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ter of Bedlam? It happen'd to be the Master of the House he spoke to. Bedlam, Sirrah, fays he; Sirrah, me no Sirrahs, reply'd the Miller, you should not keep your Madmen loofe as you do, and leave your Doors open. I have been forced to bring one of 'em home, who is ftark raving mad, he was looking for a Hen-fencricket near my Mill, and would have drowned himfelf there if I had not fav'd him.

THIS drawing all the Company to the Door, one that was wiser than the rest, and came to be a Spectator of their Follies, feeing the Virtuofo lying like a Calf upon the Horse, called the Miller to him, and faid, Here's your ten Shillings for you, Friend, but make the beft of your way, and leave him to us to unbind.

THE Miller took the Advice, and left the Virtuofe as great a publick Jeft almoft, as he intended to have found of his Chap, if he had returned fuccessfully with the Hen-fen-cricket.

W

N° 674.

Friday, May 20.

Si fine Amore focifque

Nil eft Jucundum, vivas in Amore Jocifque. Hor.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

T

HERE goes a merry Story, that it has not only been the Saying of the greatest, wifeft, and most virtuous Perfon of our Sex, That fhe could not believe it in the Power of Man, to rifle a Woman, unlefs there was fome Inclination on her fide, to let him; but also that she gave a Man of great Quality, who fat by her, and feem'd not to be of her Mind, this for (which I think a very pat) Example; fhe demanded of him his Sword, and drew it, fhe gave it him naked, and faid, Now, my Lord, let me fee you sheath it, while

I

1 hold the Scabbard; the Propofal was nice, then she gave him the Scabbard, and my Lord put it up very well convinc'd.

BE this as it will, I read among the publick News that fince your late Rape, there's another, that is a Perfon of Honour, fworn against by a Woman, that hath taken a freak in her Head, that she would one Day be no longer his Mistress, and that fhe might fwear her felf forced, whenever the thought fit.

THO' I deteft a Ravisher, I must confess, I hate the falfe Informers, who, because they can't get married, would fain have the World believe and know, that they loft their Honour, but that they did not do it, but by extremeft Force, and as if the Fault were in Neceffity, and not in their Will: I hate thefe Hypocrites, who fwear away the Lives of our briskeft Galants; for I know, the most mettlesome of 'em all can't injure a Woman without her own Leave. I'd fain fee one of the briskeft, fprightlieft, ftrongest of them all ravish me ; I would be at the Rogue immediately: I would have his Heart, or he fhould have mine; I warrant him, I'd lay him fprawling at my Feet, in the twinkling of a Bedpoft. What! ravish one! I laugh at the fond Conceit : If the ftrongest Man in England got the better of me in that way, I'd freely forgive him. Don't you think it impoffible (confidering your felf before you were feeble) to have ravifh'd a Woman fo refolute as I am, without my own Confent? Pr'ythee, old Fellow, refolve me that Don't be fo fcrupulous for once, to think a Difquifition of this kind too loose to enter thy grave Speculations. But place the fault of fuch Tricks of Youth on the right fide, and call a Rape, that is once worn, the Barbarity of the Woman and not of the Man, and my Name fhall be your Warrant for giving Judgment in that manner.

Herculea Manlove.

I must needs let this Herculean Lady understand that, upon a Question fo important to the Lives of Mankind, and to the Eafe of the lefs Cruel among the Fair Sex, I venture upon a Subject, for once, which I fhould have otherwise thought a little too loose for me to touch

upon;

upon; I fhould fay fomething to her, if fhe would but teach Ladies to have fo good a Will to resist bravely, as fhe informs they have a Power. But I believe, the is her felf as merciful as she is stout, and if she thinks it any Advantage, I own, that I agree with her in every particular of her Letter.

AND, to give her a Proof that I do, I will answer her Letter fingly, as to every Point.

FIRST, I do verily believe fhe would fain fee one of the briskeft Fellows of my Sex ravish her, and that she would be at the pretty Regue immediately.

SECONDLY, If fhe had not his Heart intirely, I believe he would win her's.

THIRDLY, I make no manner of doubt, that she would, after fome repeated Efforts, lay him fprawling at her Feet; fhe very well words it, when the warrants to do it in the twinkling of a Bed-poft.

