he may show the fertility of his genius, the poig ON A BEAUTIFUL YOUTH STRUCK BLIND WITH nancy of his humour, and the exactness of his LIGHTNING. Imitated from the Spanish. LUMINE Acon dextro, capta est Leonida sinistro, REMARKS ON OUR THEATRES. The judgment: we scarcely see a coxcomb or a fool it. common life, that has not some peculiar oddity ir. his action. These peculiarities it is not in the power of words to represent, and depend solely upon the actor. They give a relish to the humour of the poet, and make the appearance of nature more illusive. The Italians, it is true, mask some characters, and endeavour to preserve the peculiar humour by the make of the mask; but I have seen others still preserve a great fund of humour in the face without a mask; one actor, particularly, by a squint which he threw into some characters OUR Theatres are now opened, and all Grub- of low life, assumed a look of infinite stolidity. street is preparing its advice to the managers. We This, though upon reflection we might condemn, shall undoubtedly hear learned disquisitions on yet immediately upon representation we could not the structure of one actor's legs, and another's eye- avoid being pleased with. To illustrate what I brows. We shall be told much of enunciations, have been saying by the plays which I have of tones, and attitudes; and shall have our lightest late gone to see: in the Miser, which was played pleasures commented upon by didactic dulness. a few nights ago at Covent-Garden, Lovegold apWe shall, it is feared, be told, that Garrick is a pears through the whole in circumstances of exfine actor; but then as a manager, so avaricious! aggerated avarice; all the player's action, thereThat Palmer is a most surprising genius, and Hol-fore should conspire with the poet's design, and land likely to do well in a particular cast of cha- represent him as an epitome of penury. racter. We shall have them giving Shuter instruc- French comedian, in this character, in the midst tions to amuse us by rule, and deploring over the of one of his most violent passions, while he ap ruins of desolated majesty at Covent-Garden. As pears in an ungovernable rage, feels the demon of I love to be advising too, for advice is easily given, avarice still upon him, and stoops down to pick up and bears a show of wisdom and superiority, a pin, which he quilts into the flap of his coatmust be permitted to offer a few observations upon pocket with great assiduity. Two candles are our theatres and actors, without, on this trivial lighted up for his wedding; he flies, and turns one occasion, throwing my thoughts into the formality of them into the socket: it is, however, lighted up again; he then steals to it, and privately crams it There is something in the deportment of all our into his pocket. The Mock-Doctor was lately players infinitely more stiff and formal than among played at the other house. Here again the comethe actors of other nations. Their action sits un-dian had an opportunity of heightening the ridi easy upon them; for, as the English use very little cule by action. The French player sits in a chair gesture in ordinary conversation, our English-bred with a high back, and then begins to show away actors are obliged to supply stage gestures by their by talking nonsense, which he would have thought imagination alone. A French comedian finds Latin by those who he knows do not understand proper models of action in every company and in a syllable of the matter. At last he grows enthuevery coffee-house he enters. An Englishman is siastic, enjoys the admiration of the company, tosses obliged to take his models from the stage itself; his legs and arms about, and, in the midst of he is obliged to imitate nature from an imitation his raptures and vociferation, he and the chair fall of nature. I know of no set of men more likely back together. All this appears dull enough in to be improved by travelling than those of the the recital, but the gravity of Cato could not stand theatrica. profession. The inhabitants of the con- it in the representation. In short, there is hardly tinent are less reserved than here; they may be a character in comedy to which a player of any seen through upon a first acquaintance; such are real humour might not add strokes of vivacity that the proper models to draw from; they are at once could not fail of applause. But, instead of this, striking, and are found in great abundance. we too often see our fine gentlemen do nothing, through a whole part, but strut and open their snuff-box; our pretty fellows sit indecently with their legs across, and our clowns pull up their breeches. These, if once, or even twice repeated, might do well enough; but to see them served up of method. Though it would be inexcusable in a comedian to add any thing of his own to the poet's dialogue, yet, as to action, he is entirely at liberty. By this • An English Epigram, on the same subject, is inserted in in every scene, argues the actor almost as barrer the second volume, p. 110. as the character he would expose. The magnificence of our theatres is far superior TIMIUS. Translated from a Byzantine Historian. ATHENS, even long before the decline of the Roman empire, still continued the seat of learning, politeness, and wisdom. The emperors and generals, who in these periods of approaching ignorance, still felt a passion for science, from time to time added to its buildings, or increased its professorships. Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, was of the number; he repaired those schools, which barbarity was suffering to fall into decay, and continued those pensions to men of learning, which avaricious governors had monopolized to themselves. to any others in Europe, where plays only are act- THE STORY OF ALCANDER AND SEP ed. The great care our performers take in painting for a part, their exactness in all the minutia of dress, and other little scenical properties, have been taken notice of by Ricoboni, a gentleman of Italy, who travelled Europe with no other design but to remark upon the stage; but there are several improprieties still continued, or lately come into fashion. As, for instance, spreading a carpet punctually at the beginning of the death scence, in order to prevent our actors from spoiling their clothes; this immediately apprises us of the tragedy to follow; for laying the cloth is not a more sure indication of dinner, than laying the carpet of bloody work at Drury-Lane. Our little pages also, with unmeaning faces, that bear up the train of a In this city, and about this period, Alcander weeping princess, and our awkward lords in wait- and Septimius were fellow-students together. The ing, take off much from her distress. Mutes of one the most subtle reasoner of all the Lyceum; every kind divide our attention, and lessen our the other the most eloquent speaker in the academic sensibility; but here it is entirely ridiculous, as we grove. Mutual admiration soon begot an acsee them seriously employed in doing nothing. If quaintance, and a similitude of disposition made we must have dirty-shirted guards upon the thea- them perfect friends. Their fortunes were nearly tres, they should be taught to keep their eyes fixed equal, their studies the same, and they were naon the actors, and not roll them round upon the tives of the two most celebrated cities in the world; audience, as if they were ogling the boxes. for Alcander was of Athens, Septimius came from Rome. In this mutual harmony they lived for some time together, when Alcander, after passing the first part of his youth in the indolence of philosophy, thought at length of entering into the busy world, and as a step previous to this, placed his affections on Hypatia, a lady of exquisite beauty. Hypatia showed no dislike to his addresses. The day of their intended nuptials was fixed, the previous ceremonies were performed, and nothing now remained but her being conducted in triumph to the apartment of the intended bridegroom. Beauty, methinks, seems a requisite qualification in an actress. This seems scrupulously observed elsewhere, and, for my part, I could wish to see it observed at home. I can never conceive a hero dying for love of a lady totally destitute of beauty. I must think the part unnatural; for I can not bear to hear him call that face angelic, where even paint can not hide its wrinkles. I must condemn him of stupidity, and the person whom I can accuse for want of taste, will seldom become the object of my affections or admiration. But if this be a defect, what must be the entire perversion of scenical decorum, when, for instance, we An exultation in his own happiness, or his besee an actress, that might act the Wapping land- ing unable to enjoy any satisfaction without making lady without a bolster, pining in the character of his friend Septimius a partner, prevailed upon him Jane Shore, and while unwieldy with fat, en- to introduce his mistress to his fellow-student, deavouring to convince the audience that she is which he did with all the gaiety of a man who dying with hunger! found himself equally happy in friendship and love. For the future, then, I could wish that the parts But this was an interview fatal to the peace of of the young or beautiful were given to performers both. Septimius no sooner saw her, but he was' of suitable figures; for I must own, I could rather smitten with an involuntary passion. He used see the stage filled with agreeable` objects, though every effort, but in vain, to suppress desires at once they might sometimes bungle a little, than see it crowded with withered or misshapen figures, be their emphasis, as I think it is called, ever so proper. The first may have the awkward appearance of new raised troops; but in viewing the last, I cannot avoid the mortification of fancying myself placed in an hospital of invalids. so imprudent and unjust. He retired to his apartment in inexpressible agony; and the emotions of his mind in a short time became so strong, that they brought on a fever, which the physicians judged incurable. During this illness, Alcander watched him with all the anxiety of fondness, and brought his mis tress to join in those amiable offices of friendship. The sagacity of the physicians, by this means, soon tirely without notice; and in the evening, when he discovered the cause of their patient's disorder; was going up to the prætor's chair, he was bruand Alcander, being apprised of their discovery, tally repulsed by the