THE GUARDIAN. No. 67.] Thursday, May 28, 1713. ne fortè pudori Hor. life, and would not, as we say, be paid with a song. In order to extricate my old friend, I immediately sent for the three directors of the playhouse, and desired them that they would, in their turn, do a good office for a man, who, in Shakspeare's phrase, had often filled their mouths, I mean with pleasantry and popular conceits. They very generously listened to my proposal, and agreed to act the Plotting Sisters, (a very taking play of my old friend's composing) on the 15th of the next month, for the benefit of the author. My kindness to the agreeable Mr. d'Urfey will be imperfect, if, after having engaged the players in his favour, I do not get the town to come into it. I must therefore heartily recommend to all the young ladies, my disciples, the case of my old friend, who has often made their grandmothers merry, and whose sonnets have perhaps lulled asleep many a present toast, when she lay in her cradle. I have already prevailed upon my Lady Lizard to be at the house in one of the front boxes, and design, if I am in town, to lead her in myself at the head of her daughters. The gentleman I am speaking of has laid obligations on so many of his countrymen, that I hope they will think this but a just return to the good service of a veteran poet. Si tibi musa lyræ solers, et cantor Apollo. It has been remarked, by curious observers that poets are generally long-lived, and run beyond the usual age of man, if not cut off by some accident or excess, as Anacreon, in the midst of a very merry old age, was choked with a grape-stone. The same redundancy of spirits, that produces the poetical flame, keeps up the vital warmth, and administers uncommon fuel to life. I question not but several instances will occur to my reader's memory, from Homer down to Mr. Dryden. I shall only take notice of two who have excelled in lyrics, the one an ancient and the other a modern. The first gained an immortal reputation by celebrating several jockeys in the Olympic games; the last has signalised himself on the same occasion, by the ode that begins withTo horse, brave boys, to Newmarket, to horse. My reader will, by this time, know that the two poets I have mentioned, are Pindar and Mr. d'Urfey. The former of these is long since laid in his urn, after having, many years together, endeared himself to all Greece by his tuneful compositions. Our countryman is still living, and in a blooming old age, that still promises many I myself remember King Charles the musical productions; for, if I am not mista-Second leaning on Tom d'Urfey's shoulder ken, our British swan will sing to the last. more than once, and humming over a song The best judges, who have perused his last with him. It is certain that monarch was not song on the Moderate Man, do not discover a little supported by, Joy to great Cæsar, any decay in his parts, but think it deserves which gave the whigs such a blow as they a place among the works with which he were not able to recover that whole reign. obliged the world in his more early years My friend afterwards attacked popery with the same success, having exposed Bellarmine and Porto-Carrero more than once in short satirical compositions, which have been in every body's mouth. He has made use of Italian tunes and sonata's for promoting the Protestant interest, and turned a considerable part of the pope's music against himself. In short, he has obliged the court with political sonnets, the country with dialogues and pastorals, the city with descriptions of a lord-mayor's feast, not to mention his little ode upon Stool-ball, with many others of the like nature. I am led into this subject by a visit which I lately received from my good old friend and contemporary. As we both flourished | together in king Charles the Second's reign, we diverted ourselves with the remembrance of several particulars that passed in the world before the greatest part of my readers were born, and could not but smile to think how insensibly we were grown into a couple of venerable, old gentleman. Tom observed to me, that after having written more odes than Horace, and about four times as many comedies as Terence, he was reduced to great difficulties by the importunities of a set of men, who, of late years, have furnished him with the accommodations of Should the very individuals he has celebrated make their appearance together, they would be sufficient to fill the play house. Pretty Peg of Windsor, Gillian of Croydon, with Dolly and Molly, and Tommy and Johnny, with many others to be met with in the musical miscellanies, entitled Pills to purge Melancholy, would make a good benefit night. As my friend, after the manner of the old lyrics, accompanies his works with his own voice, he has been the delight of the most polite companies and conversations from the beginning of King Charles the Second's reign to our present times. Many an honest gentleman has got a reputation in his country, by pretending to have been in company with Tom d'Urfey. I might here mention several other merits in my friend; as his enriching our language with a multitude of rhymes, and bringing words together that, without