N° 28.

Monday, April 2.

Neque femper arcum

Hor. Od. 10. 1. 2. v. 19.

Tendit Apollo.

Nor does Apollo always bend his Borv.

Shall here prefent my Reader with a Letter from a

may very much contribute to the Embellishment of the City, and to the driving Barbarity out of our Streets. I confider it as a Satire upon Projectors in general, and a lively Picture of the whole Art of Modern Criticism.

SIR,

Bferving that you have Thoughts of creating certain Officers under you, for the Inspection of feveral petty Enormities which you your felf cannot attend to; and finding daily Abfurdities hung out upon the Sign-Pofts of this City, to the great Scandal of Foreigners, as well as thofe of our own Country, who are curious Spectators of the fame: I do humbly propofe, that you would be pleased to make me your Superintendent of all fuch Figures and Devices as are or ⚫ shall be made use of on this Occafion; with full Powers to rectify or expunge whatever I fhall find irregular or defective. For want of fuch an Officer, there is nothing like found Literature and good Sense to be met with in thofe Objects, that are every where thrusting ⚫ themselves out to the Eye, and endeavouring to become 'visible. Our Streets are filled with blue Boars, black Swans, and red Lions; not to mention flying Pigs and Hogs in Armour, with many other Creatures more 'extraordinary than any in the Deferts of Africk. Strange! that one who has all the Birds and Beafts in • Nature to choose out of, fhould live at the Sign of an • Ens Rationis !

MY

'MY firft Task therefore should be, like that of Hercules, to clear the City from Monsters. In the second • Place I would forbid, that Creatures of jarring and incongruous Natures fhould be join'd together in the fame Sign; fuch as the Bell and the Neat's-Tongue, the Dog and the Gridiron. The Fox and Goose may be fuppofed to have met, but what has the Fox and the • Seven Stars to do together? And when did the Lamb and Dolphin ever meet, except upon a Sign-Poft? As for the Cat and Fiddle, there is a Conceit in it; and there⚫fore I do not intend that any thing I have here faid 'fhould affect it. I muft however obferve to you upon this Subject, that it is ufual for a young Tradefinan, at his first setting up, to add to his own Sign that of the 'Master whom he ferved; as the Husband, after Marriage, gives a Place to his Miftrefs's Arms in his own Coat. This I take to have given Rife to many of those • Abfurdities which are committed over our Heads; and, as I am informed, first occafioned the three Nuns and a Hare, which we fee fo frequently joined together. I 'would therefore establish certain Rules, for the determining how far one Tradesman may give the Sign of another, and in what Cafes he may be allowed to quarter it with his own.

a

IN the third Place, I would enjoin every Shop to 'make use of a Sign which bears fome Affinity to the • Wares in which it deals. What can be more inconfiftent, than to see a Bawd at the Sign of the Angel, or 'a Tailor at the Lion? A Cook fhould not live at the Boot, nor a Shoe-maker at the roafted Pig; and yet ⚫ for want of this Regulation, I have seen a Goat fet up before the Door of a Perfumer, and the French King's Head at a Sword-Cutler's.

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AN ingenious Foreigner obferves, that feveral of those Gentlemen who value themselves upon their Families, and overlook fuch as are bred to Trade, bear the Tools of their Forefathers in their Coats of Arms. I ' will not examine how true this is in Fact: But though 'it may not be neceffary for Pofterity thus to fet up the

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Sign of their Forefathers, I think it highly proper for thofe who actually profefs the Trade, to fhew fome 'fuch Marks of it before their Doors.

