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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14800-0.txt b/14800-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88d1a6e --- /dev/null +++ b/14800-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1608 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14800 *** + +Series One: + +_Essays on Wit_ + + +No. 3 + + +John Gay, _The Present State of Wit_ (1711) + + +With an Introduction by + +Donald F. Bond + +and + +a Bibliographical Note + +and + +Excerpts from + +_The English Theophrastus: or the Manners of the Age_ (1702) + + +With an Introduction by + +W. Earl Britton + + +The Augustan Reprint Society + +May, 1947 + +_Price_: 75c + + + + +GENERAL EDITORS: _Richard C. Boys_, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; +_Edward N. Hooker_, _H.T. Swedenberg, Jr._, University of California, +Los Angeles 24, California. + +Membership in the Augustan Reprint Society entitles the subscriber to +six publications issued each year. The annual membership fee is $2.50. +Address subscriptions and communications to the Augustan Reprint +Society, in care of one of the General Editors. + +EDITORIAL ADVISORS: _Louis I. Bredvold_, University of Michigan; _James +L. Clifford_, Columbia University; _Benjamin Boyce_, University of +Nebraska; _Cleanth Brooks_, Louisiana State University; _Arthur +Friedman_, University of Chicago; _James R. Sutherland_, Queen Mary +College, University of London; _Emmett L. Avery_, State College of +Washington; _Samuel Monk_, Southwestern University. + + +Lithoprinted from Author's Typescript + +EDWARDS BROTHERS, INC. + +_Lithoprinters_ + +ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN + +1947 + + + + +THE + +Present State + +OF + +WIT, + +IN A + +LETTER + +TO A + +Friend in the Country. + +_LONDON_ Printed in the Year, MDCCXI + +(Price 3 d.) + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Gay's concern in his survey of _The Present State of Wit_ is with the +productions of wit which were circulating among the coffee-houses of +1711, specifically the large numbers of periodical essays which were +perhaps the most distinctive kind of "wit" produced in the "four last +years" of Queen Anne's reign. His little pamphlet makes no pretence at +an analysis of true and false wit or a refining of critical distinctions +with regard to wit in its relations to fancy and judgment. Addressed to +"a friend in the country," it surveys in a rapid and engaging manner the +productions of Isaac Bickerstaff and his followers which are engrossing +the interest of London. In other words it is an early example of a +popular eighteenth-century form, of which Goldsmith's more extended +_Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning_ is the best known +instance. + +As such it well deserves a place in the Augustan Reprints series on wit. +It has been reproduced before in this century, in _An English Garner: +Critical Essays and Literary Fragments_ (Westminster, 1903, pp. 201-10), +with an attractive and informative introduction by J. Churton Collins. +More information, however, is now at our disposal in the forty year +interval since Collins wrote, both in regard to John Gay and to the +bibliography of periodical literature in Queen Anne's time. Furthermore, +the Arber reprint is difficult to obtain. + +Gay is writing, he tells us, without prejudice "either for Whig or +Tory," but the warm praise which he extends to Steele and Addison makes +his pamphlet sound like the criticism of one very close to the Whigs. +Though Gay is ordinarily associated with the Tory circle of Swift and +Pope, he was in 1711 still in the somewhat uncertain position of a +youngster willing to be courted by either group. His earliest +sympathies were if anything on the side of the Whigs, in spite of the +turn of events in the autumn of 1710. Gay's interests in these early +years are nowhere so well analyzed as in the early pages of W.H. +Irving's _John Gay: Favorite of the Wits_ (Durham, N.C., 1940): cf. the +title of the second chapter: "Direction Found--the Year 1713." Even as +late as 1715 Swift apparently thought of him as a Whig (Swift's +_Letters_, ed. Ball, II, 286, cited by Irving, p. 91). + +One need not be surprised, then, to find Gay eulogizing Captain Steele +as "the greatest scholar and best casuist of any man in England," an +essayist whose writings "have set all our wits and men of letters on a +new way of thinking." Swift's reaction is well known. "Dr. Freind was +with me," he writes to Stella on May 14th, "and pulled out a two-penny +pamphlet just published, called, _The State of Wit_, giving a character +of all the papers that have come out of late. The author seems to be a +Whig, yet he speaks very highly of a paper called the _Examiner_, and +says the supposed author of it is Dr. Swift. But above all things he +praises the _Tatlers_ and _Spectators_; and I believe Steele and Addison +were privy to the printing of it. Thus is one treated by these impudent +dogs" (_Journal to Stella_, ed. J.K. Moorhead, Everyman's Library, p. +168). + +In addition to the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_ Gay discusses a dozen other +periodical publications which are of some interest to-day. Dr. King's +"monthly _Philosophical Transactions_," mentioned in the third +paragraph, had begun as a parody of the Royal Society's publications, +but they had failed to hold the public interest, in spite of the wit of +the author of the _Art of Cookery_: "though that gentleman has a world +of wit..., the town soon grew weary of his writings." King's _Useful +Transactions in Philosophy_ had in fact run to only three numbers in the +early months of 1709. The _Monthly Amusement_ of John Ozell, mentioned +in the following paragraph, which Churton Collins erroneously considered +to be not a periodical but "simply his frequent appearances as a +translator" (p. xxxii)--a statement, repeated by Lewis Melville in his +_Life and Letters of John Gay_ (London, 1921, p. 12)--ran for only six +numbers, from April to September 1709. Gay's statement that it "is still +continued" may refer to the better known _Delights for the Ingenious; or +a Monthly Entertainment for the Curious of Both Sexes_ (edited by John +Tipper) which was currently appearing in 1711. + +As to the political papers Gay's observations are moderate in tone. +_Defoe's Review_ (1704-13) and _The Observator_ (1702-12), begun by John +Tutchin, are noticed in rather supercilious fashion. _The Examiner_ +(1710-14) is damned with faint praise: though "all men, who speak +without prejudice, allow it to be well written" and "under the eye of +some great persons who sit at the helm of affairs," Gay's admiration is +reserved for its two chief opponents, Addison's short-lived _Whig +Examiner_ (1710) and _The Medley_ (1710-12). + +The real hero of the pamphlet, however, is Richard Steele, with his +coadjutor Mr. Addison, "whose works in Latin and English poetry long +since convinced the world, that he was the greatest master in Europe of +those two languages." The high praise which Gay lavishes upon this +pair--comparable in their own field, he says, to Lord Somers and the +Earl of Halifax--is eloquent testimony to the immense interest aroused +by their two papers in the London of 1709-12. There is no need to review +here the particulars of Gay's eulogy, but one or two points may be +noted. In the first place, Gay's remarks are not extravagant when +compared with other contemporary testimony. Many of these tributes were +brought together by Aitken in his monumental biography of Steele, and +since 1889 other contemporary sources have been published which give +corroborating support. Hearne first mentions the _Spectator_ on April +22, 1711, in a comment on No. 43, and even this crusty Tory and Jacobite +notes in his diary: "But Men that are indifferent commend it highly, as +it deserves" (_Remarks and Collections_, ed. Doble, III, Oxford, 1895, +p. 154). The published reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, +too, contain many contemporary references (see, e.g., _Manuscripts of +the Hon. Frederick Lindley Wood_ (1913), p. 247; _Manuscripts of the +Marquess of Downshire_, I (1924, 889)). It is interesting to observe, +further, that Gay makes no reference to the political prejudices of the +_Spectator_ though it was not without criticism at the time for its +meddling in politics. _The Plain Dealer_ of May 24, 1712, for example, +objected to the publication of No. 384 (the reprinting of the Bishop of +St. Asaph's Introduction to his _Sermons_) and hinted at a "Mercenary +Consideration" behind this sorry attempt to "propagate ill Principles." +Gay's attitude on this point would, be another reason for Swift's +dislike of the pamphlet. + +The "continuations" of the _Tatler_ are given due attention by Gay, as +well as three of its imitators: _The Grouler_ (6 numbers, 1711), _The +Whisperer_ (one number, 1709), and _The Tell Tale_, which may be _The +Tatling Harlot_ (3 numbers, 1709), or, as Churton Collins conjectured, +_The Female Tatler_ (1709-10). Gay's postscript makes an agreeable +reference to _The British Apollo_ (1708-11), which has "of late, +retreated out of this end of the town into the country," where "it still +recommends itself by deciding wagers at cards, and giving good advice to +shopkeepers and their apprentices," an interesting comment in view of +Gay's own possible connection with this journal (cf. Irving, pp. 40-56). +It is these casual remarks, as well as the more extensive critical +comments on the present state of "wit," which give Gay's pamphlet a +permanent interest. + +The typescript copy of the _Present State of Wit_ is taken from the +pamphlet owned by the Henry E. Huntington Library. + +Donald F. Bond + +University of Chicago + + + + +THE + +PRESENT STATE + +of + +WIT, &c. + + +SIR, + +You Acquaint me in your last, that you are still so busie Building at +-----, that your Friends must not hope to see you in Town this Year; At +the same time you desire me that you may not be quite at a loss in +Conversation among the Beau Monde next Winter, to send you an account of +the present State of Wit in Town; which, without further Preface, I +shall therefore endeavour to perform, and give you the Histories and +Characters of all our Periodical Papers, whether Monthly, Weekly, or +Diurnal, with the same freedom I used to send you our other Town News. + +I shall only premise, that as you know I never cared one Farthing either +for Whig or Tory, So I shall consider our Writers purely as they are +such, without any respect to which Party they may belong. + +Dr. King has for some time lain down his MONTHLY PHILOSOPHICAL +TRANSACTIONS, which the Title Page informed us at first, were only to be +continued as they Sold; and tho' that Gentleman has a World of Wit, yet +as it lies in one particular way of Raillery, the Town soon grew weary +of his Writings; tho' I cannot but think, that their Author deserves a +much better Fate, than to Languish out the small remainder of his Life +in the Fleet Prison. + +About the same time that the Doctor left off Writing, one Mr. Ozell put +out his MONTHLY AMUSEMENT, (which is still continued) and as it is +generally some French Novel or Play indifferently Translated, is more or +less taken Notice of, as the Original Piece is more or less Agreeable. + +As to our Weekly Papers, the Poor REVIEW is quite exhausted, and grown +so very Contemptible, that tho' he has provoked all his Brothers of the +Quill round, none of them will enter into a Controversy with him. This +Fellow, who had excellent Natural Parts, but wanted a small Foundation +of Learning, is a lively instance of those Wits, who, as an Ingenious +Author says, will endure but one Skimming. + +The OBSERVATOR was almost in the same Condition, but since our +Party-Struggles have run so high, he is much mended for the better; +which is imputed to the Charitable Assistance of some out-lying Friends. + +These Two Authors might, however, have flourish'd some time longer, had +not the Controversie been taken up by much abler Hands. + +The EXAMINER is a Paper, which all Men, who speak without Prejudice, +allow to be well Writ. Tho' his Subject will admit of no great Variety, +he is continually placing it on so many different Lights, and +endeavouring to inculcate the same thing by so many Beautiful Changes of +Expressions, that Men, who are concern'd in no Party, may Read him with +Pleasure. His way of assuming the Question in Debate, is extremely +Artful; and his Letter to Crassus, is, I think, a Master-piece. As these +Papers, are suppos'd to have been Writ by several Hands, the Criticks +will tell you, That they can discern a difference in their Stiles and +Beauties, and pretend to observe, that the first EXAMINERS abound +chiefly in Wit, the last in Humour. + +Soon after their first appearance, came out a Paper from the other Side, +called the WHIG EXAMINER, writ with so much Fire, and in so excellent a +Stile, as put the Tories in no small pain for their favourite Hero, +every one cry'd Bickerstaff must be the Author, and People were the more +confirm'd in this opinion, upon its being so soon lay'd down; which +seem'd to shew, that it was only writ to bind the EXAMINERS to their +good Behaviour, and was never design'd to be a Weekly Paper. The +EXAMINERS therefore have no one to Combat with at present, but their +Friend the MEDLEY; The Author of which Paper, tho' he seems to be a Man +of good Sense, and expresses, it luckily enough now and then, is, I +think, for the most part, perfectly a Stranger to fine Writing. + +I presume I need not tell you that the EXAMINER carries much the more +Sail, as 'tis supposed to be writ by the Direction, and under the Eye of +some Great Persons who sit at the helm of Affairs, and is consequently +look'd on as a sort of publick Notice which way they are steering us. + +The reputed Author is Dr. S---t, with the assistance, sometimes, of Dr. +Att---y; and Mr. P---r. + +The MEDLEY, is said to be Writ by Mr. Old---n, and supervised by Mr. +Mayn---g, who perhaps might intirely write those few Papers which, are +so much better than the rest. + +Before I proceed further in the account of our Weekly Papers, it will be +necessary to inform you, that at the begining of the Winter, to the +infinite surprize of all Men, Mr. Steele flung up His TATLER, and +instead of Isaac Bickerstaff Esq.; Subscrib'd himself Richard Steele to +the last of those Papers, after an handsome Compliment to the Town for +their kind acceptance of his Endeavours to divert them. The Chief +Reason he thought fit to give for his leaving off writing, was, that +having been so long look'd on in all publick Places and Companies as the +Author of those Papers, he found that his most intimate Friends and +Acquaintance were in Pain to Act or Speak before him. The Town was very +far from being satisfied with this Reason; and most People judg'd the +true cause to be, either that he was quite spent, and wanted matter to +continue his undertaking any longer, or that he lay'd it down as a sort +of Submission to, and Composition with the Government for some past +Offences; Or lastly, that he had a Mind to vary his Shape, and appear +again in some new Light. + +However that were, his disappearing seem'd to be bewailed as some +general Calamity, every one wanted so agreeable an Amusement, and the +Coffee-houses began to be sensible that the Esquires Lucubrations alone, +had brought them more Customers than all their other News papers put +together. + +It must indeed be confess'd, that never Man threw up his Pen under +Stronger Temptations to have imployed it longer: His Reputation was at a +greater height than, I believe, ever any living Author's was before him. +'Tis reasonable to suppose that his Gains were proportionably +considerable; Every one Read him with Pleasure and Good Will, and the +Tories, in respect to his other Good Qualities, had almost forgiven his +unaccountable Imprudence in declaring against them. + +Lastly, It was highly improbable that if he threw off a Character, the +Ideas of which were so strongly impress'd in every one's mind, however +finely he might write in any new form, that he should meet with the same +reception. + +To give you my own thoughts of this Gentleman's Writings, I shall in the +first place observe, that there is this noble difference between him and +all the rest of our Polite and Gallant Authors: The latter have +endeavour'd to please the Age by falling in with them, and incouraging +them in their fashionable Vices, and false notions of things. It would +have been a jest, sometime since, for a Man to have asserted, that any +thing Witty could be said in praise of a Marry'd State, or that Devotion +and Virtue were any way necessary to the Character of a fine Gentleman. +Bickerstaff ventur'd to tell the Town, that they were a parcel of Fops, +Fools, and vain Cocquets; but in such a manner, as even pleased them, +and made them more than half enclin'd to believe that he spoke Truth. + +Instead of complying with the false Sentiments or Vicious tasts of the +Age, either in Morality, Criticism, or Good Breeding, he has boldly +assur'd them, that they were altogether in the wrong, and commanded them +with an Authority, which perfectly well became him, to surrender +themselves to his Arguments, for Vertue and Good Sense. + +'Tis incredible to conceive the effect his Writings have had on the +Town; How many Thousand follies they have either quite banish'd, or +given a very great check to; how much Countenance they have added to +Vertue and Religion; how many People they have render'd happy, by +shewing them it was their own fault if they were not so; and lastly, how +intirely they have convinc'd our Fops, and Young Fellows, of the value +and advantages of Learning. + +He has indeed rescued it out of the hands of Pedants and Fools, and +discover'd the true method of making it amiable and lovely to all +mankind: In the dress he gives it, 'tis a most welcome guest at +Tea-tables and Assemblies, and is relish'd and caressed by the Merchants +on the Change; accordingly, there is not a Lady at Court, nor a Banker +in Lumbard-Street, who is not verily perswaded, that Captain Steele is +the greatest Scholar, and best Casuist, of any Man in England. + +Lastly, His Writings have set all our Wits and Men of Letters upon a new +way of Thinking, of which they had little or no Notion before; and tho' +we cannot yet say that any of them have come up to the Beauties of the +Original, I think we may venture to affirm, that every one of them +Writes and Thinks much more justly than they did some time since. + +The vast variety of Subjects which he has treated of in so different +manners, and yet All so perfectly well, made the World believe that +'twas impossible they should all come from the same hand. This set every +one upon guessing who was the Esquires Friend, and most people at first +fancied it must be Dr. Swift; but it is now no longer a Secret, that his +only great and constant assistant was Mr. Addison. + +This is that excellent Friend to whom Mr. Steele ow's so much, and who +refuses to have his Name set before those Pieces, which the greatest +Pens in England would be Proud to own. Indeed, they could hardly add to +this Gentleman's Reputation, whose Works in Latin and English Poetry, +long since convinc'd the World, that he was the greatest Master in +Europe of those Two Languages. + +I am assur'd from good hands, That all the Visions, and other Tracts in +that way of Writing, with a very great number of the most exquisite +Pieces of Wit and Raillery throughout the Lucubrations, are intirely of +this Gentleman's Composing; which may in some Measure account for that +different Genius, which appears in the Winter Papers from those of the +Summer; at which time, as the EXAMINER often hinted, this Friend of Mr. +Steele's was in Ireland. + +Mr. Steele confesses in his last Volume of the TATLERS, that he is +oblig'd to Dr. Swift for his "Town Shower," and the "Description of the +Morn," with some other hints received from him in Private Conversation. + +I have also heard, that several of those Letters, which came as from +Unknown Hands, were writ by Mr. Henly; which is an Answer to your Query, +Who those Friends are, whom Mr. Steele speaks of in his last TATLER? + +But to proceed with my account of our other Papers: The Expiration of +Bickerstaff's Lucubrations, was attended with much the same Consequences +as the Death of Melibæus's Ox in Virgil; as the latter engendred Swarms +of Bees, the former immediately produc'd whole Swarms of little +Satyrical Scriblers. + +One of these Authors, call'd himself The GROWLER, and assur'd us, that +to make amends for Mr. Steele's Silence, he was resolv'd to Growl at us +Weekly, as long as we should think fit to give him any Encouragement. +Another Gentleman, with more Modesty, call'd his Paper The WHISPERER; +and a Third, to Please the Ladies, Christen'd his, The TELL-TALE. + +At the same time came out several TATLERS; each of which, with equal +Truth and Wit, assur'd us, That he was the Genuine Isaac Bickerstaff. + +It may be observ'd, That when the Esquire laid down his Pen, tho' he +could not but foresee that several Scriblers would soon snatch it up, +which he might, one would think, easily have prevented, he Scorn'd to +take any further Care about it, but left the Field fairly open to any +Worthy Successor. Immediately some of our Wits were for forming +themselves into a Club, headed by one Mr. Barrison, and trying how they +could shoot in this Bow of Ulysses; but soon found that this sort of +Writing, requires so fine and particular a manner of Thinking, with so +exact a Knowledge of the World, as must make them utterly Despair of +Success. + +They seem'd indeed at first to think, that what was only the Garnish of +the former TATLERS, was that which recommended them, and not those +Substantial Entertainments which they every where abound in. + +According they were continually talking of their Maid, Night-Cap, +Spectacles, and Charles Lillie. However there were now and then some +faint endeavours at Humour and Sparks of Wit, which the Town, for want +of better Entertainment, was content to hunt after, through an heap of +Impertinencies; but even those are at present, become wholly Invisible, +and quite swallow'd up in the Blaze of the SPECTATOR. + +You may remember I told you before, that one Cause assign'd for the +laying down the TATLER was, want of Matter; and indeed this was the +prevailing Opinion in Town, when we were Surpriz'd all at once by a +paper called The SPECTATOR, which was promised to be continued every +day, and was writ in so excellent a Stile, with so nice a Judgment, and +such a noble profusion of Wit and Humour, that it was not difficult to +determine it could come from no other hands but those which had penn'd +the Lucubrations. + +This immediately alarm'd these Gentlemen, who (as 'tis said Mr. Steele +phrases it) had The Censorship in Commission. They found the new +SPECTATOR come on like a Torrent and swept away all before him; they +despaired ever to equal him in Wit, Humour, or Learning; (which had been +their true and certain way of opposing him) and therefore, rather chose +to fall on the Author, and to call out for help to all Good Christians, +by assuring them again and again, that they were the First, Original, +True, and Undisputed Isaac Bickerstaff. + +Mean while The SPECTATOR, whom we regard as our shelter from that Flood +of False Wit and Impertinence which was breaking in upon us, is in every +ones Hand, and a constant Topick for our Morning Conversation at +Tea-Tables, and Coffee-Houses. We had at first indeed no manner of +Notion, how a Diurnal paper could be continu'd in the Spirit and Stile +of our present SPECTATORS; but to our no small Surprize, we find them +still rising upon us, and can only wonder from whence so Prodigious a +Run of Wit and Learning can proceed; since some of our best Judges seem +to think that they have hitherto, in general, out-shone even the +Esquires first TATLERS. + +Most People Fancy, from their frequency, that they must be compos'd by a +Society; I, with all, Assign the first places to Mr. Steele and His +Friend. + +I have often thought that the Conjunction of those two Great Genius's +(who seem to stand in a Class by themselves, so high above all our other +Wits) resembled that of two famous States-men in a late Reign, whose +Characters are very well expressed in their two Mottoes (viz.) Prodesse +quam conspici, and Otium cum Dignitate. Accordingly the first was +continually at work behind the Curtain, drew up and prepared all those +Schemes and Designs, which the latter Still drove on, and stood out +exposed to the World to receive its Praises or Censures. + +Mean time, all our unbyassed well-wishers to Learning, are in hopes, +that the known Temper and Prudence of one of these Gentlemen, will +hinder the other from ever lashing out into Party, and rend'ring that +wit which is at present a Common Good, Odious and Ungrateful to the +better part of the Nation. + +If this piece of imprudence do's not spoil so excellent a Paper, I +propose to my self, the highest Satisfaction, in Reading it with you +over a Dish of Tea, every Morning next Winter. + +As we have yet had nothing new since the SPECTATOR, it only remains for +me to assure you, that I am + +Yours, &c. +J.G. + +Westminster, +May 3, 1711. + + +POSTSCRIPT. + +Upon a Review of my Letter, I find I have quite forgot The BRITISH +APOLLO; which might possibly happen, from its having of late Retreated +out of this end of the Town into the City; where I am inform'd however, +That it still recommends its self by deciding Wagers at Cards, and +giving good Advice to Shop-keepers, and their Apprentices. + +FINIS. + + +The / Present State / of / Wit, / in a / Letter / to a / Friend in the +Country. / [double rule] / London / Printed in the Year, MDCCXI./ (Price +3 d.) / + +Collation: A-C4. Pp. [1-24] P. [1] half-title, signed "A"; p. [2] blank; +p. [3] title, as above; p. [4] blank; pp. 5-22 text; p. [23] Postscript; +p. [24] blank. + +This appears to be the only contemporary edition. + +Colton Storm + + + + +THE + +_English Theophrastus_: + +OR, THE + +Manners of the Age. + + +Being the + +MODERN CHARACTERS + +OF THE + +COURT, the TOWN, + +and the CITY. + + * * * * * + +_Quicquid agunt Homines, Votum, Timor, Ira, Voluptas, Gaudia, Discursus, +nostri est Farrago, Libelli._ + +Juven. + +--_Quis enim Virtutem amplectitur ipsam?_ + +Id. + + * * * * * + +_LONDON_, + +Printed for _W. Turner_, at _Lincolns-Inn Back-Gate_; _R. Basset_ in +_Fleetstreet_; and _J. Chantry_, without _Temple Bar_, 1702 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Abel Boyer, a Huguenot who settled in London in 1689, devoted himself to +language, history, and literature. As a linguist, he tutored Allen +Bathurst and the Duke of Gloucester in French, prepared a textbook for +English students of French, compiled a French and English dictionary, +and endeavored to promote a better understanding between France and +England by translating works of each nation into the language of the +other. As a historian, he recorded the principal events of English +national life from 1688 to 1729. As a literary figure, he wrote a play +that was approved by Dryden and published two collections of characters. + +Coming in on the great flood of character books which reached its crest +in the seventeenth century, Boyer's collections were part of the final +surge before the character was taken over by Steele and handed on to the +novelists. The first was _Characters of the Virtues and Vices of the +Age; or, Moral reflections, maxima, and thoughts upon men and manners. +Translated from the most refined French wits ... and extracted from the +most celebrated English writers.... Digested alphabetically under proper +titles_ (1695). The second, resembling the first in design but +considerably enlarged, was published in 1702 under the title _The +English Theophrastus: Or The Manners of the Age. Being the Modern +Characters Of The Court, the Town, and the City_. No author is given on +the title page, but the work is usually ascribed to Boyer because his +name appears beneath the dedication. + +That Boyer's purpose in preparing _The English Theophrastus_ was moral +is evident in the preface, where he describes the subject of his book as +the "Grand-Lesson, _deliver'd by the_ Delphian _Oracle_, Know thy Self: +_Which certainly is the most important of a Man's Life_." Distempers of +the mind, he continues, like those of the body, are half cured when well +known. Although philosophers of all ages have agreed in their aim to +expose human imperfections in order to rectify them, their methods have +differed. Those moralists who have inveighed magisterially against man's +vices generally have been "_abandon'd to the ill-bred Teachers of Musty +Morals in Schools, or to the sowr Pulpit-Orators_." Those who, by +"_nipping Strokes of a Side-wind Satyr, have endeavour'd to tickle Men +out of their Follies_," have been welcomed and caressed by the very +people who were most abused. Since self-love waves the application, +satire, unless bluntly direct, can fail as completely as reprehension. + +Modern moralists, according to Boyer, have pursued a third course and +cast their observations on men and manners into the entertaining form +employed by Theophrastus, Lucian, Plutarch, and Diogenes Laertius. Among +the moderns, La Rochefoucauld, Saint-Evremond, and La Bruyère are +admired by all judicious readers. From these French writers Boyer has +selected materials for the groundwork of his collection. He has added +passages from Antoninus, Pascal, and Gratian; from the English authors +Bacon, Cowley, L'Estrange, Raleigh, Temple, Dryden, Wycherley, Brown +and others; and from his own pen. They range from a single line to a +passage of several pages. Those of English origin are distinguished by +"_an_ Asterism," his own remarks by inverted commas. Other matter is +unmarked. + +Although Boyer has used as his title _The English Theophrastus_, +examination of the sections here reprinted will show that he has +departed from the way of the Greek master. Instead of sharply defined +portraits, Boyer offers maxims, reflections, and manners, after the +French pattern. Gathered from a variety of sources, these observations +are sometimes related to one another only by their common subject +matter, but often they have been altered and rearranged by Boyer for +sharper focus and unity. A few examples will make his method clear. + +Of the paragraphs that begin on page eight of the first selection, the +second and fourth are taken from _An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex_ +(1696), perhaps the work of Mrs. Judith Drake. The first of these is the +last half of a paragraph from Drake, but minus her concluding figure, +"as Fleas are said to molest those most, who have the tenderest _Skins_, +and the sweetest _Blood_" (p. 78). Into the first line of the second +paragraph from Drake, "Of these the most voluminous Fool is the Fop +Poet," Boyer inserts a reference to Will's. Thereafter, he follows Drake +rather closely, but replaces the final portion of the paragraph with two +or three sentences