" giving it a place in your next book, as the great" eft honour that can be conferred on, NOTHING certainly can be more just than what PHILENIA has advanced, and it were greatly to be wished her proposal could be brought into execution; but I am afraid it will be attended with more difficulty than she at present may be aware of. - She feems not to have fufficiently confidered the different tempers of the two nations, and that what in France is looked upon as no more than, what indeed it is, innocent gallantry, might here be censured as an unbecoming familiarity. Our fathers, our brothers, our hufbands are, perhaps, more tenacious of the honour of their family than they need to be; the phlegmatic disposition of the English can ill endure any galliardisins in the females belonging to them: they would be apt, fome of them at least, to think the admiration we professed for learning, was only a veil to cover our admiration of the person who possessed it; and though it must be owned, that our sex at present indulge very great liberties, yet, as the number of men of wit is but small, an intimacy with one of those is looked upon as infinitely more dangerous than that with a thousand beaux. It is evident enough, that the men in general imagine they find their account in permitting us to trifle away our time in follies, which render us ridiculous abroad, and infignificant at home. A piece ! A piece of cruelty indeed, which but ill agrees with their professions, but is what we must resolve to bear, till we can pluck up spirit to affert the dignity of our natures, and of ourselves, throw off those senseless avocations, that make the finest among us of no more account than a pretty plaything. YET let it not be faid we are the only thoughtless, gawdy flutterers of the human world :there are men-butterflies, as well as women :things that are above the trouble of reflection, and suffer themselves to be blown about by every wind of folly. Whatever has the name of novelty will carry them through thick and thin;-led by that restless charm, no matter if the chair be overturned, the gilded chariot broke, and the coachman's neck into the bargain, still they press on a mingled motley crowd; as witness the audiences at the little theatre in the Haymarket, to see the entertainment of the Dutch children, as they were called, though most of them were bred up to the tumbling art in Broad St. Giles's and Whitechapel, and hacked about at all the petty wells near London, while Shakespear and Otway warble their pathetic strains to empty boxes at CoventGarden and Drury-Lane. I MUST confess, that I was sorry to hear that there were at least an equal number of men as women at these raree-shews, because that whatever infatuation our pofterity may be guilty of, it cannot be faid, that it defcended to them wholly by the mother's side. THEY say, extremes are never of long continuance, and if so, we might flatter ourselves that the prepofterous taste now reigning is arrived at its its zenith, and people by degrees would recover their senses. A piece left for us the other day at our publisher's, exposes, with so much wit and humour, the depravity of the present genius in matters of entertainment, that I think those moft immerged in the lethargy of folly and stupidity, must be quickened by it into a sense of shame. To the fair authors of the FEMALE SPECTATOR. " LADIES, "THE following scene, which I beg leave to " transmit to you, is part of a dramatic plan, in"tended to have been worked up into a farce, as "a fatire upon the puppet patrons and patronesses " of this politely learned age; but finding the "humour a good deal diverted, by a vehement " pursuit in our fine ladies and gentlemen of an" other kind, I mean, in a profound application to " the important solution of a conundrum, I have " thought proper to drop the design, imagining, "however, that this little opening will serve to " give an idea of the laudable views of an under" taking our people of taste have been so lavish " in encouraging. I am, LADIES, Your most humble servant, March the 1ft, 1744-5. Bedford Coffee-House, Covent-Garden. J. J." SCENE SCENE, TOWNLEY'S Lodgings. Enter Townley and Servant. Town. Who are below, fay'st thou? Serv. In the first place, fir, there's your honour's whist master; but, I think, you would not fee him. Town. Pox take the scientifical trifler - I'll have no more of his lessons. Serv. And in truth, fir, you are very much in the right: for by what I have observed, he has taught you the garne so learnedly, that you play it worse than you did before you ever saw his face, and have continued on the lofing hand, till, thanks to his instructions, you are some thousands less in bank, and if you went on much longer, you might foon have nothing more to lofe. Town. And who is there else ? Serv. Why, fir, there is that strange, squeaking, medley thing of the doubtful gender, Mr. Mollman, whom the ladies run so mad after, though the duce take me if I can find out for what, with all my penetration. Would your honour please to fee him? Town. Aye, aye, send him up. [Exit Serv. I want to hear a little about his scheme, -it is the talk of every company one goes into. Re-enter fervant, introducing Mollman with a fan and feveral puppets. Moll. (In an effeminate voice) Dear Mr. Townley, you see I cannot pass by the lodgings of a man of wit and pleasure. You must subscribe to to my sweet puppets here. -I have been just buying a huncamunca fan for Miss puppet Draper of Leadenhall-street, who wears one as big as herself-ha, ha, ha :-I suppose you know the ladies of the beau-monde have declared war against the citizens ? Town. War, as how, Mr. Mollman? Moll. Why, my dear, there is not a face in the city of any note, but what is to be taken off to the life in my puppet-shew; and let me alone to mimic their voices. Town. So, I find, you are going to revive, as it were, the old comedy in a puppet-shew? - ------- Moll. Gad's curse, I don't know what you mean by old comedy, but look you here, my pretty little precious! here's a curiofity (shewing a large puppet) observe, my dear, this is alderman Brawn-as like as two P's, mind his treble chin-his pent-house eye-brows, and his promontory belly; - and this is Mrs. puppet Atlas, - (shewing another) a director's wife. You would swear it was she herself. Lady Betty dressed the alderman, and lady Charlotte, the director's wife. - Well, they are sweet creatures. Town. The ladies, I perceive, are in full employment for you. Moll. Oh, aye,- they are so delighted.-Lud! they have no other pastime;-no other enjoyment. Gad's curse, my little rogue, I can do any thing with them. Town. And they with you, I suppose, without any danger to their reputations? Moll. You may be as fatirical as you will, but the little devils can't live without ine, my dear. [Chucking him under the chin.] |