• WHEN

WHEN the Name gives an Occafion for an ingenious Sign-Poft, I would likewise advise the Owner to take that Opportunity of letting the World know who he is. It would have been ridiculous for the in"genious Mrs. Salmon to have lived at the Sign of the Trout; for which Reafon fhe has erected before her Houfe the Figure of the Fish that is her Name-fake. Mr. Bell has likewife diftinguifhed himfelf by a Device of the fame Nature: And here, Sir, I must beg leave to obferve to you, that this particular Figure of a Bell has given Occafion to feveral Pieces of Wit in this kind. A Man of your Reading muft know, that Abel Drugger gained great Applaufe by it in the Time of Ben Johnson. Our Apocryphal Heathen God is alfo reprefented by this Figure; which, in Conjunction with the Dragon, makes a very handfom Picture in fe'veral of our Streets. As for the Bell-Savage, which is the Sign of a Savage Man standing by a Bell, I was formerly very much puzzled upon the Conceit of it, till I accidentally fell into the reading of an old Ro mance tranflated out of the French; which gives an Account of a very beautiful Woman who was found in a Wilderness, and is called in the French La belle Sauvage; and is every where tranflated by our Coun tryman the Bell-Savage. This Piece of Philofophy will, I hope, convince you that I have made Sign-Pots my Study, and confequently qualified my felf for the Employment which I folicit at your Hands. But before I conclude my Letter, I must communicate to you ano⚫ther Remark which I have made upon the Subject with ⚫ which I am now entertaining you, namely, that I can f give a fhrewd Guefs at the Humour of the Inhabitant by the Sign that hangs before his Door. A furly cholerick Fellow generally makes choice of a Bear; as Men of milder Difpofitions frequently live at the Lamb. Seeing a Punch-Bowl painted upon a Sign near Charing Crafs, ⚫ and very curiously garnished, with a Couple of Angels hovering over it and fqueezing a Limon into it, I had "the Curiofity to ask after the Master of the House, and found, upon Inquiry, as I had gueffed by the little Agréemens upon his Sign, that he was a Frenchman. I know, Sir, it is not requifite for me to enlarge

upon

upon thefe Hints to a Gentleman of your great Abilities; fo humbly recommending myfelf to your Favour and Patronage,

I remain, &c.

I fhall add to the foregoing Letter, another which came to me by the fame Penny-Poft.

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From my own Apartment near Charing-Crofs.

Honoured Sir,

AVING heard that this Nation is a great Encourager of Ingenuity, I have brought with me a Rope-Dancer that was caught in one of the Woods belonging to the Great Mogul. He is by Birth a Monkey; but fwings upon a Rope, takes a Pipe of Tobacco, and drinks a Glafs of Ale, like any reasonable Creature. He gives great Satisfaction to the Quality; and if they will make a Subfcription for him, I will fend for a Brother of his out of Holland that is a very good Tumbler; and alfo for another of the fame Family whom I defign for my Merry-Andrew, as being an • excellent Mimick, and the greatest Droll in the Country where he now is. I hope to have this Entertainment in a Readiness for the next Winter; and doubt not but it will please more than the Opera or PuppetShow. I will not fay that a Monkey is a better Man than fome of the Opera-Heroes; but certainly he is a better Reprefentative of a Man, than the most arti'ficial Compofition of Wood and Wire. If you will be pleafed to give me a good Word in your Paper, you fhall be every Night a Spectator at my Show for nothing.

C

am,

&c.

Tuesday,

N° 29.

Tuesday, April 3.

Sermo linguâ concinnus utrâque
Suavior: ut Chio nota fi commifta Falerni eft.

Hor. Sat. 10. 1. 1. v. 23.

Both Tongues united fweeter Sounds produce,
Like Chian mix'd with the Falernian Juice.

T

HERE is nothing that has more ftartled our English Audience, than the Italian Recitativo at its firft Entrance upon the Stage. People were wonderfully furprised to hear Generals finging the Word of Command, and Ladies delivering Meffages in Mufick. Our Countrymen could not forbear laughing when they heard a Lover chanting out a Billet-doux, and even the Superfcription of a Letter fet to a Tune. The famous Blunder in an old Play of Enter a King and Two Fidlers folus, was now no longer an Abfurdity; when it was impoffible for a Hero in a Defert, or a Princess in her Clofet, to speak any thing unaccompanied with Musical Inftruments.

BUT however this Italian Method of acting in Recitativo might appear at first hearing, I cannot but think it much more juft than that which prevailed in our English Opera before this Innovation: The Tranfition from an Air to Recitative Mufick being more natural, than the paffing from a Song to plain and ordinary Speaking, which was the common Method in Purcell's Operas.

THE only Fault I find in our present Practice is the making use of the Italian Recitativo with English Words.

TO go to the Bottom of this Matter, I muft obferve, that the Tone, or (as the French call it) the Accent of every Nation in their ordinary Speech is altogether different from that of every other People; as we may fee even in the Welsh and Scotch, who border fo near upon

us.