The De Coverley Papers | Page 7

of the age, we have among us the gallant Will Honeycomb, a gentleman who, according to his years, should be in the decline of his life, but having ever been very careful of his person, and always had a very easy fortune, time has made but a very little impression, either by wrinkles on his forehead, or traces in his brain. His person is well turned[30], of a good height. He is very ready at that sort of discourse with which men usually entertain women. He has all his life dressed very well, and remembers habits[31] as others do men. He can smile when one speaks to him, and laughs easily. He knows the history of every mode, and can inform you from which of the French ladies our wives and daughters had this manner of curling their hair, that way of placing their hoods, and whose vanity to show her foot made that part of the dress so short in such a year. In a word, all his conversation and knowledge have been in the female world: as other men of his age will take notice to you what such a minister said upon such and such an occasion, he will tell you when the Duke of Monmouth danced at court, such a woman was then smitten, another was taken with him at the head of his troop in the Park. In all these important relations, he has ever about the same time received a kind glance or a blow of a fan from some celebrated beauty, mother of the present Lord Such-a-one. This way of talking of his very much enlivens the conversation among us of a more sedate turn; and I find there is not one of the company, but myself, who rarely speak at all, but speaks of him as of that sort of man who is usually called a well-bred Fine Gentleman. To conclude his character, where women are not concerned, he is an honest worthy man.
I cannot tell whether I am to account him whom I am next to speak of, as one of our company; for he visits us but seldom, but, when he does, it adds to every man else a new enjoyment of himself. He is a clergyman, a very philosophic man, of general learning, great sanctity of life, and the most exact good breeding. He has the misfortune to be of a very weak constitution, and consequently cannot accept of such cares and business as preferments in his function would oblige him to: he is therefore among divines what a chamber-counsellor[32] is among lawyers. The probity of his mind, and the integrity of his life, create him followers, as being eloquent or loud advances others. He seldom introduces the subject he speaks upon; but we are so far gone in years, that he observes when he is among us, an earnestness to have him fall on some divine topic[33], which he always treats with much authority, as one who has no interests in this world, as one who is hastening to the object of all his wishes, and conceives hope from his decays and infirmities. These are my ordinary companions.
R.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] Lord Rochester and Sir George Etherege. Well-known leaders of fashion and dissipation.
[16] Bully Dawson. A notorious swaggerer and sharper.
[17] Dressed. I.e., fashionably.
[18] Quorum. Panel of magistrates.
[19] Game Act. Laws dating from very early times and regulating the licence to kill game.
[20] Humoursome. Capricious.
[21] Aristotle and Longinus. Aristotle's Poetics and Longinus on the Sublime are classics of literary criticism.
[22] Littleton or Coke. Famous writers on law.
[23] Demosthenes and Tully. Demosthenes and M. Tullius Cicero, the great orators of Athens and Rome respectively.
[24] Wit. Cleverness.
[25] The Rose. The Rose tavern was frequented by actors.
[26] The world. I.e., of public life.
[27] Own vindication. Self-assertion.
[28] Civil. Civilian.
[29] Humorists. Eccentrics.
[30] Turned. Shaped.
[31] Habits. Clothes; i.e., fashions.
[32] Chamber-counsellor. Barrister whose practice is confined to consultations.
[33] Divine topic. Topic of divinity.

NO. 106. MONDAY, JULY 2
Hinc tibi copia Manabit ad plenum, benigno Ruris honorum opulenta cornu.
HOR. Od. xvii. l. i. ver. 14.
Here to thee shall plenty flow, And all her riches show. To raise the honour of the quiet plain.
CREECH.
Having often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de Coverley to pass away a month with him in the country, I last week accompanied him thither, and am settled with him for some time at his country-house, where I intend to form several of my ensuing speculations. Sir Roger, who is very well acquainted with my humour[34], lets me rise and go to bed when I please, dine at his own table or in my chamber as I think fit, sit still and say nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of the country come to see him, he only shows me at a distance: