communicate this whole matter, and doubt not but he will appear to have seven times more useful and satisfactory knowledge than you and all your boasted family.' Thus I have entirely lost my client: but if this tedious narrative preserves Pastorella 3 from the intended marriage with one twenty years her senior --to save a fine lady, I am contented to have my learning decried, and my predictions bound up with Poor Robin's Almanacs+.

Will's Coffee-house, May 25.

3

THIS evening was acted The Recruiting Officers, in which Mr. Estcourt's proper sense and observation is what supports the play. There is not, in my humble opinion, the humour hit in Serjeant Kite; but it is admirably supplied by his action. If I have skill to judge, that man is an excellent actor; but the crowd of the audience are fitter for representations at May-fair, than a theatre-royal. Yet that fair is now broke, as well as the theatre is breaking: but it

3 Pastorella, it appears, from what is said of her here and in N° 13, was not much bettered by her conversion from coquetry, related in No 9.

4 First published early in the reign of Charles II.

5 A comedy by Farquhar, who, in the delineation of the characters in it, is said to have had living originals in his eye. Justice Ballance (we are told) was a Mr. Berkley, then recorder of Shrewsbury; Mr. Hill, an inhabitant of the same town, was one of the other justices. Mr. Worthy was a Mr. Owen of Rusason, on the borders of Shropshire; Capt. Plume was Farquhar himself; Melinda was a Miss Harnage of Belsadine, near the Wreken; Sylvia Miss Berkley, daughter of the recorder of Shrewsbury; and the story the author's invention.

is allowed still to sell animals there. Therefore, if any lady or gentleman have occasion for a tame elephant, let them inquire of Mr. Penkethman, who has one to dispose of at a reasonable rate. The downfal of May-fair' has quite sunk the price of this noble creature, as well as of many other curiosities of nature. A tiger will sell almost as cheap as an ox; and I am credibly informed, a man may purchase a cat with three legs, for very near the value of one with four. I hear likewise that there is a great desolation among the gentlemen and ladies who were the ornaments of the town, and used to shine in plumes and diadems; the heroes being most of them pressed, and the queens beating hemp. Mrs. Sarabrand, so famous for her ingenious puppet-show, has set up a shop in the Exchange, where she sells her little troop under the term of 'jointed babies.' I could not but be solicitous to know of her, how she had disposed of that rake-hell Punch, whose lewd life and conversation had given so much scandal, and did not a little contribute to the ruin of the fair. She told me, with a sigh, that, despairing of ever reclaiming him, she would not offer to place him in a civil family, but got him in a post upon a stall in Wapping, where he may be seen from sun-rising to sun-setting, with a glass in one hand, and a pipe in the other, as centry to a brandy-shop. The great revolutions of this nature bring to my mind the distresses of the unfortunate Camilla, who has had the ill luck to break before

6 See No 4, and 188; Spec. No 31, 370, and 455. 7 Mentioned in No 4, note.

8 Chetwood, in his General History of the stage, says (p. 142.) Italian operas, so fashionable at this time, were too much supported by the excellent voice and judgment of

her voice, and to disappear at a time when her beauty was in the height of its bloom. This lady entered so thoroughly into the great characters she acted, that when she had finished her part, she could not think of retrenching her equipage, but would appear in her own lodgings with the same magnificence that she did upon the stage. This greatness of soul had reduced that unhappy princess to an involuntary retirement, where she now passes her time among the woods and forests, thinking on the crowns and sceptres she has lost, and often humming over in her solitude,

'I was born of royal race,

Yet must wander in disgrace,' &c.

But, for fear of being over-heard, and her quality known, she usually sings it in Italian,

Nacqui al regno, nacqui al trono ;

E par sono

I venturata pastorella 9.'

Since I have touched upon this subject, I shall communicate to my reader part of a letter I have received from an ingenious friend at Amsterdam, where there is a very noble theatre; though the manner of furnishing it with actors is something peculiar to that

Mrs. Tofts, a mere Englishwoman, who in the part of Camilla, was courted by Nicolini in Italian, without understanding one syllable each other said, or sung; and, on the other hand, Valentini courting amorously, in the same language, a Dutchwoman that committed murder on our good old English with as little understanding as a parrot.' See N° 115. and Mrs. Toft's letter from Venice. Spect. N° 443. 9 Camilla, an opera, by Owen M'Swiney, 4to. 1706. VOL, I.

1

place, and gives us occasion to admire both the politeness and frugality of the people.

My friends have kept me here a week longer than ordinary, to see one of their plays, which was performed last night with great applause. The actors are all of them tradesmen; who, after their day's work is over, earn about a guilder a-night by personating kings and generals. The hero of the tragedy I saw was a journeyman taylor, and his first minister of state a coffee-man. The empress made me think of Parthenope in the Rehearsal; for her mother keeps an alehouse in the suburbs of Amsterdam. When the tragedy was over, they entertained us with a short farce, in which the cobler did his part to a miracle; but, upon inquiry, I found he had really been working at his own trade, and representing on the stage what he acted every dày in his shop. The profits of the theatre maintain an hospital; for as here they do not think the profession of an actor the only trade that a man ought to exercise; so they will not allow any body to grow rich in a profession that, in their opinion, so little conduces to the good of the commonwealth. If I am not mistaken, your playhouses in England have done the same thing; for, unless I am misinformed, the hospital at Dulwich was erected and endowed by Mr. Alleyn1o, a player: and it is also said, a famous she tragedian " has settled her estate, after her death, for the maintenance of decayed wits, who are to be taken in as soon as they grow dull, at whatever time of their life that shall happen."

to Edward Alleyn, in 1614, founded an hospital at Dulwich in Surrey, called The College of God's Gift, with a revenue which is estimated at 7001. per annum.

It is thought probable that Mrs. Barry was the person here meant.

*** Mr. Cave Underhill, the famous comedian, in the reigns of king Charles II. king James II. king William and queen Mary, and her present majesty queen Anne; but now not able to perform so often as heretofore in the playhouse, and having had losses to the value of near 25001. is to have the tragedy of Hamlet acted for his benefit, on Friday the 3d of June next, at the Theatre-royal in Drurylane, in which he is to perform his original part, the Gravedigger 11.

ADDISON AND STEELE.

N° 21. SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1709.

Quicquid agunt homines—

nostri est farrago libelli,

Whatever good is done, whatever ill

JUV. Sat. i. 85, 86.

By human kind, shall this collection fill.

White's Chocolate-house, May 26.

A GENTLEMAN has writ to me out of the country a very civil letter, and said things which I suppress with great violence to my vanity. There are many terms in my narratives which he complains want explaining; and has therefore desired that, for the benefit of my country readers, I would let him know what I mean by a gentleman, a pretty fellow, a toast, a coquet, a critic, a wit,' and all other appellations of those now in the gayer world, who are in possession of these several characters; together with an account

12 Steele befriended this player in a manner that did honour to his heart.