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No. 266. As I have nothing more at Heart than the Honour and Improvement of the fair Sex, I cannot conclude this Paper without an Exhortation to the British Ladies, that they would excel the Women of all other Nations as much in Virtue and good Senfe, as they do in Beauty; which they may certainly do, if they will be as industrious to cultivate their Minds, as they are to adorn their Bodies; in the mean while I fhall recommend to their moft ferious Confideration the Saying of an old Greek Poet.

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Id vero eft, quod ego mihi puto palmarium,
Me reperiffe, quomodo adolefcentulus
Meretricum ingenia & mores poffit nofcere:
Mature ut cum cognorit perpetuo oderit.

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O Vice or Wickednefs which People fall into from Indulgence to Defires which are natural to all, ought to place them below the Compaffion of the virtuous Part of the World, which indeed often makes me a little apt to fufpect the Sincerity of their Virtue, who are too warmly provoked at other People's perfonal Sins. The unlawful Commerce of the Sexes is of all other the hardest to avoid; and yet there is no one which you shall hear the rigider Part of Womankind fpeak of with fo little Mercy. It is very certain that a modeft Woman cannot abhor the Breach of Chaftity too much, but pray let her hate it for herself, and only pity it in others. WILL. HONEYCOMB calls thefe over-offended Ladies, the Outragiously Virtuous.

I do not defign to fall upon Failures in general, with Relation to the Gift of Chastity, but at present only enter upon that large Field, and begin with the Confideration of poor and publick Whores. The other Evening paffing along near Covent-Garden, I was jogged on the

Elbow

Elbow as I turned into the Piazza, on the right Hand coming out of James-ftreet, by a flim young Girl of about Seventeen, who with a pert Air asked me if I was for a Pint of Wine. I do not know but I fhould have indulged my Curiofity in having fome Chat with her, but that I am informed the Man of the Bumper knows me; and it would have made a Story for him not very agreeable to fome Part of my Writings, though I have in others fo frequently faid that I am wholly unconcerned in any Scene I am in, but meerly as a Spectator. This Impediment being in my Way, we ftood under one of the Arches by Twilight; and there I could obferve as exact Features as I had ever seen, the most agreeable Shape, the finest Neck and Bofom, in a Word, the whole Perfon of a Woman exquifitely Beautiful. She affected to allure. me with a forced Wantonness in her Look and Air; but I faw it checked with Hunger and Cold: Her Eyes were wan and eager, her Dress thin and tawdry, her Mein genteel and childish. This ftrange Figure gave me much Anguish of Heart, and to avoid being feen with her I went away, but couid not forbear giving her a Crown. The poor Thing fighed, curtfied, and with a Bleffing, expreffed with the utmoft Vehemence, turned from me. This Creature is what they call newly come upon the Town, but who, I fuppofe, falling into cruel Hands was left in the first Month from her Dishonour, and expofed to pafs through the Hands and Difcipline of one of thofe Hags of Hell whom we call Bawds. But left I fhould grow too fuddenly grave on this Subject, and be my felf outragioufly good, I fhall turn to a Scene in one of Fletcher's Plays, where this Character is drawn, and the Oeconomy of Whoredom most admirably described. The Paffage I would point to is in the third Scene of the second Act of the Humourous Lieutenant. Lucippe, who is Agent. for the King's Luft, and bawds at the fame Time for the whole Court, is very pleasantly introduced, reading her Minutes as a Perfon of Bufinefs, with two Maids, her Under-Secretaries, taking Inftructions at a Table before her. Her Women, both thofe under her prefent Tutelage, and those which fhe is laying wait for, are alphabetically fet down in her Book; and the is looking over

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the Letter C, in a muttering Voice, as if between Soli loquy and speaking out, fhe fays,

Her Maidenhead will yield me; let me fee now;
She is not Fifteen they fay: For ber Complexion
Cloe, Cloe, Cloe, here I have her,

Cloe, the Daughter of a Country Gentleman;
Her Age upon Fifteen. Now her Complexion,
A lovely brown; bere 'tis; Eyes black and rowling,,,
The Body neatly built; fhe ftrikes a Lute well,
Sings most enticingly: Thefe Helps confider'd

Her Maidenhead will amount to fome three hundred,
Or three hundred and fifty Crowns, 'twill bear it hand
Her Father's poor, fome little Share deducted, (fomly.
To buy him a Hunting Nag

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THESE Creatures are very well inftructed in the Cir cumftances and Manners of all who are any Way related to the Fair One whom they have a Defign upon. As Gloe is to be purchased with 350 Crowns, and the Father taken off with a Pad; the Merchant's Wife next to her, who abounds in Plenty, is not to have down-right Money, but the mercenary Part of her Mind is engaged with a Prefent of Plate and a little Ambition. She is made to underftand that it is a Man of Quality who dies for her. The Examination of a young Girl for Bufinefs, and the crying down her Value for being a flight Thing, together with every other Circumftance in the Scene, are inimitably excellent, and have the true Spirit of Comedy; tho' it were to be wifhed the Author had added a Circumstance which should make Lucippe's Business more odious.