his good offices, would never have been acquainted with one another, so long as it had been a tongue. But I must not omit, that my old friend angles for a trout the best of any man in England. May flies come in late this season, or I myself should, before now, have had a trout of his hooking. obscure a subject, I find there are two accounts of it more satisfactory than the rest. In the republic of Venice, which has been always the mother of politics, there are near the Doge's palace several large figures of lions curiously wrought in marble, with mouths gaping in a most enormous manner. Those who have a mind to give the state any private intelligence of what passes in the city, put their hands into the mouth of one of these lions, and convey into it a paper of such private informations as any way regard the interest or safety of the commonwealth. By this means, all the secrets of state come out of the lion's mouth. informer is concealed, it is the lion that tells every thing. In short, there is not a mis management in office, or a murmur in conversation, which the lion does not acquaint the government with. For this reason, say the learned, a spy is very properly distin guished by the name of Lion. The I must confess this etymology is plausible enough, and I did for some time acquiesce in it, till about a year or two ago I met with a little manuscript which sets this whole After what I have said, and much more matter in a clear light. In the reign of that I might say, on this subject, I question | Queen Elizabeth, says my author, the renot but the world will think that my old nowned Walsingham had many spies in his friend ought not to pass the remainder of his service, from whom the government receivlife in a cage like a singing bird, but enjoy ed great advantage. The most eminent all that Pindaric liberty which is suitable to among them was the statesman's barber, a man of his genius. He has made the whose surname was Lion. This fellow had world merry, and I hope they will make an admirable knack of fishing out the sehim easy so long as he stays among us. crets of his customers, as they were under This I will take upon me to say, they can- his hands. He would rub and lather a man's not do a kindness to a more diverting com- head, until he had got out every thing that panion, or a more cheerful, honest, and good- was in it. He had a certain snap in his fingood-was natured man. gers and volubility in his tongue, that would engage a man to talk with him whether he would or no. By this means he became an inexhaustible fund of private intelligence, and so signalized himself in the capacity of a spy, that, from his time, a master-spy goes under the name of a Lion. No. 71.] Tuesday, June 2. Quale portentum neque militaris I QUESTION not but my country customers will be surprised to here me complain that this town is, of late years, very much infested with lions; and will, perhaps, look upon it as a strange piece of news, when I assure them that there are many of these beasts of prey who walk our streets, in broad daylight, beating about from coffee-house to coffee-house, and seeking whom they may devour. To unriddle this paradox, I must acquaint my rural reader, that we polite men of the town give the name of a lion to any one that is a great man's spy. And whereas I cannot discharge my office of Guardian without setting a mark on such a noxious animal, and cautioning my wards against him, I design this whole paper as an Essay upon the political Lion, It has cost me a great deal of time to discover the reason of this appellation, but after many disquisitions and conjectures on so Walsingham had a most excellent penetration, and never attempted to turn any man into a lion whom he did not see highly qualified for it, when he was in his human condition. Indeed the speculative men of those times say of him, that he would now and then play them off and expose them a little unmercifully; but that, in my opinion, seems only good policy, for otherwise they might set up for men again, when they thought fit, and desert his service. But, however, though in that very corrupt age he made use of these animals, he had a great esteem for true men, and always exerted the highest generosity in offering them more, without asking terms of them, and doing more for them out of mere respect for their talents, though against him, than they could expect from any other minister whom they had served never so conspicuously. This made Raleigh (who professed himself his opponent) say one day to a friend, "Pox take this Walsingham, he baffles every body, he will not so much as let a man hate him what he reads, while he listens to those who are about him. He takes up the Postman, and snuffs the candle that he may hear the better by it. I have seen a lion pore upon a single paragraph in an old Gazette for two hours together, if his neighbours have been talking all that while. in private." True it is, that by the wander- | He appears more than ordinary attentive to ings, roarings, and lurking of his lions, he knew the way to every man breathing, who had not a contempt for the world itself: he had lions rampant whom he used for the service of the