Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

kings, and to walk in their fleep when they were as much awake as thofe that looked at them. He told me that I must get higher notions, and that a play was the most rational of all entertainments, and moft proper to relax the mind after the bufinefs of the day.

By degrees he gained knowledge of fome of the players; and, when the play was over, very frequently treated them with fuppers, for which he was admitted to ftand behind the fcenes.

He foon began to lose some of his morning hours in the fame folly, and was for one winter very diligent in his attendance on the rehearsals; but of this fpecies of idlenefs he grew weary, and faid, that the play was nothing without the company.

His ardour for the diverfion of the evening increased; he bought a fword, and paid five fhillings a night to fit in the boxes; he went fometimes into a place which he calls the green-room, where all the wits of the age affemble; and when he had been there, could do nothing, for two or three days, but repeat their jefts, or tell their difputes,

He has now loft his regard for every thing but the play-house; he invites, three times a week, one or other to drink claret, and talk of the drama. His first care in the morning is to read the play-bills; and if he remembers any lines of the tragedy which is to be reprefented, walks about the fhop, repeating them fo loud, and with fuch ftrange geftures, that the paffengers gather round the door.

His greatest pleasure when I married him, was to hear the fituation of his fhop commended, and to be told how many eftates have been got in it by the fame

trade;

trade; but of late he grows peevish at any mention of business, and delights in nothing fo much as to be told that he speaks like Moffop.

Among his new affociates, he has learned another language, and speaks in such a strain, that his neighbours cannot understand him. If a customer talks longer than he is willing to hear, he will complain that he has been excruciated with unmeaning verbofity; he laughs at the letters of his friends for their tameness of expreffion, and often declares himself weary of attending to the minutia of a fhop.

It is well for me that I know how to keep a book, for of late he is fcarcely ever in the way. Since one of his friends told him that he had a genius for tragick poetry, he has locked himself in an upper room fix or seven hours a day, and when I carry him any paper to be read or figned, I hear him talking vehemently to himself, fometimes of love and beauty, fometimes of friendship and virtue, but more frequently of liberty and his country.

I would gladly, Mr. Idler, be informed what to think of a shopkeeper, who is inceffantly talking about liberty; a word, which, fince his acquaintance with polite life, my husband has always in his mouth; he is, on all occafions, afraid of our liberty, and declares his refolution to hazard all for liberty. What can the man mean? I am fure he has liberty enough; it were better for him and me if his liberty was leffened.

He has a friend whom he calls a critick, that comes twice a week to read what he is writing. This critick tells him that his piece is a little irregular, but that some detached scenes will shine prodigiously,

digioufly, and that in the character of Bombulus he is wonderfully great. My fcribbler then fqueezes his hand, calls him the beft of friends, thanks him for his fincerity, and tells him that he hates to be flattered. I have reafon to believe that he feldom parts with his dear friend without lending him two guineas, and am afraid that he gave bail for him. three days ago.

By this courfe of life our credit as traders is leffened, and I cannot forbear to suspect, that my husband's honour as a wit is not much advanced, for he feems to be always the loweft of the company, and is afraid to tell his opinion till the reft have fpoken. When he was behind his counter, he used to be brifk, active, and jocular, like a man that knew what he was doing, and did not fear to look another in the face; but among wits and criticks he is timorous and awkward, and hangs down his head at his own table. Dear Mr. Idler, perfuade him, if you can, to return once more to his native element. Tell him, that wit will never make him rich, but that there are places where riches will always make a wit.

I am, SIR, &c.

DEBORAH GINGER.

NUMB. 48. SATURDAY, March 17, 1759.

HERE is no kind of idlenefs, by which we

TH

are so easily feduced, as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business, and by making the loiterer imagine that he has fomething to do which must not be neglected, keeps him in perpetual agitation, and hurries him rapidly from place to place.

He that fits ftill, or repofes himself upon a couch, no more deceives himself than he deceives others; he knows that he is doing nothing, and has no other folace of his infignificance than the refolution, which the lazy hourly make, of changing his mode of life.

To do nothing, every man is afhamed; and to do much, almost every man is unwilling or afraid. Innumerable expedients have therefore been invented to produce motion without labour, and employment without folicitude. The greater part of those whom the kindness of fortune has left to their own direction, and whom want does not keep chained to the counter or the plough, play throughout life with the fhadows of business, and know not at laft what they have been doing.

These imitators of action are of all denominations. Some are seen at every auction without intention to purchase; others appear punctually at the Exchange, though they are known there only by their faces. Some are always making parties, to vifit collections for which they have no tafte, and fome

6

neglect

neglect every pleasure and every duty to hear queftions, in which they have no intereft, debated in parliament.

Thefe men never appear more ridiculous, than in the diftrefs which they imagine themselves to feel, from fome accidental interruption of thofe empty purfuits. A tiger newly imprifoned is indeed more formidable, but not more angry, than Jack Tulip with-held from a florift's feaft, or Tom Diftich hindered from feeing the first reprefentation of a play.

As political affairs are the highest and most extenfive of temporal concerns; the mimick of a politician is more bufy and important than any other trifler. Monfieur le Noir, a man who, without property or importance in any corner of the earth, has, in the prefent confufion of the world, declared himfelf a steady adherent to the French, is made miferable by a wind that keeps back the packet-boat, and still more miferable by every account of a Malouin privateer caught in his cruize; he knows well that nothing can be done or faid by him which can produce any effect but that of laughter, that he can neither haften nor retard good or evil, that his joys and forrows have fcarcely any partakers; yet fuch is his zeal, and fuch his curiofity, that he would run barefooted to Gravesend, for the fake of knowing first that the English had loft a tender, and would ride out to meet every mail from the continent if he might be permitted to open it.

Learning is generally confeffed to be defirable, and there are fome who fancy themselves always buly in acquiring it. Of thefe ambulatory ftudents, one of the most bufy is my friend Tom Reftless.

Tom

« ForrigeFortsett »