from other parts of her essay. The Drake material +ends at the paragraph break on page nine. Between these two paragraphs +Boyer places the single statement, "There's somewhat that borders upon +_Madness_ in every exalted _Wit_," which may be his own version of +Dryden's line, "Great Wits are sure to Madness near allied" (_Absalom +and Achitophel_, l. 248). By means of these alterations in his sources, +Boyer has compiled a passage that has focus and direction, and gives +little evidence of its patchwork origin. + +In other instances Boyer adheres more closely to the original form of +the material he borrows. The long passage from the middle of page twenty +to the middle of twenty-five is taken from "Des Ouvrages de L'Esprit" of +La Bruyère's _Les Caractères_. Though retaining the sequence of these +observations, he has deleted certain paragraphs. In most cases he has +translated the French faithfully, but here and there he has paraphrased +a passage or added a brief remark of his own. There was little he could +do, of course, with La Rochefoucauld, from whose _Maximes_ all of page +282 and about half of 283 of the second selection are taken. Boyer was +content to translate almost literally these remarks upon wit and +judgment which he collected from widely scattered sections of the +_Maximes_. + +Boyer's own contribution to his collection was slight, covering, all +told, little more than fifteen of the 383 pages. Distinguished neither +by originality of conception nor individuality of style, it is, +nevertheless, marked by good sense. A moderate man in his +pronouncements, Boyer was less clever than reasonable. + +Boyer's remarks on wit are in keeping with his character. Like many of +his contemporaries, he has something to say on the subject, but uses the +term rather loosely. He would seem, though, to identify wit with genius, +which gives evidence of itself in literary utterance. But judgment is a +necessary concomitant of good wit. Conversely, the would-be wit lacks +genius, expression, and judgment, and therefore turns critic, that he +may denounce in others what is not to be found in himself. Hence the +word critic has come to mean a fault finder rather than a man of sound +judgment. + +The following selections are reproduced, with permission, from a copy of +_The English Theophrastus_ in the library of the University of Michigan. + +W. Earl Britton + +University of Michigan + + + + +THE + +MANNERS + +Of the AGE. + + +_Authors, Wits, Poets, Criticks,_ Will's _Coffee-House, Play-House,_ &c. + + +"Eubulus fancying himself Inspir'd, stands up for the Honour of Poetry, +and is mightily provok'd to hear the Sacred Name of _Poet_, turn'd into +Scandal and Ridicule; He tells you what a profound Veneration the +_Athenians_ had for their Dramatick Writers; how greatly _Terence_ and +_Virgil_ were Honour'd in _Rome_; the first, by _Scipio_ and _Lælius_, +the other by _Augustus_ and _Mecænas_; how much _Francis_ the First, and +Cardinal _Richelieu_, encourag'd the Wits of _France_; and drawing his +Argument more home, he relates to you, how in this Island the +_Buckinghams_, the _Orrerys_, the _Roscommons_, the _Normanbys_, the +_Dorsets_, the _Hallifaxs_, and several other Illustrious Persons have +not only encouraged Poetry, but ennobled the Art itself by their +Performances. + +"True _Eubulus_; we allow Poetry to be a Divine Art, and the name of +_Poet_ to be _Sacred_ and Honourable, when a _Sophocles_, a _Terence_, a +_Virgil_, a _Corneille_, a _Boileau_, a _Shakespear_, a _Waller_, a +_Dryden_, a _Wycherly_, a _Congreve_, or a _Garth_ bears it: But then we +intend it as a Scandal, when we give it to _Mævius, Chapelain, Ogilby_, +W---- D----, D----, S----, and _your self_. + +"I question whether some Poets allow any other Poets to have Perform'd +better, than themselves, in that kind of Poetry which they profess. Sir +_R---- B----_, I suppose, tho' he has declaim'd against Wit, yet is not +so conceited, as to Vie with _Horace_ and _Juvenal_ for _Satyr_; but as +to _Heroick Poetry_, methinks he Reasons thus with himself; _Homer_ has +writ the _Ilias_ and the _Odysseis_, and _Virgil_ only the _Æneid_; I +have writ _Prince Arthur_, and _King Arthur_; am I not then equal to +_Homer_, and Superior to _Virgil_? No, _B----re_, we judge of _Poetry_ +as we do of _Metals_, nor by the _Lump_, but the intrinsick Value. New +cast your Poems; purge 'em of their Dross; reduce 'em to the Bulk of the +_Dispensary_, and if then they weigh in the Balance with _that_, we will +allow you a Place among the First-Rate _Heroick Poets_. + +"The _Wits_ of mean Descent and scanty Fortune, are generally apt to +reflect on Persons of Quality and Estates, whom they rashly tax with +Dullness and Ignorance, a _Normanby_, a _Dorset_, a _Spencer_, a +_Hallifax_, a _Boyle_, a _Stanhope_, and a _Codrington_, (to pass over +abundance more) are sufficient to convince the World, that either an +Ilustrious Birth, or vast Riches, are not incompatible with _deep +Learning_, and _Sterling-Wit_. + +"_Rapin_, St. _Evremont_, and some other _French_ Criticks, do the +_English_ wrong, in the Judgments they pass upon their Plays: The +_English_ Criticks are even with them, for generally they judge as _ill_ +of _French_ Poetry. + +"There is a great reach of Discernment, a deep Knowledge, and abundance +of Candor requir'd to qualifie a Man for an _equal Judge_ of the Poetry +and ingenious Compositions of two Nations, whose _Tempers,_ _Humours_, +_Manners_, _Customs_, and _Tastes_, are so vastly different as the +_French_ are from the _English_: _Rapin_, St. _Evremont_, and _Rymer_, +are _candid_, _judicious_, and _learned_ Criticks, I own it; but yet +neither the two first are sufficiently acquainted with _England_, nor +the latter with _France_, to enter equally into the Genius of both +Nations; and consequently they cannot pass a just Sentence upon the +Performances of their respective Writers. + +"Tis a great piece of Injustice in us, to charge the _French_ with +Fickleness; for, to give them their due, They are ten times more +constant in their Judgments, than we; Their _Cid_ and _Iphigenia_ in +_Aulis_, are Acted at this very day, with as much Applause as they were +thirty Years ago: All _London_ has admir'd the _Mourning Bride_ one +Winter, and endeavoured to find fault with it the next. + +"_Philo_ comes _piping hot_ out of the College, and having his Head full +of Poetical Gingles, writes an _Elegy_, a _Panegyrick_ or a _Satyr_ upon +the least frivolous Occasion: This brings him acquainted with all the +_Second-Rate Wits_; One of these introduces him at _Will's_, and having +a Play upon the Stocks, and ready to be Launch'd, he prevails with +_Philo_ to write him a _Song_, a _Dialogue_, a _Prologue_ and +_Epilogue_, in short, the Trimming of his Comedy. By this time, _Philo_ +begins to think himself a great Man, and nothing less than the writing +of a Play, can satisfie his towring Ambition; well, the Play is writ, +the Players, upon the Recommendation of those that lick'd it over, like +their Parts to a Fondness, and the _Comedy_, or _Tragedy_, being +supported partly by its real Merit, but most powerfully by a _Toasting_, +or _Kit-cat-Club_, comes off with universal Applause. How _slippery_ is +_Greatness_! _Philo_ puff'd up with his Success, writes a second Play, +scorns to improve it by the Corrections of better Wits, brings it upon +the Stage, without securing a Party to protect it, and has the +Mortification to hear it _Hist_ to death. Pray how many _Philos_ do we +reckon in Town since the Revolution? + +"The reason we have had so many _ill Plays_ of late, is this; The +extraordinary _Success_ of the worst Performances encourages every +Pretender to Poetry to Write; Whereas the indifferent Reception some +excellent Pieces have met with, discourages our best Poets from Writing. + +"After all, one of the boldest Attempts of Human Wit, is to write a +taking _Comedy_: For, how many different sorts of People, how many +various Palates must a Poet please, to gain a general Applause? He must +have a _Plot_ and _Design_, _Coherence_ and _Unity_ of _Action_, _Time_ +and _Place_, for the Criticks, _Polite Language_ for the Boxes, +_Repartee_, _Humor_, and _Double Entendres_ for the Pit; and to the +shame of our Theatres, a mixture of Farce for the Galleries, What Man of +Sense now will venture his Reputation upon these hard Terms. + +"The Poet often arrogates to himself the Applause, which we only give +to Mrs. _Barry_ or _Bracegirdle_'s inimitable Performances: But then he +must take as often upon his Account the Hisses, which are only intended +for _Cæsonia_, and _Corinna's abominable Acting_. One makes amends for +'tother. + +"Many a pert Coxcomb might have past for a _Wit_, if his Vanity had not +brought him to _Will_'s. + +"The same thing that makes a Man appear with Assurance at _Court_; +qualifies him also to appear unconcern'd among Men of Sense at _Will_'s: +I mean _Impertinence_. + +"As some People _Write_, so others _talk themselves_ out of their +_Reputation_." + +* The name of a _Wit_ is little better than a Slander, since it is +generally given by those that have _none_, to those that have _little_. + +"How strangely some words lose their Primitive Sense! By a _Critick_, +was originally understood a _good Judge_; with us now-a-days, it +signifies no more than a _Fault-finder_." + +* A _Critick_ in the Modern Acceptation, seldom rises, either in +_Merit_, or _Reputation_; for it argues a mean grov'ling Genius, to be +always finding Fault; whereas, a candid Judge of Things, not only +improves his Parts, but gains every Body's Esteem. + +* None keep generally worse Company than your Establish'd _Wits_, for +there are a sort of Coxcombs, that stick continually to them like Burrs, +to make the Town think from their Company, that they are Men of Parts. + +* _Criticks_ are useful, that's most certain, so are Executioners and +Informers: But what Man did ever envy the condition of _Jack Ketch_, or +_Jack P----r_. + +* How can we love the Man, whose Office is to torture and execute other +Men's Reputation. + +* After all, a _Critick_ is the last Refuge of a pretender to _Wit_. + +"Tis a great piece of Assurance in a profest _Critick_ to write _Plays_, +for if he does, he must expect to have the whole Club of _Wits_, +scanning his Performances with utmost Severity, and magnifying his +_Slips_ into _prodigious Faults_." + +* I don't wonder Men of Quality and Estate resort to _Will_'s, for +really they make the best Figure there; an indifferent thing from 'em, +passes for a Witty Jest, and sets presently the whole Company a +Laughing. Thus we admire the pert Talk of Children, because we expected +nothing from 'em. + +"There are many unpertinent _Witlings_ at _Will_'s, that's certain; but +then your Retailers of _Politicks_, or of second-hand Wit at _Tom_'s, +are ten times more intolerable." + +* _Wits_ are generally the most dangerous Company a Woman can keep, for +their Vanity makes 'em brag of more Favours than they obtain. + +"Some Women care not what becomes of their Honour, so they may secure +the _Reputation_ of their _Wit_. + +"Those People generally talk _most_, who have the least to say; go to +_Will_'s, and you'll hardly hear the Great _Wycherley_ speak two +Sentences in a quarter of an Hour, whilst _Blatero_, _Hamilus_, +_Turpinus_; and twenty more egregious Coxcombs, deafen the Company with +their Political _Nonsense_. + +"There are at _Will_'s some _Wit-carriers_, whose business is, to +export the fine Things they hear, from one Room to another, next to a +Reciting-Poet; these Fellows are the most exquisite Plague to a Man of +Sense. + +"In spight of the intrinsick Merit of _Wit_, we find it seldom brings a +Man into the _Favour_, or even _Company_ of the _Great_, and the _Fair_, +unless it be for a Laugh and away; never thought on, but when present; +nor then neither, for the sake of the Man of _Wit_, but their own +Diversion. The infallible way to ingratiate ones self with Quality, is +that dull and empty Entertainment, called _Gaming_, for _Picket_, +_Ombre_, and _Basset_, keep always Places even for a _quondam Foot-man,_ +or a _Drawer_ at the _Assemblies_, _Apartments_, and _Visiting-days_. If +you lose, you oblige with your Money; if you Win, you command with your +Fortune; the _Lord_ is your _Bubble_, and the Lady what you please to +make her." + +* _Flattery_ of our _Wit_, has the same Power over Us, which _Flattery_ +of _Beauty_ has over a Woman; it keeps up that good Opinion of our +selves which is necessary to beget _Assurance_; and _Assurance_ produces +success both in _Fortune_ and _Love_. + +* Some Men take as much Pains to persuade the World that they have +_Wit_, as _Bullies_ do that they have _Courage_, and generally with the +same Success, for they seldom deceive any one but themselves. + +* Some _pert Coxcombs_, so violently affect the Reputation of _Wits_, +that not a _French Journal_, _Mercury_, _Farce_, or _Opera_, can escape +their Pillaging: yet the utmost they arrive at, is but a sort of +_Jack-a-lanthorn Wit_, that like the Sun-shine which wanton Boys with +fragments of Looking-glass reflect in Men's Eyes, dazles the +Weak-sighted, and troubles the strong. These are the Muses +_Black-Guard_, that like those of our Camp, tho' they have no share in +the Danger or Honour, yet have the greatest in the Plunder; that +indifferently strip all that lie before 'em, dead or alive, Friends or +Enemies: Whatever they light on, is _Terra incognita_, and they claim +the right of Discoverers, that is, of giving their Names to it. + +* I think the _Learned_, and _Unlearned Blockhead_ pretty Equal: For +'tis all one to me, whether a Man talk _Nonsense_, or _Unintelligible +Sense_. + +* There is nothing of which we assent to speak with more Humility and +Indifference than our own _Sense_, yet nothing of which we think with +more Partiality and Presumption. There have been some so bold, as to +assume the Title of the _Oracles_ of Reason to themselves, and their own +Writings; and we meet with others daily, that think themselves _Oracles +of Wit_. These are the most vexatious Animals in the World, that think +they have a privileee to torment and plague every Body; but those most +who have the best Reputation for their Wit and Judgment. + +* There's somewhat that borders upon _Madness_ in every exalted _Wit_. + +* One of the most remarkable Fools that resort to _Will_'s, is the +_Fop-Poet_, who is one that has always more Wit in his Pockets than any +where else, yet seldom or never any of his own there. _Æsop_'s Daw was a +Type of him, for he makes himself fine with the Plunder of all Parties; +He is a smuggler of Wit, and steals _French_ Fancies, without paying the +customary Duties; Verse is his _Manufacture_; for it is more the Labour +of his _Fingers_, than his _Brain_: He spends much time in _writing_, +but ten times more in _reading_ what he has written: He asks your +Opinion, yet for fear you should not jump with him, tells you his own +first: He desires no Favour, yet is disappointed if he is not Flatter'd, +and is always offended at the Truth. He is a _Poetical Haberdasher of +small Wares_, and deals very much in _Novels_, _Madrigals_, _Funeral_ +and _Love Odes_, _Panegyricks_, _Elegies_, and other Toys of +_Parnassus_, which he has a Shop so well furnish'd with, that he can fit +you with all sorts in the twinkling of an Eye. He talks much of +_Wycherley_, _Garth_, and _Congreve_, and protests, he can't help having +some Respect for them, because they have so much for him and his +Writings, otherwise he could make it appear that they understand little +of Poetry in comparison of himself, but he forbears 'em meerly out of +Gratitude and Compassion. He is the _Oracle_ of those that want _Wit_, +and the _Plague_ of those that have it; for he haunts their Lodgings, +and is more terrible to them than their Duns. + +* _Brutus_ for want of _Wit_, sets up for _Criticism_; yet has so much +ambition to be thought a _Wit_, that he lets his Spleen prevail against +Nature, and turns Poet. In this Capacity he is as just to the World as +in the other injurious. For, as the _Critick_ wrong'd every Body in his +Censure, and snarl'd and grin'd at their Writings, the _Poet_ gives 'em +opportunity to do themselves Justice, to return the Compliment, and +laugh at, or despise his. He takes his _Malice_ for a _Muse_, and thinks +himself _Inspir'd_, when he is only _Possess'd_, and blown up with a +Flatus of _Envy_ and _Vanity_. His Works are _Libels_ upon others, but +_Satyrs_ upon himself; and while they bark at Men of _Sense_, call him +Fool that writ 'em. He has a very great Antipathy to his own Species, +and hates to see a Fool any where but in his Glass; for, as he says, +_they provoke him, and offend his Eyes_. His Fund of Criticism, is a set +of Terms of Art, pick'd out of the _French Criticks_, or their +Translators; and his _Poetical Stock_, is a common Place of certain +_Forms_ and manners of Expression. He writes better in _Verse_ than +_Prose_; for in that there is _Rhime_, in this, neither _Rhime_ nor +_Reason_. He rails both at the _French_ Writers, "whom he does not +understand, and at those _English_ Authors, whose Excellencies he cannot +reach; with him _Voiture_ is flat and dull, _Corneille_ a stranger to +the Passions, _Racine_, Starch'd and Affected, _Moliere_, Jejune, _la +Fontaine_ a poor Teller of Tales; and even the Divine _Boileau_, little +better than a Plagiary. As for the _English_ Poets, he treats almost +with the same Freedom; _Shakespear_ with him has neither Language nor +Manners; _Ben. Johnson_ is a Pedant; _Dryden_ little more than a +tolerable Versifier; _Congreve_ a laborious Writer; _Garth_, an +indifferent imitator of _Boileau_. He traduces _Oldham_, for want of +Breeding and good Manners, without a grain of either, and steals his own +Wit to bespatter him with; but like an ill Chymist, he lets the _Spirit_ +fly off in the drawing over and retains only the _Phlegm_. He Censures +_Cowley_ for too much Wit, and corrects him with none. He is a great +Admirer of the incomparable _Milton_, but while he fondly endeavours to +imitate his _Sublime_, he is blown up with _Bombast_ and _puffy +Expressions_. He is a great stickler for _Euripides_, _Sophocles_, +_Horace_, _Virgil_, _Ovid_, and the rest of the Ancients; but his ill +and lame Translations of 'em, ridicule those he would commend. He +ventures to write for the Play-Houses, but having his stol'n, +ill-patch'd fustian Plays Damn'd upon the Stage, he ransacks _Bossu_, +_Rapin_, and _Dacier_, to arraign the ill-taste of the Town. To compleat +himself in the Formalities of _Parnassus_, he falls in Love, and tells +his Mistress in a very pathetick Letter, he is oblig'd to her bright +_Beauty_ for his Poetry; but if this Damsel prove no more indulgent than +his Muse, his Amour is like to conclude but unluckily." + +_Demetrius_ before the Curse of Poetry had seiz'd him, was in a pretty +way of _Thriving Business_, but having lately sold his Chambers in one +of the Inns of Court, and taken a Lodging near the Play-house, is now in +a fair way of _Starving_. This Gentleman is frequently possest with +Poetick Raptures; and all the Family complains, that he disturbs 'em at +Midnight, by reciting some incomparable sublime Fustian of his own +Composing. When he is in Bed, one wou'd imagine he might be quiet for +that Night, but 'tis quite otherwise with him; for when a new Thought, +as he calls it, comes into his Head, up he gets, sets it down in +Writing, and so gradually encreases the detested Bulk of his Poetick +Fooleries, which, Heaven avert it! he threatens to Print. _Demetrius_ +having had the misfortune of miscarrying upon the Stage, endeavours to +preserve his unlawful Title to Wit, by bringing all the Dramatick Poets +down to his own Level. And wanting Spirit to set up for a Critick, turns +_Spy_ and _Informer_ of _Parnassus_. He frequents _Apollo_'s Court at +_Will_'s, and picks up the freshest Intelligence, what Plays are upon +the Stocks, what ready to be Launch'd; and if he can be inform'd, from +the _Establish'd Wits_, of any remarkable Fault in the new Play upon the +Bills, he is indefatigably industrious in whispering it about, to +bespeak its Damnation before its Representation. + +* _Curculio_ is a Semi-Wit, that has a great _Veneration_ for the +_Moderns_, and no less a _Contempt_ for the _Ancients_: But his own ill +Composures destroy the force of his Arguments, and do the Ancients full +Justice. This Gentleman having had the good Fortune to write a very +taking, _undigested medly of Comedy_ and _Farce_, is so puff'd up with +his Success, that nothing will serve him, but he must bring this new +_fantastick way of writing_, into Esteem. To compass this Noble Design, +he tells you what a Coxcomb _Aristotle_ was with his Rules of the _three +Unities_; and what a Company of Senseless Pedants the _Scaligers_, +_Rapins_, _Bossu's_, and _Daciers_ are. He proves that _Aristotle_ and +_Horace_, knew nothing of _Poetry_; that Common Sense and Nature were +not the same in _Athens_, and _Rome_, as they are in _London_; that +_Incoherence_, _Irregularity_ and _Nonsense_ are the Chief Perfections +of the _Drama_, and, by a necessary Consequence that the _Silent woman_, +is below his own Performance. + +"_No new Doctrine_ in _Religion_, ever got any considerable Footing +except it was grounded on _Miracles_; Nor any new _Hypothesis_ was ever +established in natural Philolqphy, unless it was confirm'd by +_Experience_. The same Rule holds, in some measure, in all Arts and +Sciences, particularly in Dramatick Poetry. It will be a hard matter for +any Man to trump up any new set of Precepts, in opposition to those of +_Aristotle_ and _Horace_, except by following them, he writes several +approved Plays. The great success of the _first Part_ of the _T---p_ was +sufficient I must confess, to justifie the Authors _Conceit_; But then +the _Explosion_ of the _Second_ ought to have cur'd him of it. + +"_Writers_ like _Women_ seldom give one another a good Word; that's +most certain. Now if the _Poets_ and _Criticks_ of all Ages have allowed +_Sophocles_, _Euripides_, and _Terence_ to have been good _Dramatick +Writers_, and _Aristotle_ and _Horace_ to have been _judicious +Criticks_, ought not their _Censure_ to weigh more with Men of Sense, +than the Fancies, of a Modern Pretender. To be plain, whoever Disputes +_Aristotle_ and _Horace_, Rules does as good as call the _Scaligers_, +_Vossii_, _Rapins_, _Bossu's_, _Daciers_, _Corneilles_, _Roscommons_, +_Normanby's_ and _Rymers_, _Blockheads_: A man must have a great deal of +Assurance, to be so free with such illustrious Judges. + +"Of all the modern Dramatick Poets the Author of _the Trip to the +Jubilee_ has the least Reason to turn into Ridicule _Aristotle_ and +_Horace_, since 'tis to their _Rules_ which he has, in some measure +followed, that he owed the great success of that Play. Those _Rules_ are +no thing but a strict imitation of Nature, which is still the same in +all Ages and Nations: And because the Characters of _Wildair_, +_Angelica_, _Standard_ and _Smuggler_ are _natural_, and well pursued, +They have justly met _with Applause_; but then the Characters of +_Lurewell_ and _Clincher_ Sen. being _out_ of _Nature_ they have as +justly been condemned by all the Good Judges." + +* Some _Scholars_, tho' by their constant Conversation with Antiquity, +they may know perfectly the sense of the Learned dead, and be perfect +masters of the Wisdom, be throughly informed of the State, and nicely +skill'd in the Policies of Ages long since past, yet by their retired +and unactive Life, and their neglect of Business, they are such +strangers to the Domestick Affairs and manners of their own Country and +Times, that they appear like the Ghosts of old _Romans_ rais'd by +Magick. Talk to them of the _Assyrian_ or _Persian_ Monarchies of the +_Grecian_ or _Roman_ Commonwealths, they answer like Oracles; They are +such finished States-men that we should scarce take 'em to have been +less than Privy-Councellors to _Semiramis_, Tutors to _Cyrus_ the Great, +and old Cronies of _Solon_, _Licurgus_, and _Numa Pompilius_. But ingage +them in a discourse that concerns the present Times, and their Native +Country, and they hardly speak the language of it; Ask them how many +Kings there have been in _England_ since the Conquest, or in what Reign +the _Reformation_ happened, and they'll be puzzled with the Question; +They know all the minutest Circumstances of _Catiline's_ Conspiracy, but +are hardly acquainted with the late Plot. They'll tell you the Names of +such _Romans_ as were called to an Account by the Senate for their +_Briberies_, _Extortions_ and _Depredations_, but know nothing of the +four impeached Lords; They talk of the ancient way of Fighting, and +warlike Engines, as if they had been Lieutenant Generals under +_Alexander_, _Scipio_, _Annibal_ or _Julius Cæsar_; but are perfectly +ignorant of the modern military Discipline, Fortification and Artillery; +and of the very names of _Nassau_, _Condé_, _Turenne_, _Luxembourg_, +_Eugene_, _Villeroy_ and _Catinat_. They are excellent Guides, and can +direct you to every Alley, and Turning in old _Rome_ yet lose their way +home in their own Parish. They are mighty Admirers of the Wit and +Eloquence of the Ancients; Yet had they lived in the Time of +_Demosthenes_, and _Cicero_, would have treated them with as much +supercilious Pride, and disrespect as they do now the Moderns. They are +great Hunters of Ancient Manuscripts, and have in great Veneration any +thing that has escaped the Teeth of Time; and if Age has obliterated the +Characters, 'tis the more valuable for not being legible. These +Superstitious bigotted idolaters of time past, are children in their +Understanding all their lives, for they hang so incessantly upon the +leading-strings of Authority, that their Judgments like the Limbs of +some _Indian_ Penitents, become altogether crampt and motionless for +want of use. In fine, they think it a disparagement of their Learning to +talk what other Men understand, and will scarce believe that two and two +make four, under a Demonstration from _Euclid_, or a _Quotation from +Aristotle_. + +The World shall allow a Man to be a wise Man, a good Naturalist, a good +Mathematician, Politician or Poet, but not a _Scholar_, or Learned Man, +unless he be a Philologer and understands Greek and Latin. But for my +part I take these Gentlemen have just inverted the life of the Term, and +given that to the Knowledge of Words, which belongs more properly to +Things. I take Nature to be the Book of Universal Learning, which he +that reads best in all or any of its Parts, is the greatest Scholar, the +most Learned Man; and 'tis as ridiculous for a Man to count himself more +learned than another, if he have no greater Extent of Knowledge of +things, because he is more vers'd in Languages, as it would be for an +old fellow to tell a young One, his own Eyes were better than the +other's because he reads with spectacles, the other without. + +* _Impertinence_ is a Failing that has its Root in Nature, but is not +worth laughing at, till it has received the finishing strokes of _Art_. +A man thro' natural Defects may do abundance of incoherent foolish +Actions, yet deserves compassion and Advice rather than derision. But to +see Men spending their Fortunes, as well as lives, in a Course of +regular Folly, and with an industrious as well as expensive idleness +running thro' tedious systems of impertinence, would have split the +sides of _Heraclitus_, had it been his Fortune to have been a Spectator. +It's very easie to decide which of these impertinents is the most +signal: the Virtuoso is manifestly without a Competitor. For our follies +are not to be measured by the Degree of Ignorance that appears in 'em, +but by the study, labour and expence they cost us to finish and compleat +'em. + +So that the more Regularity and Artifice there appears in any of our +Extravagancies, the greater is the Folly of 'em. Upon this score it is +that the last mentioned deservedly claim the Preference to all others. +They have improved so well their Amusements into an Art, that the +credulous and ignorant are induced to believe there is some secret +Vertue, some hidden Mystery in those darling Toys of theirs: when all +their Bustling amounts to no more than a learned impertinence and all +they teach men is but a specious method of throwing away both Time and +Money. + +"The _Illusions_ of _Poetry_ are fatal to none but the _Poets_ +themselves: _Sidonius_ having lately miscarried upon the Stage, gathers +fresh Courage and is now big with the Hopes of a Play, writ by an +ancient celebrated Author, new-vampt and furbisht up after the laudable +Custom of our modern Witlings. He reckons how much he shall get by his +third day, nay, by his sixth; how much by the Printing, how much by the +Dedication, and by a modest Computation concludes the whole sum, will +amount to two hundred Pounds, which are to be distributed among his +trusty Duns. But mark the fallacy of _Vanity_ and _Self-conceit_: The +Play is acted, and casts the Audience into such a Lethargy, that They +are fain to damn it with _Yawning_, being in a manner deprived of the +Use of their _hissing_ Faculty. Well says, _Sidonius_, (after having +recover'd from a profound Consternation) _Now must the important Person +stand upon his own Leggs_. Right, _Sidonius_, but when do you come on +again, that _Covent-Garden_ Doctors may prescribe your Play instead of +Opium? + +"The Town is not one jot more diverted by the Division of the +Play-houses: the _Players_ perform better 'tis true? but then the +_Poets_ write worse; Will the uniting of _Drury-Lane_ and +_Lincoln's-Inn-Fields_ mend Matters? No,--for then What the Town should +get in writing, they would lose it in Acting." + +* A _Dramatick Poet_ has as hard a Task on't to manage, as a _passive +obedience Divine_ that preaches before the Commons on the 30th. of +_January_. + +To please the _Pit_ and _Galleries_ he must take care to lard the +Dialogue with store of luscious stuff, which the righteous call Baudy; +to please the new Reformers he must have none, otherwise gruff _Jeremy_ +will Lash him in a third _View_. + +* I very much Question, after all, whether _Collier_ would have been at +the Pains to lash the immoralities of the stage, if the Dramatick Poets +had not been guilty of the _abominable Sin_ of making familiar now and +then with the Backslidings of the Cassock. + +* _The Griping Usurer_, whose daily labour and nightly Care and Study +is to oppress the Poor, or over-reach his Neighbour, to betray the +Trusts his Hypocrisy procured; in short to break all the Positive Laws +of Morality, crys out, Oh! Diabolical, at a poor harmless _Double +Entendre_ in a Play. + +"'Tis preposterous to pretend to reform the _Stage_ before the Nation, +and particularly the Town, is _reform'd_. The Business of a Dramatick +Poet is to _copy Nature_, and represent things as they are; Let our +Peers give over _whoring_ and _drinking_; the Citizens, _Cheating_; the +Clergy, their _Quarrels, Covetousness and Ambition_; the Lawyers, their +_ambi-dextrous dealings_; and the Women _intriguing_, and the stage will +reform