My Lords and Gentlemen1s Editor’s note: the quotation from Tacitus may be translated: “as if the offences of Livia were crimes but recently detected, not crimes actually punished long before, stern measures were advocated even against her statues and her memory”, It is with no small measure of regret that I feel compelled to put […]
My Lords and Gentlemen Before commencing my Treatise I will relate to you a matter which is causing me much puzzlement. Last Tuesday evening I enjoyed a fine dinner with Mr Tonson et al.. After we had taken our pipes, Mr Tonson shewed the company a painting of himself daubed by none other than Sir Godfrey […]
As I was walking home yesterday afternoon after luncheon at Mr Lloyd’s Coffee House (which I vouchsafe has not been of the same quality since the death of Mr Lloyd), I chanced upon Mortdecai Benjamin outside the Synagogue at Bevis Marks. After I had told him of the day’s tittle tattle I fancied that old […]
I am in a hearty mood this evening. On the advice of my Lord Chetwynd I sold my shares in the South Seas Company this very morning yet by noon their price was little more than nihil. In celebration of my good fortune, I partook of a most convivial luncheon at Will’s Coffee House. The conversation […]
My Lords and Gentlemen, I have of late been in downcast mood. I was minded to accompany my Lord Godolphin to the matches at Newmarket. No sooner than my bags were packed and loaded on the stage than his Man deliver’d to me a note written in his Lordship’s own hand. In it his Lordship had […]
As I related in my last essay, it had been vouched safe to me that a Mob had assembled in Whitehall demanding that My Lady Rowling be burned as a witch because she was heard to mutter in her sleep that God had created Men and Women. I must now relate what followed. After making […]
This morning I met Mr John Mottley on the Strand. He was in a black temper. After we had exchanged our good mornings and the intelligence of the day, I asked Mr Mottley why he was so dispirited. He explained that he had lost his contract with the Excise Office and now had to make […]
My Lords and Gentlemen, I pray that you will forgive me but I must again postpone the commencement of my Treatise. This morning, I received a letter from Sir Richard Steele who has been staying at his late wife’s house in Carmarthen. The news contained in this missive is such that I consider it should be […]
My Lords and Gentlemen, In my Treatise, I will explain by giving examples how the Body Politick is infected by Scoundrels no less than the girls in Moll King’s House are infected by the Pox. The days recently past have provided more than one such example. Last week I met Mr Mordecai Benjamin at Bevis […]
My Lords and Gentlemen, This morning I awoke with a sore head and I must again postpone the commencement of my Treatise. Yesterday, at Wills’s I fell into the companie of my old comrade at arms Colonel Fielding1Edmund Fielding, father of the novelist Henry Fielding who was known for his inveterate prodigality. That the Colonel […]