Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Tatler, No 112

From Saturd. Dec. 24. to Tuesd. Dec. 27. 1709

"Besides that, the Slackening and Unbending our Minds on some Occasions, makes them exert themselves with greater Vigour and Alacrity, when they return to their proper and natural State."

The best Critick that ever wrote, speaking of some Passages in Homer which appear extravagant or frivolous, says indeed that they are Dreams; but the Dreams of Jupiter. My Friend's Letter appears to me in the same Light. One sees him in an idle Hour; but at the same Time in the idle Hour of a wise Man. A great Mind has something in it too severe and forbidding that is not capable of giving it self such little Relaxations, and of condescending to these agreeable Ways of Trifling. Tully, when he celebrates the Friendship of Scipio and Lelius, who were the greatest as well as the politest Men of their Age, represents it as a beautiful Passage in their Retirement, that they used to gather up Shells on the Sea-shore, and amuse themselves with the Variety of Shape and Colour, which they met with in those little unregarded Works of Nature. The great Agesilaus could be a Companion to his own Children, and was surprized by the Ambassadors of Sparta, as he was riding among them upon an Hobby-Horse. Augustus indeed had no Play-Fellows of his own begetting; but is said to have passed many of his Hours with little Moorish Boys at a Game of Marbles, not unlike our mod rn Taw. There is (methinks) a Pleasure in seeing great Men thus fall into the Rank of Mankind, and entertain themselves with Diversions and Amusements that are agreeable to the very weakest of the Species. I must frankly confess, that it is to me a Beauty in Cato's Character, that he would drink a chearful Bottle with a Friend, and I cannot but own, that I have seen with great Delight one of the most celebrated Authors of the last Age feeding the Ducks in St. James's Park. By Instances or this Nature, the Heroes, the Statesmen, the Philosophers, become as it were familiar with us, and grow the more amiable, the less they endeavour to appear awful. A Man who always acts in the Severity of Wisdom, or the Haughtiness of Quality, seems to move in a personated art: It looks too Constrained and Theatrical for a Man to be always in that Character which distinguishes him from others. Besides that, the Slackening and Unbending our Minds on some Occasions, makes them exert themselves with greater Vigour and Alacrity, when they return to their proper and natural State.
(II, pp. 376-7; Cf. II, pp. 174-5 in Bond ed.)

Uncategorized::Unbending

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Over 50 entries in the ESTC (1709, 1710, 1711, 1712, 1713, 1716, 1720, 1723, 1728, 1733, 1737, 1743, 1747, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1754, 1759, 1764, 1772, 1774, 1776, 1777, 1785, 1786, 1789, 1794, 1795, 1797).

See The Tatler. By Isaac Bickerstaff Esq. Dates of Publication: No. 1 (Tuesday, April 12, 1709.) through No. 271 (From Saturday December 30, to Tuesday January 2, 1710 [i.e. 1711]). <Link to ESTC>

Collected in two volumes, and printed and sold by J. Morphew in 1710, 1711. Also collected and reprinted as The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.

Consulting Donald Bond's edition of The Tatler, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987). Searching and pasting text from The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff Esq: Revised and Corrected by the Author (London: Printed by John Nutt, and sold by John Morphew, 1712): <Link to Vol. 1><Vol. 2><Vol. 3><Vol. 4><Vol. 5>. Some text also from Project Gutenberg digitization of 1899 edition edited by George A. Aitken.

03/02/2014