THE LOVER. BY MARMADUKE MYRTLE, GENT. Phyllida amo ante alias, nam me discedere flevit.-VIRG. Eclog. III. 78. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. THE history of this work belongs rather to an edition of Steele than to one of Addison. For the present purpose it will be sufficient to say, that 'The Lover' forms a series of papers, beginning Thursday, Feb. 25, 1713– 14, and ending with the fortieth number, Thursday, May 27, 1714. The first sketch of the character of the Lover is given in the Tatler under the name of Cynthio, and repeated in the Spectator under that of Sir Roger de Coverley. On resuming the subject Steele assumed the name of Marmaduke Myrtle, Gent. The whole work was dedicated, in the eulogistic style of the age, to Doctor Garth, author of the Dispensary. It was reprinted by Nichols in 1789. Addison contributed two papers, and is supposed to have had a hand in several others.-G. THE LOVER. No. 10. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1714. -Magis illa placent quæ pluris emuntur. I HAVE lately been very much teased with the thought of Mrs. Anne Page, and the memory of those many cruelties which I suffered from that obdurate fair one. Mrs. Anne was, in a particular manner, very fond of china ware, against which I had, unfortunately, declared my aversion. I do not know but this was the first occasion of her coldness towards me, which makes me sick at the very sight of a china dish ever since. This is the best introduction I can make for my present discourse, which may serve to fill up a gap, till I am more at leisure to resume the thread of my amours. There are no inclinations in women which more surprise me, than their passions for chalk and china. The first of these maladies wears out in a little time; but when a woman is visited with the second, it generally takes possession of her for life. China vessels are playthings for women of all ages. An old lady of fourscore shall be as busy in cleaning an Indian Mandarin, as her great-grand-daughter is in dressing her baby. The common way of purchasing such trifles, if I may believe my female informers, is by exchanging old suits of clothes for this brittle ware. The potters of China have, it seems, their factors at this distance, who retail out their several manufactures for cast clothes and superannuated garments. I have known an old petticoat metamorphosed into a punch-bowl, and a pair of breeches into a tea-pot. For this reason, my friend Tradewell in the city, calls his great room, that is nobly furnished out with china, his wife's wardrobe. In yonder corner, (says he,) are above twenty suits of clothes, and on that scrutoire above a hundred yards of furbelowed silk. You cannot imagine how many night-gowns, stays, and mantuas, went to the raising of that pyramid. The worst of it is, (says he,) a suit of clothes is not suffered to last half its time, that it may be the more vendible; so that in reality, this is but a more dexterous way of picking the husband's pocket, who is often purchasing a great vase of china, when he fancies that he is buying a fine head, or a silk gown for his wife.' There is, likewise, another inconvenience in this female passion for china, namely, that it administers to them great matter of wrath* and sorrow. How much anger and affliction are produced daily in the hearts of my dear country-women, by the breach of this frail furniture. Some of them pay half their servants' wages in china fragments, which their carelessness has produced. If thou hast a piece of earthenware, consider, (says Epictetus,) that it is a piece of earthen ware, and very easy and obnoxious to be broken be not, therefore, so void of reason, as to be angry or grieved when this comes to pass.' In order, therefore, to exempt my fair readers from such additional and supernumerary calamities of life, I would advise them to forbear dealing in these perishable commodities, till such time as they are philosophers enough to keep their temper at the fall of a tea-pot, or a china cup. I shall further recommend to their serious consideration these three particulars: first, that all china ware is of a weak and transitory nature. Secondly, that the fashion of it is changeable: and thirdly, that it is of no use. And first of the first: the fragility of china is such as a reasonable being ought by no means to set its heart upon, though, at the same time, I am afraid I may complain with Seneca on the like occasion, that this very consideration recommends them to our choice, our luxury being grown so wanton, that this kind of treasure becomes the more valuable, the more easily we may be deprived of it, and that it receives a price from its brittleness. There is a kind of ostentation in wealth, which sets the possessors of it upon distinguishing themselves in those things where it is hard for the poor to follow them. For this reason, I have often wondered that our ladies have not taken pleasure in egg-shells, especially in those which are curiously stained and streaked, and which are so very tender, that they require the nicest hand to hold without breaking them. But, as if the brittleness of this ware were not sufficient to make it costly, the very fashion of it is changeable, which brings me to my second particular. It may chance, that a piece of china may survive all those accidents to which it is by nature liable, and last for some years, if rightly situated and taken care of. To remedy, therefore, this inconvenience, it is so ordered, that the shape of it shall grow unfashionable, which makes new supplies always necessary, and furnishes employment for life to women of great and generous souls, who cannot live out of the mode. I myself remember, when there were few china vessels to be seen that held more than a dish of Things where. The adverb where includes the idea of place, and is, therefore, inaccurately used, when what precedes does not suggest that idea. If he had said" Which puts the possessors of it upon striking out into those paths, where," the use of it had been proper. |