FOURTHLY, I freely confide in her Promife of Forgiveness, to any Man that should effect it; and that 'twould be impoffible to do it without her Confent.

LASTLY, I de declare, any fuch fort of a Rape, that is forn, to be the Barbarity of the Woman, and not of the Man.

AND now, after having anfwer'd her amply, in every fingle Circumftance, I will take the Protection of this Amazonian Name, fince fhe was pleased to grant it me, as my Warrant for giving Judgment in this man

ner.

I conclude, therefore, that this masculine way of writ ing was prefcribed by Mrs. Herculea Manlove, upon her Servant that dares not difobey The SPECTATOR.

SINCE the Age is come to this pass, I must difpofe of my Pearls in time, and look out sharp for Husbands, whom they fhall merit, and who fhall merit

them;

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them; Marriage being the only Remedy against the Contagion, which these publick Irregularities of the two Sexes are too apt to spread about. I fhall at present say nothing of that holy Institution, and that heavenly State of Life my own felf, but content me at prefent, with placing down the Description thereof, as it lies in Milton, where not one beautiful Idea, that can entertain a chafte and elegant Reader, on that Subject is omitted.

AIL, wedded Love! mysterious Law! true Source

HOF' Human Offspring, fole Propriety

In Paradise, of all things common else.

By thee adulterous Luft was driv'n from Men,
Among the beftial Herd to range; by thee
Founded in Reason, loyal, juft, and pure,
Relations dear, and all the Charities

Of Father, Son, and Brother, first were known.
Perpetual Fountain of domestick Sweets,
Whofe Bed is undefil'd, and chafte pronounc'd,
Prefent or paft, as Saints and Patriarchs us'd;
Here Love his golden Shafts employs; here lights
His conftant Lamp, and waves his purple Wings:
Reigns here, and revels not in the bought Smiles
Of Harlots, Lovelefs, Joylefs, Unindear'd,
Cafual Fruition; nor in the Court Amours,
Mix'd Dance, or Wanton Mask, or Midnight Ball,
Or Serenade, which the ftarv'd Lover fings
To his proud Fair, beft quitted with Disdain.

N. B. This is to give Notice, that I allow none of those three Tall Irish-Men, who make their Haunts round Bloomsbury-Square, and hung a Thornback at the Door of a Maid in the adjoining Street, of whom you have said the worst, when you fay fhe is not very Young, who have no more Wit than their common Fellow CountryMen, nor more Manners nor Good-nature than the Inhabitants of the wildest part of their Nation. For the happy Difappointment of them all, I aver, that she is now upon a Treaty of Marriage, with a Gentleman that has English Manners, English Senfe, and an English Eftate, and whofe Worth is all Sterling.

B Monday,

N° 675.

Monday, May 23.

Cætera de genere hoc adeò funt multa, loquacem
Delaffare valent Fabium.

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Hor.

IS one of the pleasantest Parts of Thinking, a wife Man can have, when he fets himself a confidering, all the little Rhapsody of Difcourfe, and every By-oddity of Behaviour, that appear in the Converfation of Men, who meet and mingle themselves into little fociable Bodies. This makes me frequently choose to be with a little Knot of People, out of which any one would please me fingly. I delight wonderfully, every now and then, in fitting Neuter, and taking to pieces the Speeches, which thefe concomitant Gentlemen join with one another, to unite into a Series of Dialogue. My way is to write every Man his own Part out, as is usual among the Players; I give back to every Man his own Club of Ideas, and the Words which he laid out with them: And then, when I have done right to his Head and Tongue, I can the better judge, in what Place fuch a Gentleman is fit to make one of a Company.

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I fhall one Day or other humour my felf in a Specu lation of this kind, and place the Subject of my Dif courfe in the most beautiful Light I can, to fet each other off to Advantage, by comparing Men of quite contrary Qualifications, and oppofite Difpofitions together; the Prodigal and the Mifer, the Novel-writer and the News-monger, the Fop and the Sloven, the perfect Courtier and the downright Cit, the learned Man and the Pedant, fhall affemble in the four Columns of my Paper, and make merry with one another's Characters, to the very great Diversion of all my Readers.

FOR to Day's Entertainment, I fhall only juft give an Account of three Gentlemen, in whofe Company I VOL. IX.

I

lately

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