cian: got rid of his paffion with the lofs of his right-leg and arm, which were broken in the fall. Meliffa, in love with Daphnis, very much bruifed, but efcaped with life. Cynifca, the wife of fchines, being in love with Lycus; and Æfchines her husband being in love with Eurilla; (which had made this married couple very uneasy to one another for feveral years) both the husband and the wife took the leap by confent; they both of them escaped, and have lived very happily together ever fince. Larissa, a virgin of Theffaly, deferted by Plexippus, after a courtship of three years; the food upon the brow of the promontory for fome time, and after having thrown down a ring, a bracelet, and a little picture, with other prefents which he had received from Plexippus, fhe threw herfelf into the fea, and was taken up alive. N. B. Lariffa, before the leaped, made an offering of a filver Cupid in the temple of Apollo. Simætha, in love with Daphnis the Myndian, perished in the fall. Charixus, the brother of Sappho, in love with Rhodope the courtesan, having spent his whole eftate upon her, was adviled by his fifter to leap in the beginning of his amour, but would not hearken to her until he was reduced to his last talent; being forfaken by Rhodope, at length refolved to take the leap. Perished in it. Aridaus, a beautiful youth of Epirus, in love with Praxinoe, the wife of Thefpis, efcaped without damage, faving only that two of his fore teeth were ftruck out and his nose à little flatted. Cleora, a widow of Ephefes, being inconfolable for the death of her hufband, was resolved to take this leap in order to get rid of her paffion for his memory; but being arrived at the promontory, the there met with Dimmachus the Miletian, and after a fhort converfation with him, laid afide the thoughts of her leap, and married him in the temple of Apollo. N. B. Her widow's weeds are ftill feen hanging up in the western corner of the temple. Ophis, the fisherman, having received a box on the ear from Theftylis the day before, and being determined to have no more to do with her, leaped, and escaped with life. Atalanta, an old maid, whose cruelty had several years before driven two or three defpairing lovers to this leap; being now in the fifty-fifth year of her age, and in love with an officer of Sparta, broke her neck in the fall. Hipparchus being paffionately fond of his own wife, who was enamoured of Bathyllus, leaped, and died of his fall; upon which his wife married her gallant. Tettyx, the dancing-mafter, in love with Olympia, an Athenian matron, threw himself from the rock with great agility, but was crippled in the fall. Diagoras, the ufurer, in love with hǹ cook-maid; he peeped feveral times over the precipice, but his heart mifgiving him, he went back and married her that evening. Cinædus, after having entered his own name in the Pythian records, being asked the name of the perfon whom he leaped for, and being afhamed to difcover it, he was fet afide, and not fuffered to leap. Eunica, a maid of Paphos, aged nineteen, in love with Eurybates. Hurt in the fall, but recovered. N.B. This was the fecond time of her leaping. Hesperus, a young man of Tarentum, in love with his master's daughter. Drowned, the boats not coming in foon enough to his relief. Sappho, the Lesbian, in love with Phaon, arrived at the temple of Apollo, habited like a bride in garments as white as fnow. She wore a garland of myr. tle on her head, and carried in her hand the little mufical instrument of her own invention. After having fung an hymn to Apollo, the hung up her garland on one fide of his altar, and her harp on the other. She then tucked up her veftments, like a Spartan virgin, and amidâ thousands of fpectators, who were anxious for her fafety, and offered up vows for her deliverance, marched directly forwards, to the utmost summit of the promontory, where, after having repeated a ftanza of her own veries, which we could not hear, the threw her felf off the rock with fuch an intrepidity as was never before obferved in any who had attempted that dangerous leap, Many who were prefent related, that they faw her fall into the fea, from whence the never rofe again; though there were others who affirmed, that the never tever came to the bottom of her leap, but that he was changed into a fwan as the fell, and that they faw her hovering in the air under that fhape. But whether or no the whiteness and fluttering of her garments might not deceive thofe who looked upon her, or whether the might not really be metamorphofed into that mufical and melancholy bird, is ftill a doubt among the Lesbians. Alcæus, the famous Lyric poet, who had for fome time been paffionately in love with Sappho, arrived at the promon. tory of Leucate that very evening, in N° CCXXXIV. