42 18 Waller: In his Account of the Greatest English Poets (1694) Addison had written: But now, my muse, a softer strain rehearse, Turn every line with art, and smooth thy verse; Addison mentions Waller in Spect. 8. 431 Gothick: Until a little after the middle of the eighteenth century, when it began to be vindicated by Warton and Hurd, the word Gothic, as applied to art and to literature, was a term of reproach, meaning "barbarous," "inelegant." Examples of its use, chronologically arranged, are given in the Oxford Dictionary. On the work of Warton, Hurd, and other admirers of medievalism, see the histories of romanticism by Phelps (chap. vi) and Beers (chap. vii); on the Gothic revival in architecture, see Eastlake's Gothic Revival, London, 1872, and C. H. Moore's Development and Character of Gothic Architecture, New York, 1899. 43 27 Sting in the tail of an Epigram. your Criticks call it: The Oxford Dictionary quotes Topsell's Serpents (1653): "Some learned Writers . . . have compared a Scorpion to an Epigram ... because as the sting of the Scorpion lyeth in the tayl, so the force and vertue of an Epigram is in the conclusion." The Century Dictionary quotes also these lines, which we have not been able to identify : The qualities rare in a bee that we meet In an epigram never should fail; The body should always be little and sweet, And a sting should be left in its tail. 44 1 Roscommon's translation: Wentworth Dillon (1633?-1685), fourth Earl of Roscommon, published in 1680 a translation into English blank verse of Horace's Art of Poetry. 45 30 Cupid... like a Porcupine: cf. Spect. 377, where Addison says, "I think Mr. Cowley has with greater justness of thought compared a beautiful woman to a porcupine, that sends an arrow from every part." 46 Motto: Virgil, Æneid, i, 208: "Through various hazards and events we move." The device represented by the paper, a satire of society by means of the fictitious adventures of a piece of money, is not uncommon. Cf. John Taylor, A Shilling, or the Trauiles of Twelvepence, 1622; Richard Bathurst, "Adventures of a Halfpenny,” 1753 (Adventurer, No. 43) ; Charles Johnstone, Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea, 1760–65; H. Scott, The Adventures of a Rupee, 1782. The hint of this paper may have come from Swift, who wrote to Stella on November 30, 1710: “You are mistaken in all your conjectures about the Tatlers. I have given him one or two hints, and you have heard me talk about the Shilling.” 48 13 A Serjeant made use of me: On the methods of recruiting at this time, see Farquhar's Recruiting-Officer, 1706, especially act ii, scene 3. The point is that to take money from a sergeant bound a man to enlistment. Thus, in the scene referred to, Sergeant Kite gives broad-pieces to two unwilling recruits and then informs them that they are enlisted; they deny it, whereupon a dispute occurs. Meanwhile Captain Plume has entered and asks what is the matter. "Kite. They disobey command; they deny their being listed. 66 Apple [tree, one of the unwilling recruits]. Nay, sergeant, we don't downright deny it neither; that we dare not do, for fear of being shot; but we humbly conceive in a civil way, and begging your worship's pardon, that we may go home. "Plume. That's easily known. Have either of you received any of the queen's money?" 48 22 Bent me: an ancient popular custom. See Brand-Hazlitt, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, II, 50–51; cf. Hudibras, i, 1, 488: Like Commendation Ninepence crook't, With to and from my love it lookt; and see Dr. Grey's note on the passage. Cf. Gay's Pastorals, v, 129. 49 2 Squirred: threw with a jerk. Cf. Spect. 77. 49 12-13 Pair of Breeches: Strype (1720) says of the Commonwealth coins that they all "had upon one side the cross of England, in a single Escotcheon; and on the other side the English Cross in one Escotcheon, and the Irish harp in another; not impaled, but joined together in two several Escotcheons." The effect was rather like the letter W, with a straight line drawn across the top. See Humphreys, The Coinage of the British Empire, London, 1854, Fig. 17 in Plate X, opp. p. 108. 49 28 Clipped my Brims, etc. : Evelyn speaks, July 15, 1694, of “. many executed at London for clipping money, now don to that intolerable extent, that there was hardly any money that was worth above halfe the nominal value." Cf. Dec. 23, 1695; January 12, 1696. 50 1-2 In the midst of this general calamity, etc.: "The general coinage had fallen into a bad state, and much old hammered money ... to (still in circulation) had become thin, and was counterfeited.. After the death of the queen in 1695, the king, . . ., determined on taking into consideration the bad state of the coinage to restore its general character. A tax was therefore laid upon dwelling-houses, supply the deficiency of the clipped money; and in order that there might be as little delay as possible in carrying a complete new coinage into effect, mints were established at York, Bristol, Norwich, Exeter, and Chester, the coins of each mint being respectively marked with the initial letter of the name of the place. By means of the assistance of these country mints the new coinage was completed in two years. . . . On the new coinage the king's bust appears alone, surrounded by Gulielmus III. Dei Gratia:' the reverse has the four shields as before, but without W or M in the angles, and all the pieces are alike, with the exception of mint-marks." (Humphreys, Coinage of the British Empire, pp. 125-126.) Cf. Fig. 14 in Plate XI, ibid., opp. p. 115. For the legislative measures, see the Statutes at Large, 7 William III, cap. i; 8 William III, cap. ii; and 9 William III, cap. ii. 50 14 The splendid Shilling: John Philips's The Splendid Shilling, An Imitation of Milton, was surreptitiously printed in 1701 in a Collection of Poems published by David Brown and Benjamin Tooke, and again, in an edition printed by Benj. Bragge, in 1705. In 1705 Philips himself issued an authorized edition (" Now first correctly published "). 