church, and couchant who were to lie down for the queen. They were so much at command, that the couchant would act as rampant, and the rampant as couchant, without being the least out of countenance, and all this within four and twenty hours. Walsingham had the pleasantest life in the world, for, by the force of his power and intelligence, he saw men as they really were, and not as the world thought of them: all this was principally brought about by feeding his lions well, or keeping them hungry, according to their different constitutions. Having given this short, but necessary account of this statesman and his barber, who, like the tailor in Shakspeare's Pyramus and Thisbe, was a man made, as other men are, notwithstanding he was a nominal lion, I shall proceed to the description of this strange species of creatures. Ever since the wise Walsingham was secretary in this nation, our statesmen are said to have encouraged the breed among us, as very well knowing that a lion in our British arms is one of the supporters of the crown, and that it is impossible for a government, in which there are such a variety of factions and intrigues, to subsist without this necessary animal. A lion, or master-spy, has several jackcalls under him, who are his retailers of intelligence, and bring him in materials for his report; his chief haunt is a coffee-house, and as his voice is exceeding strong, it aggravates the sound of every thing it repeats. Having given a full description of this monster, for the benefit of such innocent persons as may fall into his walks, I shall apply a word or two to the lion himself, whom I would desire to consider that he is a creature hated both by God and man, and regarded with the utmost contempt even by such as make use of him. Hangmen and executioners are necessary in a state, and so may the animal I have been here mentioning; but how despicable is the wretch that takes on him so vile an employment? there is scarce a being that would not suffer by a comparison with him, except that being only who acts the same kind of part, and is both the tempter and accuser of mankind. N. B. Mr. Ironside has, within five weeks last past, muzzled three lions, gorged five, of the dead one will be hung up, in terrorem, and killed one. On Monday next the skin at Button's coffee-house, over against Tom's, in Covent-Garden. No. 96.] Wednesday, July 1. THERE is no maxim in politics more indisputable, than that a nation should have many honours in reserve for those who do national services. This raises emulation, cherishes public merit, and inspires every one with an ambition which promotes the good of his country. The less expensive these honours are to the public, the more still do they turn to its advantage. As the lion generally thirsts after blood, and is of a fierce and cruel nature, there are no secrets which he hunts after with more delight, than those that cut off heads, hang, draw, and quarter, or end in the ruin of the person who becomes his prey. If he gets the wind of any word or action that may do The Romans abounded with these little a man good, it is not for his purpose; he honourary rewards, that, without conferring quits the chase, and falls into a more agree-wealth or riches, gave only place and disable scent. He discovers a wonderful sagacity in seeking after his prey. He couches and frisks about in a thousand sportful motions to draw it within his reach, and has a particular way of imitating the sound of the creature whom he would ensnare; an artifice to be met with in no beast of prey, except the hyena and the political lion, You seldom see a cluster of news-mongers without a lion in the midst of them. He never misses taking his stand within ear-shot of one of those little ambitious men who set up for orators in places of public resort. If there is a whispering-hole, or any public spirited corner in a coffee-house, you never fail of seeing a lion couched upon his elbow in some part of the neighbourhood. A lion is particularly addicted to the perusal of every loose paper that lies in his way. tinction to the person who received them. An oaken garland to be worn on festivals and public ceremonies, was the glorious recompense of one who had covered a citizen in battle. A soldier would not only venture his life for a mural crown, but think the most hazardous enterprise sufficiently repaid by so noble a donation. But among all honourary rewards, which are neither dangerous nor detrimental to the donor, I remember none so remarkable as the titles which are bestowed by the Emperor of China. These are never given to any subject, says Monsieur le Conte, till the subject is dead. If he has pleased his emperor to the last, he is called in all public memorials by the title which the emperor confers on him after his death, and his children take their rank accordingly. This keeps the ambitious subject in a perpetual dependance, making him always vigilant and | devices mean, and the coins themselves not active, and in every thing conformable to the will of his sovereign. numerous enough to spread among the people, or descend to posterity. The French have outdone us in these particulars, and, by the establishment