in their youth, and had its rise from an accident at the town of Bath, in the reign of king Charles the Second. It happened that, on a public day, a celebrated beauty of those times was in the Cross Bath, and one of the crowd of her admirers took a glass of the water in which the fair one stood, and drank her health to the company. There was in the place a gay fellow half fuddled, who offered to jump in, and swore, though he liked not the liquor, he would have the toast. He was opposed in his resolution; yet this whim gave foundation to the present honour which is done to the lady we mention in our liquors, who has ever since been called a Toast. Though this institution had so trivial a beginning, it is now elevated into a formal order; and that happy virgin, who is received and drunk to at their meetings, has no more to do in this life, but to judge and accept of the first good offer. The manner of her inauguration is much like that of the choice of a doge in Venice: it is performed by balloting; and when she is so chosen, she reigns indisputably for that ensuing year; but must be elected a-new to prolong her empire a moment beyond it. When she is regularly chosen, her name is written with a diamond on a drinking-glass. The hieroglyphic of the diamond is to show her, that her value is imaginary; and that of the glass to acquaint her, that her condition is frail, and depends on the hand which holds her. This wise design admonishes her, neither to over-rate or depreciate her charms; as well considering and applying, that it is perfectly according to the humour and taste of the company, whether the toast is eaten, or left as an offal. a It was the fashion of the time, to inscribe verses thus to the reigning beauties. Several of these sprightly productions, on the toasting-glasses of the Kit-cat Club,' by the Lords Halifax, Wharton, Lansdowne, and Carbury, by Mr. Maynwaring, and other poetical members of that ingenious society, may be seen in Nichols's 'Select Collection of Miscellany Poems,' vol. v. pp. 168, 178, 176, [and for a specimen of Addison's taste in this line, vol. i. p. 214. The present Edition.—G.] The foremost of the whole rank of toasts, and the most indisputed in their present empire, are Mrs. Gatty and Mrs. Frontlet: the first an agreeable, the second an awful beauty. These ladies are perfect friends, out of a knowledge, that their perfections are too different to stand in competition. He that likes Gatty can have no relish for so solemn a creature as Frontlet; and an admirer of Frontlet will call Gatty a maypole girl. Gatty for ever smiles upon you; and Frontlet disdains to see you smile. Gatty's love is a shining quick flame; Frontlet's, a slow wasting fire. Gatty likes the man that diverts her'; Frontlet, him who adores her. Gatty always improves the soil in which she travels; Frontlet lays waste the country. Gatty does not only smile, but laughs at her lover; Frontlet not only looks serious, but frowns at him. All the men of wit (and coxcombs their followers) are professed servants of Gatty: the politicians and pretenders give solemn worship to Frontlet. Their reign will be best judged of by its duration. Frontlet will never be chosen more; and Gatty is a toast for life. No. 42. SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1709. Celebrare domestica facta. [The first part of this paper was written by Steele.] Ap22 --THIS is to give notice, that a magnificent palace, with great variety of gardens, statues, and water-works, may be bought cheap in Drury Lane,' where there are likewise several castles to be disposed of, very delightfully situated; as also groves, woods, forests, fountains, and country seats, with very pleasant prospects on all sides of them; being the moveables of Christopher 1 Drury-Lane theatre had been closed by an order of the Lord Chamberlain.-G. Rich, Esq., who is breaking up house-keeping, and has many curious pieces of furniture to dispose of, which may be seen between the hours of six and ten in the evening. THE INVENTORY. Spirits of right Nants brandy, for lambent flames and appa ritions. 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. An imperial mantle, made for Cyrus the great, and worn by Julius Cæsar, Bajazet, King Harry the Eighth, and Signior Valentini. A basket-hilt sword, very convenient to carry milk in. Othello's handkerchief. The imperial robes of Xerxes, never worn but once. 1 Tenth wave, "Fluctus decumanus," according to the Latin poets, the largest and most dangerous.-G. A wild boar, killed by Mrs. Tofts and Dioclesian. A serpent to sting Cleopatra. A mustard bowl to make thunder with. Another of a bigger sort, by Mr. Dis's directions, little used.4 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 bandbox; 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 trap-doors, ladders of ropes, vizard masques, 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 masques, castanets, and a ladder of ten rounds. Aurengzebe's scymitar, 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, cardinal 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. 1 Dennis-of whom Pope says, “And all the mighty mad in Dennis rage "-DUNCIAD, b. I. v. 104. had just invented his new method of making thunder! v. also Nichols ad loc.-G. VOL. III.-16* 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 Postboy 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." No. 75. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1709. From my own Apartment, September 20. I AM called off from public dissertations by a domestic affair of great importance, which is no less than the disposal of my sister Jenny for life. The girl is a girl of great merit, and pleasing conversation; but I being born of my father's first wife, and she of his third, she converses with me rather like a daughter than a sister. I have indeed told her, that if she kept her honour, and behaved herself in such a manner as became the Bickerstaffs, I would get her an agreeable man for her husband; which was a promise I made her after reading a passage in Pli a Of this paper, the inventory only, as I take it, is Mr. Addison's. [Why?-G.] The opening of this paper, to-"our own family in this particular” -is Sir Richard Steele's. Mr. Addison's hand is only to be traced in the genealogy. [Hurd, by conjecture.-G.] |