tion which gratifies a fenfual appetite will pleafe, when the author has nothing about him to delight a refined imagination. It is to fuch a poverty, we must impute this and all other fentences in plays, which are of this kind, and which are commonly termed luscious expreffions*.

This expedient to fupply the deficiencies of wit, has been used more or less by moft of the authors who have fucceeded on the ftage; though I know but one who has profeffedly writ a play upon the bafis of the defire of multiplying our fpecies, and that is the polite Sir George Etheridge; if I understand what the lady would be at, in the play called She would if he could, Other poets have here and there, given an intimation that there is this defign, under all the difguifes and affectations which a lady may put on; but no author except this, has made fure work of it, and put the imaginations of the audience upon this one purpofe, from the beginning to the end of the comedy. It has always fared accordingly; for whether it be that all who go to this piece would if they could, or that the innocents go to it, to guefs only what he would if he could, the play has always been well received.

It lifts an heavy empty fentence, when there is

He

Be it faid here, to the honour of the author of this Paper, that he practifed the leffons which he taught, and did not reject good advice from what quarter foever it came. publifhed this lady's letter, and approved of her indignation. He fubmitted to her cenfure, condemned himself publicly, and corrected the obnoxious paffage of his play, in a new edition which was published in 1712.

added

added to it a lascivious gefture of body; and when it is too low to be raised even by that, a flat meaning is enlivened by making it a double one. Writers who want Genius, never fail of keeping this fecret in referve, to create a laugh or raife a clap. I, who know nothing of women but from feeing plays, can give great gueffes at the whole ftructure of the fair fex, by being innocently placed in the pit, and infulted by the petticoats of their dancers; the advantages of whofe pretty perfons are a great help to a dull play. When a poet flags in writing lufciously, a pretty girl can move lafcivioufly, and have the fame good confequence for the author. Dull poets in this cafe ufe their audiences, as dull parafites do their patrons; when they cannot longer divert them with their wit or humour, they bait their ears with fomething which is agreeable to their temper, though below their understanding. Apicius cannot refift being pleafed, if you give him an account of a delicious meal; or Clodius, if you defcribe a wanton beauty: though at the fame time, if you do not awake thofe inclinations in them, no men are better judges of what is just and delicate in converfation. But as I have before obferved, it is eafier to talk to the man, than to the man of sense.

It is remarkable that the writers of leaft learning are beft fkilled in the lufcious way. The poeteffes of the age have done wonders in this kind; and we are obliged to the lady who writ Ibrahim*, for introducing a preparatory scene to * Mrs. Mary Pix, U 4

the

the very action, when the emperor throws his handkerchief as a fignal for his mistress to follow him into the moft retired part of the feraglio. It must be confeffed his Turkish majesty went off with a good air, but methought, we made but a fad figure who waited without. This ingenious gentlewoman*, in this piece of bawdry, refined upon an author of the fame fex, who, in the Rover, makes a country 'fquire ftrip to his Holland drawers. For Blunt is difappointed, and the emperor, is understood to go on to the utmoft. The pleafantry of stripping almost naked has been fince practifed (where indeed it should have been begun) very fuccefsfully at Bartholomew fair.

It is not here to be omitted, that in one of the above-mentioned female compofitions, the Rover is very frequently fent on the fame errand; as I take it, above once every act. This is not wholly unnatural; for, they fay, the men authors draw themfelves in their chief charact is, and the women writers may be allowed the fame liberty. Thus, as the male-wit gives his hero. a great fortune, the female gives her heroine a good gallant, at the end of the play. But, indeed, there is hardly a play one can go to, but the hero or fine gentleman of it struts off upon the fame account, and leaves us to confider what good office he has put us to, or to employ our

*Mrs. Behn.

The appearance of Lady Mary, a rope-dancer at Bartholomew-Fair, gaye occafion to this very proper animad verfion.

selves as we please. To be plain, a man who frequents plays would have a very respectful notion of himself, were he to recollect how often he has been used as pimp to ravishing tyrants, or fuccefsful rakes. When the actors make their exit on this good occafion, the ladies are fure to have an examining glance from the pit, to fee how they relish what paffes; and a few lewd fools are very ready to employ their talents upon the compofure or freedom of their looks. Such incidents as thefe make fome ladies wholly abfent themselves from the playhouse; and others never mifs the first day of a play*, left it should prove too luscious to admit their going with any countenance to it on the fecond.

If men of wit, who think fit to write for the stage, instead of this pitiful way of giving delight, would turn their thoughts upon raifing it from fuch good natural impulfes as are in the audience, but are choaked up by vice and luxury, they would not only please, but befriend us at the fame time. If a man had a mind to be new in his way of writing, might not he who is now represented as a fine gentleman, though he betrays the honour and bed of his neighbour and friend, and lies with half the women in the play, and is at last rewarded with her of the best character in it; I fay, upon giving the comedy

• On the first night of the exhibition of a new play, virtupus women about this time came to fee it in masks, then worn by women of the town, as the characteristic mark of their being proftitutes,

3

another

another caft, might not fuch a one divert the audience quite as well, if at the catastrophe he were found out for a traitor, and met with contempt accordingly? There is feldom a perfon devoted to above one darling vice at a time, fo that there is room enough to catch at men's hearts to their good and advantage, if the poets will attempt it with the honefty which becomes their characters.

There is no man who loves his bottle or his mistress, in a manner fo very abandoned, as not to be capable of relifhing an agreeable character, that is no way a flave to either of those purfuits. A man that is temperate, generous, valiant, chafte, faithful, and honeft, may, at the fame time, have wit, humour, mirth, good-breeding, and gallantry. While he exerts these latter qualities, twenty occafions might be invented to fhew he is mafter of the other noble virtues. Such characters would fmite and reprove the heart of a man of fenfe, when he is given up to his pleafures. He would fee he has been mistaken all this while, and be convinced that a found conftitution and an innocent mind, are the true ingredients for becoming, and enjoying life. All men of true taste would call a man of wit, who fhould turn his ambition this way, a friend and benefactor to his country; but I am at a lofs what name they would give him, who makes ufe of his capacity for contrary purposes. R*.

By STEELE. See final Notes to N° 6, on the Signature R.; and N° 324, on the Signature T. used it seems by STEELE when he Tranfcribed, and at times it is probable by Mr. T. Tickell. See N° 410, Note ad finem.