attending lictors. The atat length extorted a confession from the reluctant tention of the poor is generally driven from one dying lover. ungrateful object to another. Night coming on, It would but delay the narrative to describe the he now found himself under a necessity of seeking conflict between love and friendship in the breast a place to lie in, and yet knew not where to apof Alcander on this occasion; it is enough to say, ply. All emaciated and in rags as he was, none that the Athenians were at this time arrived to of the citizens would harbour so much wretchedsuch refinement in morals, that every virtue was ness, and sleeping in the streets might be attendcarried to excess. In short, forgetful of his own ed with interruption or danger: in short, he was felicity, he gave up his intended bride, in all her obliged to take up his lodging in one of the tombs charms, to the young Roman. They were married without the city, the usual retreat of guilt, poverty, privately by his connivance; and this unlooked-for or despair. change of fortune wrought as unexpected a change| In this mansion of horror, laying his head upon in the constitution of the now happy Septimius. an inverted urn, he forgot his miseries for a while In a few days he was perfectly recovered, and set in sleep; and virtue found, on this flinty couch, out with his fair partner for Rome. Here, by an more ease than down can supply to the guilty. exertion of those talents of which he was so eminently possessed, he in a few years arrived at the highest dignities of the state, and was constituted the city judge, or prætor. Meanwhile, Alcander not only felt the pain of being separated from his friend and mistress, but prosecution was also commenced against him by the relations of Hypatia, for his having basely given her up, as was suggested, for money. Neither his innocence of the crime laid to his charge, nor his eloquence in his own defence, was able to withstand the influence of a powerful party. He was cast, and condemned to pay an enormous fine. Unable to raise so large a sum at the time appoint ed, his possessions were confiscated, himself stripped of the habit of freedom, exposed in the marketplace, and sold as a slave to the highest bidder. It was midnight when two robbers came to make this cave their retreat, but happening to disagree about the division of their plunder, one of them stabbed the other to the heart, and left him weltering in blood at the entrance. In these circuma stances he was found next morning, and this naturally induced a further inquiry. The alarm was spread, the cave was examined, Alcander was found sleeping, and immediately apprehended and accused of robbery and murder. The circumstances against him were strong, and the wretchedness of his appearance confirmed suspicion. Misfortune and he were now so long acquainted, that he at last became regardless of life. He detested a world where he had found only ingratitude, falsehood, and cruelty, and was determined to make no defence. Thus, lowering with resolution, he was A merchant of Thrace becoming his purchaser, dragged, bound with cords, before the tribunal of Alcander, with some other companions of distress, Septimius. The proofs were positive against him, was carried into the region of desolation and ste- and he offered nothing in his own vindication; the rility. His stated employment was to follow the judge, therefore was proceeding to doom him to a herds of an imperious master; and his skill in most cruel and ignominious death, when, as if illuhunting was all that was allowed him to supply a mined by a ray from Heaven, he discovered, precarious subsistence. Condemned to hopeless through all his misery, the features, though dim servitude, every morning waked him to a renewal with sorrow, of his long-lost, loved Alcander. It is of famine or toil, and every change of season serv- impossible to describe his joy and his pain on this ed but to aggravate his unsheltered distress. No- strange occasion; happy in once more seeing the thing but death or flight was left him, and almost person he most loved on earth, distressed at findcertain death was the consequence of his attempting him in such circumstances., Thus agitated by ing to fly. After some years of bondage, however, contending passions, he flew from his tribunal, and an opportunity of escaping offered; he embraced it falling on the neck of his dear benefactor, burst inwith ardour, and travelling by night, and lodging to an agony of distress. The attention of the in caverns by day, to shorten a long story, he at multitude was soon, however, divided by another last arrived in Rome. The day of Alcander's ar- object. The robber who had been really guilty, rival, Septimius sat in the forum administering was apprehended selling his plunder, and struck justice; and hither our wanderer came, expecting with a panic, confessed his crime. He was brought to be instantly known, and publicly acknowledged. bound to the same tribunal, and acquitted every Here he stood the whole day among the crowd, other person of any partnership in his guilt. Need watching the eyes of the judge, and expecting to the sequel be related? Alcander was acquitted, be taken notice of; but so much was he altered