are inimitable strokes of art, in that scene which has always been justly esteemed one of the best which was ever repre

fented on the theatre.

To return to the character of Othello; his ftrife of paffions, his tarts, his returns of love, and threatenings of Iago, who put his mind on the rack, his relapfes afterwards to jealoufy, his rage against his wife, and his afking pardon of Iago, whom he thinks he had abufed for his fidelity to him, are touches which no one can overlook that has the fentiments of human nature, or has confidered the heart of man in it's frailties, it's penances, and all the variety of it's agitations. The torments which the Moor fuffers are fo exquifitely drawn, as to render him as much an object of compaffion, even in the barbarous action of murdering Desdemona, as the innocent perfon herself who falls under his hand.

But there is nothing in which the poet has more fhewn his judgment in this play, than in the circumftance of the handkerchief; which is employed as a confirmation to the jealoufy of Othello already raised. What I would here obferve is, that the very flightness of this circumftance is the beauty of it. How finely has Shakespeare expreffed the nature of jealoufy in thofe lines, which, on this occafion, he puts into the mouth of Iago

Trifles light as air,
Are to the jealous confirmations ftrong
As proofs of Holy Writ.

It would be eafy for a taftelefs critie to turn any of the beauties I have here mentioned into ridicule; but fuch an one would only betray a mechanical judgment, formed out of borrowed rules and common-place reading, and not arifing from any true difcernment in human nature and it's paffions.

As the Moral of his tragedy is an admirable caution against hafty fufpicions, and the giving way to the firft tranfports of rage and jealoufy, which may plunge a man in a few minutes into all the horrors of guilt, diftraction, and ruin, I fhall further enforce it, by relating a fcene of misfortunes of the like kind, which really happened fome years ago in Spain; and is an inftance of the most tragical hurricane of paflion I have ever

met with in hiftory. It may be easily conceived, that a heart ever big with refentments of it's own dignity, and never allayed by reflections which make us honour ourselves for acting with reafon and equality, will take fire precipitantly. It will on a fudden flame too high to be extinguifhed. The short ftory I am going to tell is a lively inftance of the truth of this obfervation, and a just warning to those of jealous honour to look about them, and begin to poffefs their fouls as they ought, for no man of fpirit knows how terrible a creature he is till he comes to be provoked.

Don Alonzo, a Spanish nobleman, had a beautiful and virtuous wife, with whom he had lived for fome years in great tranquillity. The gentleman, however, was not free from the faults ufually imputed to his nation; he was proud, fufpicious, and impetuous. He kept a Moor in his houfe, whom, on a complaint from his lady, he had pu nifhed for a small offence with the ut most feverity. The flave vowed revenge, and communicated his refolution to one of the lady's women with whom he lived in a criminal way. This creature alfo hated her miftrefs, for the feared the was obferved by her; the therefore undertook to make Don Alonzo jealous, by infinuating that the gardener was often admitted to his lady in private, and promifing to make him an eye-witnels of it. At a proper time, agreed on between her and the Morifco, the fent a meffage to the gardener, that his lady having fome haity orders to give him, would have him come that moment to her in her chamber. In the mean time fhe had placed Alonzo privately in an outer room, that he might obferve who palled that way. It was not long before he faw the gardener appear. Alonzo had not patience, but following him into the apartinent, ftruck him at one blow with a dagger to the heart; then dragging his lady by the hair with out enquiring farther, he inftantly killed her.

Here he paused, looking on the dead bodies with all the agitations of a demon of revenge; when the wench who had occafioned thefe terrors, diftracted with remorfe, threw herself at his feet, and in a voice of lamentation, without fenfe of the confequence, repeated all

her

her guilt. Alonzo was overwhelmed with all the violent paffions at one inftant, and uttered the broken voices and motions of each of them for a moment,

till at last he recollected himself enough to end his agony of love, anger, difdain, revenge, and remorfe, by murdering the maid, the Moor, and himself.

I

HOR. EP. I. L. I. V. 32.