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28. VELLEM IN AMICITIA SIC ERRAREMUS. HOR, SAT. III. L. I. V. 41. I WISH THIS ERROR IN OUR FRIENDSHIP REIGN'D. OU very often hear people, after CREECH, an acquaintance of mine does every day he lives in fome eminent degree to particular perfons. He is ever lying people into good humour; and, as Plato faid, it is allowable in physicians to lye to their patients to keep up their fpirits, I am half doubtful whether my friend's behaviour is not as excufeable. His manner is to exprefs himself furprised at the chearful countenance of a man whom he observes diffident of himself; and generally by that means makes his lye a truth. He will, as if he did not know any thing of the circumstance, afk one whom he knows at variance with another, what is the meaning that Mr. Such-a-one, naming his adverfary, does not applaud him with that hearti nefs which formerly he has heard him? a ftory has been told with fome entertaining circumstances, tell it over again with particulars that destroy the jeft, but give light into the truth of the narration. This fort of veracity, though it is impertinent, has fomething amiable in it, because it proceeds from the love of truth, even in frivolous occafions. If such honest amendments do not promise an agreeable companion, they do a fincere friend; for which reafon one should allow them fo much of our time, if we fall into their company, as to fet us right in matters that can do us no manner of harm, whether the facts be one way or the other. Lyes which are told out of arrogance and oftentation a man fhould detect in his own defence, because he should not be triumphed over; lyes which are told out of malice he should expofe, both for his own fake and that of the reft of mankind, because every man fhould rise against a common enemy: but the officious liar many have argued is to be excufed, because it does fome man good, and no man hurt. The man who made more than ordinary speed from a fight in which the Athenians were beaten, and told them they had obtained a complete victory, and put the whole city into the utmost joy and exul-good of you, than, let me tell you, any tation, was checked by the magiftrates for his falsehood; but excused himself by faying 'O Athenians! am I your enemy because I gave you two happy days?' This fellow did to a whole people what He faid indeed, continues he, I would rather have that man for my friend than any man in England; but for an enemy This melts the perfon he talks to, who expected nothing but downright raillery from that fide. According as he fees his practices fucceed, he goes to the oppofite party, and tells him, he cannot imagine how it happens that fome people know one another fo little; 'you fpoke with fo much 'coldness of a gentleman who faid more man living deferves.' The fuccefs of one of thefe incidents was, that the next time that one of the adverfaries fpied the other, he hems after him in the public ftreet, and they must crack a 3L 2 bettle bottle at the next tavern, that used to turn out of the other's way to avoid one another's eye-fhot. He will tell one beauty fhe was commended by another; nay, he will tay the gave the woman he fpeaks to, the preference in a particular for which the herself is admired. The pleafanteft confufion imaginable is made through the whole town by my friend's indirect offices; you fhall have a visit returned after a half year's absence, and mutual railing at each other every day of that time. They meet with a thoufand lamentations for fo long a feparation, each party naming herself for the greatest delinquent, if the other can poffibly be fo good as to forgive her, which he has no reafon in the world, but from the knowledge of her goodnefs, to hope for. Very often a whole train of railers of each fide tire their horfes in fetting matters right which they have faid during the war between the parties; and a whole circle of acquaintance are put into a thoufand pleafing paffions and fentiments, inftead of the pangs of anger, envy, detraction, and malice. The worst evil I ever obferved this man's falfhood occafion, has been that he turned detraction into flattery. He is well killed in the manners of the world, and by overlooking what men really are, he grounds his artifices upon what they have a mind to be. Upon this foundation, if two diftant friends are brought together, and the cement feems to be weak, he never refts until he finds new appearances to take off all remains of ill-will, and that by new mifunderstandings they are thoroughly reconciled. SIR, T TO THE SPECTATOR. DEVONSHIRE, Nov. 14, 1711. HERE arrived in this neighbourhood two days ago one of your gay gentlemen of the town, who being attended at his entry with a fervant of his own, befides a countryman he had taken up for a guide, excited the curiofity of the village to learn whence and what he might be. The countryman, to whom they applied as most eafy of accefs, knew little more than that the gentleman came from London to travel and fee fashions, and was, as he heard, fay, a free-thinker: what