of Course. + +"Formerly _Poets_ made _Players_, but now adays 'tis generally the +_Player_ that makes the _Poet_. How many Plays would have expired the +very first Night of their appearing upon the Stage, but for _Betterton_, +_Barry_, _Bracegirdle_, or _Wilks_'s inimitable Performance. + +"Who ever goes about to expose the Follies of others upon the Stage, +runs great hazard of exposing himself first; and of being made +Ridiculous to those very People he endeavours to make so. + +"I doubt whether a Man of Sense would ever give himself the trouble of +writing for the Stage, if he had before his Eyes the fatigue of +Rehearsals, the Pangs and Agonies of the first day his Play is Acted, +the Disappointments of the third, and the Scandal of a Damn'd Poet. + +"The reason why in _Shakespear_ and _Ben. Johnson_'s Time Plays had so +good Success, and that we see now so many of 'em miscarry, is because +then the Poets _wrote better_ than the Audience _Judg'd_; whereas +now-a-days the _Audience_ judge _better than the Poets write_." + +* He that pretends to confine a Damsel of the Theatre to his own Use, +who by her Character is a Person of an extended Qualification, acts as +unrighteous, at least as unnatural, a Part, as he that would Debauch a +Nun. But after all, such a Spark rather consults his _Vanity_, than his +_Love_, and would be thought to ingross what all the young Coxcombs of +the Town admire and covet. + +"Is it not a kind of Prodigy, that in this wicked and censorious Age, +the shining _Daphne_ should preserve her Reputation in a Play-House?" + +The Character of a Player was Infamous amongst the _Romans_, but with +the _Greeks_ Honourable: What is our Opinion? We think of them like the +_Romans_, and live with them like the _Greeks_. + +"Nothing so powerfully excites Love in us Men, as the view of those +Limbs of Women's Bodies, which the Establish'd Rules of Modesty bid 'em +keep from our Sight. No wonder then if _Aglaura_, _Cæsonia_, _Floria_, +and in general all the Women on our Stages, are so fond of acting in +Men's Cloaths. + +"_Cæsonia_ is Young, I own it: But then _Cæsonia_ has an _African_ Nose, +hollow Eyes, and a _French_ Complexion; so that all the time she acted +in her Sex's Habit, her Conquests never extended further than one of her +Fellow-Players, or a Cast-Poet. Mark the Miracles of Fancy: _Cæsonia_ +acts a _Boy_'s Part, and _Tallus_, one of the first _Patricians_, falls +desperately in Love with her, and presents her with two Hundred great +_Sesterces_ (a Gentlewoman's Portion) for a Night's Lodging. + +"One would imagine our Matrons should be mighty Jealous of their +Husbands Intriguing with Players: But no, they bear it with a Christian +Patience. How is that possible? Why, they Intrigue themselves, either +with _Roscius_ the Tragedian, _Flagillus_, the Comedian, or _Bathillus_, +the Dancer." + +Nothing Surprizes me more, than to see Men Laugh so freely at a Comedy, +and yet account it a silly weakness to Weep at a Tragedy. For is it less +natural for a Man's Heart to relent upon a Scene of Pity, than to be +transported with Joy upon one of Mirth and Humour? Or is it only the +alteration of the Features of one's Face that makes us forbear Crying? +But this alteration is undoubtedly as great in an immoderate Laughter, +as in a most desperate Grief; and good Breeding teaches us to avoid the +one as well as the other, before those for whom we have a Respect. Or is +it painful to us to appear tender-hearted and express grief upon a +Fiction? But without quoting great Wits who account it an equal +Weakness, either to weep or laugh out of Measure, can we expect to be +tickled by a Tragical Adventure? And besides, is not Truth as naturally +represented in that as in a Comical one? Therefore as we do not think it +ridiculous to see a whole Audience laugh at a merry jest or humour +acted to the life, but on the contrary we commend the skill both of the +Poet and the Actor; so the great Violence we use upon our selves to +contain our tears, together with the forc'd a-wry smiles with which we +strive to conceal our Concern, do forcibly evince that the natural +effect of a good _Tragedy_ is to make us all weep by consent, without +any more ado than to pull out our Handkerchiefs to wipe off our Tears. +And if it were once agreed amongst us not to resist those tender +impressions of _Pity_, I dare engage that we would soon be convinc'd +that by frequenting the Play-house we run less danger of being put to +the expence of Tears, than of being almost frozen to death by many a +cold, dull insipid jest. + +We must make it our main Business and Study to _think_ and _write well_, +and not labour to submit other People's Palates and Opinions to our own; +which is the greater difficulty of the two. + +One should serve his time to learn how to make a _Book_, just as some +men do to learn how to make a watch, for there goes something more than +either Wit or Learning to the setting up for an _Author_. A _Lawyer_ of +this Town was an able, subtle and experienc'd Man in the way of his +Business, and might for ought I know, have come to be _Lord Chief +Justice_, but he has lately miscarried in the Good Opinion of the World, +only by Printing some Essays which are a Master-piece--in _Nonsense_. + +It is a more difficult matter to get a Name by a _Perfect Composure_, +than to make an _indifferent_ one valued by that Reputation a Man has +already got in the World. + +There are some things which admit of no _mediocrity_; such as _Poetry_, +_Painting_, _Musick and Oratory_--What Torture can be greater than to +hear Doctor F---- declaim a flat Oration with formality and Pomp, or +D---- read his Pyndaricks with all the Emphasis of a _Dull Poet_. + +We have not as yet seen any excellent Piece, but what is owing to the +Labour of one single Man: _Homer_, for the purpose, has writ the +_Iliad_; _Virgil_, the _Æneid_; _Livy_ his _Decads_; and the _Roman_ +Orator his Orations; but our _modern several Hands_ present us often +with nothing but a _Variety of Errors_. + +There is in the Arts and Sciences such a _Point of Perfection_, as there +is one of _Goodness_ or _maturity_ in Fruits; and he that can find and +relish it must be allowed to have a _True Tast_; but on the contrary, he +that neither perceives it, nor likes any thing on this side, or beyond +it, has but a defective Palate. Hence I conclude that there is a bad +_Taste_ and a _good_ one, and that the disputing about _Tastes_ is not +altogether unreasonable. + +The Lives of _Heroes_ have enricht _History_ and History in requital has +embellished and heightened the Lives of _Heroes_, so that it is no easie +matter to determine which of the two is more beholden to the other: +either _Historians_, to those who have furnished them with so great and +noble a matter to work upon; or those great Men, to those Writers that +have convey'd their names and Atchievements down to the _Admiration of +after-Ages._ + +There are many of our _Wits_ that feed for a while upon the _Ancients_, +and the best of our Modern Authors: and when they have _squeez'd_ out +and _extracted_ matter enough to appear in Print and set up for +themselves, most ungratefully abuse them, like children grown strong and +lusty by the good milk they have sucked, who generally beat their +Nurses. + +A _Modern_ Author proves both by Reasons and Examples that the +_Ancients_ are inferior to us; and fetches his Arguments from his own +particular Tast, and his Examples from his own _Writings_. He owns, That +the _Ancients_ tho' generally uneven and uncorrect, have yet here and +there some fine Touches, and indeed these are so fine, that the quoting +of them is the only thing that makes his _Criticisms_ worth a Mans +reading 'em. + +Some great Men pronounce for the _Ancients_ against the _Moderns_: But +their own Composures are so agreeable to the Taste of Antiquity, and +bear so great a resemblance with the Patterns they have left us, that +they seem to be judges in their own Case and being suspected of +Partiality, are therefore _ceptionable_. + +It is the Character of a _Pedant_ to be unwilling either to ask a +Friend's advice about his Work or to alter what he has been made +sensible to be a fault. + +We ought to read our Writings to those only, who have Judgment enough to +correct what is amiss, and esteem what deserves to be commended. + +An _Author_, ought to receive with an equal Modesty both the Praise and +Censure of other People upon his own Works. + +A great facility in submitting to other People's Censure is sometimes as +faulty as a great roughness in rejecting it: for there is no Composure +so every way accomplisht, but what would be pared and clipped to nothing +if a man would follow the advice of every finical scrupulous Critick, +who often would have the best Things left out because forsooth, they are +not agreeable to his dull Palate. + +The great Pleasure some People take in _criticizing_ upon the _small +Faults_ of a Book so vitiates their Taste, that it renders them unfit to +be _affected_ with it's _Beauties_. + +The same Niceness of Judgment which makes some Men write sence, makes +them very often shy and unwilling to appear in Print. + +Among the several _Expressions_ We may use for the same Thought, there +is but an individual one which is good and proper; any other but that is +flat and imperfect, and cannot please an ingenious Man that has a mind +to explain what he thinks: And it is no small wonder to me to consider, +what Pains, even the best of Writers are sometimes at, to seek out that +Expression, which being the most simple and natural, ought consequently +to have presented it self without Study. + +'Tis to no great purpose that a Man seeks to make himself admir'd by his +Composures: Blockheads, indeed, may oftentimes admire him but then they +are but Blockheads; and as for _Wits_ they have in themselves the seeds +or hints of all the good and fine things that can possibly be thought of +or said; and therefore they seldom admire any thing, but only approve of +what hits their Palate. + +The being a _Critick_ is not so much a Science as a sort of laborious, +and painful Employment, which requires more strength of Body, than +delicacy of Wit, and more assiduity than natural Parts. + +As some merit Praise for writing well, so do others for not writing at +all. + +That _Author_ who chiefly endeavours to please the Taste of the Age he +lives in, rather consults his private interest, than that of his +_Writings_. We ought always to have perfection in Prospect as the chief +thing we aim at, and that Point once gain'd, we may rest assured that +unbyassed _Posterity_ will do us Justice, which is often deny'd us by +our _Contemporaries_. + +'Tis matter of discretion in an Author to be extreamly reserv'd and +modest when he speaks of the Work he is upon, for fear he should raise +the World's Expectation too high: For it is most certain, that our +Opinion of an extraordinary Promise, goes always further than the +Performance, and a Man's Reputation cannot but be much lessen'd by such +a Disparity. + +The Name of the _Author_ ought to be the last thing we inquire into, +when we Judge of the merit of an ingenious Composure, but contrary to +this maxim we generally judge of the _Book_ by the _Author_, instead of +judging of the _Author_ by the _Book_. + +As we see Women that without the knowledge of Men do sometimes bring +forth inanimate and formless lumps of Flesh, but to cause a natural and +perfect Generation, they are to be husbanded by another kind of seed, +even so it is with Wit which if not applied to some certain study that +may fix and restrain it, runs into a thousand Extravagancies, and is +eternally roving here and there in the inextricable labyrinth of +restless Imagination. + +If every one who hears or reads a good Sentence or maxim, would +immediately consider how it does any way touch his own private concern, +he would soon find, that it was not so much a good saying, as a severe +lash to the ordinary Bestiality of his judgment: but Men receive the +Precepts and admonitions of Truth as generally directed to the common +sort and never particularly to themselves, and instead of applying them +to their own manners, do only very ignorantly and unprofitably commit +them to Memory, without suffering themselves to be at all instructed, or +converted by them. + +We say of some compositions that they stink of Oil and smell of the +Lamp, by reason of a certain rough harshness that the laborious handling +imprints upon those, where great force has been employed: but besides +this, the solicitude of doing well, and a certain striving and +contending of a mind too far strain'd, and over-bent upon its +undertaking, breaks and hinders it self, like Water that by force of its +own pressing Violence and Abundance cannot find a ready issue through +the neck of a Bottle, or a narrow sluice. + +Humour, Temper, Education and a thousand other Circumstances create so +great a difference betwixt the several Palates of Men, and their +Judgments upon ingenious Composures, that nothing can be more chimerical +and foolish in an Author than the Ambition of a general Reputation. + +As Plants are suffocated and drown'd with too much nourishment, and +Lamps with too much Oyl, so is the active part of the understanding with +too much study and matter, which being embarass'd and confounded with +the Diversity of things is deprived of the force and power to disingage +it self; and by the Pressure of this weight, it is bow'd, subjected and +rendred of no use. + +* Studious and inquisitive Men commonly at forty or fifty at the most, +have fixed and settled their judgments in most Points, and as it were +made their last understanding, supposing they have thought, or read, or +heard what can be said on all sides of things, and after that they grow +positive and impatient of Contradiction, thinking it a disparagement to +them to alter their Judgment. + +All Skillful Masters ought to have a care not to let their Works be seen +in _Embryo_, for all beginnings are defective, and the imagination is +always prejudiced. The remembring to have seen a thing imperfect takes +from one the Liberty of thinking it pretty when it is finished. + +Many fetch a tedious Compass of Words, without ever coming to the Knot +of the business: they make a thousand turnings and windings, that tire +themselves and others, without ever arriving at the Point of importance. +That proceeds from the Confusion of their Understanding, which cannot +clear it self. They lose Time and Patience in what ought to be let +alone, and then they have no more to bestow upon what they have omitted. + +It is the Knack of Men of Wit to find out Evasions; With a touch of +Gallantry they extricate themselves out of the greatest Labyrinth. A +graceful smile will make them avoid the most dangerous Quarrel. + + +_Mind, Understanding, Wit, Memory, Heart._ + +The Strength and Weakness of a Man's Mind, are improper Terms, since +they are really nothing else but the _Organs_ of our _Bodies_, being +well or ill dispos'd. + +'Tis a great Errour, the making a difference between the _Wit_ and the +_Judgment_: For, in truth, the _Judgment_ is nothing else but the +_Brightness of Wit_, which penetrates into the very bottom of Things, +observes all that ought to be observ'd there, and descries what seem'd +to be imperceptible. From whence we must conclude, That 'tis the +_Extention_ and _Energy_ of this _Light_ of _Wit_, that produces all +those Effects, usually ascrib'd to _Judgment_. + +All Men may be allowed to give a good Character of their _Hearts_ (or +_Inclinations_) but no body dares to speak well of his own _Wit_. + +_Polite Wit_ consists in nice, curious, and honest _Thoughts_. + +The _Gallantry_ of _Wit_ consists in _Flattery_ well couch'd. + +It often happens, that some things offer themselves to our _Wit_, which +are naturally finer and better, than is possible for a Man to make them +by the Additions of _Art_ and _Study_. + +_Wit_ is always made a _Cully_ to the _Heart_. + +Many People are acquainted with their own _Wit_, that are not acquainted +with their own _Heart_. + +It is not in the power of _Wit_, to act a long while the _Part_ of the +_Heart_. + +A Man of _Wit_ would be sometimes miserably at a loss, but for the +Company of _Fools_. + +A Man of _Wit_ may sometimes be a _Coxcomb_; but a Man of _Judgment_ +never can. + +The different Ways or Methods for compassing a Design, come not so much +from the Quickness and Fertility of an industrious _Wit_, as a +dim-sighted _Understanding_, which makes us pitch upon every fresh +Matter that presents itself to our groping _Fancy_, and does not furnish +us with Judgment sufficient to discern at first sight, which or them is +best for our Purpose. + +The _Twang_ of a Man's _Native Country_, sticks by him as much in his +_Mind_ and _Disposition_, as it does in his _Tone_ of _Speaking_. + +_Wit_ serves sometimes to make us play the _Fool_ with greater +Confidence. + +Shallow _Wits_ are apt to censure everything above their own _Capacity_. + +'Tis past the Power of _Imagination_ it self, to invent so many distant +_Contrarieties_, as there are naturally in the _Heart_ of every Man. + +No body is so well acquainted with himself, as to know his own _Mind_ at +all times. + +Every body complains of his _Memory_, but no body of his _Judgment_. + +There is a kind of general _Revolution_, not more visible in the turn it +gives to the Fortunes of the _World_, than it is in the Change of Men's +_Understandings_, and the different Relish or _Wit_. + +Men often think to conduct and govern themselves, when all the while +they are led and manag'd; and while their _Understanding_ aims at one +thing, their _Heart_ insensibly draws them into another. + +Great _Souls_ are not distinguish'd by having less _Passion_, and more +_Virtue_; but by having nobler and greater Designs than the _Vulgar_. + +We allow few Men to be either _Witty_ or Reasonable, besides those who +are of our own Opinion. + +We are as much pleas'd to discover another Man's _Mind_, as we are +discontented to have our own found out. + +A straight and well-contriv'd _Mind_, finds it easier to yield to a +perverse one, than to direct and manage it. + +_Coxcombs_ are never so troublesome, as when they pretend to _Wit_. + +A little _Wit_ with _Discretion_, tires less at long-run, than much +_Wit_ without _Judgment_. + +Nothing comes amiss to a great _Soul_; and there is as much _Wisdom_ in +bearing other People's _Defects_, as in relishing their good +_Qualities_. + +It argues a great heighth of _Judgment_ in a Man, to discover what is in +another's Breast, and to conceal what is in his own. + +If Poverty be the Mother of Wickedness, want of _Wit_ must be the +Father. + +* A _Mind_ that has no Ballance in it self, turns insolent, or abject, +out of measure, with the various Change of Fortune. + +* Our _Memories_ are frail and treacherous; and we think many excellent +things, which for want of making a deep impression, we can never recover +afterwards. In vain we hunt for the stragling _Idea_, and rummage all +the Solitudes and Retirements of our Soul, for a lost Thought, which has +left no Track or Foot-steps behind it: The swift Off-spring of the Mind +is gone; 'tis dead as soon as born; nay, often proves abortive in the +moment it was conceiv'd: The only way therefore to retain our Thoughts, +is to fasten them in Words, and chain them in Writing. + +* A Man is never so great a _Dunce_ by _Nature_, but _Love_, _Malice_, +or _Necessity_, will supply him with some _Wit_. + +* There is a _Defect_ which is almost unavoidable in great _Inventors_; +it is the Custom of such earnest and powerful Minds, to do wonderful +Things in the beginning; but shortly after, to be over-born by the +Multitude and Weight of their own Thoughts; then to yield and cool by +little and little, and at last grow weary, and even to loath that, upon +which they were at first the most eager. This is the wonted Constitution +of _great Wits_; such tender things are those exalted Actions of the +Mind; and so hard it is for those Imaginations, that can run swift and +mighty Races, to be able to travel a long and constant Journey. The +Effects of this Infirmity have been so remarkable, that we have +certianly lost very many Inventions, after they have been in part +fashion'd, by the meer _Languishing_ and _Negligence_ of their +_Authors_. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Present State of Wit (1711), by John Gay + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14800 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Present State of Wit (1711) + In A Letter To A Friend In The Country + +Author: John Gay + +Release Date: January 27, 2005 [EBook #14800] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRESENT STATE OF WIT (1711) *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +Series One: + +_Essays on Wit_ + + +No. 3 + + +John Gay, _The Present State of Wit_ (1711) + + +With an Introduction by + +Donald F. Bond + +and + +a Bibliographical Note + +and + +Excerpts from + +_The English Theophrastus: or the Manners of the Age_ (1702) + + +With an Introduction by + +W. Earl Britton + + +The Augustan Reprint Society + +May, 1947 + +_Price_: 75c + + + + +GENERAL EDITORS: _Richard C. Boys_, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; +_Edward N. Hooker_, _H.T. Swedenberg, Jr._, University of California, +Los Angeles 24, California. + +Membership in the Augustan Reprint Society entitles the subscriber to +six publications issued each year. The annual membership fee is $2.50. +Address subscriptions and communications to the Augustan Reprint +Society, in care of one of the General Editors. + +EDITORIAL ADVISORS: _Louis I. Bredvold_, University of Michigan; _James +L. Clifford_, Columbia University; _Benjamin Boyce_, University of +Nebraska; _Cleanth Brooks_, Louisiana State University; _Arthur +Friedman_, University of Chicago; _James R. Sutherland_, Queen Mary +College, University of London; _Emmett L. Avery_, State College of +Washington; _Samuel Monk_, Southwestern University. + + +Lithoprinted from Author's Typescript + +EDWARDS BROTHERS, INC. + +_Lithoprinters_ + +ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN + +1947 + + + + +THE + +Present State + +OF + +WIT, + +IN A + +LETTER + +TO A + +Friend in the Country. + +_LONDON_ Printed in the Year, MDCCXI + +(Price 3 d.) + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Gay's concern in his survey of _The Present State of Wit_ is with the +productions of wit which were circulating among the coffee-houses of +1711, specifically the large numbers of periodical essays which were +perhaps the most distinctive kind of "wit" produced in the "four last +years" of Queen Anne's reign. His little pamphlet makes no pretence at +an analysis of true and false wit or a refining of critical distinctions +with regard to wit in its relations to fancy and judgment. Addressed to +"a friend in the country," it surveys in a rapid and engaging manner the +productions of Isaac Bickerstaff and his followers which are engrossing +the interest of London. In other words it is an early example of a +popular eighteenth-century form, of which Goldsmith's more extended +_Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning_ is the best known +instance. + +As such it well deserves a place in the Augustan Reprints series on wit. +It has been reproduced before in this century, in _An English Garner: +Critical Essays and Literary Fragments_ (Westminster, 1903, pp. 201-10), +with an attractive and informative introduction by J. Churton Collins. +More information, however, is now at our disposal in the forty year +interval since Collins wrote, both in regard to John Gay and to the +bibliography of periodical literature in Queen Anne's time. Furthermore, +the Arber reprint is difficult to obtain. + +Gay is writing, he tells us, without prejudice "either for Whig or +Tory," but the warm praise which he extends to Steele and Addison makes +his pamphlet sound like the criticism of one very close to the Whigs. +Though Gay is ordinarily associated with the Tory circle of Swift and +Pope, he was in 1711 still in the somewhat uncertain position of a +youngster willing to be courted by either group. His earliest +sympathies were if anything on the side of the Whigs, in spite of the +turn of events in the autumn of 1710. Gay's interests in these early +years are nowhere so well analyzed as in the early pages of W.H. +Irving's _John Gay: Favorite of the Wits_ (Durham, N.C., 1940): cf. the +title of the second chapter: "Direction Found--the Year 1713." Even as +late as 1715 Swift apparently thought of him as a Whig (Swift's +_Letters_, ed. Ball, II, 286, cited by Irving, p. 91). + +One need not be surprised, then, to find Gay eulogizing Captain Steele +as "the greatest scholar and best casuist of any man in England," an +essayist whose writings "have set all our wits and men of letters on a +new way of thinking." Swift's reaction is well known. "Dr. Freind was +with me," he writes to Stella on May 14th, "and pulled out a two-penny +pamphlet just published, called, _The State of Wit_, giving a character +of all the papers that have come out of late. The author seems to be a +Whig, yet he speaks very highly of a paper called the _Examiner_, and +says the supposed author of it is Dr. Swift. But above all things he +praises the _Tatlers_ and _Spectators_; and I believe Steele and Addison +were privy to the printing of it. Thus is one treated by these impudent +dogs" (_Journal to Stella_, ed. J.K. Moorhead, Everyman's Library, p. +168). + +In addition to the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_ Gay discusses a dozen other +periodical publications which are of some interest to-day. Dr. King's +"monthly _Philosophical Transactions_," mentioned in the third +paragraph, had begun as a parody of the Royal Society's publications, +but they had failed to hold the public interest, in spite of the wit of +the author of the _Art of Cookery_: "though that gentleman has a world +of wit..., the town soon grew weary of his writings." King's _Useful +Transactions in Philosophy_ had in fact run to only three numbers in the +early months of 1709. The _Monthly Amusement_ of John Ozell, mentioned +in the following paragraph, which Churton Collins erroneously considered +to be not a periodical but "simply his frequent appearances as a +translator" (p. xxxii)--a statement, repeated by Lewis Melville in his +_Life and Letters of John Gay_ (London, 1921, p. 12)--ran for only six +numbers, from April to September 1709. Gay's statement that it "is still +continued" may refer to the better known _Delights for the Ingenious; or +a Monthly Entertainment for the Curious of Both Sexes_ (edited by John +Tipper) which was currently appearing in 1711. + +As to the political papers Gay's observations are moderate in tone. +_Defoe's Review_ (1704-13) and _The Observator_ (1702-12), begun by John +Tutchin, are noticed in rather supercilious fashion. _The Examiner_ +(1710-14) is damned with faint praise: though "all men, who speak +without prejudice, allow it to be well written" and "under the eye of +some great persons who sit at the helm of affairs," Gay's admiration is +reserved for its two chief opponents, Addison's short-lived _Whig +Examiner_ (1710) and _The Medley_ (1710-12). + +The real hero of the pamphlet, however, is Richard Steele, with his +coadjutor Mr. Addison, "whose works in Latin and English poetry long +since convinced the world, that he was the greatest master in Europe of +those two languages." The high praise which Gay lavishes upon this +pair--comparable in their own field, he says, to Lord Somers and the +Earl of Halifax--is eloquent testimony to the immense interest aroused +by their two papers in the London of 1709-12. There is no need to review +here the particulars of Gay's eulogy, but one or two points may be +noted. In the first place, Gay's remarks are not extravagant when +compared with other contemporary testimony. Many of these tributes were +brought together by Aitken in his monumental biography of Steele, and +since 1889 other contemporary sources have been published which give +corroborating support. Hearne first mentions the _Spectator_ on April +22, 1711, in a comment on No. 43, and even this crusty Tory and Jacobite +notes in his diary: "But Men that are indifferent commend it highly, as +it deserves" (_Remarks and Collections_, ed. Doble, III, Oxford, 1895, +p. 154). The published reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, +too, contain many contemporary references (see, e.g., _Manuscripts of +the Hon. Frederick Lindley Wood_ (1913), p. 247; _Manuscripts of the +Marquess of Downshire_, I (1924, 889)). It is interesting to observe, +further, that Gay makes no reference to the political prejudices of the +_Spectator_ though it was not without criticism at the time for its +meddling in politics. _The Plain Dealer_ of May 24, 1712, for example, +objected to the publication of No. 384 (the reprinting of the Bishop of +St. Asaph's Introduction to his _Sermons_) and hinted at a "Mercenary +Consideration" behind this sorry attempt to "propagate ill Principles." +Gay's attitude on this point would, be another reason for Swift's +dislike of the pamphlet. + +The "continuations" of the _Tatler_ are given due attention by Gay, as +well as three of its imitators: _The Grouler_ (6 numbers, 1711), _The +Whisperer_ (one number, 1709), and _The Tell Tale_, which may be _The +Tatling Harlot_ (3 numbers, 1709), or, as Churton Collins conjectured, +_The Female Tatler_ (1709-10). Gay's postscript makes an agreeable +reference to _The British Apollo_ (1708-11), which has "of late, +retreated out of this end of the town into the country," where "it still +recommends itself by deciding wagers at cards, and giving good advice to +shopkeepers and their apprentices," an interesting comment in view of +Gay's own possible connection with this journal (cf. Irving, pp. 40-56). +It is these casual remarks, as well as the more extensive critical +comments on the present state of "wit," which give Gay's pamphlet a +permanent interest. + +The typescript copy of the _Present State of Wit_ is taken from the +pamphlet owned by the Henry E. Huntington Library. + +Donald F. Bond + +University of Chicago + + + + +THE + +PRESENT STATE + +of + +WIT, &c. + + +SIR, + +You Acquaint me in your last, that you are still so busie Building at +-----, that your Friends must not hope to see you in Town this Year; At +the same time you desire me that you may not be quite at a loss in +Conversation among the Beau Monde next Winter, to send you an account of +the present State of Wit in Town; which, without further Preface, I +shall therefore endeavour to perform, and give you the Histories and +Characters of all our Periodical Papers, whether Monthly, Weekly, or +Diurnal, with the same freedom I used to send you our other Town News. + +I shall only premise, that as you know I never cared one Farthing either +for Whig or Tory, So I shall consider our Writers purely as they are +such, without any respect to which Party they may belong. + +Dr. King has for some time lain down his MONTHLY PHILOSOPHICAL +TRANSACTIONS, which the Title Page informed us at first, were only to be +continued as they Sold; and tho' that Gentleman has a World of Wit, yet +as it lies in one particular way of Raillery, the Town soon grew weary +of his Writings; tho' I cannot but think, that their Author deserves a +much better Fate, than to Languish out the small remainder of his Life +in the Fleet Prison. + +About the same time that the Doctor left off Writing, one Mr. Ozell put +out his MONTHLY AMUSEMENT, (which is still continued) and as it is +generally some French Novel or Play indifferently Translated, is more or +less taken Notice of, as the Original Piece is more or less Agreeable. + +As to our Weekly Papers, the Poor REVIEW is quite exhausted, and grown +so very Contemptible, that tho' he has provoked all his Brothers of the +Quill round, none of them will enter into a Controversy with him. This +Fellow, who had excellent Natural Parts, but wanted a small Foundation +of Learning, is a lively instance of those Wits, who, as an Ingenious +Author says, will endure but one Skimming. + +The OBSERVATOR was almost in the same Condition, but since our +Party-Struggles have run so high, he is much mended for the better; +which is imputed to the Charitable Assistance of some out-lying Friends. + +These Two Authors might, however, have flourish'd some time longer, had +not the Controversie been taken up by much abler Hands. + +The EXAMINER is a Paper, which all Men, who speak without Prejudice, +allow to be well Writ. Tho' his Subject will admit of no great Variety, +he is continually placing it on so many different Lights, and +endeavouring to inculcate the same thing by so many Beautiful Changes of +Expressions, that Men, who are concern'd in no Party, may Read him with +Pleasure. His way of assuming the Question in Debate, is extremely +Artful; and his Letter to Crassus, is, I think, a Master-piece. As these +Papers, are suppos'd to have been Writ by several Hands, the Criticks +will tell you, That they can discern a difference in their Stiles and +Beauties, and pretend to observe, that the first EXAMINERS abound +chiefly in Wit, the last in Humour. + +Soon after their first appearance, came out a Paper from the other Side, +called the WHIG EXAMINER, writ with so much Fire, and in so excellent a +Stile, as put the Tories in no small pain for their favourite Hero, +every one cry'd Bickerstaff must be the Author, and People were the more +confirm'd in this opinion, upon its being so soon lay'd down; which +seem'd to shew, that it was only writ to bind the EXAMINERS to their +good Behaviour, and was never design'd to be a Weekly Paper. The +EXAMINERS therefore have no one to Combat with at present, but their +Friend the MEDLEY; The Author of which Paper, tho' he seems to be a Man +of good Sense, and expresses, it luckily enough now and then, is, I +think, for the most part, perfectly a Stranger to fine Writing. + +I presume I need not tell you that the EXAMINER carries much the more +Sail, as 'tis supposed to be writ by the Direction, and under the Eye of +some Great Persons who sit at the helm of Affairs, and is consequently +look'd on as a sort of publick Notice which way they are steering us. + +The reputed Author is Dr. S---t, with the assistance, sometimes, of Dr. +Att---y; and Mr. P---r. + +The MEDLEY, is said to be Writ by Mr. Old---n, and supervised by Mr. +Mayn---g, who perhaps might intirely write those few Papers which, are +so much better than the rest. + +Before I proceed further in the account of our Weekly Papers, it will be +necessary to inform you, that at the begining of the Winter, to the +infinite surprize of all Men, Mr. Steele flung up His TATLER, and +instead of Isaac Bickerstaff Esq.; Subscrib'd himself Richard Steele to +the last of those Papers, after an handsome Compliment to the Town for +their kind acceptance of his Endeavours to divert them. The Chief +Reason he thought fit to give for his leaving off writing, was, that +having been so long look'd on in all publick Places and Companies as the +Author of those Papers, he found that his most intimate Friends and +Acquaintance were in Pain to Act or Speak before him. The Town was very +far from being satisfied with this Reason; and most People judg'd the +true cause to be, either that he was quite spent, and wanted matter to +continue his undertaking any longer, or that he lay'd it down as a sort +of Submission to, and Composition with the Government for some past +Offences; Or lastly, that he had a Mind to vary his Shape, and appear +again in some new Light. + +However that were, his disappearing seem'd to be bewailed as some +general Calamity, every one wanted so agreeable an Amusement, and the +Coffee-houses began to be sensible that the Esquires Lucubrations alone, +had brought them more Customers than all their other News papers put +together. + +It must indeed be confess'd, that never Man threw up his Pen under +Stronger Temptations to have imployed it longer: His Reputation was at a +greater height than, I believe, ever any living Author's was before him. +'Tis reasonable to suppose that his Gains were proportionably +considerable; Every one Read him with Pleasure and Good Will, and the +Tories, in respect to his other Good Qualities, had almost forgiven his +unaccountable Imprudence in declaring against them. + +Lastly, It was highly improbable that if he threw off a Character, the +Ideas of which were so strongly impress'd in every one's mind, however +finely he might write in any new form, that he should meet with the same +reception. + +To give you my own thoughts of this Gentleman's Writings, I shall in the +first place observe, that there is this noble difference between him and +all the rest of our Polite and Gallant Authors: The latter have +endeavour'd to please the Age by falling in with them, and incouraging +them in their fashionable Vices, and false notions of things. It would +have been a jest, sometime since, for a Man to have asserted, that any +thing Witty could be said in praise of a Marry'd State, or that Devotion +and Virtue were any way necessary to the Character of a fine Gentleman. +Bickerstaff ventur'd to tell the Town, that they were a parcel of Fops, +Fools, and vain Cocquets; but in such a manner, as even pleased them, +and made them more than half enclin'd to believe that he spoke Truth. + +Instead of complying with the false Sentiments or Vicious tasts of the +Age, either in Morality, Criticism, or Good Breeding, he has boldly +assur'd them, that they were altogether in the wrong, and commanded them +with an Authority, which perfectly well became him, to surrender +themselves to his Arguments, for Vertue and Good Sense. + +'Tis incredible to conceive the effect his Writings have had on the +Town; How many Thousand follies they have either quite banish'd, or +given a very great check to; how much Countenance they have added to +Vertue and Religion; how many People they have render'd happy, by +shewing them it was their own fault if they were not so; and lastly, how +intirely they have convinc'd our Fops, and Young Fellows, of the value +and advantages of Learning. + +He has indeed rescued it out of the hands of Pedants and Fools, and +discover'd the true method of making it amiable and lovely to all +mankind: In the dress he gives it, 'tis a most welcome guest at +Tea-tables and Assemblies, and is relish'd and caressed by the Merchants +on the Change; accordingly, there is not a Lady at Court, nor a Banker +in Lumbard-Street, who is not verily perswaded, that Captain Steele is +the greatest Scholar, and best Casuist, of any Man in England. + +Lastly, His Writings have set all our Wits and Men of Letters upon a new +way of Thinking, of which they had little or no Notion before; and tho' +we cannot yet say that any of them have come up to the Beauties of the +Original, I think we may venture to affirm, that every one of them +Writes and Thinks much more justly than they did some time since. + +The vast variety of Subjects which he has treated of in so different +manners, and yet All so perfectly well, made the World believe that +'twas impossible they should all come from the same hand. This set every +one upon guessing who was the Esquires Friend, and most people at first +fancied it must be Dr. Swift; but it is now no longer a Secret, that his +only great and constant assistant was Mr. Addison. + +This is that excellent Friend to whom Mr. Steele ow's so much, and who +refuses to have his Name set before those Pieces, which the greatest +Pens in England would be Proud to own. Indeed, they could hardly add to +this Gentleman's Reputation, whose Works in Latin and English Poetry, +long since convinc'd the World, that he was the greatest Master in +Europe of those Two Languages. + +I am assur'd from good hands, That all the Visions, and other Tracts in +that way of Writing, with a very great number of the most exquisite +Pieces of Wit and Raillery throughout the Lucubrations, are intirely of +this Gentleman's Composing; which may in some Measure account for that +different Genius, which appears in the Winter Papers from those of the +Summer; at which time, as the EXAMINER often hinted, this Friend of Mr. +Steele's was in Ireland. + +Mr. Steele confesses in his last Volume of the TATLERS, that he is +oblig'd to Dr. Swift for his "Town Shower," and the "Description of the +Morn," with some other hints received from him in Private Conversation. + +I have also heard, that several of those Letters, which came as from +Unknown Hands, were writ by Mr. Henly; which is an Answer to your Query, +Who those Friends are, whom Mr. Steele speaks of in his last TATLER? + +But to proceed with my account of our other Papers: The Expiration of +Bickerstaff's Lucubrations, was attended with much the same Consequences +as the Death of Melibæus's Ox in Virgil; as the latter engendred Swarms +of Bees, the former immediately produc'd whole Swarms of little +Satyrical Scriblers. + +One of these Authors, call'd himself The GROWLER, and assur'd us, that +to make amends for Mr. Steele's Silence, he was resolv'd to Growl at us +Weekly, as long as we should think fit to give him any Encouragement. +Another Gentleman, with more Modesty, call'd his Paper The WHISPERER; +and a Third, to Please the Ladies, Christen'd his, The TELL-TALE. + +At the same time came out several TATLERS; each of which, with equal +Truth and Wit, assur'd us, That he was the Genuine Isaac Bickerstaff. + +It may be observ'd, That when the Esquire laid down his Pen, tho' he +could not but foresee that several Scriblers would soon snatch it up, +which he might, one would think, easily have prevented, he Scorn'd to +take any further Care about it, but left the Field fairly open to any +Worthy Successor. Immediately some of our Wits were for forming +themselves into a Club, headed by one Mr. Barrison, and trying how they +could shoot in this Bow of Ulysses; but soon found that this sort of +Writing, requires so fine and particular a manner of Thinking, with so +exact a Knowledge of the World, as must make them utterly Despair of +Success. + +They seem'd indeed at first to think, that what was only the Garnish of +the former TATLERS, was that which recommended them, and not those +Substantial Entertainments which they every where abound in. + +According they were continually talking of their Maid, Night-Cap, +Spectacles, and Charles Lillie. However there were now and then some +faint endeavours at Humour and Sparks of Wit, which the Town, for want +of better Entertainment, was content to hunt after, through an heap of +Impertinencies; but even those are at present, become wholly Invisible, +and quite swallow'd up in the Blaze of the SPECTATOR. + +You may remember I told you before, that one Cause assign'd for the +laying down the TATLER was, want of Matter; and indeed this was the +prevailing Opinion in Town, when we were Surpriz'd all at once by a +paper called The SPECTATOR, which was promised to be continued every +day, and was writ in so excellent a Stile, with so nice a Judgment, and +such a noble profusion of Wit and Humour, that it was not difficult to +determine it could come from no other hands but those which had penn'd +the Lucubrations. + +This immediately alarm'd these Gentlemen, who (as 'tis said Mr. Steele +phrases it) had The Censorship in Commission. They found the new +SPECTATOR come on like a Torrent and swept away all before him; they +despaired ever to equal him in Wit, Humour, or Learning; (which had been +their true and certain way of opposing him) and therefore, rather chose +to fall on the Author, and to call out for help to all Good Christians, +by assuring them again and again, that they were the First, Original, +True, and Undisputed Isaac Bickerstaff. + +Mean while The SPECTATOR, whom we regard as our shelter from that Flood +of False Wit and Impertinence which was breaking in upon us, is in every +ones Hand, and a constant Topick for our Morning Conversation at +Tea-Tables, and Coffee-Houses. We had at first indeed no manner of +Notion, how a Diurnal paper could be continu'd in the Spirit and Stile +of our present SPECTATORS; but to our no small Surprize, we find them +still rising upon us, and can only wonder from whence so Prodigious a +Run of Wit and Learning can proceed; since some of our best Judges seem +to think that they have hitherto, in general, out-shone even the +Esquires first TATLERS. + +Most People Fancy, from their frequency, that they must be compos'd by a +Society; I, with all, Assign the first places to Mr. Steele and His +Friend. + +I have often thought that the Conjunction of those two Great Genius's +(who seem to stand in a Class by themselves, so high above all our other +Wits) resembled that of two famous States-men in a late Reign, whose +Characters are very well expressed in their two Mottoes (viz.) Prodesse +quam conspici, and Otium cum Dignitate. Accordingly the first was +continually at work behind the Curtain, drew up and prepared all those +Schemes and Designs, which the latter Still drove on, and stood out +exposed to the World to receive its Praises or Censures. + +Mean time, all our unbyassed well-wishers to Learning, are in hopes, +that the known Temper and Prudence of one of these Gentlemen, will +hinder the other from ever lashing out into Party, and rend'ring that +wit which is at present a Common Good, Odious and Ungrateful to the +better part of the Nation. + +If this piece of imprudence do's not spoil so excellent a Paper, I +propose to my self, the highest Satisfaction, in Reading it with you +over a Dish of Tea, every Morning next Winter. + +As we have yet had nothing new since the SPECTATOR, it only remains for +me to assure you, that I am + +Yours, &c. +J.G. + +Westminster, +May 3, 1711. + + +POSTSCRIPT. + +Upon a Review of my Letter, I find I have quite forgot The BRITISH +APOLLO; which might possibly happen, from its having of late Retreated +out of this end of the Town into the City; where I am inform'd however, +That it still recommends its self by deciding Wagers at Cards, and +giving good Advice to Shop-keepers, and their Apprentices. + +FINIS. + + +The / Present State / of / Wit, / in a / Letter / to a / Friend in the +Country. / [double rule] / London / Printed in the Year, MDCCXI./ (Price +3 d.) / + +Collation: A-C4. Pp. [1-24] P. [1] half-title, signed "A"; p. [2] blank; +p. [3] title, as above; p. [4] blank; pp. 5-22 text; p. [23] Postscript; +p. [24] blank. + +This appears to be the only contemporary edition. + +Colton Storm + + + + +THE + +_English Theophrastus_: + +OR, THE + +Manners of the Age. + + +Being the + +MODERN CHARACTERS + +OF THE + +COURT, the TOWN, + +and the CITY. + + * * * * * + +_Quicquid agunt Homines, Votum, Timor, Ira, Voluptas, Gaudia, Discursus, +nostri est Farrago, Libelli._ + +Juven. + +--_Quis enim Virtutem amplectitur ipsam?_ + +Id. + + * * * * * + +_LONDON_, + +Printed for _W. Turner_, at _Lincolns-Inn Back-Gate_; _R. Basset_ in +_Fleetstreet_; and _J. Chantry_, without _Temple Bar_, 1702 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Abel Boyer, a Huguenot who settled in London in 1689, devoted himself to +language, history, and literature. As a linguist, he tutored Allen +Bathurst and the Duke of Gloucester in French, prepared a textbook for +English students of French, compiled a French and English dictionary, +and endeavored to promote a better understanding between France and +England by translating works of each nation into the language of the +other. As a historian, he recorded the principal events of English +national life from 1688 to 1729. As a literary figure, he wrote a play +that was approved by Dryden and published two collections of characters. + +Coming in on the great flood of character books which reached its crest +in the seventeenth century, Boyer's collections were part of the final +surge before the character was taken over by Steele and handed on to the +novelists. The first was _Characters of the Virtues and Vices of the +Age; or, Moral reflections, maxima, and thoughts upon men and manners. +Translated from the most refined French wits ... and extracted from the +most celebrated English writers.... Digested alphabetically under proper +titles_ (1695). The second, resembling the first in design but +considerably enlarged, was published in 1702 under the title _The +English Theophrastus: Or The Manners of the Age. Being the Modern +Characters Of The Court, the Town, and the City_. No author is given on +the title page, but the work is usually ascribed to Boyer because his +name appears beneath the dedication. + +That Boyer's purpose in preparing _The English Theophrastus_ was moral +is evident in the preface, where he describes the subject of his book as +the "Grand-Lesson, _deliver'd by the_ Delphian _Oracle_, Know thy Self: +_Which certainly is the most important of a Man's Life_." Distempers of +the mind, he continues, like those of the body, are half cured when well +known. Although philosophers of all ages have agreed in their aim to +expose human imperfections in order to rectify them, their methods have +differed. Those moralists who have inveighed magisterially against man's +vices generally have been "_abandon'd to the ill-bred Teachers of Musty +Morals in Schools, or to the sowr Pulpit-Orators_." Those who, by +"_nipping Strokes of a Side-wind Satyr, have endeavour'd to tickle Men +out of their Follies_," have been welcomed and caressed by the very +people who were most abused. Since self-love waves the application, +satire, unless bluntly direct, can fail as completely as reprehension. + +Modern moralists, according to Boyer, have pursued a third course and +cast their observations on men and manners into the entertaining form +employed by Theophrastus, Lucian, Plutarch, and Diogenes Laertius. Among +the moderns, La Rochefoucauld, Saint-Evremond, and La Bruyère are +admired by all judicious readers. From these French writers Boyer has +selected materials for the groundwork of his collection. He has added +passages from Antoninus, Pascal, and Gratian; from the English authors +Bacon, Cowley, L'Estrange, Raleigh, Temple, Dryden, Wycherley, Brown +and others; and from his own pen. They range from a single line to a +passage of several pages. Those of English origin are distinguished by +"_an_ Asterism," his own remarks by inverted commas. Other matter is +unmarked. + +Although Boyer has used as his title _The English Theophrastus_, +examination of the sections here reprinted will show that he has +departed from the way of the Greek master. Instead of sharply defined +portraits, Boyer offers maxims, reflections, and manners, after the +French pattern. Gathered from a variety of sources, these observations +are sometimes related to one another only by their common subject +matter, but often they have been altered and rearranged by Boyer for +sharper focus and unity. A few examples will make his method clear. + +Of the paragraphs that begin on page eight of the first selection, the +second and fourth are taken from _An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex_ +(1696), perhaps the work of Mrs. Judith Drake. The first of these is the +last half of a paragraph from Drake, but minus her concluding figure, +"as Fleas are said to molest those most, who have the tenderest _Skins_, +and the sweetest _Blood_" (p. 78). Into the first line of the second +paragraph from Drake, "Of these the most voluminous Fool is the Fop +Poet," Boyer inserts a reference to Will's. Thereafter, he follows Drake +rather closely, but replaces the final portion of the paragraph with two +or three sentences from other parts of her essay. The Drake material +ends at the paragraph break on page nine. Between these two paragraphs +Boyer places the single statement, "There's somewhat that borders upon +_Madness_ in every exalted _Wit_," which may be his own version of +Dryden's line, "Great Wits are sure to Madness near allied" (_Absalom +and Achitophel_, l. 248). By means of these alterations in his sources, +Boyer has compiled a passage that has focus and direction, and gives +little evidence of its patchwork origin. + +In other instances Boyer adheres more closely to the original form of +the material he borrows. The long passage from the middle of page twenty +to the middle of twenty-five is taken from "Des Ouvrages de L'Esprit" of +La Bruyère's _Les Caractères_. Though retaining the sequence of these +observations, he has deleted certain paragraphs. In most cases he has +translated the French faithfully, but here and there he has paraphrased +a passage or added a brief remark of his own. There was little he could +do, of course, with La Rochefoucauld, from whose _Maximes_ all of page +282 and about half of 283 of the second selection are taken. Boyer was +content to translate almost literally these remarks upon wit and +judgment which he collected from widely scattered sections of the +_Maximes_. + +Boyer's own contribution to his collection was slight, covering, all +told, little more than fifteen of the 383 pages. Distinguished neither +by originality of conception nor individuality of style, it is, +nevertheless, marked by good sense. A moderate man in his +pronouncements, Boyer was less clever than reasonable. + +Boyer's remarks on wit are in keeping with his character. Like many of +his contemporaries, he has something to say on the subject, but uses the +term rather loosely. He would seem, though, to identify wit with genius, +which gives evidence of itself in literary utterance. But judgment is a +necessary concomitant of good wit. Conversely, the would-be wit lacks +genius, expression, and judgment, and therefore turns critic, that he +may denounce in others what is not to be found in himself. Hence the +word critic has come to mean a fault finder rather than a man of sound +judgment. + +The following selections are reproduced, with permission, from a copy of +_The English Theophrastus_ in the library of the University of Michigan. + +W. Earl Britton + +University of Michigan + + + + +THE + +MANNERS + +Of the AGE. + + +_Authors, Wits, Poets, Criticks,_ Will's _Coffee-House, Play-House,_ &c. + + +"Eubulus fancying himself Inspir'd, stands up for the Honour of Poetry, +and is mightily provok'd to hear the Sacred Name of _Poet_, turn'd into +Scandal and Ridicule; He tells you what a profound Veneration the +_Athenians_ had for their Dramatick Writers; how greatly _Terence_ and +_Virgil_ were Honour'd in _Rome_; the first, by _Scipio_ and _Lælius_, +the other by _Augustus_ and _Mecænas_; how much _Francis_ the First, and +Cardinal _Richelieu_, encourag'd the Wits of _France_; and drawing his +Argument more home, he relates to you, how in this Island the +_Buckinghams_, the _Orrerys_, the _Roscommons_, the _Normanbys_, the +_Dorsets_, the _Hallifaxs_, and several other Illustrious Persons have +not only encouraged Poetry, but ennobled the Art itself by their +Performances. + +"True _Eubulus_; we allow Poetry to be a Divine Art, and the name of +_Poet_ to be _Sacred_ and Honourable, when a _Sophocles_, a _Terence_, a +_Virgil_, a _Corneille_, a _Boileau_, a _Shakespear_, a _Waller_, a +_Dryden_, a _Wycherly_, a _Congreve_, or a _Garth_ bears it: But then we +intend it as a Scandal, when we give it to _Mævius, Chapelain, Ogilby_, +W---- D----, D----, S----, and _your self_. + +"I question whether some Poets allow any other Poets to have Perform'd +better, than themselves, in that kind of Poetry which they profess. Sir +_R---- B----_, I suppose, tho' he has declaim'd against Wit, yet is not +so conceited, as to Vie with _Horace_ and _Juvenal_ for _Satyr_; but as +to _Heroick Poetry_, methinks he Reasons thus with himself; _Homer_ has +writ the _Ilias_ and the _Odysseis_, and _Virgil_ only the _Æneid_; I +have writ _Prince Arthur_, and _King Arthur_; am I not then equal to +_Homer_, and Superior to _Virgil_? No, _B----re_, we judge of _Poetry_ +as we do of _Metals_, nor by the _Lump_, but the intrinsick Value. New +cast your Poems; purge 'em of their Dross; reduce 'em to the Bulk of the +_Dispensary_, and if then they weigh in the Balance with _that_, we will +allow you a Place among the First-Rate _Heroick Poets_. + +"The _Wits_ of mean Descent and scanty Fortune, are generally apt to +reflect on Persons of Quality and Estates, whom they rashly tax with +Dullness and Ignorance, a _Normanby_, a _Dorset_, a _Spencer_, a +_Hallifax_, a _Boyle_, a _Stanhope_, and a _Codrington_, (to pass over +abundance more) are sufficient to convince the World, that either an +Ilustrious Birth, or vast Riches, are not incompatible with _deep +Learning_, and _Sterling-Wit_. + +"_Rapin_, St. _Evremont_, and some other _French_ Criticks, do the +_English_ wrong, in the Judgments they pass upon their Plays: The +_English_ Criticks are even with them, for generally they judge as _ill_ +of _French_ Poetry. + +"There is a great reach of Discernment, a deep Knowledge, and abundance +of Candor requir'd to qualifie a Man for an _equal Judge_ of the Poetry +and ingenious Compositions of two Nations, whose _Tempers,_ _Humours_, +_Manners_, _Customs_, and _Tastes_, are so vastly different as the +_French_ are from the _English_: _Rapin_, St. _Evremont_, and _Rymer_, +are _candid_, _judicious_, and _learned_ Criticks, I own it; but yet +neither the two first are sufficiently acquainted with _England_, nor +the latter with _France_, to enter equally into the Genius of both +Nations; and consequently they cannot pass a just Sentence upon the +Performances of their respective Writers. + +"Tis a great piece of Injustice in us, to charge the _French_ with +Fickleness; for, to give them their due, They are ten times more +constant in their Judgments, than we; Their _Cid_ and _Iphigenia_ in +_Aulis_, are Acted at this very day, with as much Applause as they were +thirty Years ago: All _London_ has admir'd the _Mourning Bride_ one +Winter, and endeavoured to find fault with it the next. + +"_Philo_ comes _piping hot_ out of the College, and having his Head full +of Poetical Gingles, writes an _Elegy_, a _Panegyrick_ or a _Satyr_ upon +the least frivolous Occasion: This brings him acquainted with all the +_Second-Rate Wits_; One of these introduces him at _Will's_, and having +a Play upon the Stocks, and ready to be Launch'd, he prevails with +_Philo_ to write him a _Song_, a _Dialogue_, a _Prologue_ and +_Epilogue_, in short, the Trimming of his Comedy. By this time, _Philo_ +begins to think himself a great Man, and nothing less than the writing +of a Play, can satisfie his towring Ambition; well, the Play is writ, +the Players, upon the Recommendation of those that lick'd it over, like +their Parts to a Fondness, and the _Comedy_, or _Tragedy_, being +supported partly by its real Merit, but most powerfully by a _Toasting_, +or _Kit-cat-Club_, comes off with universal Applause. How _slippery_ is +_Greatness_! _Philo_ puff'd up with his Success, writes a second Play, +scorns to improve it by the Corrections of better Wits, brings it upon +the Stage, without securing a Party to protect it, and has the +Mortification to hear it _Hist_ to death. Pray how many _Philos_ do we +reckon in Town since the Revolution? + +"The reason we have had so many _ill Plays_ of late, is this; The +extraordinary _Success_ of the worst Performances encourages every +Pretender to Poetry to Write; Whereas the indifferent Reception some +excellent Pieces have met with, discourages our best Poets from Writing. + +"After all, one of the boldest Attempts of Human Wit, is to write a +taking _Comedy_: For, how many different sorts of People, how many +various Palates must a Poet please, to gain a general Applause? He must +have a _Plot_ and _Design_, _Coherence_ and _Unity_ of _Action_, _Time_ +and _Place_, for the Criticks, _Polite Language_ for the Boxes, +_Repartee_, _Humor_, and _Double Entendres_ for the Pit; and to the +shame of our Theatres, a mixture of Farce for the Galleries, What Man of +Sense now will venture his Reputation upon these hard Terms. + +"The Poet often arrogates to himself the Applause, which we only give +to Mrs. _Barry_ or _Bracegirdle_'s inimitable Performances: But then he +must take as often upon his Account the Hisses, which are only intended +for _Cæsonia_, and _Corinna's abominable Acting_. One makes amends for +'tother. + +"Many a pert Coxcomb might have past for a _Wit_, if his Vanity had not +brought him to _Will_'s. + +"The same thing that makes a Man appear with Assurance at _Court_; +qualifies him also to appear unconcern'd among Men of Sense at _Will_'s: +I mean _Impertinence_. + +"As some People _Write_, so others _talk themselves_ out of their +_Reputation_." + +* The name of a _Wit_ is little better than a Slander, since it is +generally given by those that have _none_, to those that have _little_. + +"How strangely some words lose their Primitive Sense! By a _Critick_, +was originally understood a _good Judge_; with us now-a-days, it +signifies no more than a _Fault-finder_." + +* A _Critick_ in the Modern Acceptation, seldom rises, either in +_Merit_, or _Reputation_; for it argues a mean grov'ling Genius, to be +always finding Fault; whereas, a candid Judge of Things, not only +improves his Parts, but gains every Body's Esteem. + +* None keep generally worse Company than your Establish'd _Wits_, for +there are a sort of Coxcombs, that stick continually to them like Burrs, +to make the Town think from their Company, that they are Men of Parts. + +* _Criticks_ are useful, that's most certain, so are Executioners and +Informers: But what Man did ever envy the condition of _Jack Ketch_, or +_Jack P----r_. + +* How can we love the Man, whose Office is to torture and execute other +Men's Reputation. + +* After all, a _Critick_ is the last Refuge of a pretender to _Wit_. + +"Tis a great piece of Assurance in a profest _Critick_ to write _Plays_, +for if he does, he must expect to have the whole Club of _Wits_, +scanning his Performances with utmost Severity, and magnifying his +_Slips_ into _prodigious Faults_." + +* I don't wonder Men of Quality and Estate resort to _Will_'s, for +really they make the best Figure there; an indifferent thing from 'em, +passes for a Witty Jest, and sets presently the whole Company a +Laughing. Thus we admire the pert Talk of Children, because we expected +nothing from 'em. + +"There are many unpertinent _Witlings_ at _Will_'s, that's certain; but +then your Retailers of _Politicks_, or of second-hand Wit at _Tom_'s, +are ten times more intolerable." + +* _Wits_ are generally the most dangerous Company a Woman can keep, for +their Vanity makes 'em brag of more Favours than they obtain. + +"Some Women care not what becomes of their Honour, so they may secure +the _Reputation_ of their _Wit_. + +"Those People generally talk _most_, who have the least to say; go to +_Will_'s, and you'll hardly hear the Great _Wycherley_ speak two +Sentences in a quarter of an Hour, whilst _Blatero_, _Hamilus_, +_Turpinus_; and twenty more egregious Coxcombs, deafen the Company with +their Political _Nonsense_. + +"There are at _Will_'s some _Wit-carriers_, whose business is, to +export the fine Things they hear, from one Room to another, next to a +Reciting-Poet; these Fellows are the most exquisite Plague to a Man of +Sense. + +"In spight of the intrinsick Merit of _Wit_, we find it seldom brings a +Man into the _Favour_, or even _Company_ of the _Great_, and the _Fair_, +unless it be for a Laugh and away; never thought on, but when present; +nor then neither, for the sake of the Man of _Wit_, but their own +Diversion. The infallible way to ingratiate ones self with Quality, is +that dull and empty Entertainment, called _Gaming_, for _Picket_, +_Ombre_, and _Basset_, keep always Places even for a _quondam Foot-man,_ +or a _Drawer_ at the _Assemblies_, _Apartments_, and _Visiting-days_. If +you lose, you oblige with your Money; if you Win, you command with your +Fortune; the _Lord_ is your _Bubble_, and the Lady what you please to +make her." + +* _Flattery_ of our _Wit_, has the same Power over Us, which _Flattery_ +of _Beauty_ has over a Woman; it keeps up that good Opinion of our +selves which is necessary to beget _Assurance_; and _Assurance_ produces +success both in _Fortune_ and _Love_. + +* Some Men take as much Pains to persuade the World that they have +_Wit_, as _Bullies_ do that they have _Courage_, and generally with the +same Success, for they seldom deceive any one but themselves. + +* Some _pert Coxcombs_, so violently affect the Reputation of _Wits_, +that not a _French Journal_, _Mercury_, _Farce_, or _Opera_, can escape +their Pillaging: yet the utmost they arrive at, is but a sort of +_Jack-a-lanthorn Wit_, that like the Sun-shine which wanton Boys with +fragments of Looking-glass reflect in Men's Eyes, dazles the +Weak-sighted, and troubles the strong. These are the Muses +_Black-Guard_, that like those of our Camp, tho' they have no share in +the Danger or Honour, yet have the greatest in the Plunder; that +indifferently strip all that lie before 'em, dead or alive, Friends or +Enemies: Whatever they light on, is _Terra incognita_, and they claim +the right of Discoverers, that is, of giving their Names to it. + +* I think the _Learned_, and _Unlearned Blockhead_ pretty Equal: For +'tis all one to me, whether a Man talk _Nonsense_, or _Unintelligible +Sense_. + +* There is nothing of which we assent to speak with more Humility and +Indifference than our own _Sense_, yet nothing of which we think with +more Partiality and Presumption. There have been some so bold, as to +assume the Title of the _Oracles_ of Reason to themselves, and their own +Writings; and we meet with others daily, that think themselves _Oracles +of Wit_. These are the most vexatious Animals in the World, that think +they have a privileee to torment and plague every Body; but those most +who have the best Reputation for their Wit and Judgment. + +* There's somewhat that borders upon _Madness_ in every exalted _Wit_. + +* One of the most remarkable Fools that resort to _Will_'s, is the +_Fop-Poet_, who is one that has always more Wit in his Pockets than any +where else, yet seldom or never any of his own there. _Æsop_'s Daw was a +Type of him, for he makes himself fine with the Plunder of all Parties; +He is a smuggler of Wit, and steals _French_ Fancies, without paying the +customary Duties; Verse is his _Manufacture_; for it is more the Labour +of his _Fingers_, than his _Brain_: He spends much time in _writing_, +but ten times more in _reading_ what he has written: He asks your +Opinion, yet for fear you should not jump with him, tells you his own +first: He desires no Favour, yet is disappointed if he is not Flatter'd, +and is always offended at the Truth. He is a _Poetical Haberdasher of +small Wares_, and deals very much in _Novels_, _Madrigals_, _Funeral_ +and _Love Odes_, _Panegyricks_, _Elegies_, and other Toys of +_Parnassus_, which he has a Shop so well furnish'd with, that he can fit +you with all sorts in the twinkling of an Eye. He talks much of +_Wycherley_, _Garth_, and _Congreve_, and protests, he can't help having +some Respect for them, because they have so much for him and his +Writings, otherwise he could make it appear that they understand little +of Poetry in comparison of himself, but he forbears 'em meerly out of +Gratitude and Compassion. He is the _Oracle_ of those that want _Wit_, +and the _Plague_ of those that have it; for he haunts their Lodgings, +and is more terrible to them than their Duns. + +* _Brutus_ for want of _Wit_, sets up for _Criticism_; yet has so much +ambition to be thought a _Wit_, that he lets his Spleen prevail against +Nature, and turns Poet. In this Capacity he is as just to the World as +in the other injurious. For, as the _Critick_ wrong'd every Body in his +Censure, and snarl'd and grin'd at their Writings, the _Poet_ gives 'em +opportunity to do themselves Justice, to return the Compliment, and +laugh at, or despise his. He takes his _Malice_ for a _Muse_, and thinks +himself _Inspir'd_, when he is only _Possess'd_, and blown up with a +Flatus of _Envy_ and _Vanity_. His Works are _Libels_ upon others, but +_Satyrs_ upon himself; and while they bark at Men of _Sense_, call him +Fool that writ 'em. He has a very great Antipathy to his own Species, +and hates to see a Fool any where but in his Glass; for, as he says, +_they provoke him, and offend his Eyes_. His Fund of Criticism, is a set +of Terms of Art, pick'd out of the _French Criticks_, or their +Translators; and his _Poetical Stock_, is a common Place of certain +_Forms_ and manners of Expression. He writes better in _Verse_ than +_Prose_; for in that there is _Rhime_, in this, neither _Rhime_ nor +_Reason_. He rails both at the _French_ Writers, "whom he does not +understand, and at those _English_ Authors, whose Excellencies he cannot +reach; with him _Voiture_ is flat and dull, _Corneille_ a stranger to +the Passions, _Racine_, Starch'd and Affected, _Moliere_, Jejune, _la +Fontaine_ a poor Teller of Tales; and even the Divine _Boileau_, little +better than a Plagiary. As for the _English_ Poets, he treats almost +with the same Freedom; _Shakespear_ with him has neither Language nor +Manners; _Ben. Johnson_ is a Pedant; _Dryden_ little more than a +tolerable Versifier; _Congreve_ a laborious Writer; _Garth_, an +indifferent imitator of _Boileau_. He traduces _Oldham_, for want of +Breeding and good Manners, without a grain of either, and steals his own +Wit to bespatter him with; but like an ill Chymist, he lets the _Spirit_ +fly off in the drawing over and retains only the _Phlegm_. He Censures +_Cowley_ for too much Wit, and corrects him with none. He is a great +Admirer of the incomparable _Milton_, but while he fondly endeavours to +imitate his _Sublime_, he is blown up with _Bombast_ and _puffy +Expressions_. He is a great stickler for _Euripides_, _Sophocles_, +_Horace_, _Virgil_, _Ovid_, and the rest of the Ancients; but his ill +and lame Translations of 'em, ridicule those he would commend. He +ventures to write for the Play-Houses, but having his stol'n, +ill-patch'd fustian Plays Damn'd upon the Stage, he ransacks _Bossu_, +_Rapin_, and _Dacier_, to arraign the ill-taste of the Town. To compleat +himself in the Formalities of _Parnassus_, he falls in Love, and tells +his Mistress in a very pathetick Letter, he is oblig'd to her bright +_Beauty_ for his Poetry; but if this Damsel prove no more indulgent than +his Muse, his Amour is like to conclude but unluckily." + +_Demetrius_ before the Curse of Poetry had seiz'd him, was in a pretty +way of _Thriving Business_, but having lately sold his Chambers in one +of the Inns of Court, and taken a Lodging near the Play-house, is now in +a fair way of _Starving_. This Gentleman is frequently possest with +Poetick Raptures; and all the Family complains, that he disturbs 'em at +Midnight, by reciting some incomparable sublime Fustian of his own +Composing. When he is in Bed, one wou'd imagine he might be quiet for +that Night, but 'tis quite otherwise with him; for when a new Thought, +as he calls it, comes into his Head, up he gets, sets it down in +Writing, and so gradually encreases the detested Bulk of his Poetick +Fooleries, which, Heaven avert it! he threatens to Print. _Demetrius_ +having had the misfortune of miscarrying upon the Stage, endeavours to +preserve his unlawful Title to Wit, by bringing all the Dramatick Poets +down to his own Level. And wanting Spirit to set up for a Critick, turns +_Spy_ and _Informer_ of _Parnassus_. He frequents _Apollo_'s Court at +_Will_'s, and picks up the freshest Intelligence, what Plays are upon +the Stocks, what ready to be Launch'd; and if he can be inform'd, from +the _Establish'd Wits_, of any remarkable Fault in the new Play upon the +Bills, he is indefatigably industrious in whispering it about, to +bespeak its Damnation before its Representation. + +* _Curculio_ is a Semi-Wit, that has a great _Veneration_ for the +_Moderns_, and no less a _Contempt_ for the _Ancients_: But his own ill +Composures destroy the force of his Arguments, and do the Ancients full +Justice. This Gentleman having had the good Fortune to write a very +taking, _undigested medly of Comedy_ and _Farce_, is so puff'd up with +his Success, that nothing will serve him, but he must bring this new +_fantastick way of writing_, into Esteem. To compass this Noble Design, +he tells you what a Coxcomb _Aristotle_ was with his Rules of the _three +Unities_; and what a Company of Senseless Pedants the _Scaligers_, +_Rapins_, _Bossu's_, and _Daciers_ are. He proves that _Aristotle_ and +_Horace_, knew nothing of _Poetry_; that Common Sense and Nature were +not the same in _Athens_, and _Rome_, as they are in _London_; that +_Incoherence_, _Irregularity_ and _Nonsense_ are the Chief Perfections +of the _Drama_, and, by a necessary Consequence that the _Silent woman_, +is below his own Performance. + +"_No new Doctrine_ in _Religion_, ever got any considerable Footing +except it was grounded on _Miracles_; Nor any new _Hypothesis_ was ever +established in natural Philolqphy, unless it was confirm'd by +_Experience_. The same Rule holds, in some measure, in all Arts and +Sciences, particularly in Dramatick Poetry. It will be a hard matter for +any Man to trump up any new set of Precepts, in opposition to those of +_Aristotle_ and _Horace_, except by following them, he writes several +approved Plays. The great success of the _first Part_ of the _T---p_ was +sufficient I must confess, to justifie the Authors _Conceit_; But then +the _Explosion_ of the _Second_ ought to have cur'd him of it. + +"_Writers_ like _Women_ seldom give one another a good Word; that's +most certain. Now if the _Poets_ and _Criticks_ of all Ages have allowed +_Sophocles_, _Euripides_, and _Terence_ to have been good _Dramatick +Writers_, and _Aristotle_ and _Horace_ to have been _judicious +Criticks_, ought not their _Censure_ to weigh more with Men of Sense, +than the Fancies, of a Modern Pretender. To be plain, whoever Disputes +_Aristotle_ and _Horace_, Rules does as good as call the _Scaligers_, +_Vossii_, _Rapins_, _Bossu's_, _Daciers_, _Corneilles_, _Roscommons_, +_Normanby's_ and _Rymers_, _Blockheads_: A man must have a great deal of +Assurance, to be so free with such illustrious Judges. + +"Of all the modern Dramatick Poets the Author of _the Trip to the +Jubilee_ has the least Reason to turn into Ridicule _Aristotle_ and +_Horace_, since 'tis to their _Rules_ which he has, in some measure +followed, that he owed the great success of that Play. Those _Rules_ are +no thing but a strict imitation of Nature, which is still the same in +all Ages and Nations: And because the Characters of _Wildair_, +_Angelica_, _Standard_ and _Smuggler_ are _natural_, and well pursued, +They have justly met _with Applause_; but then the Characters of +_Lurewell_ and _Clincher_ Sen. being _out_ of _Nature_ they have as +justly been condemned by all the Good Judges." + +* Some _Scholars_, tho' by their constant Conversation with Antiquity, +they may know perfectly the sense of the Learned dead, and be perfect +masters of the Wisdom, be throughly informed of the State, and nicely +skill'd in the Policies of Ages long since past, yet by their retired +and unactive Life, and their neglect of Business, they are such +strangers to the Domestick Affairs and manners of their own Country and +Times, that they appear like the Ghosts of old _Romans_ rais'd by +Magick. Talk to them of the _Assyrian_ or _Persian_ Monarchies of the +_Grecian_ or _Roman_ Commonwealths, they answer like Oracles; They are +such finished States-men that we should scarce take 'em to have been +less than Privy-Councellors to _Semiramis_, Tutors to _Cyrus_ the Great, +and old Cronies of _Solon_, _Licurgus_, and _Numa Pompilius_. But ingage +them in a discourse that concerns the present Times, and their Native +Country, and they hardly speak the language of it; Ask them how many +Kings there have been in _England_ since the Conquest, or in what Reign +the _Reformation_ happened, and they'll be puzzled with the Question; +They know all the minutest Circumstances of _Catiline's_ Conspiracy, but +are hardly acquainted with the late Plot. They'll tell you the Names of +such _Romans_ as were called to an Account by the Senate for their +_Briberies_, _Extortions_ and _Depredations_, but know nothing of the +four impeached Lords; They talk of the ancient way of Fighting, and +warlike Engines, as if they had been Lieutenant Generals under +_Alexander_, _Scipio_, _Annibal_ or _Julius Cæsar_; but are perfectly +ignorant of the modern military Discipline, Fortification and Artillery; +and of the very names of _Nassau_, _Condé_, _Turenne_, _Luxembourg_, +_Eugene_, _Villeroy_ and _Catinat_. They are excellent Guides, and can +direct you to every Alley, and Turning in old _Rome_ yet lose their way +home in their own Parish. They are mighty Admirers of the Wit and +Eloquence of the Ancients; Yet had they lived in the Time of +_Demosthenes_, and _Cicero_, would have treated them with as much +supercilious Pride, and disrespect as they do now the Moderns. They are +great Hunters of Ancient Manuscripts, and have in great Veneration any +thing that has escaped the Teeth of Time; and if Age has obliterated the +Characters, 'tis the more valuable for not being legible. These +Superstitious bigotted idolaters of time past, are children in their +Understanding all their lives, for they hang so incessantly upon the +leading-strings of Authority, that their Judgments like the Limbs of +some _Indian_ Penitents, become altogether crampt and motionless for +want of use. In fine, they think it a disparagement of their Learning to +talk what other Men understand, and will scarce believe that two and two +make four, under a Demonstration from _Euclid_, or a _Quotation from +Aristotle_. + +The World shall allow a Man to be a wise Man, a good Naturalist, a good +Mathematician, Politician or Poet, but not a _Scholar_, or Learned Man, +unless he be a Philologer and understands Greek and Latin. But for my +part I take these Gentlemen have just inverted the life of the Term, and +given that to the Knowledge of Words, which belongs more properly to +Things. I take Nature to be the Book of Universal Learning, which he +that reads best in all or any of its Parts, is the greatest Scholar, the +most Learned Man; and 'tis as ridiculous for a Man to count himself more +learned than another, if he have no greater Extent of Knowledge of +things, because he is more vers'd in Languages, as it would be for an +old fellow to tell a young One, his own Eyes were better than the +other's because he reads with spectacles, the other without. + +* _Impertinence_ is a Failing that has its Root in Nature, but is not +worth laughing at, till it has received the finishing strokes of _Art_. +A man thro' natural Defects may do abundance of incoherent foolish +Actions, yet deserves compassion and Advice rather than derision. But to +see Men spending their Fortunes, as well as lives, in a Course of +regular Folly, and with an industrious as well as expensive idleness +running thro' tedious systems of impertinence, would have split the +sides of _Heraclitus_, had it been his Fortune to have been a Spectator. +It's very easie to decide which of these impertinents is the most +signal: the Virtuoso is manifestly without a Competitor. For our follies +are not to be measured by the Degree of Ignorance that appears in 'em, +but by the study, labour and expence they cost us to finish and compleat +'em. + +So that the more Regularity and Artifice there appears in any of our +Extravagancies, the greater is the Folly of 'em. Upon this score it is +that the last mentioned deservedly claim the Preference to all others. +They have improved so well their Amusements into an Art, that the +credulous and ignorant are induced to believe there is some secret +Vertue, some hidden Mystery in those darling Toys of theirs: when all +their Bustling amounts to no more than a learned impertinence and all +they teach men is but a specious method of throwing away both Time and +Money. + +"The _Illusions_ of _Poetry_ are fatal to none but the _Poets_ +themselves: _Sidonius_ having lately miscarried upon the Stage, gathers +fresh Courage and is now big with the Hopes of a Play, writ by an +ancient celebrated Author, new-vampt and furbisht up after the laudable +Custom of our modern Witlings. He reckons how much he shall get by his +third day, nay, by his sixth; how much by the Printing, how much by the +Dedication, and by a modest Computation concludes the whole sum, will +amount to two hundred Pounds, which are to be distributed among his +trusty Duns. But mark the fallacy of _Vanity_ and _Self-conceit_: The +Play is acted, and casts the Audience into such a Lethargy, that They +are fain to damn it with _Yawning_, being in a manner deprived of the +Use of their _hissing_ Faculty. Well says, _Sidonius_, (after having +recover'd from a profound Consternation) _Now must the important Person +stand upon his own Leggs_. Right, _Sidonius_, but when do you come on +again, that _Covent-Garden_ Doctors may prescribe your Play instead of +Opium? + +"The Town is not one jot more diverted by the Division of the +Play-houses: the _Players_ perform better 'tis true? but then the +_Poets_ write worse; Will the uniting of _Drury-Lane_ and +_Lincoln's-Inn-Fields_ mend Matters? No,--for then What the Town should +get in writing, they would lose it in Acting." + +* A _Dramatick Poet_ has as hard a Task on't to manage, as a _passive +obedience Divine_ that preaches before the Commons on the 30th. of +_January_. + +To please the _Pit_ and _Galleries_ he must take care to lard the +Dialogue with store of luscious stuff, which the righteous call Baudy; +to please the new Reformers he must have none, otherwise gruff _Jeremy_ +will Lash him in a third _View_. + +* I very much Question, after all, whether _Collier_ would have been at +the Pains to lash the immoralities of the stage, if the Dramatick Poets +had not been guilty of the _abominable Sin_ of making familiar now and +then with the Backslidings of the Cassock. + +* _The Griping Usurer_, whose daily labour and nightly Care and Study +is to oppress the Poor, or over-reach his Neighbour, to betray the +Trusts his Hypocrisy procured; in short to break all the Positive Laws +of Morality, crys out, Oh! Diabolical, at a poor harmless _Double +Entendre_ in a Play. + +"'Tis preposterous to pretend to reform the _Stage_ before the Nation, +and particularly the Town, is _reform'd_. The Business of a Dramatick +Poet is to _copy Nature_, and represent things as they are; Let our +Peers give over _whoring_ and _drinking_; the Citizens, _Cheating_; the +Clergy, their _Quarrels, Covetousness and Ambition_; the Lawyers, their +_ambi-dextrous dealings_; and the Women _intriguing_, and the stage will +reform of Course. + +"Formerly _Poets_ made _Players_, but now adays 'tis generally the +_Player_ that makes the _Poet_. How many Plays would have expired the +very first Night of their appearing upon the Stage, but for _Betterton_, +_Barry_, _Bracegirdle_, or _Wilks_'s inimitable Performance. + +"Who ever goes about to expose the Follies of others upon the Stage, +runs great hazard of exposing himself first; and of being made +Ridiculous to those very People he endeavours to make so. + +"I doubt whether a Man of Sense would ever give himself the trouble of +writing for the Stage, if he had before his Eyes the fatigue of +Rehearsals, the Pangs and Agonies of the first day his Play is Acted, +the Disappointments of the third, and the Scandal of a Damn'd Poet. + +"The reason why in _Shakespear_ and _Ben. Johnson_'s Time Plays had so +good Success, and that we see now so many of 'em miscarry, is because +then the Poets _wrote better_ than the Audience _Judg'd_; whereas +now-a-days the _Audience_ judge _better than the Poets write_." + +* He that pretends to confine a Damsel of the Theatre to his own Use, +who by her Character is a Person of an extended Qualification, acts as +unrighteous, at least as unnatural, a Part, as he that would Debauch a +Nun. But after all, such a Spark rather consults his _Vanity_, than his +_Love_, and would be thought to ingross what all the young Coxcombs of +the Town admire and covet. + +"Is it not a kind of Prodigy, that in this wicked and censorious Age, +the shining _Daphne_ should preserve her Reputation in a Play-House?" + +The Character of a Player was Infamous amongst the _Romans_, but with +the _Greeks_ Honourable: What is our Opinion? We think of them like the +_Romans_, and live with them like the _Greeks_. + +"Nothing so powerfully excites Love in us Men, as the view of those +Limbs of Women's Bodies, which the Establish'd Rules of Modesty bid 'em +keep from our Sight. No wonder then if _Aglaura_, _Cæsonia_, _Floria_, +and in general all the Women on our Stages, are so fond of acting in +Men's Cloaths. + +"_Cæsonia_ is Young, I own it: But then _Cæsonia_ has an _African_ Nose, +hollow Eyes, and a _French_ Complexion; so that all the time she acted +in her Sex's Habit, her Conquests never extended further than one of her +Fellow-Players, or a Cast-Poet. Mark the Miracles of Fancy: _Cæsonia_ +acts a _Boy_'s Part, and _Tallus_, one of the first _Patricians_, falls +desperately in Love with her, and presents her with two Hundred great +_Sesterces_ (a Gentlewoman's Portion) for a Night's Lodging. + +"One would imagine our Matrons should be mighty Jealous of their +Husbands Intriguing with Players: But no, they bear it with a Christian +Patience. How is that possible? Why, they Intrigue themselves, either +with _Roscius_ the Tragedian, _Flagillus_, the Comedian, or _Bathillus_, +the Dancer." + +Nothing Surprizes me more, than to see Men Laugh so freely at a Comedy, +and yet account it a silly weakness to Weep at a Tragedy. For is it less +natural for a Man's Heart to relent upon a Scene of Pity, than to be +transported with Joy upon one of Mirth and Humour? Or is it only the +alteration of the Features of one's Face that makes us forbear Crying? +But this alteration is undoubtedly as great in an immoderate Laughter, +as in a most desperate Grief; and good Breeding teaches us to avoid the +one as well as the other, before those for whom we have a Respect. Or is +it painful to us to appear tender-hearted and express grief upon a +Fiction? But without quoting great Wits who account it an equal +Weakness, either to weep or laugh out of Measure, can we expect to be +tickled by a Tragical Adventure? And besides, is not Truth as naturally +represented in that as in a Comical one? Therefore as we do not think it +ridiculous to see a whole Audience laugh at a merry jest or humour +acted to the life, but on the contrary we commend the skill both of the +Poet and the Actor; so the great Violence we use upon our selves to +contain our tears, together with the forc'd a-wry smiles with which we +strive to conceal our Concern, do forcibly evince that the natural +effect of a good _Tragedy_ is to make us all weep by consent, without +any more ado than to pull out our Handkerchiefs to wipe off our Tears. +And if it were once agreed amongst us not to resist those tender +impressions of _Pity_, I dare engage that we would soon be convinc'd +that by frequenting the Play-house we run less danger of being put to +the expence of Tears, than of being almost frozen to death by many a +cold, dull insipid jest. + +We must make it our main Business and Study to _think_ and _write well_, +and not labour to submit other People's Palates and Opinions to our own; +which is the greater difficulty of the two. + +One should serve his time to learn how to make a _Book_, just as some +men do to learn how to make a watch, for there goes something more than +either Wit or Learning to the setting up for an _Author_. A _Lawyer_ of +this Town was an able, subtle and experienc'd Man in the way of his +Business, and might for ought I know, have come to be _Lord Chief +Justice_, but he has lately miscarried in the Good Opinion of the World, +only by Printing some Essays which are a Master-piece--in _Nonsense_. + +It is a more difficult matter to get a Name by a _Perfect Composure_, +than to make an _indifferent_ one valued by that Reputation a Man has +already got in the World. + +There are some things which admit of no _mediocrity_; such as _Poetry_, +_Painting_, _Musick and Oratory_--What Torture can be greater than to +hear Doctor F---- declaim a flat Oration with formality and Pomp, or +D---- read his Pyndaricks with all the Emphasis of a _Dull Poet_. + +We have not as yet seen any excellent Piece, but what is owing to the +Labour of one single Man: _Homer_, for the purpose, has writ the +_Iliad_; _Virgil_, the _Æneid_; _Livy_ his _Decads_; and the _Roman_ +Orator his Orations; but our _modern several Hands_ present us often +with nothing but a _Variety of Errors_. + +There is in the Arts and Sciences such a _Point of Perfection_, as there +is one of _Goodness_ or _maturity_ in Fruits; and he that can find and +relish it must be allowed to have a _True Tast_; but on the contrary, he +that neither perceives it, nor likes any thing on this side, or beyond +it, has but a defective Palate. Hence I conclude that there is a bad +_Taste_ and a _good_ one, and that the disputing about _Tastes_ is not +altogether unreasonable. + +The Lives of _Heroes_ have enricht _History_ and History in requital has +embellished and heightened the Lives of _Heroes_, so that it is no easie +matter to determine which of the two is more beholden to the other: +either _Historians_, to those who have furnished them with so great and +noble a matter to work upon; or those great Men, to those Writers that +have convey'd their names and Atchievements down to the _Admiration of +after-Ages._ + +There are many of our _Wits_ that feed for a while upon the _Ancients_, +and the best of our Modern Authors: and when they have _squeez'd_ out +and _extracted_ matter enough to appear in Print and set up for +themselves, most ungratefully abuse them, like children grown strong and +lusty by the good milk they have sucked, who generally beat their +Nurses. + +A _Modern_ Author proves both by Reasons and Examples that the +_Ancients_ are inferior to us; and fetches his Arguments from his own +particular Tast, and his Examples from his own _Writings_. He owns, That +the _Ancients_ tho' generally uneven and uncorrect, have yet here and +there some fine Touches, and indeed these are so fine, that the quoting +of them is the only thing that makes his _Criticisms_ worth a Mans +reading 'em. + +Some great Men pronounce for the _Ancients_ against the _Moderns_: But +their own Composures are so agreeable to the Taste of Antiquity, and +bear so great a resemblance with the Patterns they have left us, that +they seem to be judges in their own Case and being suspected of +Partiality, are therefore _ceptionable_. + +It is the Character of a _Pedant_ to be unwilling either to ask a +Friend's advice about his Work or to alter what he has been made +sensible to be a fault. + +We ought to read our Writings to those only, who have Judgment enough to +correct what is amiss, and esteem what deserves to be commended. + +An _Author_, ought to receive with an equal Modesty both the Praise and +Censure of other People upon his own Works. + +A great facility in submitting to other People's Censure is sometimes as +faulty as a great roughness in rejecting it: for there is no Composure +so every way accomplisht, but what would be pared and clipped to nothing +if a man would follow the advice of every finical scrupulous Critick, +who often would have the best Things left out because forsooth, they are +not agreeable to his dull Palate. + +The great Pleasure some People take in _criticizing_ upon the _small +Faults_ of a Book so vitiates their Taste, that it renders them unfit to +be _affected_ with it's _Beauties_. + +The same Niceness of Judgment which makes some Men write sence, makes +them very often shy and unwilling to appear in Print. + +Among the several _Expressions_ We may use for the same Thought, there +is but an individual one which is good and proper; any other but that is +flat and imperfect, and cannot please an ingenious Man that has a mind +to explain what he thinks: And it is no small wonder to me to consider, +what Pains, even the best of Writers are sometimes at, to seek out that +Expression, which being the most simple and natural, ought consequently +to have presented it self without Study. + +'Tis to no great purpose that a Man seeks to make himself admir'd by his +Composures: Blockheads, indeed, may oftentimes admire him but then they +are but Blockheads; and as for _Wits_ they have in themselves the seeds +or hints of all the good and fine things that can possibly be thought of +or said; and therefore they seldom admire any thing, but only approve of +what hits their Palate. + +The being a _Critick_ is not so much a Science as a sort of laborious, +and painful Employment, which requires more strength of Body, than +delicacy of Wit, and more assiduity than natural Parts. + +As some merit Praise for writing well, so do others for not writing at +all. + +That _Author_ who chiefly endeavours to please the Taste of the Age he +lives in, rather consults his private interest, than that of his +_Writings_. We ought always to have perfection in Prospect as the chief +thing we aim at, and that Point once gain'd, we may rest assured that +unbyassed _Posterity_ will do us Justice, which is often deny'd us by +our _Contemporaries_. + +'Tis matter of discretion in an Author to be extreamly reserv'd