Have lately given a Precaution concerning the difficulty in arriving at what ought to be efteemed a Fine Gentleman. That character has been long wholly engroffed by well-dreffed beaux, and men of fenfe have given up all pretence to it. The highest any of them contend for, is the character of a Pretty Gentleman; for here the dress may be more careless, and fome wit is thought neceflary; whereas a Fine Gentleman is not obliged to converse further than the offering his fnuff-box round the room, However, the Pretty Gentleman must have his airs; and though they are not lo pompous as thofe of the other, yet they are fo affected, that few who have understanding can bring themfelves to be proficients this way, though ever so useful towards being well received; but if they fail here, they fucceed with fome difficulty in being allowed to have much of the gentleman' in them: to obtain this epithet, a man of fenfe must arrive at a certain defire to appear more than is natural to him; but as the world goes, it is fit he fhould be encouraged in this attempt, fince nothing can mend the general tafte, but setting the true character in as public a view as the falfe. This, indeed, can never be done to the purpose, while the majority is fo great on the wrong fide; one of a hundred will have the fhout against him; but if people of wit would be as "zealous to affift old Ironfide, as he is to promote them and their intereft, a little time would give these things a new turn. However, I will not despair but I shall be able to summon all the good fenfe in the nation to my affiftance, in my ambition to produce a new race of mankind, to take the places of fuch as have hitherto pretended to engrofs the faftion. The univerfity fcholar fhall be called upon to learn his exercise, and

frequent mixed company; the military and the travelled man, to read the best authors; the country gentleman, to divide his time, fo as, together with the care of his eftate, to make an equal progrefs in learning and breeding; and when the feveral candidates think themfelves prepared, I fhall appoint under-officers to examine their qualifications; and as I am fatisfied with their report, give out my paflports, recommending them to all companies as the Guardian's Fine

'Gentlemen.' If my recommendations appear juft, I will not doubt but fome of the prefent fine gentlemen will fee the neceflity of retirement, till they can come abroad with approbation. I have, indeed, already given out orders in this behalf, and have directed fearchers to attend at the inns where the Oxford and Cambridge coaches ftand, and commanded them to bring any young fellow, of any hopes in the world, directly to my lodgings as foon as he lands, for I will take him, though I know I can only make him much of a gentleman;' for when I have gone thus far, one would think it should be eafy to make him a gentleman-like man. As the world now goes, we have no adequate idea of what is meant by gentlemanly, gentleman-like,' or much of a gen'tleman:' you cannot he cheated at play, but it is certainly done by a very gen

tleman-like man; you cannot be deceived in your affairs, but it was done in fome gentlemanly manner;' you cannot be wronged in your bed, but all the world will fay of him that did the injury, it must be allowed, he is very

6

much of a gentleman.' Here is a very pleafant fellow, a correfpondent of mine, that puts in for that appellation oven to highwaymen. I mult confess, the gentleman he perfonates is very apparently fuch, though I did not look upon that

L

fort

fort of fellow in that light, till he favoured me with his letter, which is as follows.

I

MR. IRONSIDE,

Have been upon the highway thefe fix years, in the Park, at the Play, at Bath, Tunbridge, Epiom, and at every other place where I could have any profpe&t of tealing a fortune; but have met with no fuccefs, being disppointed either by fome of your damned Ironfide race, or by old curfed curs, who put more bolts on their doors, and bars in their windows, than are in Newgate. All that fee me, own I am a gentleman-like man;' and whatever rafcally things the grave folks fay I am guilty of, they themselves acknowledge I am a gentlemanly kind of man,' and in every respect accomplished for runing away with a lady. I have been bred up to no bufineis, am illiterate, have spent the fmall forture I had in purchafing favours from the fair-fex: the bounty of their purfes I have received, as well as the endearments of their perfons; but I have gratefully difpofed of it among themfelves, for I always was a keeper when I was kept. I am fearleis in my behaviour, and never fail of putting your bookish fort of fellows, your men of merit, forfooth, out of countenance. I triumph when I fee a modeft young woman blush at an af fembly, or a virgin betrayed into tears at a well-wrought fcene in a tragedy. I have long forgot fhame, for it proceeds from a consciousness of fome defect; and I am, as I told you, a gen'tlemanly man.' I never knew any but you mufty philofophers applaud bluthes; and you yourfelves will allow, that they are caufed, either by fome real imperfection, or the apprehenfion of defact where there is not any: but, for my

MY

part, I hate mistakes, and shall not fufpect myself wrongfully. Such as I am, if you approve of iny perfon, eftate, and character, I defire you would admit me as a filter to one of the Lizards, and beg your speedy antwer to this; for it is the at time my black coat will bear scouring, or my long wig buckling. I am, Sir, the fair ladies, and your humble fervant,

WILL. BAREFACE.