of a soc: ety for the invention of proper inscriptions and designs, have the whole history of their present king in a regular series of medals. The ancient Romans took the only effectual method to disperse and preserve their medals, by making them their current money. There are no honorary rewards among us, which are more esteemed by the person who receives them, and are cheaper to the prince, than the giving of medals. But there is something in the moder manner of celebrating a great action in medals, which makes such a reward much less valuable than it i They have failed, as well as the English, was among the Romans. There is general-in coining so small a number of each kind, ly but one coin stamped upon the occasion, and those of such costly metals, that each which is made a present to the person who species may be lost in a few ages, and is at is celebrated on it. By this means his whole present no where to be met with but in the fame is in his own custody. The applause cabinets of the curious. that is bestowed upon him is too much limited and confined. * He is in possession of an honour which the world perhaps knows nothing of. He may be a great man in his own family; his wife and children may see Every thing glorious or useful, as well in the monument of an exploit, which the pub- peace as war, gave occasion to a different lic in a little time is a stranger to. The Ro- coin. Not only an expedition, victory, or mans took a quite different method in this triumph, but the exercise of a solemn devoparticular. Their medals were their cur- tion, the remission of a duty or tax, a new rent money. When an action deserved to temple, seaport, or highway, were transmitbe recorded on a coin, it was stamped per-ted to posterity after this manner. haps upon a hundred thousand pieces of The greatest variety of devices are on money like our shillings, or half-pence, which their copper money, which have most of the were issued out of the mint, and became cur- designs that are to be met with on the gold rent, This method published every noble and silver, and several peculiar to that metal action to advantage, and, in a short space of only. By this means they were dispersed time, spread through the whole Roman em- into the remotest corners of the empire, pire. The Romans were so careful to pre- came into the possession of the poor as well serve the memory of great events upon their as rich, and were in no danger of perishing coins, that when any particular piece of in the hands of those that might have meltmoney grew very scarce, it was often re-ed down coins of a more valuable metal. coined by a succeeding emperor, many years after the death of the emperor to whose honcur it was first struck. A friend of mine drew up a project of this kind during the late ministry, which would then have been put in execution, had it not been too busy a time for thoughts of that nature. As this project has been very much talked of by the gentleman abovementioned, to men of the greatest genius, as well as quality, I am informed there is now a design on foot for executing the proposal which was then made, and that we shall have several farthings and half-pence charged on the reverse with many of the glorious particulars of her Majesty's reign. This is one of those arts of peace which may very well deserve to be cultivated, and which may be of great use to posterity, As I have in my possession the copy of the paper abovementioned, which was delivered to the late Lord Treasurer, I shall here give the public a sight of it. For I do not question, but that the curious part of my readers will be very well pleased to see so much matter, and so many useful hints upon this subject, laid together in so clear and concise a manner. THE English have not been so careful as other polite nations, to preserve the memory of their great actions and events on medals. Their subjects are few, their mottoes and Add to all this, that the designs were invented by men of genius, and executed by a decree of senate. It is therefore proposed, I. That the English farthings and half pence be recoined upon the union of the two nations. II. That they bear devices and inscriptions alluding to all the most remarkable parts of her Majesty's reign. III. That there be a society established for the finding out of proper subjects, in scriptions, and devices. IV. That no subject, inscription, or device be stamped without the approbation of this society, nor, if it be thought proper, without the authority of privy-council. By this means, medals, that are, at present, only a dead treasure or mere curiosities, will be of use in the ordinary commerce of life, and, at the same time perpetuate the glories of her Majesty's reign, reward the labours of her greatest subjects, keep alive in the people a gratitude for public services, and excite the emulation of posterity. To these generous purposes, nothing can so much contribute as medals of this kind, which are of undoubted authority, of necessary use and observation, not perishable by time, nor confined to any certain place; properties not to be found in books, statues, pictures, buildings, or any other monuments of illustrious actions. |