religion that might be, he could not tell, and for his own part, if they had not told him the man was a free-thinker, he fhould have gueffed, by his way of talking, he was a little better than a heathen; excepting only that he had been a good gentleman to him, and made him drunk twice in one day, over and above what they had bargained for. I do not look upon the fimplicity of this, and feveral odd inquiries with which I fhall not trouble you to be wondered at; much less can I think that our youths of fine wit, and enlarged underItandings, have any reafon to laugh. There is no neceffity that every 'fquire in Great Britain fhould know what the word Free-thinker ftands for; but it were much to be wifhed, that they who value themselves upon that conceited title were a little better inftructed in what it ought to stand for; and that they would not perfuade themselves a man is really and truly a free thinker in any tolerable fenfe, merely by virtue of his being an atheist, or an infidel of any other diftinction. It may be doubted with good reafon, whether there ever was in nature a more abject, dayish, and bigotted generation, than the tribe of Beaux Efprits, at prefent fo prevailing in this ifland. Their pretension to be free thinkers, is no other than rakes have to be free-liyers, and favages to be free-men; that is, they can think whatever they have a mind to, and give themselves up to whatever conceit the extravagancy of their inclination, or their fancy, shall fuggeft; they can think as wildly as they talk and act, and will not endure that their wit should be controuled by fuch formal things as decency and common sense: deduction, coherence, confiftency, and all the rules of reafon, they accordingly difdain, as too precife and mechanical for men of a liberal education. This, as far as I could ever learn from their writings, or my own obfer. vation, is a true account of the Britifn free-thinker, Our vifitant here, who gave occafion to this paper, has brought with him a new fyftem of common tente, the particulars of which I am not yet acquainted with, but will lofe no opportunity of informing myfelf whether it contains any thing worth Mr. Spectator's notice. In the mean time, Șir, I cannot but think it would be for the good of mankind, if you would take this fubject into your own conúideration, and convince the hopeful youth of Our our nation, that licentioufnefs is not freedom; or, if fuch a paradox will not be understood, that a prejudice towards atheifin is not impartiality. I am, Sir, your most humble fervant, T PHILONOUS. N° CCXXXV. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29. TH - POPULARES VINCENTEM STREPITUS HOR. ARS POET. V. 81. AWES THE TUMULTUOUS NOISES OF THE PIT. HERE is nothing which lies more within the province of a fpectator than public shows and diverfions; and as among these there are none which can pretend to vie with thofe elegant entertainments that are exhibited in our theatres, I think it particularly incumbent on me to take notice of every thing that is remarkable in fuch numerous and refined affemblies. It is obferved, that of late years there has been a certain perfon in the upper gallery of the play-houfe, who when he is pleased with any thing that is acted upon the stage, expreffes his approbation by a loud knock upon the benches or the wainscot, which may be heard over the whole theatre. This perfon is commonly known by the name of the Trunk maker in the Upper-gallery.' Whether it be, that the blow he gives on thefe occafions refembles that which is often heard in the hops of fuch artifans, or that he was fuppofed to have been a real trunk-maker, who after the fiuifhing of his day's work, ufed to unbend his mind at thefe public diverfions with his hammer in his hand, I cannot certainly tell. There are fome, I know, who have been foolish enough to imagine it is a fpirit which haunts the upper gallery, and from time to time makes those strange noises; and the rather because he is obferved to be louder than ordinary every time the ghost of Hamlet appears. Others have reported, that it is a dumb man, who has chofen this way of uttering himself when he is tranfported with any thing he fees er hears. Others will have it to be the play-houfe thunderer, that exerts himfelf after this manner in the upper gallery when he has nothing to do upon the roof. But having made it iny business to get the best information I could in a matter of this moment, I find that the trunk ROSCOMMON. maker, as he is commonly called, is a large black man, whom nobody knows. He generally leans forward on a huge oaken plant with great attention to every thing that paffes upon the ftage. He is never feen to finile; but upon hearing any thing that pleafes him, he takes up his staff with both hands, and lays it upon the next piece of timber that stands in his way with exceeding vehemence: after which he compofes himself in his former posture, until