"their empty and unrecruitable colonels of "twenty men in a company, to quaff out, or "convey into fecret hoards, the wages of a de"lufive lift and a miserable remnant; yet in the

'

mean while to be over-mastered with a score or 66 two of drunkards, the only foldiery left about "them, or else to comply with all rapines and ❝ violences. No certainly, IF THEY KNEW 66 OUGHT OF THAT KNOWLEDGE, THAT BE"LONGS TO GOOD MEN AND GOOD GOVER"NORS, they would not fuffer these things."

NUMB. XI. Thursday, April 11, 1754.

Ipfa colat.

Pallas quas condidit arces

VIRG.

Let Pallas dwell in towers herfelf has rais'd.

TH

HE principal character in Steele's comedy of the Lying Lover is young Bookwit; an Oxonian, who at once throws off the habit and manners of an academic, and affumes the dress, air, and converfation of a man of the town. He is, like other fine gentlemen, a coxcomb; but a coxcomb of learning and parts. His erudition he

renders

renders fubfervient to his pleasures: his knowledge in poetry qualifies him for a fonneteer, his rhetoric to say fine things to the ladies, and his philofophy to regulate his equipage; for he talks of having Peripatetic footmen, a follower of

66

66

Ariftippus for a valet de chambre, an Epicurean "cook, with an Hermetical chymist (who are "good only at making fires) for a fcullion." Thus he is, in every particular, a fop of letters, a compleat claffical beau.

By a review I have lately made of the people in this great metropolis, as CENSOR, I find that the town swarms with Bookwits. The playhoufes, park, taverns, and coffee-houses are thronged with them. Their manner, which has something in it very characteristic, and different from the town-bred coxcombs, discovers them to the flightest obferver. It is, indeed, no eafy matter for one, whofe chief employment is to ftore his mind with new ideas, to throw that happy vacancy, that total abfence of thought and reflection, into his countenance, fo remarkable in our modern fine gentlemen. The fame lownging air too, that paffes for genteel in an university coffee-house, is foon distinguished from the genuine carlefs loll, and easy faunter; and bring us over to the notion of Sir Wilful in

The

The Way of the World, "that a man should be "bound prentice to a maker of fops, before he ❝ventures to set up for himself."

YET, in spite of all these disadvantages, the love of pleasure, and a few supernumerary guineas, draw the student from his literary employment, and entice him to this theatre of noise and hurry, this grand mart of luxury; where, as long as his purse can supply him, he may be as idle and debauched as he pleases. I could not help smiling at a dialogue between two of these gentlemen, which I overheard a few nights ago at the Bedford coffee-house. "Ha! Jack! (fays one accofting the other) is it you? How long have you ❝ been in town?” "Two hours.". " How "long do you ftay?" Ten guineas.—If you'll "come to Venable's after the play is over, you'll "find Tom Latine, Bob Claffic, and two or three "more, who will be very glad to fee you. What "you're in town upon the fober plan at your "father's? But hearkye Frank, if you'll call in, "I'll tell your friend Harris to prepare for you, "So your fervant; for I'm going to meet the "finest girl upon town in the green boxes."

I LEFT the coffee-house pretty late; and as I came into the piazza, the fire in the Bedford-Arms kitchen

kitchen blazed fo chearfully and invitingly before me, that I was eafily perfuaded by a friend who was with me, to end the evening at that house. Our good fortune led us into the next room to this knot of academical rakes. Their merriment being pretty boisterous, gave us a good pretext to enquire, what company were in the next room. The waiter told us, with a smartness which thofe fellows frequently contract from attending on beaux and wits, "fome gen"tlemen from Oxford with fome ladies, fir. "My mafter is always very glad to see them; "for while they ftay in town, they never dine or "fup out of his houfe, and eat and drink, and pay better, than any nobleman."

As it grew later, they grew louder: 'till at length an unhappy difpute arose between two of the company, concerning the present grand contest between the Old and the New Intereft, which has lately inflamed Oxfordshire. This accident might have been attended with ugly confequences: but as the ladies are great enemies to quarrelling, unless themselves are the occafion, a good-natured female of the company interpofed, and quelled their animofity. By the mediation of this fair one, the dispute ended very fashionably, in a bet of a dozen of claret, to be drank there by the company then prefent, when

ever the

wager fhould be decided. There was fomething fo extraordinary in their whole evening's converfation, fuch an odd mixture of the town and univerfity, that I am perfuaded, if Sir Richard had been witness to it, he could have wrought it into a scene as lively and entertaining, as any he has left us.

THE whole time these lettered beaux remain in London, is fpent in a continual round of diverfion. Their sphere, indeed, is fomewhat confined; for they generally eat, drink, and fleep within the precincts of Covent-Garden. I remember I once faw, at a public inn on the road to Oxford, a journal of the town tranfactions of one of these sparks; who had recorded them on a window-pane for the example and imitation of his fellow-ftudents. I fhall prefent my reader with an exact copy of this curious journal, as nearly as I can remember.

MONDAY, Rode to town in fix hours-faw the two laft acts of Hamlet-At night, with Polly Brown.

TUESDAY, Saw Harlequin Sorcerer-At night, Polly again.

WEDNESDAY, Saw Macbeth-At night, with Sally Parker, Polly engaged.

THURSDAY,