and +modest when he speaks of the Work he is upon, for fear he should raise +the World's Expectation too high: For it is most certain, that our +Opinion of an extraordinary Promise, goes always further than the +Performance, and a Man's Reputation cannot but be much lessen'd by such +a Disparity. + +The Name of the _Author_ ought to be the last thing we inquire into, +when we Judge of the merit of an ingenious Composure, but contrary to +this maxim we generally judge of the _Book_ by the _Author_, instead of +judging of the _Author_ by the _Book_. + +As we see Women that without the knowledge of Men do sometimes bring +forth inanimate and formless lumps of Flesh, but to cause a natural and +perfect Generation, they are to be husbanded by another kind of seed, +even so it is with Wit which if not applied to some certain study that +may fix and restrain it, runs into a thousand Extravagancies, and is +eternally roving here and there in the inextricable labyrinth of +restless Imagination. + +If every one who hears or reads a good Sentence or maxim, would +immediately consider how it does any way touch his own private concern, +he would soon find, that it was not so much a good saying, as a severe +lash to the ordinary Bestiality of his judgment: but Men receive the +Precepts and admonitions of Truth as generally directed to the common +sort and never particularly to themselves, and instead of applying them +to their own manners, do only very ignorantly and unprofitably commit +them to Memory, without suffering themselves to be at all instructed, or +converted by them. + +We say of some compositions that they stink of Oil and smell of the +Lamp, by reason of a certain rough harshness that the laborious handling +imprints upon those, where great force has been employed: but besides +this, the solicitude of doing well, and a certain striving and +contending of a mind too far strain'd, and over-bent upon its +undertaking, breaks and hinders it self, like Water that by force of its +own pressing Violence and Abundance cannot find a ready issue through +the neck of a Bottle, or a narrow sluice. + +Humour, Temper, Education and a thousand other Circumstances create so +great a difference betwixt the several Palates of Men, and their +Judgments upon ingenious Composures, that nothing can be more chimerical +and foolish in an Author than the Ambition of a general Reputation. + +As Plants are suffocated and drown'd with too much nourishment, and +Lamps with too much Oyl, so is the active part of the understanding with +too much study and matter, which being embarass'd and confounded with +the Diversity of things is deprived of the force and power to disingage +it self; and by the Pressure of this weight, it is bow'd, subjected and +rendred of no use. + +* Studious and inquisitive Men commonly at forty or fifty at the most, +have fixed and settled their judgments in most Points, and as it were +made their last understanding, supposing they have thought, or read, or +heard what can be said on all sides of things, and after that they grow +positive and impatient of Contradiction, thinking it a disparagement to +them to alter their Judgment. + +All Skillful Masters ought to have a care not to let their Works be seen +in _Embryo_, for all beginnings are defective, and the imagination is +always prejudiced. The remembring to have seen a thing imperfect takes +from one the Liberty of thinking it pretty when it is finished. + +Many fetch a tedious Compass of Words, without ever coming to the Knot +of the business: they make a thousand turnings and windings, that tire +themselves and others, without ever arriving at the Point of importance. +That proceeds from the Confusion of their Understanding, which cannot +clear it self. They lose Time and Patience in what ought to be let +alone, and then they have no more to bestow upon what they have omitted. + +It is the Knack of Men of Wit to find out Evasions; With a touch of +Gallantry they extricate themselves out of the greatest Labyrinth. A +graceful smile will make them avoid the most dangerous Quarrel. + + +_Mind, Understanding, Wit, Memory, Heart._ + +The Strength and Weakness of a Man's Mind, are improper Terms, since +they are really nothing else but the _Organs_ of our _Bodies_, being +well or ill dispos'd. + +'Tis a great Errour, the making a difference between the _Wit_ and the +_Judgment_: For, in truth, the _Judgment_ is nothing else but the +_Brightness of Wit_, which penetrates into the very bottom of Things, +observes all that ought to be observ'd there, and descries what seem'd +to be imperceptible. From whence we must conclude, That 'tis the +_Extention_ and _Energy_ of this _Light_ of _Wit_, that produces all +those Effects, usually ascrib'd to _Judgment_. + +All Men may be allowed to give a good Character of their _Hearts_ (or +_Inclinations_) but no body dares to speak well of his own _Wit_. + +_Polite Wit_ consists in nice, curious, and honest _Thoughts_. + +The _Gallantry_ of _Wit_ consists in _Flattery_ well couch'd. + +It often happens, that some things offer themselves to our _Wit_, which +are naturally finer and better, than is possible for a Man to make them +by the Additions of _Art_ and _Study_. + +_Wit_ is always made a _Cully_ to the _Heart_. + +Many People are acquainted with their own _Wit_, that are not acquainted +with their own _Heart_. + +It is not in the power of _Wit_, to act a long while the _Part_ of the +_Heart_. + +A Man of _Wit_ would be sometimes miserably at a loss, but for the +Company of _Fools_. + +A Man of _Wit_ may sometimes be a _Coxcomb_; but a Man of _Judgment_ +never can. + +The different Ways or Methods for compassing a Design, come not so much +from the Quickness and Fertility of an industrious _Wit_, as a +dim-sighted _Understanding_, which makes us pitch upon every fresh +Matter that presents itself to our groping _Fancy_, and does not furnish +us with Judgment sufficient to discern at first sight, which or them is +best for our Purpose. + +The _Twang_ of a Man's _Native Country_, sticks by him as much in his +_Mind_ and _Disposition_, as it does in his _Tone_ of _Speaking_. + +_Wit_ serves sometimes to make us play the _Fool_ with greater +Confidence. + +Shallow _Wits_ are apt to censure everything above their own _Capacity_. + +'Tis past the Power of _Imagination_ it self, to invent so many distant +_Contrarieties_, as there are naturally in the _Heart_ of every Man. + +No body is so well acquainted with himself, as to know his own _Mind_ at +all times. + +Every body complains of his _Memory_, but no body of his _Judgment_. + +There is a kind of general _Revolution_, not more visible in the turn it +gives to the Fortunes of the _World_, than it is in the Change of Men's +_Understandings_, and the different Relish or _Wit_. + +Men often think to conduct and govern themselves, when all the while +they are led and manag'd; and while their _Understanding_ aims at one +thing, their _Heart_ insensibly draws them into another. + +Great _Souls_ are not distinguish'd by having less _Passion_, and more +_Virtue_; but by having nobler and greater Designs than the _Vulgar_. + +We allow few Men to be either _Witty_ or Reasonable, besides those who +are of our own Opinion. + +We are as much pleas'd to discover another Man's _Mind_, as we are +discontented to have our own found out. + +A straight and well-contriv'd _Mind_, finds it easier to yield to a +perverse one, than to direct and manage it. + +_Coxcombs_ are never so troublesome, as when they pretend to _Wit_. + +A little _Wit_ with _Discretion_, tires less at long-run, than much +_Wit_ without _Judgment_. + +Nothing comes amiss to a great _Soul_; and there is as much _Wisdom_ in +bearing other People's _Defects_, as in relishing their good +_Qualities_. + +It argues a great heighth of _Judgment_ in a Man, to discover what is in +another's Breast, and to conceal what is in his own. + +If Poverty be the Mother of Wickedness, want of _Wit_ must be the +Father. + +* A _Mind_ that has no Ballance in it self, turns insolent, or abject, +out of measure, with the various Change of Fortune. + +* Our _Memories_ are frail and treacherous; and we think many excellent +things, which for want of making a deep impression, we can never recover +afterwards. In vain we hunt for the stragling _Idea_, and rummage all +the Solitudes and Retirements of our Soul, for a lost Thought, which has +left no Track or Foot-steps behind it: The swift Off-spring of the Mind +is gone; 'tis dead as soon as born; nay, often proves abortive in the +moment it was conceiv'd: The only way therefore to retain our Thoughts, +is to fasten them in Words, and chain them in Writing. + +* A Man is never so great a _Dunce_ by _Nature_, but _Love_, _Malice_, +or _Necessity_, will supply him with some _Wit_. + +* There is a _Defect_ which is almost unavoidable in great _Inventors_; +it is the Custom of such earnest and powerful Minds, to do wonderful +Things in the beginning; but shortly after, to be over-born by the +Multitude and Weight of their own Thoughts; then to yield and cool by +little and little, and at last grow weary, and even to loath that, upon +which they were at first the most eager. This is the wonted Constitution +of _great Wits_; such tender things are those exalted Actions of the +Mind; and so hard it is for those Imaginations, that can run swift and +mighty Races, to be able to travel a long and constant Journey. The +Effects of this Infirmity have been so remarkable, that we have +certianly lost very many Inventions, after they have been in part +fashion'd, by the meer _Languishing_ and _Negligence_ of their +_Authors_. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Present State of Wit (1711), by John Gay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRESENT STATE OF WIT (1711) *** + +***** This file should be named 14800-8.txt or 14800-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/8/0/14800/ + +Produced by David Starner, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/14800-8.zip b/old/14800-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e820d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14800-8.zip diff --git a/old/14800.txt b/old/14800.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e868ad2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14800.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1998 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Present State of Wit (1711), by John Gay + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Present State of Wit (1711) + In A Letter To A Friend In The Country + +Author: John Gay + +Release Date: January 27, 2005 [EBook #14800] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRESENT STATE OF WIT (1711) *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +Series One: + +_Essays on Wit_ + + +No. 3 + + +John Gay, _The Present State of Wit_ (1711) + + +With an Introduction by + +Donald F. Bond + +and + +a Bibliographical Note + +and + +Excerpts from + +_The English Theophrastus: or the Manners of the Age_ (1702) + + +With an Introduction by + +W. Earl Britton + + +The Augustan Reprint Society + +May, 1947 + +_Price_: 75c + + + + +GENERAL EDITORS: _Richard C. Boys_, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; +_Edward N. Hooker_, _H.T. Swedenberg, Jr._, University of California, +Los Angeles 24, California. + +Membership in the Augustan Reprint Society entitles the subscriber to +six publications issued each year. The annual membership fee is $2.50. +Address subscriptions and communications to the Augustan Reprint +Society, in care of one of the General Editors. + +EDITORIAL ADVISORS: _Louis I. Bredvold_, University of Michigan; _James +L. Clifford_, Columbia University; _Benjamin Boyce_, University of +Nebraska; _Cleanth Brooks_, Louisiana State University; _Arthur +Friedman_, University of Chicago; _James R. Sutherland_, Queen Mary +College, University of London; _Emmett L. Avery_, State College of +Washington; _Samuel Monk_, Southwestern University. + + +Lithoprinted from Author's Typescript + +EDWARDS BROTHERS, INC. + +_Lithoprinters_ + +ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN + +1947 + + + + +THE + +Present State + +OF + +WIT, + +IN A + +LETTER + +TO A + +Friend in the Country. + +_LONDON_ Printed in the Year, MDCCXI + +(Price 3 d.) + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Gay's concern in his survey of _The Present State of Wit_ is with the +productions of wit which were circulating among the coffee-houses of +1711, specifically the large numbers of periodical essays which were +perhaps the most distinctive kind of "wit" produced in the "four last +years" of Queen Anne's reign. His little pamphlet makes no pretence at +an analysis of true and false wit or a refining of critical distinctions +with regard to wit in its relations to fancy and judgment. Addressed to +"a friend in the country," it surveys in a rapid and engaging manner the +productions of Isaac Bickerstaff and his followers which are engrossing +the interest of London. In other words it is an early example of a +popular eighteenth-century form, of which Goldsmith's more extended +_Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning_ is the best known +instance. + +As such it well deserves a place in the Augustan Reprints series on wit. +It has been reproduced before in this century, in _An English Garner: +Critical Essays and Literary Fragments_ (Westminster, 1903, pp. 201-10), +with an attractive and informative introduction by J. Churton Collins. +More information, however, is now at our disposal in the forty year +interval since Collins wrote, both in regard to John Gay and to the +bibliography of periodical literature in Queen Anne's time. Furthermore, +the Arber reprint is difficult to obtain. + +Gay is writing, he tells us, without prejudice "either for Whig or +Tory," but the warm praise which he extends to Steele and Addison makes +his pamphlet sound like the criticism of one very close to the Whigs. +Though Gay is ordinarily associated with the Tory circle of Swift and +Pope, he was in 1711 still in the somewhat uncertain position of a +youngster willing to be courted by either group. His earliest +sympathies were if anything on the side of the Whigs, in spite of the +turn of events in the autumn of 1710. Gay's interests in these early +years are nowhere so well analyzed as in the early pages of W.H. +Irving's _John Gay: Favorite of the Wits_ (Durham, N.C., 1940): cf. the +title of the second chapter: "Direction Found--the Year 1713." Even as +late as 1715 Swift apparently thought of him as a Whig (Swift's +_Letters_, ed. Ball, II, 286, cited by Irving, p. 91). + +One need not be surprised, then, to find Gay eulogizing Captain Steele +as "the greatest scholar and best casuist of any man in England," an +essayist whose writings "have set all our wits and men of letters on a +new way of thinking." Swift's reaction is well known. "Dr. Freind was +with me," he writes to Stella on May 14th, "and pulled out a two-penny +pamphlet just published, called, _The State of Wit_, giving a character +of all the papers that have come out of late. The author seems to be a +Whig, yet he speaks very highly of a paper called the _Examiner_, and +says the supposed author of it is Dr. Swift. But above all things he +praises the _Tatlers_ and _Spectators_; and I believe Steele and Addison +were privy to the printing of it. Thus is one treated by these impudent +dogs" (_Journal to Stella_, ed. J.K. Moorhead, Everyman's Library, p. +168). + +In addition to the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_ Gay discusses a dozen other +periodical publications which are of some interest to-day. Dr. King's +"monthly _Philosophical Transactions_," mentioned in the third +paragraph, had begun as a parody of the Royal Society's publications, +but they had failed to hold the public interest, in spite of the wit of +the author of the _Art of Cookery_: "though that gentleman has a world +of wit..., the town soon grew weary of his writings." King's _Useful +Transactions in Philosophy_ had in fact run to only three numbers in the +early months of 1709. The _Monthly Amusement_ of John Ozell, mentioned +in the following paragraph, which Churton Collins erroneously considered +to be not a periodical but "simply his frequent appearances as a +translator" (p. xxxii)--a statement, repeated by Lewis Melville in his +_Life and Letters of John Gay_ (London, 1921, p. 12)--ran for only six +numbers, from April to September 1709. Gay's statement that it "is still +continued" may refer to the better known _Delights for the Ingenious; or +a Monthly Entertainment for the Curious of Both Sexes_ (edited by John +Tipper) which was currently appearing in 1711. + +As to the political papers Gay's observations are moderate in tone. +_Defoe's Review_ (1704-13) and _The Observator_ (1702-12), begun by John +Tutchin, are noticed in rather supercilious fashion. _The Examiner_ +(1710-14) is damned with faint praise: though "all men, who speak +without prejudice, allow it to be well written" and "under the eye of +some great persons who sit at the helm of affairs," Gay's admiration is +reserved for its two chief opponents, Addison's short-lived _Whig +Examiner_ (1710) and _The Medley_ (1710-12). + +The real hero of the pamphlet, however, is Richard Steele, with his +coadjutor Mr. Addison, "whose works in Latin and English poetry long +since convinced the world, that he was the greatest master in Europe of +those two languages." The high praise which Gay lavishes upon this +pair--comparable in their own field, he says, to Lord Somers and the +Earl of Halifax--is eloquent testimony to the immense interest aroused +by their two papers in the London of 1709-12. There is no need to review +here the particulars of Gay's eulogy, but one or two points may be +noted. In the first place, Gay's remarks are not extravagant when +compared with other contemporary testimony. Many of these tributes were +brought together by Aitken in his monumental biography of Steele, and +since 1889 other contemporary sources have been published which give +corroborating support. Hearne first mentions the _Spectator_ on April +22, 1711, in a comment on No. 43, and even this crusty Tory and Jacobite +notes in his diary: "But Men that are indifferent commend it highly, as +it deserves" (_Remarks and Collections_, ed. Doble, III, Oxford, 1895, +p. 154). The published reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, +too, contain many contemporary references (see, e.g., _Manuscripts of +the Hon. Frederick Lindley Wood_ (1913), p. 247; _Manuscripts of the +Marquess of Downshire_, I (1924, 889)). It is interesting to observe, +further, that Gay makes no reference to the political prejudices of the +_Spectator_ though it was not without criticism at the time for its +meddling in politics. _The Plain Dealer_ of May 24, 1712, for example, +objected to the publication of No. 384 (the reprinting of the Bishop of +St. Asaph's Introduction to his _Sermons_) and hinted at a "Mercenary +Consideration" behind this sorry attempt to "propagate ill Principles." +Gay's attitude on this point would, be another reason for Swift's +dislike of the pamphlet. + +The "continuations" of the _Tatler_ are given due attention by Gay, as +well as three of its imitators: _The Grouler_ (6 numbers, 1711), _The +Whisperer_ (one number, 1709), and _The Tell Tale_, which may be _The +Tatling Harlot_ (3 numbers, 1709), or, as Churton Collins conjectured, +_The Female Tatler_ (1709-10). Gay's postscript makes an agreeable +reference to _The British Apollo_ (1708-11), which has "of late, +retreated out of this end of the town into the country," where "it still +recommends itself by deciding wagers at cards, and giving good advice to +shopkeepers and their apprentices," an interesting comment in view of +Gay's own possible connection with this journal (cf. Irving, pp. 40-56). +It is these casual remarks, as well as the more extensive critical +comments on the present state of "wit," which give Gay's pamphlet a +permanent interest. + +The typescript copy of the _Present State of Wit_ is taken from the +pamphlet owned by the Henry E. Huntington Library. + +Donald F. Bond + +University of Chicago + + + + +THE + +PRESENT STATE + +of + +WIT, &c. + + +SIR, + +You Acquaint me in your last, that you are still so busie Building at +-----, that your Friends must not hope to see you in Town this Year; At +the same time you desire me that you may not be quite at a loss in +Conversation among the Beau Monde next Winter, to send you an account of +the present State of Wit in Town; which, without further Preface, I +shall therefore endeavour to perform, and give you the Histories and +Characters of all our Periodical Papers, whether Monthly, Weekly, or +Diurnal, with the same freedom I used to send you our other Town News. + +I shall only premise, that as you know I never cared one Farthing either +for Whig or Tory, So I shall consider our Writers purely as they are +such, without any respect to which Party they may belong. + +Dr. King has for some time lain down his MONTHLY PHILOSOPHICAL +TRANSACTIONS, which the Title Page informed us at first, were only to be +continued as they Sold; and tho' that Gentleman has a World of Wit, yet +as it lies in one particular way of Raillery, the Town soon grew weary +of his Writings; tho' I cannot but think, that their Author deserves a +much better Fate, than to Languish out the small remainder of his Life +in the Fleet Prison. + +About the same time that the Doctor left off Writing, one Mr. Ozell put +out his MONTHLY AMUSEMENT, (which is still continued) and as it is +generally some French Novel or Play indifferently Translated, is more or +less taken Notice of, as the Original Piece is more or less Agreeable. + +As to our Weekly Papers, the Poor REVIEW is quite exhausted, and grown +so very Contemptible, that tho' he has provoked all his Brothers of the +Quill round, none of them will enter into a Controversy with him. This +Fellow, who had excellent Natural Parts, but wanted a small Foundation +of Learning, is a lively instance of those Wits, who, as an Ingenious +Author says, will endure but one Skimming. + +The OBSERVATOR was almost in the same Condition, but since our +Party-Struggles have run so high, he is much mended for the better; +which is imputed to the Charitable Assistance of some out-lying Friends. + +These Two Authors might, however, have flourish'd some time longer, had +not the Controversie been taken up by much abler Hands. + +The EXAMINER is a Paper, which all Men, who speak without Prejudice, +allow to be well Writ. Tho' his Subject will admit of no great Variety, +he is continually placing it on so many different Lights, and +endeavouring to inculcate the same thing by so many Beautiful Changes of +Expressions, that Men, who are concern'd in no Party, may Read him with +Pleasure. His way of assuming the Question in Debate, is extremely +Artful; and his Letter to Crassus, is, I think, a Master-piece. As these +Papers, are suppos'd to have been Writ by several Hands, the Criticks +will tell you, That they can discern a difference in their Stiles and +Beauties, and pretend to observe, that the first EXAMINERS abound +chiefly in Wit, the last in Humour. + +Soon after their first appearance, came out a Paper from the other Side, +called the WHIG EXAMINER, writ with so much Fire, and in so excellent a +Stile, as put the Tories in no small pain for their favourite Hero, +every one cry'd Bickerstaff must be the Author, and People were the more +confirm'd in this opinion, upon its being so soon lay'd down; which +seem'd to shew, that it was only writ to bind the EXAMINERS to their +good Behaviour, and was never design'd to be a Weekly Paper. The +EXAMINERS therefore have no one to Combat with at present, but their +Friend the MEDLEY; The Author of which Paper, tho' he seems to be a Man +of good Sense, and expresses, it luckily enough now and then, is, I +think, for the most part, perfectly a Stranger to fine Writing. + +I presume I need not tell you that the EXAMINER carries much the more +Sail, as 'tis supposed to be writ by the Direction, and under the Eye of +some Great Persons who sit at the helm of Affairs, and is consequently +look'd on as a sort of publick Notice which way they are steering us. + +The reputed Author is Dr. S---t, with the assistance, sometimes, of Dr. +Att---y; and Mr. P---r. + +The MEDLEY, is said to be Writ by Mr. Old---n, and supervised by Mr. +Mayn---g, who perhaps might intirely write those few Papers which, are +so much better than the rest. + +Before I proceed further in the account of our Weekly Papers, it will be +necessary to inform you, that at the begining of the Winter, to the +infinite surprize of all Men, Mr. Steele flung up His TATLER, and +instead of Isaac Bickerstaff Esq.; Subscrib'd himself Richard Steele to +the last of those Papers, after an handsome Compliment to the Town for +their kind acceptance of his Endeavours to divert them. The Chief +Reason he thought fit to give for his leaving off writing, was, that +having been so long look'd on in all publick Places and Companies as the +Author of those Papers, he found that his most intimate Friends and +Acquaintance were in Pain to Act or Speak before him. The Town was very +far from being satisfied with this Reason; and most People judg'd the +true cause to be, either that he was quite spent, and wanted matter to +continue his undertaking any longer, or that he lay'd it down as a sort +of Submission to, and Composition with the Government for some past +Offences; Or lastly, that he had a Mind to vary his Shape, and appear +again in some new Light. + +However that were, his disappearing seem'd to be bewailed as some +general Calamity, every one wanted so agreeable an Amusement, and the +Coffee-houses began to be sensible that the Esquires Lucubrations alone, +had brought them more Customers than all their other News papers put +together. + +It must indeed be confess'd, that never Man threw up his Pen under +Stronger Temptations to have imployed it longer: His Reputation was at a +greater height than, I believe, ever any living Author's was before him. +'Tis reasonable to suppose that his Gains were proportionably +considerable; Every one Read him with Pleasure and Good Will, and the +Tories, in respect to his other Good Qualities, had almost forgiven his +unaccountable Imprudence in declaring against them. + +Lastly, It was highly improbable that if he threw off a Character, the +Ideas of which were so strongly impress'd in every one's mind, however +finely he might write in any new form, that he should meet with the same +reception. + +To give you my own thoughts of this Gentleman's Writings, I shall in the +first place observe, that there is this noble difference between him and +all the rest of our Polite and Gallant Authors: The latter have +endeavour'd to please the Age by falling in with them, and incouraging +them in their fashionable Vices, and false notions of things. It would +have been a jest, sometime since, for a Man to have asserted, that any +thing Witty could be said in praise of a Marry'd State, or that Devotion +and Virtue were any way necessary to the Character of a fine Gentleman. +Bickerstaff ventur'd to tell the Town, that they were a parcel of Fops, +Fools, and vain Cocquets; but in such a manner, as even pleased them, +and made them more than half enclin'd to believe that he spoke Truth. + +Instead of complying with the false Sentiments or Vicious tasts of the +Age, either in Morality, Criticism, or Good Breeding, he has boldly +assur'd them, that they were altogether in the wrong, and commanded them +with an Authority, which perfectly well became him, to surrender +themselves to his Arguments, for Vertue and Good Sense. + +'Tis incredible to conceive the effect his Writings have had on the +Town; How many Thousand follies they have either quite banish'd, or +given a very great check to; how much Countenance they have added to +Vertue and Religion; how many People they have render'd happy, by +shewing them it was their own fault if they were not so; and lastly, how +intirely they have convinc'd our Fops, and Young Fellows, of the value +and advantages of Learning. + +He has indeed rescued it out of the hands of Pedants and Fools, and +discover'd the true method of making it amiable and lovely to all +mankind: In the dress he gives it, 'tis a most welcome guest at +Tea-tables and Assemblies, and is relish'd and caressed by the Merchants +on the Change; accordingly, there is not a Lady at Court, nor a Banker +in Lumbard-Street, who is not verily perswaded, that Captain Steele is +the greatest Scholar, and best Casuist, of any Man in England. + +Lastly, His Writings have set all our Wits and Men of Letters upon a new +way of Thinking, of which they had little or no Notion before; and tho' +we cannot yet say that any of them have come up to the Beauties of the +Original, I think we may venture to affirm, that every one of them +Writes and Thinks much more justly than they did some time since. + +The vast variety of Subjects which he has treated of in so different +manners, and yet All so perfectly well, made the World believe that +'twas impossible they should all come from the same hand. This set every +one upon guessing who was the Esquires Friend, and most people at first +fancied it must be Dr. Swift; but it is now no longer a Secret, that his +only great and constant assistant was Mr. Addison. + +This is that excellent Friend to whom Mr. Steele ow's so much, and who +refuses to have his Name set before those Pieces, which the greatest +Pens in England would be Proud to own. Indeed, they could hardly add to +this Gentleman's Reputation, whose Works in Latin and English Poetry, +long since convinc'd the World, that he was the greatest Master in +Europe of those Two Languages. + +I am assur'd from good hands, That all the Visions, and other Tracts in +that way of Writing, with a very great number of the most exquisite +Pieces of Wit and Raillery throughout the Lucubrations, are intirely of +this Gentleman's Composing; which may in some Measure account for that +different Genius, which appears in the Winter Papers from those of the +Summer; at which time, as the EXAMINER often hinted, this Friend of Mr. +Steele's was in Ireland. + +Mr. Steele confesses in his last Volume of the TATLERS, that he is +oblig'd to Dr. Swift for his "Town Shower," and the "Description of the +Morn," with some other hints received from him in Private Conversation. + +I have also heard, that several of those Letters, which came as from +Unknown Hands, were writ by Mr. Henly; which is an Answer to your Query, +Who those Friends are, whom Mr. Steele speaks of in his last TATLER? + +But to proceed with my account of our other Papers: The Expiration of +Bickerstaff's Lucubrations, was attended with much the same Consequences +as the Death of Melibaeus's Ox in Virgil; as the latter engendred Swarms +of Bees, the former immediately produc'd whole Swarms of little +Satyrical Scriblers. + +One of these Authors, call'd himself The GROWLER, and assur'd us, that +to make amends for Mr. Steele's Silence, he was resolv'd to Growl at us +Weekly, as long as we should think fit to give