Reading but this one scene has convinced me, that he who describes the concern of great men, must have a soul as noble, and as susceptible of high thoughts, as they whom he represents:  I shall therefore lay by my drama for some time, and turn my thoughts to cares and griefs, somewhat below that of heroes, but no less moving.  A misfortune proper for me to take notice of, has too lately happened:  the disconsolate Maria[459] has three days kept her chamber for the loss of the beauteous Fidelia, her lap-dog.  Lesbia herself[460] did not shed more tears for her sparrow.  What makes her the more concerned, is, that we know not whether Fidelia was killed or stolen; but she was seen in the parlour window when the train-bands went by, and never since.  Whoever gives notice of her, dead or alive, shall be rewarded with a kiss of her lady.

[Footnote 450:  See No. 16.]

[Footnote 451:  Intercourse.]

[Footnote 452:  Henry Cromwell (died 1728) was a correspondent of Pope’s, and a friend of Wycherley’s.  “I cannot choose,” wrote Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, “but be pleased with the conquest of a person whose fame our incomparable Tatler has rendered immortal, by the three distinguishing titles of ‘Squire Easy the amorous bard’; ‘Sir Timothy the critic’; and ‘Sir Taffety Trippet the fortune-hunter’” ("Pylades and Corinna,” i. 96, 194).  See also Nos. 49, 165.  Cromwell was a man about town, of private means, with property in Lincolnshire, who had contributed verses to Tonson’s “Miscellany.”  Gay ("Mr. Pope’s Welcome from Greece,” st. xvii.) speaks of “Honest, hatless Cromwell, with red breeches.”]

[Footnote 453:  Called forth, drawn as with an alarum.]

[Footnote 454:  Henry Cromwell; see note on p. 380.  According to another suggestion, Spindle is intended for Thomas Tickell, who published a poem, “The Prospect of Peace,” in 1713; but it is not probable that in 1709 either Addison or Steele would have satirised him; and Cromwell may very likely have written verses on the same subject.]

[Footnote 455:  A spider named from Tarentum, in Apulia.  Strange stories were told of the effects of its bite, and of their cure by music and dancing.]

[Footnote 456:  See No. 46.]

[Footnote 457:  Dr. Radcliffe.  See No. 44.]

[Footnote 458:  2 Henry IV., act i. sc.  I.]

[Footnote 459:  “This Tatler I know nothing of, only they say the Dutchess of Montague has lately lost a bitch she call’d fidel, and has had it cry’d.”—­(Peter Wentworth to Lord Raby; “Wentworth Papers,” p. 97.)]

[Footnote 460:  See Catullus, passim.]

No. 48. [STEELE.

From Thursday, July 28, to Saturday, July 30, 1709.

—­Virtutem verba putant, et
Lucum ligna. 
HOR., 1 Ep. vi. 31.

* * * * *

From my own Apartment, July 29.