other seen me; and, by an excellent faculty in mimicry, my correspondents tell me, he can assume my air, and give my taciturnity a slyness which di verts more than any thing I could say if I were preThus I am glad my silence is atoned for to the good company in town. He has carried his skill in imitation so far, as to have forged a letter from my friend Sir Roger, in such a manner, that any one but I, who am thoroughly acquainted with him, would have taken it for genuine. sent. "MR. SPECTATOR, "HAVING observed in Lilly's grammar how sweetly Bacchus and Apollo run in a verse, I have (to preserve the amity between them) called in Bacchus to the aid of my profession of the Theatre. So that while some people of quality are bespeaking plays of me to be acted upon such a day, and others hogsheads for their houses against such a time, I am wholly employed in the agreeable service of wit and wine. Sir, I have sent you Sir Roger de Coverley's letter to me, which pray comply with in favor of the Bumper Tavern. Be kind; for you know a player's utmost pride is the approbation of the Spectator. "I am your admirer, though unknown, "RICHARD ESTCOURT." TO MR. ESTCOURT, AT HIS HOUSE IN COVENT-GARDEN. "Coverley, December the 18th 1711. "OLD COMICAL ONE, "THE hogsheads of nett port came safe, and have gotten thee good reputation in these parts; and I am glad to hear, that a fellow who has been laying out his money ever since he was born, for the mere pleasure of wine, has bethought himself of joining profit and pleasure together. Our sexton (poor man) having received strength from thy wine since his fit of the gout, is hugely taken with it: he says it is given by nature for the use of families; that no steward's table can be without it; that it strengthens digestion, excludes surfeits, fevers, and physic, which green wines of any kind can't do. Pray get a pure snug room, and I hope next term to help fill your bumper with our people of the club; but you must have no bells stirring when the Spectator comes; I forbore ringing to dinner while he was down with me in the country. Thank you for the little hams and Portugal onions; pray keep some always by you. You know my supper is only good Cheshire cheese, best mustard, a golden pippin, attended with a pipe of John Sly's best. Sir Harry has stolen all your songs, and tells the story of the 5th of November to perfection. Your's to serve you, "ROGER DE COVERLEY." "We've lost old John since you were here." T No. 265, THURSDAY, January 3, 1712. BY ADDISON. Dixerit è multis aliquis, Quid virus in angues OVID. de Art. Am. lib. 3. v. 7. But some exclaim, What frenzy rules your mind? ON CONGREVE. NE of the fathers, if I am rightly informed, has defined a woman to be wov Xoxooμov, an animal that delights in finery. I have already treated of the sex in two or three papers conformably to this definition, and have in particular observed, that in all ages they have been more careful than the men to adorn that part of the head which we generally call the outside. This observation is so very notorious, that when in ordinary discourse we say a man has a fine head, a long head, or a good head, we express ourselves metaphorically, and speak in relation to his understanding; whereas, when we say of a woman, she has a fine, a long, or a good head, we speak only in relation to her commode. It is observed among birds, that nature has lavished all her ornaments upon the male, who very often appears in a most beautiful head-dress; whether it be a crest, a comb, a tuft of feathers, or a natural little plume, erected like a kind of pinnacle on the very top of the head. As nature, on the contrary, has poured out her charms in the greatest abundance upon the female part of our species, so they are very assiduous in bestowing upon themselves the finest garnitures of art. The peacock, in all his pride, does not display half the colors that appear in the garments of a British lady when she is dressed either for a ball or a birth-day. But to return to our female heads. The ladies have been for some time in a kind of moulting season, with regard to that part of their dress, having cast great quantities of riband, lace, and cambric, and in some measure reduced that part of the human figure to the beautiful globular form which is natural to it. We have for a great while expected what kind of ornament would be substituted in the place of those antiquated commodes: But our female projectors were all the last summer so taken up with the improvement of their petticoats, that they had not time to attend to any thing else; but having at length sufficiently adorned their lower parts, they now begin to turn their thoughts upon the other extremity, as well remembering the old kitchen proverb, that if you light your fire at both ends, the middle will shift for itself. I am engaged in this speculation by a sight which I lately met with at the opera. As I was standing in the hinder part of a box, I took notice of a little cluster of women sitting together in the prettiest colored hoods that I ever saw. One of them was blue, another yellow, and another philomot; the fourth was of a pink color, and the fifth a pale green. I looked with as much pleasure upon this little party-colored assembly, as upon a bed of tulips, and did not know at first whether it might not be an embassy of Indian queens; but upon my going about into the pit, and taking them in front, I was immediately undeceived, and saw so much beauty in every face, that I found them all to be English. Such eyes and lips, cheeks and foreheads, could be the growth of no other country. The complexion of their faces hindered me from observing any farther the color of their hoods, though I could easily perceive, by that unspeakable satisfaction which appeared in their looks, that their own thoughts were wholly taken up on those pretty ornaments they wore upon their heads. I am informed that this fashion spreads daily, insomuch that the Whig and Tory ladies begin already to hang out different colors, and to shew their principles in their head-dress. Nay, if I may believe my friend Will Honeycomb, there is a certain old coquette of his acquaintance, who intends to appear very suddenly in a rain-bow hood, like the Iris in Dryden's Virgil, not questioning but that among such a variety of colors she shall have a charm for every heart. My friend Will, who very much values himself upon his great insight into gallantry, tells me, that he can already guess at the humor a lady is in by her hood, as the courtiers of Morocco know the disposition of their present emperor by the color of the dress which he puts on. When Melesinda wraps her head in flame color, her heart is set upon exccution; when she covers it with purple, I would not, says he, advise her lover to approach her; but if she appears in white, it is peace, and he may hand her out of her box with safety. Will informs me likewise, that these hoods may be used as signals. Why else, says he, does Cornelia always put on a black hood when her husband is gone into the country? Such are my friend Honeycomb's dreams of gallantry. For my own part, I impute this diversity of colors in the hoods to the diversity of complexion VOL. V. D |