fuch time as fomething new fets him again at work. It has been obferved, his blow is fo well-timed, that the moft judicious critic could never except against it. As foon as any fhining thought is expreffed in the poet, or any uncommon grace appears in the actor, he fmites the bench or wainscot. If the audience does not concur with him, he finites a fecond time, and if the audience is not yet awaked, looks round him with great wrath, and repeats the blow a third time, which never fails to produce the clap. He fometimes lets the audience begin the clap of themfelves, and at the conclufion of their applaufe ratifies it with a single thwack. He is of fo great ufe to the play-house, that it is faid a former director of it, upon his not being able to pay his attendance by reafon of ficknefs, kept one in pay to officiate for him until fuch time as he recovered; but the perfon fo employed, though he laid about him with incredible violence, did it in fuch wrong places, that the audience foon found out that it was not their old friend the trunk-maker. It has been remarked, that he has not yet exerted himself with vigour this feafon. He fometimes plies at the opera; and upon Nicolini's first apparuire, was faid to have demolished three be 'S in the fury of his applaufe. It broken half a dozen chen plank Dogget, and feldom goes away from a tragedy of Shakespeare, without leaving the wainscot extremely shattered. The players do not only connive at his obftreperous approbation, but very chearfully repair at their own colt whatever damages he makes. They had once a thought of erecting a kind of wooden anvil for his ufe, that should be made of a very founding plank, in order to render his ftrokes more deep and mellow; but as this might not have been diftinguished from the mufic of a kettle drum, the project was laid afide. In the mean while, I cannot but take notice of the great ufe it is to an audience, that a perfon fhould thus prefide over their heads like the director of a concert, in order to awaken their attention, and beat time to their applaufes; or, to raise my fimile, I have fometimes fancied the trunk-maker in the upper gallery to be like Virgil's ruler of the winds, feated upon the top of a mountain, who when he ftruck his fceptre upon the fide of it, roufed an hurricane, and fet the whole cavern in an uproar. It is certain the trunk-maker has faved many a good play, and brought many a graceful actor into reputation, who would not otherwife have been taken notice of. It is very visible, as the audience is not a little abafhed, if they find themselves betrayed into a clap, when their friend in the upper gallery does not come into it; fo the actors do not value themselves upon the clap, but regard it as a mere brutum fulmen, or empty noife, when it has not the found of the oaken plant in it. I know it has been given out by thofe who are enemies to the trunk-maker, that he has fometimes been bribed to be in the intereft of a bad poet or a vicious player; but this is a fumite which has no foundation, his ftrokes are always juft, and his admonitions feasonable; he does not deal about his blows at random, but always hits the right nail upon the head. The inexpreffible force wherewith he lays them on, fufficiently fhews the evidence and ftrength of his conviction. His zeal for a good author is indeed outrageous, and breaks down every fence and partition, every board and plank, that ftands within the expreffion of his applaufe. As I do not care for terminating my thoughts in barren fpeculations, or in reports of pure matter of fact, without drawing something from them for the advantage of my countrymen, I fhall take the liberty to make an humble propofal, that whenever the trunk-maker hall depart this life, or whenever he fhall have loft the fpring of his arm by ficknefs, old age, infirmity, or the like, fome able-bodied critic fhould be advanced to this poft, and have a competent falary fettled on him for life, to be furnished with bamboos for operas, crabtree-cudgels for comedies, and oaken plants for tragedy, at the public expence. And to the end that this place fhould be always difpofed of according to merit, I would have none preferred to it, who has not given convincing proofs both of a found judgment. and a strong arm, and who could not, upon occafion, either knock down an ox, or write a comment upon Horace's Art of Poetry. In short, I would have him a due compofition of Hercules and Apollo, and fo rightly qualified for this important office, that the trunk-maker may not be miffed by our posterity. C being infenfible of the fatisfaction in that way of life, and treating their wives with the moft barbarous difrefpect. Particular circumftances and caft of temper, muft teach a man the probability of mighty uneafineffes in that state, for unquestionably fome there are whofe very difpofitions are ftrangely averfe to conjugal friendship; but no one, I be lieve, |