50 Motto: Horace, Carm., iii, 11, 35: “Gloriously false.” 50 24 Sir John Mandeville: The book of travels of which Mandeville is the ostensible author was composed early in the second half of the fourteenth century. It was originally written in French, and is a compilation from various sources. See G. F. Warner's edition for the Roxburghe Club, and also his article in the Dict. Nat. Biog. 51 3-4 The Red-Cross Knight in Spenser: the hero of the first book of Spenser's Faerie Queene. "The Red-Cross Knight is St. George, the patron saint of England, and represents holiness or Christian purity, and is clothed in the 'whole armor of God,' described by St. Paul in the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians." (Spenser's Works, Boston, 1855, I, 33.) 51 20 Freezing . . . of . . . Speeches: At least three writers before Addison had told at some length the story of the frozen words, and another had alluded to it: Castiglione's Il Cortegiano was written in 1514 and published in 1528; there were English translations in 1561, 1577, 1588, 1603, etc. A little beyond the middle of his second book (pp. 189-190 in the London edition of 1727), Castiglione says: "The Luccese going thereupon with some of his Companions towards Muscovy, came to the Boristhenes, which he found frozen hard as the very Marble, and on the other Side espied the Muscovites, who through Fear of the Pole durst not venture further. After some few Signs, each being known to the other, the Muscovites speaking as loud as they were able, told what they expected for their Sables: but so excessive was the Cold, that the Words freezing e'er they reach'd opposite Side of the River, could not be heard there. The Poles, sensible how the Case stood, kindled instantly a great Fire in the midst of the River, for thither they supposed the Words to reach e'er the Cold stopp'd them: and the Fire was what the Ice, being so very thick, could easily bear. Upon this the Words, that had remain'd frozen for the Space of an Hour, began to thaw; coming towards them with that sort of Murmur, which the Snow makes in its Fall from the Mountains in the Month of May; and were perfectly well understood, though by that time the Men on the other Side were departed." ... Rabelais's Pantagruel, of which the earliest edition with a date is 1533, relates (bk. iv, chap. 55) "How Pantagruel, being at Sea, heard various unfrozen Words" and (ibid., chap. 56) "How among the frozen Words, Pantagruel found some odd ones." In the course of the narrative... "the skipper made answer: . . . 'The words and cries of men and women froze in the air; and now, the rigour of the winter being over, they melt and are heard."" "He [Pantagruel] then threw on the deck whole handfuls of frozen words, which seemed like your rough sugar-plums, . . .; and when we had somewhat warmed them between our hands, they melted like snow, and we really heard them, but could not understand them, for it was a barbarous gibberish." (Motteaux's translation, in Morley's "Universal Library,” pp. 194–195.) ... Peter Heylin alludes to Castiglione's account; in his MIKPOKOZMOZ A Little Description of the Great World, 1629, he says: "This excesse of cold in the aire, [of Muscovy] gave occasion to Castilian in his Aulicus, wittily & not incongruously to saine; that if two men being somewhat distant talk together in the winter, their words will be so frozen that they cannot be heard: but if the parties in the spring return to the same place, their words will melt in the same order that they were frozen & spoken, and be plainely understood." (Ed. Oxford, 1639, p. 345.) In Part II (ed. 1703, p. 43) of Ward's London Spy, one of the two sailors who are exchanging stories tells his companion, "I have been ... where it has been so Cold, it has Frozen our Words in our Mouths, that we could not hear one another speak, till we came into a warmer Latitude to thaw 'em; and then all our Discourse broke out together like a Clap of Thunder, that there was never such a Confusion of Tongues ever heard at Babel." 51 26 Like words, etc.: Hudibras, i, 1, 148. 52 19 Nec vox, nec verba, etc.: Ovid, Met., xi, 326: nec vox temptataque verba sequuntur. 53 16 Wapping: a quarter of St. Mary, Whitechapel, along the north side of the Thames below the Tower. Strype wrote in 1720: "Wappin is to this Day chiefly inhabited by Seafaring Men, and Tradesmen dealing in Commodities for the Supply of Shipping, and Shipmen. It stands exceeding thick with Buildings, and is very populous." (Survey, bk. iv, P. 39.) 53 29 Et timide verba intermissa retentat: Ovid, Met., i, 745. 54 24 Kit: "a miniature violin, about sixteen inches long, having three strings." (Century Dictionary.) THE SPECTATOR The Spectator began to appear on March 1, 1711, and was issued daily, except Sunday, until December 6, 1712. These five hundred and fifty-five papers (Vols. I-VII in most collected editions) constitute the original series. On Friday, June 18, 1714, Addison revived the Spectator and continued it (on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) until Wednesday, December 20, 1714, when it ended with No. 635. The Spectator was printed on both sides of a single folio sheet. The essay filled the two columns of the first page and usually about a column on the reverse of the sheet; the remaining space was given up to advertisements of current books, plays, and what not. After fourteen numbers had appeared, Swift wrote to Stella (March 16, 1711): "Have you seen the Spectator yet, a paper that comes out every day? It is written by Mr. Steele, who seems to have gathered new life, and have a new fund of wit; it is in the same nature as his Tatler, and they all of them had something pretty. I believe Addison and he club." Gay wrote (The Present State of Wit, 1711): "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 one's hand, and a constant topic of our morning conversation at tea-tables and coffee-houses." (Arber's English Garner, VI, 503 ff.) With No. 445 the price of the Spectator was doubled (from one penny to twopence) in consequence of the Stamp Tax (10 Ann. cap. 19) of |