Holland they are termed Pickled Herrings; in France, Jean Pottages; in Italy, Maccaronies; and in Great Britain, Jack Puddings. These merry wags, from whatsoever food they receive their titles that they may make their audiences laugh, always appear in a fool's coat, and commit such blunders and mistakes in every step they take, and every word they utter, as those who listen to them would be ashamed of.

But this little triumph of the understanding, under the disguise of laughter, is no where more visible than in that custom which prevails everywhere among us on the first day of the present month, when every body takes it in his head to make as many fools as he can. In proportion as there are more follies discovered so there is more laughter raised on this day than on any other in the whole year. A neighbour of mine, who is a haberdasher by trade, and a very shallow conceited fellow, makes his boast that for these ten years successively he has not made less than an hundred April fools. My landlady had a falling out with him about a fortnight ago, for sending every one of her children upon some sleeveless errand, as she terms it. Her eldest son went to buy an half pennyworth of inkle at a shoemaker's; the eldest daughter was despatched half a mile to see a monster; and, in short, the whole family of innocent children made April fools. Nay, my landlady herself did not escape him. This empty fellow has laughed upon these conceits ever since.

This art of wit is well enough, when confined to one day in a twelvemonth; but there is an ingenious tribe of men sprung up of late years, who are for making April fools every day in the year. These gentlemen are commonly distinguished by the name of Biters: a race of men that are perpetually employed in laughing at those mistakes which are of their own production.

Thus we see, in proportion as one man is more refined than another, he chooses his fool out of a lower or higher class of mankind, or, to speak in a more philosophical language, that secret elation or pride of heart, which is generally called laughter, arises in him, from his comparing himself with an object below him, whether it so happens that it be a natural or an artificial fool.

It is, indeed, very possible, that the persons we laugh at may in the main of their characters be much wiser men than ourselves; but if they would have us laugh at them, they must fall short of us in those respects which stir up this passion.

I am afraid I shall appear too abstracted in my speculations, if I shew that when a man of wit makes us laugh, it is by betraying

See No. 504, and Tat. No. 12. Rowe produced a comedy on the subject, with the title of "The Biter;" which, however, added nothing to his reputation as an author.

No. 28. MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1711.

Neque semper arcum

Tendit Apollo.

Nor does Apollo always bend his bow.

HOR. 2, OD. x. 19.

I SHALL here present my reader with a letter from a projector, concerning a new office which he thinks may very much contribute to the embellishment of the city, and to the driving barbarity out of our streets. I consider it as a satire upon projectors in general, and a lively picture of the whole art of modern criticism.

64

Observing that you have thoughts of creating certain officers under you for the inspection of several petty enormities which you yourself cannot attend to; and finding daily absurdities hung out upon the sign-posts of this city, to the great scandal of foreigners, as well as those of our own country, who are curious spectators of the same; I do humbly propose that you would be pleased to make me your superintendant of all such figures and devices, as are or shall be made use of on this occasion, with full powers to rectify or expunge whatever I shall find irregular or defective. For want of such an officer, there is nothing like sound literature and good sense to be met with in those objects, that are everywhere 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 deserts of Africa. Strange! that one who has all the birds and beasts in nature to choose out of, should live at the sign of an Ens Rationis!

"My first 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 should be joined together in the same sign; such as the Bell and the Neat's-tongue, the Dog and the Gridiron. The Fox and Goose may be supposed 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-post? As for the Cat and Fiddle, there is a conceit in it; and, therefore, I do not intend that anything I have here said should

A humorous letter on the subject of sign-posts, &c., will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xl. 403.

affect it. I must however observe to you upon this subject, that it is usual for a young tradesman, at his first setting up, to add to his own sign that of the master whom he served; as the husband, after marriage, gives a place to his mistress's arms in his own coat. This I take to have given rise to many of those absurdities which are committed over our heads; and, as I am informed, first occasioned the three nuns and a hare, which we see so 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 cases he may be allowed to quarter it with his own. "In the third place, I would enjoin every shop to make use of a sign which bears some affinity to the wares in which he deals. What can be more inconsistent, than to see a Bawd at the sign of the Angel, or a Tailor at the Lion? A cook should not live at the boot, nor a shoemaker at the roasted pig; and yet for want of this regulation, I have seen a goat set up before the door of a perfumer, and the French king's head at a sword cutler's.