Thofe on the highway, who make a ftand with a piftol at your breast, (compelled, perhaps, by neceffity, misfortune, or driven out of an honest way of life, to answer the wants of a craving family) are much more excufable than thofe of their fraternity, who join the converfations of gentlemen, and get into a fhare of their fortunes without one good art about them. What a crowd of thefe gentlemen-like men' are about this town! For, from an unjust modeity, and incapacity for common life, the ordinary failings of men of letters and induftry in our nation, it happens that impudence fupprefles all virtue, and affumes the reward and efteem which are due to it. Hence it is, that worthlefs rogues have the fmiles of the fair, and the favours of the great: to be well dreffed, and in health, and very impudent, in this licentious undiftinguishing age, is enough to coniti. tute a perfon very much of a gentle'man; and to this pafs are we come, by the prostitution of wit in the caufe of vice, which has made the most unreasonable and unnatural things prevail againit all the fuggeftions of commonfeute: nobody denies that we live in a Chriftian country, and yet he who fhould decline, upon refpective opportunities, to commit adultery or murder, would be thought very little of a gen'tleman.'

Y correfpondent, who has acquired the faculty of entering into other mens thoughts, having, in purfuance to a former letter, fent me

an account of certain useful difcoveries he has made by the help of that invention, I thall communicate the fame to the public in this paper.

MR. TRONSIDE,

ON the eleventh day of October, in the year 1712, having left my body locked up fafe in my ftudy, I repaired to the Grecian coffee-houfe, where entering into the Pineal Gland of a certain eminent Free-thinker, I made directly to the highest part of it, which is the feat of the understanding, expecting to find there a comprehenfive knowledge of all things human and divine; but, to my no finall aftonifhment, I found the place narrower than ordinary, infomuch that there was not any room for a miracle, prophety, or feparate fpirit.

This obliged me to defcend a story lower, into the imagination, which I found larger indeed, but cold and comfortlets. I difcovered Prejudice, in the figure of a woman, ftanding in a corner, with her eyes clofe fhut, and her forefingers ftuck in her ears; many words, in a confuled order, but ipoken with great emphafis, iffued from her mouth. Thefe being condensed by the coldness of the place, formed a fort of milt, through which, methought, I faw a great cattle, with a fortification caft round it, and a tower adjoining to it, that through the windows appeared to be filled with racks and halters. Beneath the caftle I could difcern vaft dungeons, and all about it lay fenttered the bones of men. It feemed to be garrifoned by certain men in black, of gigantic fize, and moft terrible forms. But as I drew near, the terror of the appearance vanished, and the caftle I found to be only a church, whofe fteeple, with it's clock and bell-ropes, was miftaken for a tower filled with racks and halters. The terrible giants in black fhrunk into a few innocent clergymen. The dungeons were turned into vaults defigned only for the habitation of the dead; and the fortifications proved to be a churchyard, with fome fcattered bones in it, and a plain ftone-wall round it.

I had not been long here before my curiofity was raifed by a loud noife that I heard in the inferior region. Defcending thither, I found a mob of the paffions affembled in a riotous manner. Their tumultuary proceedings foon convinced me, that they affected a democracy. After much noife and wrangle, they at length all hearkened to Vanity, who propofed the railing of a great army of notions, which the offered to

lead against thofe dreadful phantoms in the imagination that had occafioned all tirs uproar.

Away pofted Vanity, and I after her, to the ftore-houte of ideas; where I beheld a great number of lifelets notions, confufedly thrown together, but upon the approach of Vanity they began to crawl. Here were to be feen, among other odd things, fleeping deities; corporeal fpirits, and worlds formed by chance; with an endlefs variety of heathen notions, the moft irregular and grotefque imaginable. And with thefe were jumbled feveral of Christian extraction; but fuch was the drefs and light they were put in, and their features were fo diftorted, that they looked Ittle better than heathens. There was likewife affembled no finall-num! er of phantoms in ftrange labits, who proved to be idolatrous priefts of different nations. Vanity gave the word, and itra tway the Talapoins, Faquirs, Bramines, and Bonzes, drew up in a body. The right-wing confifted of ancient heathen notions, and the left of Chriftians naturalized. All these together, for numhers, compofed a very formidable army; but the precipitation of Vanity was to great, and fuch was their own inbred averfion to the tyranny of rules and difcipline, that they feemed rather a confuled rabble than a regular army. I could, neverthel.fs, obferve, that they all agreed in a quinting look, or cait of their eyes towards a certain perfon in a maik, who was placed in the center, and whom by fure figns and tokens I difcovered to be Atheifin.

