ness of this prince threw him upon the choice of a person who was fit to spend his life in contentions, an able and profound attorney, to whom he mortgaged his whole empire. This Divito3 is the most skilful of all politicians: he has a perfect art in being unintelligible in discourse, and uncomeatable in business. But he, having no understanding in this polite way, brought in upon us, to get in his money, ladder-dancers, jugglers, and mountebanks, to strut in the place of Shakspeare's heroes, and Jonson's humorists. When the seat of wit was thus mortgaged without equity of redemption, an architect arose, who has built the muse a new palace, but secured her no retinue; so that, instead of action there, we have been put off by song and dance. This latter help of sound has also begun to fail for want of voices; therefore the palace has since been put into the hands of a surgeon3, who cuts any foreign fellow into an eunuch, and passes him upon us for a singer of Italy.

Ac. I will go out of town to-morrow.

Friend. Things are come to this pass; and yet the world will not understand, that the theatre has much the same effect on the manners of the age, as the bank on the credit of the nation. Wit and spirit, humour and good sense, can never be revived, but under the government of those who are judges of such talents; who know, that whatever is put up in their stead, is but a short and trifling expedient, to support the appearance of them for a season. It is possible, a peace will give leisure to put these matters under new regu

3 Christopher Rich, mentioned afterwards, No 42, 44. 4 Sir John Vanbrugh, an excellent dramatic writer, and who built Blenheim-house.

5 John-James Heidegger, esq. who had at that time the direction of the operas, and afterwards of the masquerades,

lations; but, at present, all the assistance we can see towards our recovery is as far from giving us help, as a poultice is from performing what can be done only by the grand elixir.

Will's Coffee-house, May 6.

ACCORDING to our late design in the applauded verses on the morning, which you lately had from hence, we proceed to improve that just intention, and present you with other labours, made proper to the place in which they were written'. The following poem comes from Copenhagen, and is as fine a winter-piece as we have ever had from any of the schools of the most learned painters. Such images as these give us a new pleasure in our sight, and fix upon our minds traces of reflection, which accompany us whenever the like objects occur. In short, excellent poetry and description dwell upon us so agreeably, that all the readers of them are made to think, if not write, like men of wit. But it would be injury to detain you longer from this excellent performance, which is addressed to the earl of Dorset by Mr. Phillips, the author of several choice poems in Mr. Tonson's new Miscellany 9.

6 By Swift. See N° 9.

7 Phillips writes vèrses in a sledge, upon the frozen sea; and transmits them hither to thrive in our warm clime under the shelter of my lord Dorset.' Swift's Works, vol. xi. p. 64. 8vo. edit. 1801.

8 Pope always excepted this poem from the general censure that he passed upon the author's writings.

9 The sixth volume of Dryden's Miscellanies.

Copenhagen, March 9, 1709. From frozen climes, and endless tracts of snow, From streams which northern winds forbid to flow, What present shall the muse to Dorset bring, Or how, so near the pole, attempt to sing? The hoary winter here conceals from sight All pleasing objects which to verse invite. The hills and dales, and the delightful woods, The flow'ry plains, and silver-streaming floods, By snow disguis'd, in bright confusion lie, And with one dazzling waste fatigue the eye.

'No gentle breathing breeze prepares the spring, No birds within the desert region sing.

The ships, unmov'd, the boisterous winds defy,
While rattling chariots o'er the ocean fly.
The vast leviathan wants room to play,
And spout his waters in the face of day.
The starving wolves along the main sea prowl,
And to the moon in icy valleys howl.
O'er many a shining league the level main
Here spreads itself into a glassy plain :
There solid billows of enormous size,
Alps of green ice, in wild disorder rise.

'And yet but lately have I seen, ev'n here,
The winter in a lovely dress appear.
Ere yet the clouds let fall the treasur'd snow,
Or winds began thro' hazy skies to blow,
At ev'ning a keen eastern breeze arose,
And the descending rain unsully'd froze.
Soon as the silent shades of night withdrew,
The ruddy morn disclos'd at once to view
The face of nature in a rich disguise,
And brighten'd every object to my eyes:
For every shrub, and every blade of grass,
And every pointed thorn, seem'd wrought in glass,
In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns show,
While thro' the ice the crimson berries glow.

The thick-sprung reeds which watery marshes yield
Seem polish'd lances in a hostile field.

The stag in limpid currents, with surprise,
Sees crystal branches on his forehead rise:
The spreading oak, the beech, and towering pine,
Glaz'd over, in the freezing æther shine.
The frighted birds the rattling branches shun,
Which wave and glitter in the distant sun.
'When, if a sudden gust of wind arise,

The brittle forest into atoms flies:

The crackling wood beneath the tempest bends,
And in a spangled shower the prospect ends;
Or, if a southern gale the region warm,
And by degrees unbind the wintery charm,
The traveller a miry country sees,
And journeys sad beneath the dropping trees.
'Like some deluded peasant Merlin leads
Thro' fragrant bowers, and thro' delicious meads;
While here enchanted gardens to him rise,
And airy fabrics there attract his eyes,
His wandering feet the magic paths pursue;
And, while he thinks the fair illusion true,
The trackless scenes disperse in fluid air,
And woods, and wilds, and thorny ways appear.
A tedious road the weary wretch returns,
And, as he goes, the transient vision mourns.'

From my own Apartment, May 6.

THERE has a mail this day arrived from Holland; but the matter of the advices importing rather what gives us great expectations, than any positive assurances, I shall, for this time, decline giving you what I know; and apply the following verses of Mr. Dryden, in the second part of Almanzor, to the present circumstances of things, without discovering what my knowledge in astronomy suggests to me:

10 Almanzor and Almahide; or, The Conquest of Grenada, Act I. Scene 1.

"When Empire in its childhood first appears,

A watchful Fate o'ersees its tender years:

Till, grown more strong, it thrusts and stretches out,
And elbows all the kingdoms round about.

The place thus made for its first breathing free,
It moves again for ease and luxury :

Till swelling by degrees it has possest

The greater space, and now crowds up the rest.
When from behind there starts some petty state,
And pushes on its now unwieldy fate :

Then down the precipice of time it goes,
And sinks in minutes, which in ages rose.'

STEELE.

N° 13. TUESDAY, MAY 10, 1709.

Quicquid agunt homines

nostri est farrago libelli.

JUV. Sat. i. 85, 86.

Whatever good is done, whatever ill-
By human kind, shall this collection fill.

From my own Apartment, May 8.

MUCH hurry and business has to-day perplexed me into a mood too thoughtful for going into company; for which reason, instead of the tavern, I went into Lincoln's-inn walks; and, having taken a round or two, I sat down, according to the allowed familiarity. of these places, on a bench; at the other end of which sat a venerable gentleman, who speaking with a very affable air, Mr. Bickerstaff,' said he, I take it for a very great piece of good fortune that you have found me out.'—' Sir,' said I, 'I had never, that I