"An ingenious foreigner observes, that several of those gentlemen who value themselves upon their families, and overlook such 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 necessary for posterity thus to set up the sign of their forefathers, I think it highly proper for those who actually profess the trade, to shew some such marks of it before their doors.

"When the name gives an occasion for an ingenious sign-post, 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 ingenious Mrs. Salmon to have lived at the sign of the trout; for which reason she has erected before her house the figure of the fish that is her namesake. Mr. Bell has likewise distinguished himself by a device of the same nature: and here, Sir, I must beg leave to observe to you, that this particular figure of a bell has given occasion to several pieces of wit in this kind. A man of your reading must know, that Abel Drugger gained great applause by it in the time of Ben Jonson. Our apocryphal heathen god is also represented by this figure; which, in conjunction with the dragon, makes a very handsome picture in several 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 romance translated out of the French; which gives an account of

I cannot resist inserting here a note by a former editor, who tells his readers that the "apocryphal heathen god" alluded to in the text is "St. George"!! See Edit. of 1819.—(PUBLISHER.)

ני

a very beautiful woman who was found in a wilderness, and is called in the French La belle Sauvage,* and is everywhere trans. lated by our countrymen the bell-savage. This piece of philosophy will, I hope, convince you that I have made sign-posts my study, and consequently qualified myself for the employment which I solicit at your hands. But before I conclude my letter, I must communicate to you another remark, which I have made upon the subject with which I am now entertaining you, namely, that I can give a shrewd guess at the humour of the inhabitant by the sign that hangs before his door. A surly choleric fellow generally makes choice of a bear; as men of milder dispositions frequently live at the lamb. Seeing a punch-bowl painted upon a sign near Charing Cross, and very curiously garnished, with a couple of angels hovering over it, and squeezing a lenion into it, I had the curiosity to ask after the master of the house, and found, upon inquiry, as I had guessed by the little agremens upon his sign, that he was a Frenchman. I know, Sir, it is not requisite for me to enlarge upon these hints to a gentleman of your great abilities; so humbly recommending myself to your favour and patronage, I remain, &c.'

66

I shall add to the foregoing letter another which came to me by the same penny-post.

"From my own apartment near Charing-Cross.

"HONOURED SIR, "HAVING 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 swings upon a rope, takes a pipe of tobacco, and drinks a glass of ale, like any reasonable creature. He gives great satisfaction to the quality; and if they will make a subscription for him, I will send for a brother of his out of Holland, that is a very good tumbler; and also for another of the same family, whom I design for my Merry-Andrew, as being an excellent mimic, and the greatest droll in the country where he now is. I hope to have this entertainment in readiness for the next winter; and doubt not but it will please more than the opera or puppet-show. I will not say that a monkey is a better man than some of the opera heroes; but certainly he is a better representative of a man, than the most artificial composition of wood and wire. If you will be pleased to give me a good word in your paper, you shall be every night a spectator at my show for nothing.

ADDISON.

"I am, &c."

C.

* See No. 66.

naments of persons who represent heroes in a tragedy. What m your speculation come very seasonably among us is, that we h now at this place a company of strollers, who are very far fr offending in the impertinent splendour of the drama. They ar far from falling into these false gallantries, that the stage is here its original situation of a cart. Alexander the Great was acted a fellow in a paper cravat. The next day the Earl of Essex seen to have no distress but his poverty; and my Lord Foppington same morning wanted any better means to shew himself a f than by wearing stockings of different colours. In a word, thou they have had a full barn for many days together, our itinera are still so wretchedly poor, that without you can prevail to s us the furniture you forbid at the playhouse, the heroes app only like sturdy beggars, and the heroines gypsies. We have l but one part which was performed and dressed with propriety, that was Justice Clodpate. This was so well done, that it offen Mr. Justice Overdo, who, in the midst of our whole audience, (like Quixote in the puppet show) so highly provoked, that he t them, if they would move compassion, it should be in their o persons, and not in the characters of distressed princes and pot tates. He told them, if they were so good at finding the way people's hearts, they should do it at the end of bridges or chur porches, in their proper vocation as beggars. This, the just says, they must expect, since they could not be contented to heathen warriors, and such fellows as Alexander, but must presu to make a mockery of one of the Quorum.

Ir is very natural for a man who is not turned for mirth meetings of men, or assemblies of the fair sex, to delight in th sort of conversation which we find in coffee-houses. Here a m of my temper is in his element; for if he cannot talk, he can st be more agreeable to his company, as well as pleased in himse