Vanity had no fooner led her forces into the imagination, but fhe refolved upon torming the caftle, and giving no quarter. They began the affault with a loud outcry and great confulion. I, for my part, made the best of my way, and re-entered my own lodging. Some time after, enquiring at a bookfuller's for A Difcourfe on Free-thinking, which had made fome ncife, I net with the reprefentatives of all thofe notions/drawn up in the fame confufed order upon paper. Sage Nettor, I ain your moft obedient humble fervant,

ULYSSES COSMOPOLITA.

I imagine the account here given may be ufeful in directing to the proper cure of a Free-thinker. In the first place, it is plain his understanding wants to be opened and enlarged, and he should be taught the way to order and methodise his ideas; to which end the study of the mathematics may be ufeful. I am farther of opinion, that as his imagination is filled with aufements arifing from prejudice, and the obfcure or falfe lights in which he fees things, it will be neceffary to bring him into good company, and now and then carry him to church; by which means he may in time come to a right fenfe of religion, and wear off the ill impreffions he has received. Laftly, I advife whoever undertakes the reformation of a modern Free-thinker, that above all things he be careful to fubdue his vanity; that being the principal motive which prompts a little genius to diftinguish itfelf by fingularities that are hurtful to mankind.

Or, if the paffion of Vanity, as it is for the most part very ftrong in your Free-thinkers, cannot be fubdued, let it be won over to the intereft of religion, by giving them to understand that the greatest Genii of the age have a respect for things facred; that their rhapfodies find no admirers; and that the name of Free-thinker has, like Tyrant of old, degenerated from it's original fignification, and is now fuppofed to denote, fomething contrary to wit and reason. In fine, let them know, that whatever temptations a few men of parts might formerly have had, from the novelty of the thing, to oppofe the received opinions of Chriftians, yet that now the humour is worn out, and blafphemy and irreligion are diftinctions which have long ince defcended down to lackeys and drawers.

But it must be my bufinefs to prevent all pretenders in this kind from hurting the ignorant and unwary. In order to this, I communicated an intelligence which I received of a gentleman's appearing very forry that he was not well during a late fit of fickness, contrary to his own doctrine, which obliged him to be merry upon that occafion, except he was fure of recovering. Upon this advice to the world, the following advertitement got a place in the Polt-boy.

HEREAS in the paper called the Guardian, of Saturday the eleventh of April inftant, a corollary reflection was made on Monfieur D, a menber of the royal academy of Sciences in Paris, author of a book lately published, entitled, A Philological Eflay, or Reflections on the Death of Freethinkers, with the Characters of the most eminent Perfons of both Sexes, ancient and modern, that died pleafantly and ' unconcerned, &c. Sold by J. Baker, in Paternofter-Row.' Suggefting as if that gentleman, now in London, was very much out of humour, in a late fir of fickness, till he was in a fair way of recovery. This is to affure the public, that the faid gentleman never expreffed the leaft concern at the approach of death, but expected the fatal minute with a moft heroical and philofophical refignation; of which a copy of verfes he writ in the ferene intervals of his diftemper, is an invincible proof.

All that I contend for is, that this gentleman was out of humour when he was fick; and the advertiser, to confute me, fays, that in the ferene intervals of

his diftemper,' that is, when he was not fick, he writ verfes. I fhall not retract my advertisement till I fee thofe verfes; and I will chufe what to believe then, except they are underwritten by his nurfe; nor then neither, except the is an housekeeper. I must tie this gentleman clofe to the argument; for if he had not actually his fit upon him, there is nothing courageous in the thing, nor does it make for his purpose, nor are they heroic verses.

The point of being merry at the hour of death, is a matter that ought to be fettled by divines; but the publisher of the Philological Effay produces his chief authorities from Lucretius, the Earl of Rochester, and Mr. John Dryden, who were gentlemen that did not think theinfelves obliged to prove all they faid, or elfe proved their affertions by faying or fwearing they were all fools that believed to the contrary. If it be absolutely neceffary that a man fhould be facetious at his death, it would be very well if thefe gentlemen, Monfieur D and Mr. B, would repeat betimes, and not truft to a death-bed ingenuity; by what has appeared hitherto, they have

only