The Tatler, Volume 3. Джозеф Аддисон

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      In secret solitude, and myrtle shades,

      Make endless moans, and pining with desire,

      Lament too late their unextinguished fire.

      Here Procris, Eryphile here, he found

      Baring her breast, yet bleeding with the wound

      Made by her son. He saw Pasiphae there,

      With Phædra's ghost, a foul incestuous pair;

      There Laodamia with Evadne moves:

      Unhappy both, but loyal in their loves.

      Cæneus, a woman once, and once a man;

      But ending in the sex she first began.

      Not far from these, Phœnician Dido stood;

      Fresh from her wound, her bosom bathed in blood.

      Whom, when the Trojan hero hardly knew,

      Obscure in shades, and with a doubtful view

      (Doubtful as he who runs through dusky night,

      Or thinks he sees the moon's uncertain light)

      With tears he first approached the sullen shade;

      And, as his love inspired him, thus he said:

      "Unhappy queen! Then is the common breath

      Of rumour true, in your reported death;

      And I, alas, the cause! By Heaven, I vow,

      And all the powers that rule the realms below,

      Unwilling I forsook your friendly state,

      Commanded by the gods, and forced by Fate.

      Those gods, that Fate, whose unresisted might,

      Have sent me to these regions, void of light,

      Through the vast empire of eternal night.

      Nor dared I to presume, that, pressed with grief,

      My flight should urge you to this dire relief.

      Stay, stay your steps, and listen to my vows;

      'Tis the last interview that Fate allows!"

      In vain he thus attempts her mind to move,

      With tears and prayers, and late repenting love.

      Disdainfully she looked, then turning round;

      But fixed her eyes unmoved upon the ground;

      And, what he says, and swears, regards no more

      Than the deaf rocks, when the loud billows roar;

      But whirled away, to shun his hateful fight,

      Hid in the forest, and the shades of night.

      Then sought Sichæus through the shady grove,

      Who answered all her cares, and equalled all her love.

      No. 134

      I was awakened very early this morning by the distant crowing of a cock, which I thought had the finest pipe I ever heard. He seemed to me to strain his voice more than ordinary, as if he designed to make himself heard to the remotest corner of this lane. Having entertained myself a little before I went to bed with a discourse on the transmigration of men into other animals, I could not but fancy that this was the soul of some drowsy bellman who used to sleep upon his post, for which he was condemned to do penance in feathers, and distinguish the several watches of the night under the outside of a cock. While I was thinking of the condition of this poor bellman in masquerade, I heard a great knocking at my door, and was soon after told by my maid, that my worthy friend the tall black gentleman, who frequents the coffee-houses hereabouts, desired to speak with me. This ancient Pythagorean, who has as much honesty as any man living, but good nature to an excess, brought me the following petition, which I am apt to believe he penned himself, the petitioner not being able to express his mind in paper under his present form, however famous he might have been for writing verses when he was in his original shape.

      Upon delivery of this petition, the worthy gentleman who presented it, told me the customs of many wise nations of the East, through which he had travelled; that nothing was more frequent than to see a dervish lay out a whole year's income in the redemption of larks or linnets that had unhappily fallen into the hands of bird-catchers:99 that it was also usual to run between a dog and a bull to keep them from hurting one another, or to lose the use of a limb in parting a couple of furious mastiffs. He then insisted upon the ingratitude and disingenuity100 of treating in this manner a necessary and domestic animal, that has made the whole house keep good hours, and called up the cook maid for five years together. "What would a Turk say," continued he, "should he hear, that it is a common entertainment in a nation which pretends to be one of the most civilised of Europe, to tie an innocent animal to a stake, and put him to an ignominious death, who has perhaps been the guardian and proveditor of a poor family, as long as he was able to get eggs for his mistress?"

      I thought what this gentleman said was very reasonable; and have often wondered, that we do not lay aside a custom which makes us appear barbarous to nations much more rude and unpolished than ourselves. Some French writers have represented this diversion of the common people much to our disadvantage, and imputed it to natural fierceness and cruelty of temper; as they do some other entertainments peculiar to our nation: I mean those elegant diversions of bull-baiting and prize-fighting, with the like ingenious recreations of the bear-garden.101 I wish I knew how to answer this reproach which is cast upon us, and excuse the death of so many innocent cocks, bulls, dogs, and bears, as have been set together by the ears, or died untimely deaths only to make us sport.

      It will be said, that these are the entertainments of common people. It is true; but they are the entertainments of no other common people.102 Besides, I am afraid there is a tincture of the same savage spirit in the diversions of those of higher rank, and more refined relish. Rapin observes, that the English theatre very much delights СКАЧАТЬ