him any Encouragement. +Another Gentleman, with more Modesty, call'd his Paper The WHISPERER; +and a Third, to Please the Ladies, Christen'd his, The TELL-TALE. + +At the same time came out several TATLERS; each of which, with equal +Truth and Wit, assur'd us, That he was the Genuine Isaac Bickerstaff. + +It may be observ'd, That when the Esquire laid down his Pen, tho' he +could not but foresee that several Scriblers would soon snatch it up, +which he might, one would think, easily have prevented, he Scorn'd to +take any further Care about it, but left the Field fairly open to any +Worthy Successor. Immediately some of our Wits were for forming +themselves into a Club, headed by one Mr. Barrison, and trying how they +could shoot in this Bow of Ulysses; but soon found that this sort of +Writing, requires so fine and particular a manner of Thinking, with so +exact a Knowledge of the World, as must make them utterly Despair of +Success. + +They seem'd indeed at first to think, that what was only the Garnish of +the former TATLERS, was that which recommended them, and not those +Substantial Entertainments which they every where abound in. + +According they were continually talking of their Maid, Night-Cap, +Spectacles, and Charles Lillie. However there were now and then some +faint endeavours at Humour and Sparks of Wit, which the Town, for want +of better Entertainment, was content to hunt after, through an heap of +Impertinencies; but even those are at present, become wholly Invisible, +and quite swallow'd up in the Blaze of the SPECTATOR. + +You may remember I told you before, that one Cause assign'd for the +laying down the TATLER was, want of Matter; and indeed this was the +prevailing Opinion in Town, when we were Surpriz'd all at once by a +paper called The SPECTATOR, which was promised to be continued every +day, and was writ in so excellent a Stile, with so nice a Judgment, and +such a noble profusion of Wit and Humour, that it was not difficult to +determine it could come from no other hands but those which had penn'd +the Lucubrations. + +This immediately alarm'd these Gentlemen, who (as 'tis said Mr. Steele +phrases it) had The Censorship in Commission. They found the new +SPECTATOR come on like a Torrent and swept away all before him; they +despaired ever to equal him in Wit, Humour, or Learning; (which had been +their true and certain way of opposing him) and therefore, rather chose +to fall on the Author, and to call out for help to all Good Christians, +by assuring them again and again, that they were the First, Original, +True, and Undisputed Isaac Bickerstaff. + +Mean while The SPECTATOR, whom we regard as our shelter from that Flood +of False Wit and Impertinence which was breaking in upon us, is in every +ones Hand, and a constant Topick for our Morning Conversation at +Tea-Tables, and Coffee-Houses. We had at first indeed no manner of +Notion, how a Diurnal paper could be continu'd in the Spirit and Stile +of our present SPECTATORS; but to our no small Surprize, we find them +still rising upon us, and can only wonder from whence so Prodigious a +Run of Wit and Learning can proceed; since some of our best Judges seem +to think that they have hitherto, in general, out-shone even the +Esquires first TATLERS. + +Most People Fancy, from their frequency, that they must be compos'd by a +Society; I, with all, Assign the first places to Mr. Steele and His +Friend. + +I have often thought that the Conjunction of those two Great Genius's +(who seem to stand in a Class by themselves, so high above all our other +Wits) resembled that of two famous States-men in a late Reign, whose +Characters are very well expressed in their two Mottoes (viz.) Prodesse +quam conspici, and Otium cum Dignitate. Accordingly the first was +continually at work behind the Curtain, drew up and prepared all those +Schemes and Designs, which the latter Still drove on, and stood out +exposed to the World to receive its Praises or Censures. + +Mean time, all our unbyassed well-wishers to Learning, are in hopes, +that the known Temper and Prudence of one of these Gentlemen, will +hinder the other from ever lashing out into Party, and rend'ring that +wit which is at present a Common Good, Odious and Ungrateful to the +better part of the Nation. + +If this piece of imprudence do's not spoil so excellent a Paper, I +propose to my self, the highest Satisfaction, in Reading it with you +over a Dish of Tea, every Morning next Winter. + +As we have yet had nothing new since the SPECTATOR, it only remains for +me to assure you, that I am + +Yours, &c. +J.G. + +Westminster, +May 3, 1711. + + +POSTSCRIPT. + +Upon a Review of my Letter, I find I have quite forgot The BRITISH +APOLLO; which might possibly happen, from its having of late Retreated +out of this end of the Town into the City; where I am inform'd however, +That it still recommends its self by deciding Wagers at Cards, and +giving good Advice to Shop-keepers, and their Apprentices. + +FINIS. + + +The / Present State / of / Wit, / in a / Letter / to a / Friend in the +Country. / [double rule] / London / Printed in the Year, MDCCXI./ (Price +3 d.) / + +Collation: A-C4. Pp. [1-24] P. [1] half-title, signed "A"; p. [2] blank; +p. [3] title, as above; p. [4] blank; pp. 5-22 text; p. [23] Postscript; +p. [24] blank. + +This appears to be the only contemporary edition. + +Colton Storm + + + + +THE + +_English Theophrastus_: + +OR, THE + +Manners of the Age. + + +Being the + +MODERN CHARACTERS + +OF THE + +COURT, the TOWN, + +and the CITY. + + * * * * * + +_Quicquid agunt Homines, Votum, Timor, Ira, Voluptas, Gaudia, Discursus, +nostri est Farrago, Libelli._ + +Juven. + +--_Quis enim Virtutem amplectitur ipsam?_ + +Id. + + * * * * * + +_LONDON_, + +Printed for _W. Turner_, at _Lincolns-Inn Back-Gate_; _R. Basset_ in +_Fleetstreet_; and _J. Chantry_, without _Temple Bar_, 1702 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Abel Boyer, a Huguenot who settled in London in 1689, devoted himself to +language, history, and literature. As a linguist, he tutored Allen +Bathurst and the Duke of Gloucester in French, prepared a textbook for +English students of French, compiled a French and English dictionary, +and endeavored to promote a better understanding between France and +England by translating works of each nation into the language of the +other. As a historian, he recorded the principal events of English +national life from 1688 to 1729. As a literary figure, he wrote a play +that was approved by Dryden and published two collections of characters. + +Coming in on the great flood of character books which reached its crest +in the seventeenth century, Boyer's collections were part of the final +surge before the character was taken over by Steele and handed on to the +novelists. The first was _Characters of the Virtues and Vices of the +Age; or, Moral reflections, maxima, and thoughts upon men and manners. +Translated from the most refined French wits ... and extracted from the +most celebrated English writers.... Digested alphabetically under proper +titles_ (1695). The second, resembling the first in design but +considerably enlarged, was published in 1702 under the title _The +English Theophrastus: Or The Manners of the Age. Being the Modern +Characters Of The Court, the Town, and the City_. No author is given on +the title page, but the work is usually ascribed to Boyer because his +name appears beneath the dedication. + +That Boyer's purpose in preparing _The English Theophrastus_ was moral +is evident in the preface, where he describes the subject of his book as +the "Grand-Lesson, _deliver'd by the_ Delphian _Oracle_, Know thy Self: +_Which certainly is the most important of a Man's Life_." Distempers of +the mind, he continues, like those of the body, are half cured when well +known. Although philosophers of all ages have agreed in their aim to +expose human imperfections in order to rectify them, their methods have +differed. Those moralists who have inveighed magisterially against man's +vices generally have been "_abandon'd to the ill-bred Teachers of Musty +Morals in Schools, or to the sowr Pulpit-Orators_." Those who, by +"_nipping Strokes of a Side-wind Satyr, have endeavour'd to tickle Men +out of their Follies_," have been welcomed and caressed by the very +people who were most abused. Since self-love waves the application, +satire, unless bluntly direct, can fail as completely as reprehension. + +Modern moralists, according to Boyer, have pursued a third course and +cast their observations on men and manners into the entertaining form +employed by Theophrastus, Lucian, Plutarch, and Diogenes Laertius. Among +the moderns, La Rochefoucauld, Saint-Evremond, and La Bruyere are +admired by all judicious readers. From these French writers Boyer has +selected materials for the groundwork of his collection. He has added +passages from Antoninus, Pascal, and Gratian; from the English authors +Bacon, Cowley, L'Estrange, Raleigh, Temple, Dryden, Wycherley, Brown +and others; and from his own pen. They range from a single line to a +passage of several pages. Those of English origin are distinguished by +"_an_ Asterism," his own remarks by inverted commas. Other matter is +unmarked. + +Although Boyer has used as his title _The English Theophrastus_, +examination of the sections here reprinted will show that he has +departed from the way of the Greek master. Instead of sharply defined +portraits, Boyer offers maxims, reflections, and manners, after the +French pattern. Gathered from a variety of sources, these observations +are sometimes related to one another only by their common subject +matter, but often they have been altered and rearranged by Boyer for +sharper focus and unity. A few examples will make his method clear. + +Of the paragraphs that begin on page eight of the first selection, the +second and fourth are taken from _An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex_ +(1696), perhaps the work of Mrs. Judith Drake. The first of these is the +last half of a paragraph from Drake, but minus her concluding figure, +"as Fleas are said to molest those most, who have the tenderest _Skins_, +and the sweetest _Blood_" (p. 78). Into the first line of the second +paragraph from Drake, "Of these the most voluminous Fool is the Fop +Poet," Boyer inserts a reference to Will's. Thereafter, he follows Drake +rather closely, but replaces the final portion of the paragraph with two +or three sentences from other parts of her essay. The Drake material +ends at the paragraph break on page nine. Between these two paragraphs +Boyer places the single statement, "There's somewhat that borders upon +_Madness_ in every exalted _Wit_," which may be his own version of +Dryden's line, "Great Wits are sure to Madness near allied" (_Absalom +and Achitophel_, l. 248). By means of these alterations in his sources, +Boyer has compiled a passage that has focus and direction, and gives +little evidence of its patchwork origin. + +In other instances Boyer adheres more closely to the original form of +the material he borrows. The long passage from the middle of page twenty +to the middle of twenty-five is taken from "Des Ouvrages de L'Esprit" of +La Bruyere's _Les Caracteres_. Though retaining the sequence of these +observations, he has deleted certain paragraphs. In most cases he has +translated the French faithfully, but here and there he has paraphrased +a passage or added a brief remark of his own. There was little he could +do, of course, with La Rochefoucauld, from whose _Maximes_ all of page +282 and about half of 283 of the second selection are taken. Boyer was +content to translate almost literally these remarks upon wit and +judgment which he collected from widely scattered sections of the +_Maximes_. + +Boyer's own contribution to his collection was slight, covering, all +told, little more than fifteen of the 383 pages. Distinguished neither +by originality of conception nor individuality of style, it is, +nevertheless, marked by good sense. A moderate man in his +pronouncements, Boyer was less clever than reasonable. + +Boyer's remarks on wit are in keeping with his character. Like many of +his contemporaries, he has something to say on the subject, but uses the +term rather loosely. He would seem, though, to identify wit with genius, +which gives evidence of itself in literary utterance. But judgment is a +necessary concomitant of good wit. Conversely, the would-be wit lacks +genius, expression, and judgment, and therefore turns critic, that he +may denounce in others what is not to be found in himself. Hence the +word critic has come to mean a fault finder rather than a man of sound +judgment. + +The following selections are reproduced, with permission, from a copy of +_The English Theophrastus_ in the library of the University of Michigan. + +W. Earl Britton + +University of Michigan + + + + +THE + +MANNERS + +Of the AGE. + + +_Authors, Wits, Poets, Criticks,_ Will's _Coffee-House, Play-House,_ &c. + + +"Eubulus fancying himself Inspir'd, stands up for the Honour of Poetry, +and is mightily provok'd to hear the Sacred Name of _Poet_, turn'd into +Scandal and Ridicule; He tells you what a profound Veneration the +_Athenians_ had for their Dramatick Writers; how greatly _Terence_ and +_Virgil_ were Honour'd in _Rome_; the first, by _Scipio_ and _Laelius_, +the other by _Augustus_ and _Mecaenas_; how much _Francis_ the First, and +Cardinal _Richelieu_, encourag'd the Wits of _France_; and drawing his +Argument more home, he relates to you, how in this Island the +_Buckinghams_, the _Orrerys_, the _Roscommons_, the _Normanbys_, the +_Dorsets_, the _Hallifaxs_, and several other Illustrious Persons have +not only encouraged Poetry, but ennobled the Art itself by their +Performances. + +"True _Eubulus_; we allow Poetry to be a Divine Art, and the name of +_Poet_ to be _Sacred_ and Honourable, when a _Sophocles_, a _Terence_, a +_Virgil_, a _Corneille_, a _Boileau_, a _Shakespear_, a _Waller_, a +_Dryden_, a _Wycherly_, a _Congreve_, or a _Garth_ bears it: But then we +intend it as a Scandal, when we give it to _Maevius, Chapelain, Ogilby_, +W---- D----, D----, S----, and _your self_. + +"I question whether some Poets allow any other Poets to have Perform'd +better, than themselves, in that kind of Poetry which they profess. Sir +_R---- B----_, I suppose, tho' he has declaim'd against Wit, yet is not +so conceited, as to Vie with _Horace_ and _Juvenal_ for _Satyr_; but as +to _Heroick Poetry_, methinks he Reasons thus with himself; _Homer_ has +writ the _Ilias_ and the _Odysseis_, and _Virgil_ only the _AEneid_; I +have writ _Prince Arthur_, and _King Arthur_; am I not then equal to +_Homer_, and Superior to _Virgil_? No, _B----re_, we judge of _Poetry_ +as we do of _Metals_, nor by the _Lump_, but the intrinsick Value. New +cast your Poems; purge 'em of their Dross; reduce 'em to the Bulk of the +_Dispensary_, and if then they weigh in the Balance with _that_, we will +allow you a Place among the First-Rate _Heroick Poets_. + +"The _Wits_ of mean Descent and scanty Fortune, are generally apt to +reflect on Persons of Quality and Estates, whom they rashly tax with +Dullness and Ignorance, a _Normanby_, a _Dorset_, a _Spencer_, a +_Hallifax_, a _Boyle_, a _Stanhope_, and a _Codrington_, (to pass over +abundance more) are sufficient to convince the World, that either an +Ilustrious Birth, or vast Riches, are not incompatible with _deep +Learning_, and _Sterling-Wit_. + +"_Rapin_, St. _Evremont_, and some other _French_ Criticks, do the +_English_ wrong, in the Judgments they pass upon their Plays: The +_English_ Criticks are even with them, for generally they judge as _ill_ +of _French_ Poetry. + +"There is a great reach of Discernment, a deep Knowledge, and abundance +of Candor requir'd to qualifie a Man for an _equal Judge_ of the Poetry +and ingenious Compositions of two Nations, whose _Tempers,_ _Humours_, +_Manners_, _Customs_, and _Tastes_, are so vastly different as the +_French_ are from the _English_: _Rapin_, St. _Evremont_, and _Rymer_, +are _candid_, _judicious_, and _learned_ Criticks, I own it; but yet +neither the two first are sufficiently acquainted with _England_, nor +the latter with _France_, to enter equally into the Genius of both +Nations; and consequently they cannot pass a just Sentence upon the +Performances of their respective Writers. + +"Tis a great piece of Injustice in us, to charge the _French_ with +Fickleness; for, to give them their due, They are ten times more +constant in their Judgments, than we; Their _Cid_ and _Iphigenia_ in +_Aulis_, are Acted at this very day, with as much Applause as they were +thirty Years ago: All _London_ has admir'd the _Mourning Bride_ one +Winter, and endeavoured to find fault with it the next. + +"_Philo_ comes _piping hot_ out of the College, and having his Head full +of Poetical Gingles, writes an _Elegy_, a _Panegyrick_ or a _Satyr_ upon +the least frivolous Occasion: This brings him acquainted with all the +_Second-Rate Wits_; One of these introduces him at _Will's_, and having +a Play upon the Stocks, and ready to be Launch'd, he prevails with +_Philo_ to write him a _Song_, a _Dialogue_, a _Prologue_ and +_Epilogue_, in short, the Trimming of his Comedy. By this time, _Philo_ +begins to think himself a great Man, and nothing less than the writing +of a Play, can satisfie his towring Ambition; well, the Play is writ, +the Players, upon the Recommendation of those that lick'd it over, like +their Parts to a Fondness, and the _Comedy_, or _Tragedy_, being +supported partly by its real Merit, but most powerfully by a _Toasting_, +or _Kit-cat-Club_, comes off with universal Applause. How _slippery_ is +_Greatness_! _Philo_ puff'd up with his Success, writes a second Play, +scorns to improve it by the Corrections of better Wits, brings it upon +the Stage, without securing a Party to protect it, and has the +Mortification to hear it _Hist_ to death. Pray how many _Philos_ do we +reckon in Town since the Revolution? + +"The reason we have had so many _ill Plays_ of late, is this; The +extraordinary _Success_ of the worst Performances encourages every +Pretender to Poetry to Write; Whereas the indifferent Reception some +excellent Pieces have met with, discourages our best Poets from Writing. + +"After all, one of the boldest Attempts of Human Wit, is to write a +taking _Comedy_: For, how many different sorts of People, how many +various Palates must a Poet please, to gain a general Applause? He must +have a _Plot_ and _Design_, _Coherence_ and _Unity_ of _Action_, _Time_ +and _Place_, for the Criticks, _Polite Language_ for the Boxes, +_Repartee_, _Humor_, and _Double Entendres_ for the Pit; and to the +shame of our Theatres, a mixture of Farce for the Galleries, What Man of +Sense now will venture his Reputation upon these hard Terms. + +"The Poet often arrogates to himself the Applause, which we only give +to Mrs. _Barry_ or _Bracegirdle_'s inimitable Performances: But then he +must take as often upon his Account the Hisses, which are only intended +for _Caesonia_, and _Corinna's abominable Acting_. One makes amends for +'tother. + +"Many a pert Coxcomb might have past for a _Wit_, if his Vanity had not +brought him to _Will_'s. + +"The same thing that makes a Man appear with Assurance at _Court_; +qualifies him also to appear unconcern'd among Men of Sense at _Will_'s: +I mean _Impertinence_. + +"As some People _Write_, so others _talk themselves_ out of their +_Reputation_." + +* The name of a _Wit_ is little better than a Slander, since it is +generally given by those that have _none_, to those that have _little_. + +"How strangely some words lose their Primitive Sense! By a _Critick_, +was originally understood a _good Judge_; with us now-a-days, it +signifies no more than a _Fault-finder_." + +* A _Critick_ in the Modern Acceptation, seldom rises, either in +_Merit_, or _Reputation_; for it argues a mean grov'ling Genius, to be +always finding Fault; whereas, a candid Judge of Things, not only +improves his Parts, but gains every Body's Esteem. + +* None keep generally worse Company than your Establish'd _Wits_, for +there are a sort of Coxcombs, that stick continually to them like Burrs, +to make the Town think from their Company, that they are Men of Parts. + +* _Criticks_ are useful, that's most certain, so are Executioners and +Informers: But what Man did ever envy the condition of _Jack Ketch_, or +_Jack P----r_. + +* How can we love the Man, whose Office is to torture and execute other +Men's Reputation. + +* After all, a _Critick_ is the last Refuge of a pretender to _Wit_. + +"Tis a great piece of Assurance in a profest _Critick_ to write _Plays_, +for if he does, he must expect to have the whole Club of _Wits_, +scanning his Performances with utmost Severity, and magnifying his +_Slips_ into _prodigious Faults_." + +* I don't wonder Men of Quality and Estate resort to _Will_'s, for +really they make the best Figure there; an indifferent thing from 'em, +passes for a Witty Jest, and sets presently the whole Company a +Laughing. Thus we admire the pert Talk of Children, because we expected +nothing from 'em. + +"There are many unpertinent _Witlings_ at _Will_'s, that's certain; but +then your Retailers of _Politicks_, or of second-hand Wit at _Tom_'s, +are ten times more intolerable." + +* _Wits_ are generally the most dangerous Company a Woman can keep, for +their Vanity makes 'em brag of more Favours than they obtain. + +"Some Women care not what becomes of their Honour, so they may secure +the _Reputation_ of their _Wit_. + +"Those People generally talk _most_, who have the least to say; go to +_Will_'s, and you'll hardly hear the Great _Wycherley_ speak two +Sentences in a quarter of an Hour, whilst _Blatero_, _Hamilus_, +_Turpinus_; and twenty more egregious Coxcombs, deafen the Company with +their Political _Nonsense_. + +"There are at _Will_'s some _Wit-carriers_, whose business is, to +export the fine Things they hear, from one Room to another, next to a +Reciting-Poet; these Fellows are the most exquisite Plague to a Man of +Sense. + +"In spight of the intrinsick Merit of _Wit_, we find it seldom brings a +Man into the _Favour_, or even _Company_ of the _Great_, and the _Fair_, +unless it be for a Laugh and away; never thought on, but when present; +nor then neither, for the sake of the Man of _Wit_, but their own +Diversion. The infallible way to ingratiate ones self with Quality, is +that dull and empty Entertainment, called _Gaming_, for _Picket_, +_Ombre_, and _Basset_, keep always Places even for a _quondam Foot-man,_ +or a _Drawer_ at the _Assemblies_, _Apartments_, and _Visiting-days_. If +you lose, you oblige with your Money; if you Win, you command with your +Fortune; the _Lord_ is your _Bubble_, and the Lady what you please to +make her." + +* _Flattery_ of our _Wit_, has the same Power over Us, which _Flattery_ +of _Beauty_ has over a Woman; it keeps up that good Opinion of our +selves which is necessary to beget _Assurance_; and _Assurance_ produces +success both in _Fortune_ and _Love_. + +* Some Men take as much Pains to persuade the World that they have +_Wit_, as _Bullies_ do that they have _Courage_, and generally with the +same Success, for they seldom deceive any one but themselves. + +* Some _pert Coxcombs_, so violently affect the Reputation of _Wits_, +that not a _French Journal_, _Mercury_, _Farce_, or _Opera_, can escape +their Pillaging: yet the utmost they arrive at, is but a sort of +_Jack-a-lanthorn Wit_, that like the Sun-shine which wanton Boys with +fragments of Looking-glass reflect in Men's Eyes, dazles the +Weak-sighted, and troubles the strong. These are the Muses +_Black-Guard_, that like those of our Camp, tho' they have no share in +the Danger or Honour, yet have the greatest in the Plunder; that +indifferently strip all that lie before 'em, dead or alive, Friends or +Enemies: Whatever they light on, is _Terra incognita_, and they claim +the right of Discoverers, that is, of giving their Names to it. + +* I think the _Learned_, and _Unlearned Blockhead_ pretty Equal: For +'tis all one to me, whether a Man talk _Nonsense_, or _Unintelligible +Sense_. + +* There is nothing of which we assent to speak with more Humility and +Indifference than our own _Sense_, yet nothing of which we think with +more Partiality and Presumption. There have been some so bold, as to +assume the Title of the _Oracles_ of Reason to themselves, and their own +Writings; and we meet with others daily, that think themselves _Oracles +of Wit_. These are the most vexatious Animals in the World, that think +they have a privileee to torment and plague every Body; but those most +who have the best Reputation for their Wit and Judgment. + +* There's somewhat that borders upon _Madness_ in every exalted _Wit_. + +* One of the most remarkable Fools that resort to _Will_'s, is the +_Fop-Poet_, who is one that has always more Wit in his Pockets than any +where else, yet seldom or never any of his own there. _AEsop_'s Daw was a +Type of him, for he makes himself fine with the Plunder of all Parties; +He is a smuggler of Wit, and steals _French_ Fancies, without paying the +customary Duties; Verse is his _Manufacture_; for it is more the Labour +of his _Fingers_, than his _Brain_: He spends much time in _writing_, +but ten times more in _reading_ what he has written: He asks your +Opinion, yet for fear you should not jump with him, tells you his own +first: He desires no Favour, yet is disappointed if he is not Flatter'd, +and is always offended at the Truth. He is a _Poetical Haberdasher of +small Wares_, and deals very much in _Novels_, _Madrigals_, _Funeral_ +and _Love Odes_, _Panegyricks_, _Elegies_, and other Toys of +_Parnassus_, which he has a Shop so well furnish'd with, that he can fit +you with all sorts in the twinkling of an Eye. He talks much of +_Wycherley_, _Garth_, and _Congreve_, and protests, he can't help having +some Respect for them, because they have so much for him and his +Writings, otherwise he could make it appear that they understand little +of Poetry in comparison of himself, but he forbears 'em meerly out of +Gratitude and Compassion. He is the _Oracle_ of those that want _Wit_, +and the _Plague_ of those that have it; for he haunts their Lodgings, +and is more terrible to them than their Duns. + +* _Brutus_ for want of _Wit_, sets up for _Criticism_; yet has so much +ambition to be thought a _Wit_, that he lets his Spleen prevail against +Nature, and turns Poet. In this Capacity he is as just to the World as +in the other injurious. For, as the _Critick_ wrong'd every Body in his +Censure, and snarl'd and grin'd at their Writings, the _Poet_ gives 'em +opportunity to do themselves Justice, to return the Compliment, and +laugh at, or despise his. He takes his _Malice_ for a _Muse_, and thinks +himself _Inspir'd_, when he is only _Possess'd_, and blown up with a +Flatus of _Envy_ and _Vanity_. His Works are _Libels_ upon others, but +_Satyrs_ upon himself; and while they bark at Men of _Sense_, call him +Fool that writ 'em. He has a very great Antipathy to his own Species, +and hates to see a Fool any where but in his Glass; for, as he says, +_they provoke him, and offend his Eyes_. His Fund of Criticism, is a set +of Terms of Art, pick'd out of the _French Criticks_, or their +Translators; and his _Poetical Stock_, is a common Place of certain +_Forms_ and manners of Expression. He writes better in _Verse_ than +_Prose_; for in that there is _Rhime_, in this, neither _Rhime_ nor +_Reason_. He rails both at the _French_ Writers, "whom he does not +understand, and at those _English_ Authors, whose Excellencies he cannot +reach; with him _Voiture_ is flat and dull, _Corneille_ a stranger to +the Passions, _Racine_, Starch'd and Affected, _Moliere_, Jejune, _la +Fontaine_ a poor Teller of Tales; and even the Divine _Boileau_, little +better than a Plagiary. As for the _English_ Poets, he treats almost +with the same Freedom; _Shakespear_ with him has neither Language nor +Manners; _Ben. Johnson_ is a Pedant; _Dryden_ little more than a +tolerable Versifier; _Congreve_ a laborious Writer; _Garth_, an +indifferent imitator of _Boileau_. He traduces _Oldham_, for want of +Breeding and good Manners, without a grain of either, and steals his own +Wit to bespatter him with; but like an ill Chymist, he lets the _Spirit_ +fly off in the drawing over and retains only the _Phlegm_. He Censures +_Cowley_ for too much Wit, and corrects him with none. He is a great +Admirer of the incomparable _Milton_, but while he fondly endeavours to +imitate his _Sublime_, he is blown up with _Bombast_ and _puffy +Expressions_. He is a great stickler for _Euripides_, _Sophocles_, +_Horace_, _Virgil_, _Ovid_, and the rest of the Ancients; but his ill +and lame Translations of 'em, ridicule those he would commend. He +ventures to write for the Play-Houses, but having his stol'n, +ill-patch'd fustian Plays Damn'd upon the Stage, he ransacks _Bossu_, +_Rapin_, and _Dacier_, to arraign the ill-taste of the Town. To compleat +himself in the Formalities of _Parnassus_, he falls in Love, and tells +his Mistress in a very pathetick Letter, he is oblig'd to her bright +_Beauty_ for his Poetry; but if this Damsel prove no more indulgent than +his Muse, his Amour is like to conclude but unluckily." + +_Demetrius_ before the Curse of Poetry had seiz'd him, was in a pretty +way of _Thriving Business_, but having lately sold his Chambers in one +of the Inns of Court, and taken a Lodging near the Play-house, is now in +a fair way of _Starving_. This Gentleman is frequently possest with +Poetick Raptures; and all the Family complains, that he disturbs 'em at +Midnight, by reciting some incomparable sublime Fustian of his own +Composing. When he is in Bed, one wou'd imagine he might be quiet for +that Night, but 'tis quite otherwise with him; for when a new Thought, +as he calls it, comes into his Head, up he gets, sets it down in +Writing, and so gradually encreases the detested Bulk of his Poetick +Fooleries, which, Heaven avert it! he threatens to Print. _Demetrius_ +having had the misfortune of miscarrying upon the Stage, endeavours to +preserve his unlawful Title to Wit, by bringing all the Dramatick Poets +down to his own Level. And wanting Spirit to set up for a Critick, turns +_Spy_ and _Informer_ of _Parnassus_. He frequents _Apollo_'s Court at +_Will_'s, and picks up the freshest Intelligence, what Plays are upon +the Stocks, what ready to be Launch'd; and if he can be inform'd, from +the _Establish'd Wits_, of any remarkable Fault in the new Play upon the +Bills, he is indefatigably industrious in whispering it about, to +bespeak its Damnation before its Representation. + +* _Curculio_ is a Semi-Wit, that has a great _Veneration_ for the +_Moderns_, and no less a _Contempt_ for the _Ancients_: But his own ill +Composures destroy the force of his Arguments, and do the Ancients full +Justice. This Gentleman having had the good Fortune to write a very +taking, _undigested medly of Comedy_ and _Farce_, is so puff'd up with +his Success, that nothing will serve him, but he must bring this new +_fantastick way of writing_, into Esteem. To compass this Noble Design, +he tells you what a Coxcomb _Aristotle_ was