by shared the friendship and the honours of his friend a long succession of hardships, that he passed en- Septimius, lived afterwards in happiness and ease, and left it to be engraved on his tomb, "That no the care of their horses. If we gently desired circumstances are so desperate which Providence them to make more speed, they took not the least may not relieve." A LETTER FROM A TRAVELLER. MY DEAR WILL, Cracow, August 2, 1758. notice; kind language was what they had by no means been used to. It was proper to speak to them in the tones of anger, and sometimes it was even necessary to use blows, to excite them to their duty. How different these from the common peo ple of England, whom a blow might induce to re turn the affront seven fold! These poor people, You see by the date of my letter that I am arriv- however, from being brought up to vile usage, lose ed in Poland. When will my wanderings be at all the respect which they should have for them. an end? When will my restless disposition give me selves. They have contracted a habit of regarding leave to enjoy the present hour? When at Lyons, constraint as the great rule of their duty. When I thought all happiness lay beyond the Alps: they were treated with mildness, they no longer when in Italy, I found myself still in want of some- continued to perceive a superiority. They fancied hing, and expected to leave solicitude behind me themselves our equals, and a continuance of our by going into Romelia; and now you find me humanity might probably have rendered them inturning back, still expecting ease every where but solent: but the imperious tone, menaces and where I am. It is now seven years since I saw blows, at once changed their sensations and their the face of a single creature who cared a farthing ideas; their ears and shoulders taught their souls whether I was dead or alive. Secluded from all the comforts of confidence, friendship, or society, I feel the solitude of a hermit, but not his ease. to shrink back into servitude, from which they had for some moments fancied themselves disengaged. The enthusiasm of liberty an Englishman feels The prince of *** has taken me in his train, so is never so strong, as when presented by such that I am in no danger of starving for this bout. prospects as these. I must own, in all my indiThe prince's governor is a rude ignorant pedant, gence, it is one of my comforts (perhaps, indeed, it and his tutor a battered rake; thus, between two is my only boast,) that I am of that happy counsuch characters, you may imagine he is finely in-try; though I scorn to starve there; though I do structed. I made some attempts to display all the not choose to lead a life of wretched dependence, little knowledge I had acquired by reading or ob- or be an object for my former acquaintance to point servation; but I find myself regarded as an igno-at. While you enjoy all the ease and elegance of rant intruder. The truth is, I shall never be able prudence and virtue, your old friend wanders over to acquire a power of expressing myself with ease the world, without a single anchor to hold by, or a in any language but my own; and, out of my own friend except you to confide in.* country, the highest character I can ever acquire, is that of being a philosophic vagabond. Yours, etc. A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LATE When I consider myself in the country which was once so formidable in war, and spread terror and desolation over the whole Roman empire, I can hardly account for the present wretchedness and pusillanimity of its inhabitants: a prey to MR. MAUPERTUIS lately deceased, was the first every invader; their cities plundered without an to whom the English philosophers owed their being enemy; their magistrates seeking redress by com- particularly admired by the rest of Europe. The plaints, and not by vigour. Every thing conspires romantic system of Descartes was adapted to the to raise my compassion for their miseries, were not taste of the superficial and the indolent; the foreign my thoughts too busily engaged by my own. The universities had embraced it with ardour, and such whole kingdom is in a strange disorder: when our are seldom convinced of their errors till all others give equipage, which consists of the prince and thirteen up such false opinions as untenable. The philosoattendants, had arrived at some towns, there were phy of Newton, and the metaphysics of Locke, apno conveniences to be found, and we were obliged peared; but, like all new truths, they were at once to have girls to conduct us to the next. I have seen received with opposition and contempt. The Ena woman travel thus on horseback before us for glish, it is true, studied, understood, and conse thirty miles, and think herself highly paid, and quently admired them; it was very different on the make twenty reverences, upon receiving, with ec- continent. Fontenelle, who seemed to preside over stacy, about twopence for her trouble. In general, we were better served by the women than the men on these occasions. The men seemed directed by sionally. I shall alter nothing either in the style or substance The sequel of this correspondence to be continued occa a low sordid interest alone: they seemed mere ma- of these letters, and the reader may depend on their being chines, and all their thoughts were employed in genuine. the republic of letters, unwilling to acknowledge that all his life had been spent in erroneous philosophy, joined in the universal disapprobation, and the English philosophers seemed entirely unknown. THE BEE, No. II. