Читать книгу The Tatler - Joseph Addison - Страница 161

 Spirits of right Nantes brandy, for lambent flames and apparitions.

 Three bottles and a half of lightning.

 One shower of snow in the whitest French paper.

 Two showers of a browner sort.

 A sea, consisting of a dozen large waves; the tenth bigger than ordinary, and a little damaged.

 A dozen and a half of clouds, trimmed with black, and well conditioned.

 A rainbow a little faded.

 A set of clouds after the French mode, streaked with lightning, and furbelowed.

 A new-moon, something decayed.

 A pint of the finest Spanish wash, being all that is left of two hogsheads sent over last winter.

 A coach very finely gilt, and little used, with a pair of dragons, to be sold cheap.

 A setting sun, a pennyworth.⁴¹⁰

 An imperial mantle, made for Cyrus the Great, and worn by Julius Cæsar, Bajazet, King Harry the Eighth, and Signior Valentin.⁴¹¹

 A basket-hilt sword, very convenient to carry milk in.

 Roxana's night-gown.

 Othello's handkerchief.

 The imperial robes of Xerxes, never worn but once.

 A wild-boar, killed by Mrs. Tofts⁴¹² and Dioclesian.

 A serpent to sting Cleopatra.

 A mustard-bowl to make thunder with.

 Another of a bigger sort, by Mr. D——is's directions, little used.⁴¹³

 Six elbow-chairs, very expert in country-dances, with six flower-pots for their partners.

 The whiskers of a Turkish bassa.

 The complexion of a murderer in a band-box; consisting of a large piece of burnt cork, and a coal-black peruke.

 A suit of clothes for a ghost, viz., a bloody shirt, a doublet curiously pinked, and a coat with three great eyelet-holes upon the breast.

 A bale of red Spanish wool.

 Modern plots, commonly known by the name of trapdoors, ladders of ropes, vizard-masks, and tables with broad carpets over them.

 Three oak cudgels, with one of crab-tree; all bought for the use of Mr. Pinkethman.

 Materials for dancing; as masks, castanets, and a ladder of ten rounds.

 Aurengezebe's scimitar, made by Will Brown in Piccadilly.

 A plume of feathers, never used but by Oedipus and the Earl of Essex.

There are also swords, halberts, sheep-hooks, cardinals' hats, turbans, drums, gallipots, a gibbet, a cradle, a rack, a cart-wheel, an altar, a helmet, a back-piece, a breast-plate, a bell, a tub, and a jointed baby.⁴¹⁴

These are the hard shifts we intelligencers are forced to; therefore our readers ought to excuse us, if a westerly wind blowing for a fortnight together, generally fills every paper with an order of battle; when we show our martial skill in each line, and, according to the space we have to fill, we range our men in squadrons and battalions, or draw out company by company, and troop by troop; ever observing, that no muster is to be made, but when the wind is in a cross point, which often happens at the end of a campaign, when half the men are deserted or killed. The Courant is sometimes ten deep, his ranks close: the Postboy⁴¹⁵ is generally in files, for greater exactness; and the Postman comes down upon you rather after the Turkish way, sword in hand, pell-mell, without form or discipline; but sure to bring men enough into the field; and wherever they are raised, never to lose a battle for want of numbers.

405. From George Whetstone's "English Mirror," 1586.

406. See "Every Man out of his Humour," act ii. sc. 1.

407. Lady Elizabeth Hastings, unquestionably one of the most accomplished and virtuous characters of the age in which she lived, was the daughter of Theophilus Hastings, the 7th Earl of Huntingdon, and of Elizabeth, eldest daughter and co-heiress to John Lewes, of Ledstone, in Yorkshire, Knt. and Bart. Her father succeeded to the honours and estate of the family, Feb. 13, 1655, and was in 1687 Lord Chief Justice, and Justice in Eyre of all the King's forests, &c., beyond Trent; Lord Lieutenant of the counties of Leicester and Derby; Captain of the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners, and of the Privy Council to King James II. He died suddenly at his lodgings in Charles Street, St. James's, May 13, 1701, and was succeeded in his honours and estate by his son, and her brother, Charles, who died unmarried, Feb. 22, 1704. Lady Elizabeth Hastings was born April 19, 1682, and died Dec. 22, 1739. It is said, with great probability, that since the commencement of the Christian era, scarce any age has produced a lady of such high birth and superior accomplishments, that was a greater blessing to many, or a brighter pattern to all. There is an admirable sketch of this illustrious lady's character, drawn soon after her death, in the tenth volume of the Gentleman's Magazine, p. 36, probably by Samuel Johnson. See also "An historical Character relating to the holy and exemplary Life of the Right Honourable the Lady Elisabeth Hastings, &c. By Thomas Barnard, A.M. Printed at Leeds, in 1742, 12mo" (Nichols).—Lady Elizabeth Hastings, who came into a fortune upon the death of her brother George, Earl of Huntingdon, settled at Ledstone House, where she was the Lady Bountiful of the neighbourhood. Her whole estate, however, is said to have been less than £3000 a year. The best of the clergy of the day were among her friends. She helped Berkeley in his Bermuda Mission scheme, and she befriended Miss Mary Astell. Ralph Thoresby, who visited her, was "extremely pleased with the most agreeable conversation of the pious and excellent Lady Elizabeth Hastings." ("Diary," ii. 82). She was one of the numerous eligible ladies that the friends of Lord Raby, afterwards Earl of Strafford, suggested to him as a suitable wife ("Wentworth Papers," pp. 29, 56). The character of Aspasia in this paper has been attributed to Congreve, on the ground, apparently, that he knew Lady Elizabeth Hastings' half-brother, Theophilus, afterwards Earl of Huntingdon. See No. 49, note.

408. The remainder of this paper is by Addison; see Steele's Preface. Drury Lane Theatre was closed by an order of the Lord Chamberlain, as mentioned in No. 30.

409. Christopher Rich.

410. A bargain.

411. Valentini Urbani sang in Italian in the opera of "Camilla," in 1707. His acting seems to have been better than his voice (Burney's "History of Music," iv. 208).

412. See No. 20.

413. John Dennis's unsuccessful tragedy of "Appius and Virginia" was produced in 1709. On that occasion he introduced a new method of making thunder (see "Dunciad," ii. 226), which was found useful by managers. Afterwards, when Dennis found his invention being used in "Macbeth," he exclaimed, "'Sdeath! that's my thunder. See how the fellows use me, they have silenced my tragedy, and they roar out my thunder" (Oldys, MS. notes on Langbaine).

414. "Baby" was often used for "doll."

415. See No. 18.