with his Rules of the _three +Unities_; and what a Company of Senseless Pedants the _Scaligers_, +_Rapins_, _Bossu's_, and _Daciers_ are. He proves that _Aristotle_ and +_Horace_, knew nothing of _Poetry_; that Common Sense and Nature were +not the same in _Athens_, and _Rome_, as they are in _London_; that +_Incoherence_, _Irregularity_ and _Nonsense_ are the Chief Perfections +of the _Drama_, and, by a necessary Consequence that the _Silent woman_, +is below his own Performance. + +"_No new Doctrine_ in _Religion_, ever got any considerable Footing +except it was grounded on _Miracles_; Nor any new _Hypothesis_ was ever +established in natural Philolqphy, unless it was confirm'd by +_Experience_. The same Rule holds, in some measure, in all Arts and +Sciences, particularly in Dramatick Poetry. It will be a hard matter for +any Man to trump up any new set of Precepts, in opposition to those of +_Aristotle_ and _Horace_, except by following them, he writes several +approved Plays. The great success of the _first Part_ of the _T---p_ was +sufficient I must confess, to justifie the Authors _Conceit_; But then +the _Explosion_ of the _Second_ ought to have cur'd him of it. + +"_Writers_ like _Women_ seldom give one another a good Word; that's +most certain. Now if the _Poets_ and _Criticks_ of all Ages have allowed +_Sophocles_, _Euripides_, and _Terence_ to have been good _Dramatick +Writers_, and _Aristotle_ and _Horace_ to have been _judicious +Criticks_, ought not their _Censure_ to weigh more with Men of Sense, +than the Fancies, of a Modern Pretender. To be plain, whoever Disputes +_Aristotle_ and _Horace_, Rules does as good as call the _Scaligers_, +_Vossii_, _Rapins_, _Bossu's_, _Daciers_, _Corneilles_, _Roscommons_, +_Normanby's_ and _Rymers_, _Blockheads_: A man must have a great deal of +Assurance, to be so free with such illustrious Judges. + +"Of all the modern Dramatick Poets the Author of _the Trip to the +Jubilee_ has the least Reason to turn into Ridicule _Aristotle_ and +_Horace_, since 'tis to their _Rules_ which he has, in some measure +followed, that he owed the great success of that Play. Those _Rules_ are +no thing but a strict imitation of Nature, which is still the same in +all Ages and Nations: And because the Characters of _Wildair_, +_Angelica_, _Standard_ and _Smuggler_ are _natural_, and well pursued, +They have justly met _with Applause_; but then the Characters of +_Lurewell_ and _Clincher_ Sen. being _out_ of _Nature_ they have as +justly been condemned by all the Good Judges." + +* Some _Scholars_, tho' by their constant Conversation with Antiquity, +they may know perfectly the sense of the Learned dead, and be perfect +masters of the Wisdom, be throughly informed of the State, and nicely +skill'd in the Policies of Ages long since past, yet by their retired +and unactive Life, and their neglect of Business, they are such +strangers to the Domestick Affairs and manners of their own Country and +Times, that they appear like the Ghosts of old _Romans_ rais'd by +Magick. Talk to them of the _Assyrian_ or _Persian_ Monarchies of the +_Grecian_ or _Roman_ Commonwealths, they answer like Oracles; They are +such finished States-men that we should scarce take 'em to have been +less than Privy-Councellors to _Semiramis_, Tutors to _Cyrus_ the Great, +and old Cronies of _Solon_, _Licurgus_, and _Numa Pompilius_. But ingage +them in a discourse that concerns the present Times, and their Native +Country, and they hardly speak the language of it; Ask them how many +Kings there have been in _England_ since the Conquest, or in what Reign +the _Reformation_ happened, and they'll be puzzled with the Question; +They know all the minutest Circumstances of _Catiline's_ Conspiracy, but +are hardly acquainted with the late Plot. They'll tell you the Names of +such _Romans_ as were called to an Account by the Senate for their +_Briberies_, _Extortions_ and _Depredations_, but know nothing of the +four impeached Lords; They talk of the ancient way of Fighting, and +warlike Engines, as if they had been Lieutenant Generals under +_Alexander_, _Scipio_, _Annibal_ or _Julius Caesar_; but are perfectly +ignorant of the modern military Discipline, Fortification and Artillery; +and of the very names of _Nassau_, _Conde_, _Turenne_, _Luxembourg_, +_Eugene_, _Villeroy_ and _Catinat_. They are excellent Guides, and can +direct you to every Alley, and Turning in old _Rome_ yet lose their way +home in their own Parish. They are mighty Admirers of the Wit and +Eloquence of the Ancients; Yet had they lived in the Time of +_Demosthenes_, and _Cicero_, would have treated them with as much +supercilious Pride, and disrespect as they do now the Moderns. They are +great Hunters of Ancient Manuscripts, and have in great Veneration any +thing that has escaped the Teeth of Time; and if Age has obliterated the +Characters, 'tis the more valuable for not being legible. These +Superstitious bigotted idolaters of time past, are children in their +Understanding all their lives, for they hang so incessantly upon the +leading-strings of Authority, that their Judgments like the Limbs of +some _Indian_ Penitents, become altogether crampt and motionless for +want of use. In fine, they think it a disparagement of their Learning to +talk what other Men understand, and will scarce believe that two and two +make four, under a Demonstration from _Euclid_, or a _Quotation from +Aristotle_. + +The World shall allow a Man to be a wise Man, a good Naturalist, a good +Mathematician, Politician or Poet, but not a _Scholar_, or Learned Man, +unless he be a Philologer and understands Greek and Latin. But for my +part I take these Gentlemen have just inverted the life of the Term, and +given that to the Knowledge of Words, which belongs more properly to +Things. I take Nature to be the Book of Universal Learning, which he +that reads best in all or any of its Parts, is the greatest Scholar, the +most Learned Man; and 'tis as ridiculous for a Man to count himself more +learned than another, if he have no greater Extent of Knowledge of +things, because he is more vers'd in Languages, as it would be for an +old fellow to tell a young One, his own Eyes were better than the +other's because he reads with spectacles, the other without. + +* _Impertinence_ is a Failing that has its Root in Nature, but is not +worth laughing at, till it has received the finishing strokes of _Art_. +A man thro' natural Defects may do abundance of incoherent foolish +Actions, yet deserves compassion and Advice rather than derision. But to +see Men spending their Fortunes, as well as lives, in a Course of +regular Folly, and with an industrious as well as expensive idleness +running thro' tedious systems of impertinence, would have split the +sides of _Heraclitus_, had it been his Fortune to have been a Spectator. +It's very easie to decide which of these impertinents is the most +signal: the Virtuoso is manifestly without a Competitor. For our follies +are not to be measured by the Degree of Ignorance that appears in 'em, +but by the study, labour and expence they cost us to finish and compleat +'em. + +So that the more Regularity and Artifice there appears in any of our +Extravagancies, the greater is the Folly of 'em. Upon this score it is +that the last mentioned deservedly claim the Preference to all others. +They have improved so well their Amusements into an Art, that the +credulous and ignorant are induced to believe there is some secret +Vertue, some hidden Mystery in those darling Toys of theirs: when all +their Bustling amounts to no more than a learned impertinence and all +they teach men is but a specious method of throwing away both Time and +Money. + +"The _Illusions_ of _Poetry_ are fatal to none but the _Poets_ +themselves: _Sidonius_ having lately miscarried upon the Stage, gathers +fresh Courage and is now big with the Hopes of a Play, writ by an +ancient celebrated Author, new-vampt and furbisht up after the laudable +Custom of our modern Witlings. He reckons how much he shall get by his +third day, nay, by his sixth; how much by the Printing, how much by the +Dedication, and by a modest Computation concludes the whole sum, will +amount to two hundred Pounds, which are to be distributed among his +trusty Duns. But mark the fallacy of _Vanity_ and _Self-conceit_: The +Play is acted, and casts the Audience into such a Lethargy, that They +are fain to damn it with _Yawning_, being in a manner deprived of the +Use of their _hissing_ Faculty. Well says, _Sidonius_, (after having +recover'd from a profound Consternation) _Now must the important Person +stand upon his own Leggs_. Right, _Sidonius_, but when do you come on +again, that _Covent-Garden_ Doctors may prescribe your Play instead of +Opium? + +"The Town is not one jot more diverted by the Division of the +Play-houses: the _Players_ perform better 'tis true? but then the +_Poets_ write worse; Will the uniting of _Drury-Lane_ and +_Lincoln's-Inn-Fields_ mend Matters? No,--for then What the Town should +get in writing, they would lose it in Acting." + +* A _Dramatick Poet_ has as hard a Task on't to manage, as a _passive +obedience Divine_ that preaches before the Commons on the 30th. of +_January_. + +To please the _Pit_ and _Galleries_ he must take care to lard the +Dialogue with store of luscious stuff, which the righteous call Baudy; +to please the new Reformers he must have none, otherwise gruff _Jeremy_ +will Lash him in a third _View_. + +* I very much Question, after all, whether _Collier_ would have been at +the Pains to lash the immoralities of the stage, if the Dramatick Poets +had not been guilty of the _abominable Sin_ of making familiar now and +then with the Backslidings of the Cassock. + +* _The Griping Usurer_, whose daily labour and nightly Care and Study +is to oppress the Poor, or over-reach his Neighbour, to betray the +Trusts his Hypocrisy procured; in short to break all the Positive Laws +of Morality, crys out, Oh! Diabolical, at a poor harmless _Double +Entendre_ in a Play. + +"'Tis preposterous to pretend to reform the _Stage_ before the Nation, +and particularly the Town, is _reform'd_. The Business of a Dramatick +Poet is to _copy Nature_, and represent things as they are; Let our +Peers give over _whoring_ and _drinking_; the Citizens, _Cheating_; the +Clergy, their _Quarrels, Covetousness and Ambition_; the Lawyers, their +_ambi-dextrous dealings_; and the Women _intriguing_, and the stage will +reform of Course. + +"Formerly _Poets_ made _Players_, but now adays 'tis generally the +_Player_ that makes the _Poet_. How many Plays would have expired the +very first Night of their appearing upon the Stage, but for _Betterton_, +_Barry_, _Bracegirdle_, or _Wilks_'s inimitable Performance. + +"Who ever goes about to expose the Follies of others upon the Stage, +runs great hazard of exposing himself first; and of being made +Ridiculous to those very People he endeavours to make so. + +"I doubt whether a Man of Sense would ever give himself the trouble of +writing for the Stage, if he had before his Eyes the fatigue of +Rehearsals, the Pangs and Agonies of the first day his Play is Acted, +the Disappointments of the third, and the Scandal of a Damn'd Poet. + +"The reason why in _Shakespear_ and _Ben. Johnson_'s Time Plays had so +good Success, and that we see now so many of 'em miscarry, is because +then the Poets _wrote better_ than the Audience _Judg'd_; whereas +now-a-days the _Audience_ judge _better than the Poets write_." + +* He that pretends to confine a Damsel of the Theatre to his own Use, +who by her Character is a Person of an extended Qualification, acts as +unrighteous, at least as unnatural, a Part, as he that would Debauch a +Nun. But after all, such a Spark rather consults his _Vanity_, than his +_Love_, and would be thought to ingross what all the young Coxcombs of +the Town admire and covet. + +"Is it not a kind of Prodigy, that in this wicked and censorious Age, +the shining _Daphne_ should preserve her Reputation in a Play-House?" + +The Character of a Player was Infamous amongst the _Romans_, but with +the _Greeks_ Honourable: What is our Opinion? We think of them like the +_Romans_, and live with them like the _Greeks_. + +"Nothing so powerfully excites Love in us Men, as the view of those +Limbs of Women's Bodies, which the Establish'd Rules of Modesty bid 'em +keep from our Sight. No wonder then if _Aglaura_, _Caesonia_, _Floria_, +and in general all the Women on our Stages, are so fond of acting in +Men's Cloaths. + +"_Caesonia_ is Young, I own it: But then _Caesonia_ has an _African_ Nose, +hollow Eyes, and a _French_ Complexion; so that all the time she acted +in her Sex's Habit, her Conquests never extended further than one of her +Fellow-Players, or a Cast-Poet. Mark the Miracles of Fancy: _Caesonia_ +acts a _Boy_'s Part, and _Tallus_, one of the first _Patricians_, falls +desperately in Love with her, and presents her with two Hundred great +_Sesterces_ (a Gentlewoman's Portion) for a Night's Lodging. + +"One would imagine our Matrons should be mighty Jealous of their +Husbands Intriguing with Players: But no, they bear it with a Christian +Patience. How is that possible? Why, they Intrigue themselves, either +with _Roscius_ the Tragedian, _Flagillus_, the Comedian, or _Bathillus_, +the Dancer." + +Nothing Surprizes me more, than to see Men Laugh so freely at a Comedy, +and yet account it a silly weakness to Weep at a Tragedy. For is it less +natural for a Man's Heart to relent upon a Scene of Pity, than to be +transported with Joy upon one of Mirth and Humour? Or is it only the +alteration of the Features of one's Face that makes us forbear Crying? +But this alteration is undoubtedly as great in an immoderate Laughter, +as in a most desperate Grief; and good Breeding teaches us to avoid the +one as well as the other, before those for whom we have a Respect. Or is +it painful to us to appear tender-hearted and express grief upon a +Fiction? But without quoting great Wits who account it an equal +Weakness, either to weep or laugh out of Measure, can we expect to be +tickled by a Tragical Adventure? And besides, is not Truth as naturally +represented in that as in a Comical one? Therefore as we do not think it +ridiculous to see a whole Audience laugh at a merry jest or humour +acted to the life, but on the contrary we commend the skill both of the +Poet and the Actor; so the great Violence we use upon our selves to +contain our tears, together with the forc'd a-wry smiles with which we +strive to conceal our Concern, do forcibly evince that the natural +effect of a good _Tragedy_ is to make us all weep by consent, without +any more ado than to pull out our Handkerchiefs to wipe off our Tears. +And if it were once agreed amongst us not to resist those tender +impressions of _Pity_, I dare engage that we would soon be convinc'd +that by frequenting the Play-house we run less danger of being put to +the expence of Tears, than of being almost frozen to death by many a +cold, dull insipid jest. + +We must make it our main Business and Study to _think_ and _write well_, +and not labour to submit other People's Palates and Opinions to our own; +which is the greater difficulty of the two. + +One should serve his time to learn how to make a _Book_, just as some +men do to learn how to make a watch, for there goes something more than +either Wit or Learning to the setting up for an _Author_. A _Lawyer_ of +this Town was an able, subtle and experienc'd Man in the way of his +Business, and might for ought I know, have come to be _Lord Chief +Justice_, but he has lately miscarried in the Good Opinion of the World, +only by Printing some Essays which are a Master-piece--in _Nonsense_. + +It is a more difficult matter to get a Name by a _Perfect Composure_, +than to make an _indifferent_ one valued by that Reputation a Man has +already got in the World. + +There are some things which admit of no _mediocrity_; such as _Poetry_, +_Painting_, _Musick and Oratory_--What Torture can be greater than to +hear Doctor F---- declaim a flat Oration with formality and Pomp, or +D---- read his Pyndaricks with all the Emphasis of a _Dull Poet_. + +We have not as yet seen any excellent Piece, but what is owing to the +Labour of one single Man: _Homer_, for the purpose, has writ the +_Iliad_; _Virgil_, the _AEneid_; _Livy_ his _Decads_; and the _Roman_ +Orator his Orations; but our _modern several Hands_ present us often +with nothing but a _Variety of Errors_. + +There is in the Arts and Sciences such a _Point of Perfection_, as there +is one of _Goodness_ or _maturity_ in Fruits; and he that can find and +relish it must be allowed to have a _True Tast_; but on the contrary, he +that neither perceives it, nor likes any thing on this side, or beyond +it, has but a defective Palate. Hence I conclude that there is a bad +_Taste_ and a _good_ one, and that the disputing about _Tastes_ is not +altogether unreasonable. + +The Lives of _Heroes_ have enricht _History_ and History in requital has +embellished and heightened the Lives of _Heroes_, so that it is no easie +matter to determine which of the two is more beholden to the other: +either _Historians_, to those who have furnished them with so great and +noble a matter to work upon; or those great Men, to those Writers that +have convey'd their names and Atchievements down to the _Admiration of +after-Ages._ + +There are many of our _Wits_ that feed for a while upon the _Ancients_, +and the best of our Modern Authors: and when they have _squeez'd_ out +and _extracted_ matter enough to appear in Print and set up for +themselves, most ungratefully abuse them, like children grown strong and +lusty by the good milk they have sucked, who generally beat their +Nurses. + +A _Modern_ Author proves both by Reasons and Examples that the +_Ancients_ are inferior to us; and fetches his Arguments from his own +particular Tast, and his Examples from his own _Writings_. He owns, That +the _Ancients_ tho' generally uneven and uncorrect, have yet here and +there some fine Touches, and indeed these are so fine, that the quoting +of them is the only thing that makes his _Criticisms_ worth a Mans +reading 'em. + +Some great Men pronounce for the _Ancients_ against the _Moderns_: But +their own Composures are so agreeable to the Taste of Antiquity, and +bear so great a resemblance with the Patterns they have left us, that +they seem to be judges in their own Case and being suspected of +Partiality, are therefore _ceptionable_. + +It is the Character of a _Pedant_ to be unwilling either to ask a +Friend's advice about his Work or to alter what he has been made +sensible to be a fault. + +We ought to read our Writings to those only, who have Judgment enough to +correct what is amiss, and esteem what deserves to be commended. + +An _Author_, ought to receive with an equal Modesty both the Praise and +Censure of other People upon his own Works. + +A great facility in submitting to other People's Censure is sometimes as +faulty as a great roughness in rejecting it: for there is no Composure +so every way accomplisht, but what would be pared and clipped to nothing +if a man would follow the advice of every finical scrupulous Critick, +who often would have the best Things left out because forsooth, they are +not agreeable to his dull Palate. + +The great Pleasure some People take in _criticizing_ upon the _small +Faults_ of a Book so vitiates their Taste, that it renders them unfit to +be _affected_ with it's _Beauties_. + +The same Niceness of Judgment which makes some Men write sence, makes +them very often shy and unwilling to appear in Print. + +Among the several _Expressions_ We may use for the same Thought, there +is but an individual one which is good and proper; any other but that is +flat and imperfect, and cannot please an ingenious Man that has a mind +to explain what he thinks: And it is no small wonder to me to consider, +what Pains, even the best of Writers are sometimes at, to seek out that +Expression, which being the most simple and natural, ought consequently +to have presented it self without Study. + +'Tis to no great purpose that a Man seeks to make himself admir'd by his +Composures: Blockheads, indeed, may oftentimes admire him but then they +are but Blockheads; and as for _Wits_ they have in themselves the seeds +or hints of all the good and fine things that can possibly be thought of +or said; and therefore they seldom admire any thing, but only approve of +what hits their Palate. + +The being a _Critick_ is not so much a Science as a sort of laborious, +and painful Employment, which requires more strength of Body, than +delicacy of Wit, and more assiduity than natural Parts. + +As some merit Praise for writing well, so do others for not writing at +all. + +That _Author_ who chiefly endeavours to please the Taste of the Age he +lives in, rather consults his private interest, than that of his +_Writings_. We ought always to have perfection in Prospect as the chief +thing we aim at, and that Point once gain'd, we may rest assured that +unbyassed _Posterity_ will do us Justice, which is often deny'd us by +our _Contemporaries_. + +'Tis matter of discretion in an Author to be extreamly reserv'd and +modest when he speaks of the Work he is upon, for fear he should raise +the World's Expectation too high: For it is most certain, that our +Opinion of an extraordinary Promise, goes always further than the +Performance, and a Man's Reputation cannot but be much lessen'd by such +a Disparity. + +The Name of the _Author_ ought to be the last thing we inquire into, +when we Judge of the merit of an ingenious Composure, but contrary to +this maxim we generally judge of the _Book_ by the _Author_, instead of +judging of the _Author_ by the _Book_. + +As we see Women that without the knowledge of Men do sometimes bring +forth inanimate and formless lumps of Flesh, but to cause a natural and +perfect Generation, they are to be husbanded by another kind of seed, +even so it is with Wit which if not applied to some certain study that +may fix and restrain it, runs into a thousand Extravagancies, and is +eternally roving here and there in the inextricable labyrinth of +restless Imagination. + +If every one who hears or reads a good Sentence or maxim, would +immediately consider how it does any way touch his own private concern, +he would soon find, that it was not so much a good saying, as a severe +lash to the ordinary Bestiality of his judgment: but Men receive the +Precepts and admonitions of Truth as generally directed to the common +sort and never particularly to themselves, and instead of applying them +to their own manners, do only very ignorantly and unprofitably commit +them to Memory, without suffering themselves to be at all instructed, or +converted by them. + +We say of some compositions that they stink of Oil and smell of the +Lamp, by reason of a certain rough harshness that the laborious handling +imprints upon those, where great force has been employed: but besides +this, the solicitude of doing well, and a certain striving and +contending of a mind too far strain'd, and over-bent upon its +undertaking, breaks and hinders it self, like Water that by force of its +own pressing Violence and Abundance cannot find a ready issue through +the neck of a Bottle, or a narrow sluice. + +Humour, Temper, Education and a thousand other Circumstances create so +great a difference betwixt the several Palates of Men, and their +Judgments upon ingenious Composures, that nothing can be more chimerical +and foolish in an Author than the Ambition of a general Reputation. + +As Plants are suffocated and drown'd with too much nourishment, and +Lamps with too much Oyl, so is the active part of the understanding with +too much study and matter, which being embarass'd and confounded with +the Diversity of things is deprived of the force and power to disingage +it self; and by the Pressure of this weight, it is bow'd, subjected and +rendred of no use. + +* Studious and inquisitive Men commonly at forty or fifty at the most, +have fixed and settled their judgments in most Points, and as it were +made their last understanding, supposing they have thought, or read, or +heard what can be said on all sides of things, and after that they grow +positive and impatient of Contradiction, thinking it a disparagement to +them to alter their Judgment. + +All Skillful Masters ought to have a care not to let their Works be seen +in _Embryo_, for all beginnings are defective, and the imagination is +always prejudiced. The remembring to have seen a thing imperfect takes +from one the Liberty of thinking it pretty when it is finished. + +Many fetch a tedious Compass of Words, without ever coming to the Knot +of the business: they make a thousand turnings and windings, that tire +themselves and others, without ever arriving at the Point of importance. +That proceeds from the Confusion of their Understanding, which cannot +clear it self. They lose Time and Patience in what ought to be let +alone, and then they have no more to bestow upon what they have omitted. + +It is the Knack of Men of Wit to find out Evasions; With a touch of +Gallantry they extricate themselves out of the greatest Labyrinth. A +graceful smile will make them avoid the most dangerous Quarrel. + + +_Mind, Understanding, Wit, Memory, Heart._ + +The Strength and Weakness of a Man's Mind, are improper Terms, since +they are really nothing else but the _Organs_ of our _Bodies_, being +well or ill dispos'd. + +'Tis a great Errour, the making a difference between the _Wit_ and the +_Judgment_: For, in truth, the _Judgment_ is nothing else but the +_Brightness of Wit_, which penetrates into the very bottom of Things, +observes all that ought to be observ'd there, and descries what seem'd +to be imperceptible. From whence we must conclude, That 'tis the +_Extention_ and _Energy_ of this _Light_ of _Wit_, that produces all +those Effects, usually ascrib'd to _Judgment_. + +All Men may be allowed to give a good Character of their _Hearts_ (or +_Inclinations_) but no body dares to speak well of his own _Wit_. + +_Polite Wit_ consists in nice, curious, and honest _Thoughts_. + +The _Gallantry_ of _Wit_ consists in _Flattery_ well couch'd. + +It often happens, that some things offer themselves to our _Wit_, which +are naturally finer and better, than is possible for a Man to make them +by the Additions of _Art_ and _Study_. + +_Wit_ is always made a _Cully_ to the _Heart_. + +Many People are acquainted with their own _Wit_, that are not acquainted +with their own _Heart_. + +It is not in the power of _Wit_, to act a long while the _Part_ of the +_Heart_. + +A Man of _Wit_ would be sometimes miserably at a loss, but for the +Company of _Fools_. + +A Man of _Wit_ may sometimes be a _Coxcomb_; but a Man of _Judgment_ +never can. + +The different Ways or Methods for compassing a Design, come not so much +from the Quickness and Fertility of an industrious _Wit_, as a +dim-sighted _Understanding_, which makes us pitch upon every fresh +Matter that presents itself to our groping _Fancy_, and does not furnish +us with Judgment sufficient to discern at first sight, which or them is +best for our Purpose. + +The _Twang_ of a Man's _Native Country_, sticks by him as much in his +_Mind_ and _Disposition_, as it does in his _Tone_ of _Speaking_. + +_Wit_ serves sometimes to make us play the _Fool_ with greater +Confidence. + +Shallow _Wits_ are apt to censure everything above their own _Capacity_. + +'Tis past the Power of _Imagination_ it self, to invent so many distant +_Contrarieties_, as there are naturally in the _Heart_ of every Man. + +No body is so well acquainted with himself, as to know his own _Mind_ at +all times. + +Every body complains of his _Memory_, but no body of his _Judgment_. + +There is a kind of general _Revolution_, not more visible in the turn it +gives to the Fortunes of the _World_, than it is in the Change of Men's +_Understandings_, and the different Relish or _Wit_. + +Men often think to conduct and govern themselves, when all the while +they are led and manag'd; and while their _Understanding_ aims at one +thing, their _Heart_ insensibly draws them into another. + +Great _Souls_ are not distinguish'd by having less _Passion_, and more +_Virtue_; but by having nobler and greater Designs than the _Vulgar_. + +We allow few Men to be either _Witty_ or Reasonable, besides those who +are of our own Opinion. + +We are as much pleas'd to discover another Man's _Mind_, as we are +discontented to have our own found out. + +A straight and well-contriv'd _Mind_, finds it easier to yield to a +perverse one, than to direct and manage it. + +_Coxcombs_ are never so troublesome, as when they pretend to _Wit_. + +A little _Wit_ with _Discretion_, tires less at long-run, than much +_Wit_ without _Judgment_. + +Nothing comes amiss to a great _Soul_; and there is as much _Wisdom_ in +bearing other People's _Defects_, as in relishing their good +_Qualities_. + +It argues a great heighth of _Judgment_ in a Man, to discover what is in +another's Breast, and to conceal what is in his own. + +If Poverty be the Mother of Wickedness, want of _Wit_ must be the +Father. + +* A _Mind_ that has no Ballance in it self, turns insolent, or abject, +out of measure, with the various Change of Fortune. + +* Our _Memories_ are frail and treacherous; and we think many excellent +things, which for want of making a deep impression, we can never recover +afterwards. In vain we hunt for the stragling _Idea_, and rummage all +the Solitudes and Retirements of our Soul, for a lost Thought, which has +left no Track or Foot-steps behind it: The swift Off-spring of the Mind +is gone; 'tis dead as soon as born; nay, often proves abortive in the +moment it was conceiv'd: The only way therefore to retain our Thoughts, +is to fasten them in Words, and chain them in Writing. + +* A Man is never so great a _Dunce_ by _Nature_, but _Love_, _Malice_, +or _Necessity_, will supply him with some _Wit_. + +* There is a _Defect_ which is almost unavoidable in great _Inventors_; +it is the Custom of such earnest and powerful Minds, to do wonderful +Things in the beginning; but shortly after, to be over-born by the +Multitude and Weight of their own Thoughts; then to yield and cool by +little and little, and at last grow weary, and even to loath that, upon +which they were at first the most eager. This is the wonted Constitution +of _great Wits_; such tender things are those exalted Actions of the +Mind; and so hard it is for those Imaginations, that can run swift and +mighty Races, to be able to travel a long and constant Journey. The +Effects of this Infirmity have been so remarkable, that we have +certianly lost very many Inventions, after they have been in part +fashion'd, by the meer _Languishing_ and _Negligence_ of their +_Authors_. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Present State of Wit (1711), by John Gay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRESENT STATE OF WIT (1711) *** + +***** This file should be named 14800.txt or 14800.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/8/0/14800/ + +Produced by David Starner, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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