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1759. ON DRESS. Maupertuis, however, made them his study; he thought he might oppose the physics of his country, and yet still be a good citizen; he defended our FOREIGNERS observe, that there are no ladies in countrymen, wrote in their favour, and at last, as he had truth on his side, carried his cause. Almost the world more beautiful, or more ill-dressed, than all the learning of the English, till very lately, was those of England. Our countrywomen have been conveyed in the language of France. The writings compared to those pictures, where the face is the of Maupertuis spread the reputation of his master, work of a Raphael, but the draperies thrown out Newton, and, by a happy fortune, have united his by some empty pretender, destitute of taste, and fame with that of our human prodigy. entirely unacquainted with design. The first of his performances, openly, in vindication of the Newtonian system, is his treatise, en If I were a poet, I might observe, on this occa sion, that so much beauty, set off with all the advantages of dress, would be too powerful an antago titled, Sur la figure des Astres, if I remember nist for the opposite sex, and therefore, it was wiseright; a work at once expressive of a deep geometri- ly ordered that our ladies should want taste, lest cal knowledge, and the most happy manner of de- their admirers should entirely want reason. livering abstruse science with ease. This met with violent opposition from a people, though fond of novelty in every thing else, yet, however, in matters of science, attached to ancient opinions with bigotry. As the old and obstinate fell away, the youth of France embraced the new opinions, and now seem more eager to defend Newton than even his countrymen. But to confess a truth, I do not find they have a greater aversion to fine clothes than the women of any other country whatsoever. I can not fancy, that a shop-keeper's wife in Cheapside has a greater tederness for the fortune of her husband than a citizen's wife in Paris; or that miss in a boarding. school is more an economist in dress than ma demoiselle in a nunnery. the orders; she never tricks out a squabby Doric shape with Corinthian finery; or, to speak without metaphor, she conforms to general fashion, only when it happens not to be repugnant to private The oddity of character which great men are Although Paris may be accounted the soil in sometimes remarkable for, Maupertuis was not which almost every fashion takes its rise, its inentirely free from. If we can believe Voltaire, he fluence is never so general there as with us. They once attempted to castrate himself; but whether study there the happy method of uniting grace and this be true or no, it is certain, he was extremely fashion, and never excuse a woman for being awkwhimsical. Though born to a large fortune, when wardly dressed, by saying her clothes are made in employed in mathematical inquiries, he disregarded the mode. A French woman is a perfect architect his person to such a degree, and loved retirement in dress; she never, with Gothic ignorance, mixes so much, that he has been more than once put on the list of modest beggars by the curates of Paris, when he retired to some private quarter of the town, in order to enjoy his meditations without interruption. The character given of him by one beauty. of Voltaire's antagonists, if it can be depended Our ladies, on the contrary, seem to have no upon, is much to his honour. "You," says this other standard for grace but the run of the town. writer to Mr. Voltaire, "were entertained by the If fashion gives the word, every distinction of King of Prussia as a buffoon, but Maupertuis as a beauty, complexion, or stature, ceases. Sweeping philosopher." It is certain, that the preference trains, Prussian bonnets, and trollopees, as like which this royal scholar gave to Maupertuis was each other as if cut from the same piece, level all the cause of Voltaire's disagreement with him. to one standard. The Mall, the gardens, and the Voltaire could not bear to see a man whose talents playhouses, are filled with ladies in uniform, and he had no great opinion of preferred before him as their whole appearance shows as little variety or president of the royal academy. His Micromégas taste, as if their clothes were bespoke by the colowas designed to ridicule Maupertuis; and probably nel of a marching regiment, or fancied by the same it has brought more disgrace on the author than artist who dresses the three battalions of guards. the subject. Whatever absurdities men of letters have indulged, and how fantastical soever the modes of science have been, their anger is still more unaccountable passion of dressing in the same subiect to ridicule But not only ladies of every shape and complexion, but of every age too, are possessed of this manner. A lady of no quality can be distinguished |