Lauriers Guerriers Musette Lisette Cesars Etendars Houlette Folette One would be amazed to see so learned a man as Menage talking seriously on this kind of trifle in the following passage. "Monsieur de la Chambre has told me, that he 5 never knew what he was going to write when he took his pen into his hand; but that one sentence always produced another. For my own part, I never knew what I should write next when I was making verses. In the first place I got all my ΙΟ rimes together, and was afterwards perhaps three or four months in filling them up. I one day shewed Monsieur Gambaud a composition of this nature, in which among others I had made use of the four following rimes, Amaryllis, Phillis, Marne, 15 Arne, desiring him to give me his opinion of it. He told me immediately, that my verses were good for nothing. And upon my asking his reason, he said, because the rimes are too common; and for that reason easy to be put into verse. Marry, says I, if 20 it be so, I am very well rewarded for all the pains I have been at. But by Monsieur Gambaud's leave, notwithstanding the severity of the criticism, the verses were good." Vid. MENAGIANA. Thus far the learned Menage, whom I have translated word. 25 for word, The first occasion of these Bouts Rimez made them in some manner excusable, as they were tasks which the French ladies used to impose on their lovers. But when a grave author, like him above mentioned, tasked himself, could there be any 5 thing more ridiculous? Or would not one be apt to believe that the author played booty,10 and did not make his list of rimes till he had finished his poem? I shall only add, that this piece of false wit has 10 been finely ridiculed by Monsieur Sarasin, in a poem entitled La defaite des Bouts-Rimez, The Rout of the Bouts-Rimez. I must subjoin to this last kind of wit the double rimes, which are used in doggerel poetry, and gen- 15 erally applauded by ignorant readers. If the thought of the couplet in such compositions is good, the rime adds little 11 to it; and if bad, it will not be in the power of the rime to recommend it. I am afraid that great numbers of those who 20 admire the incomparable Hudibras, do it more on account of these doggerel rimes than of the parts that really deserve admiration. I am sure I have heard the Pulpit, drum ecclesiastic, Was beat with fist instead of a stick, and There was an ancient sage philosopher Who had read Alexander Ress over, more frequently quoted, than the finest pieces of wit in the whole poem. 25 10 1711, author played double, 11 1711, adds nothing to it. 5 No. 69. SATURDAY, MAY 19. [1711.] Hic segetes, illic veniunt felicius uvæ ; THERE is no place in the town which I so much love to frequent as the Royal Exchange. It gives me a secret satisfaction, and, in some measure, gratifies my vanity, as I am an Englishman, to see so rich an assembly of countrymen and foreigners consulting together upon the private business of mankind, and making this metropolis a kind of emporium for the whole earth. I must confess I look upon High Change to be a great council, in which Io all considerable nations have their representatives. Factors in the trading world are what ambassadors are in the politic world; they negotiate affairs, conclude treaties, and maintain a good correspondence between those wealthy societies of men that 15 are divided from one another by seas and oceans, or live on the different extremities of a continent. I have often been pleased to hear disputes adjusted between an inhabitant of Japan and an alderman of London, or to see a subject of the great Mogul entering into a league with one of the Czar of Muscovy. I am infinitely delighted in mixing with these several ministers of commerce, as they are distinguished by their different walks and different 20 languages: sometimes I am justled among a body of Armenians: sometimes I am lost in a crowd of Jews; and sometimes make one in a group of Dutchmen. I am a Dane, Swede, or Frenchman at different times; or rather fancy myself like the 5 old philosopher, who upon being asked what countryman he was, replied, that he was a citizen of the world. Though I very frequently visit this busy multitude of people, I am known to nobody there but my ic friend Sir Andrew, who often smiles upon me as he sees me bustling in the crowd, but at the same time connives at my presence without taking any further notice of me. There is indeed a merchant of Egypt, who just knows me by sight, having form- 15 erly remitted me some money to Grand Cairo; but as I am not versed in the modern Coptic, our conferences go no further than a bow and a grimace. This grand scene of business gives me an infinite variety of solid and substantial entertainments. 20 As I am a great lover of mankind, my heart naturally overflows with pleasure at the sight of a prosperous and happy multitude, insomuch that at many public solemnities I cannot forbear expressing my joy with tears that have stolen down my cheeks. 25 For this reason I am wonderfully delighted to see such a body of men thriving in their own private fortunes, and at the same time promoting the public stock; or in other words, raising estates for their own families, by bringing into their country what- 30 ever is wanting, and carrying out of it whatever is superfluous. Nature seems to have taken a particular care to disseminate her blessings among the different regions of the world, with an eye to this mutual intercourse and traffic among mankind, that the natives of the several parts of the globe might have a kind. 5 of dependence upon one another, and be united together by their common interest. Almost every degree produces something peculiar to it. The food often grows in one country, and the sauce in another. The fruits of Portugal are corrected. 10 by the products of Barbadoes: the infusion of a China plant sweetened with the pith of an Indian cane. The Phillipick islands give a flavour to our European bowls. The single dress of a woman of quality is often the product of an hundred climates. The muff and the fan come together from the different ends of the earth. The scarf is sent from the torrid zone, and the tippet from beneath the pole. The brocade petticoat rises out of the mines of Peru, and the diamond necklace out of the bowels 20 of Indostan. 15 If we consider our own country in its natural prospect, without any of the benefits and advantages of commerce, what a barren uncomfortable spot of earth falls to our share! Natural historians 25 tell us, that no fruit grows originally among us, besides hips and haws, acorns and pig-nuts, with other delicacies of the like nature; that our climate of itself, and without the assistances of art, can make no further advances towards a plumb 30 than to a sloe, and carries an apple to no greater a perfection than a crab: that our melons, our 1 2 1711, that our climate of itself can make no further advances. crab; that these fruits, in their present state, as well as our melons, etc. |