IT must not be thought a Digreffion from my intended Speculation, to talk of Bawds in a Difcourfe upon Wenches; for a Woman of the Town is not throughly and properly fuch, without having gone through the Education of one of these Houses. But the compassionate Cafe of very many is, that they are taken into fuch Hands without any the leaft Sufpicion, previous Temptation, or Admonition to what Place they are going. The last Week I went to an Inn in the City, to enquire for fome Provifions which were fent by a Waggon out of the Country;

and

and as I waited in one of the Boxes till the Chamberlain. had looked over his Parcels, I heard an old and a young Voice repeating theQueftions and Refponfes of the Church Catechifm. I thought it no Breach of good Manners to peep at a Crevife, and look in at People fo well employ-. ed; but who fhould I fee there but the most artful Procurefs in the Town, examining a most beautiful Country Girl, who had come up in the fame Waggon with my Things, Whether fbe was well educated, could forbear playing the Wanton with Servants and idle Fellows, of which this Town, fays fhe, is too full: At the fame Time, Whether he knew enough of Breeding, as that if a Squire or a Gentleman, or one that was her Betters, fhould give her a civil Salute, she should curtfie and be bumble nevertheless. Her innocent for footh's, yes's, and't please you's, and she would do her Endeavour, moved the good old Lady to take her out of the Hands of a Country Bumkin her Brother, and hire her for her own Maid. I ftay'd till I faw them all marched out to take Coach; the Brother loaded with a great Cheese, he prevailed upon her to take for her Civilities to his Sifter. This poor Creature's Fate is not far off that of her's whom I fpoke of above; and it is not to be doubted, but after fhe has been long enough a Prey to Luft fhe will be delivered over to Famine; the Ironical Commendation of the Induftry and Charity of thefe antiquated Ladies. Thefe Directors of Sin, after they can no longer commit it, make up the Beauty of the inimitable Dedication to the Plain Dealer, and is a Master-piece of Raillery on this Vice. But to understand all the Purlues of this Game the better, and to illustrate this Subject in future Difcourfes, I muft venture myself, with my Friend WILL, into the Haunts of Beauty and Gallantry; from pampered Vice in the Habitations of the Wealthy, to diftreffed indigent Wickedness expelled the Harbours of the Brothel.

T

Saturday

No. 267. Saturday, January 5.

Cedite Romani Scriptores, cedite Graii.

Propert.

HERE is nothing in Nature more irksome than

ly upon Words. For this Reafon I fhall wave the Difcuffion of that Point which was started fome Years fince, whether Milton's Paradife Loft may be called an Heroick Poem. Thofe who will not give it that Title, may call it (if they pleafe) a Divine Poem. It will be fufficient to its Perfection, if it has in it all the Beauties of the highest kind of Poetry; and as for thofe who alledge it is not an Heroick Poem, they advance no more to the Diminution of it, than if they should say Adam is not Eneas, nor Eve Helen.

I fhall therefore examine it by the Rules of Epic Poetry, and fee whether it falls fhort of the Iliad or Eneid, in the Beauties which are effential to that Kind of Writing. The first Thing to be confidered in an Epic Poem, is the Fable, which is perfect or imperfect, according as the Action which it relates is more or lefs fo. This Action should have three Qualifications in it. First, It fhould be but One Action. Secondly, It should be an Entire Action; and, Thirdly, It should be a Great Action. To confider the Action of the Iliad, Eneid, and Paradife Loft, in these three feveral Lights. Homer, to preserve theUnity of his Action, haftens into the midst of Things, as Horace has obferved: Had he gone up to Leda's Egg, or begun much later, even at the Rape of Helen, or the investing of Troy, it is manifeft. that the Story of the Poem would have been a Series of feveral Actions. He therefore opens his Poem with the Discord of his Princes, and artfully interweaves in the feveral fucceeding Parts of it, an Account of every thing material which relates to them, and had paffed before that fatal Diffention. After the fame manner, Æneas makes his firft Appearance in

the

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