The Behaviour of this old Idol in Chaucer,
puts me in mind of the Beautiful Clarinda,
one of the greatest Idols among the Moderns.
She is Worshipped once a Week by Candle-light, in
the midst of a large Congregation generally called
an Assembly. Some of the gayest Youths in the
Nation endeavour to plant themselves in her Eye, whilst
she sits in form with multitudes of Tapers burning
about her. To encourage the Zeal of her Idolaters,
she bestows a Mark of her Favour upon every one of
them, before they go out of her Presence. She
asks a Question of one, tells a Story to another,
glances an Ogle upon a third, takes a Pinch of Snuff
from the fourth, lets her Fan drop by accident to give
the fifth an Occasion of taking it up. In short,
every one goes away satisfied with his Success, and
encouraged to renew his Devotions on the same Canonical
Hour that Day Sevennight.
An Idol may be Undeified by many accidental
Causes. Marriage in particular is a kind of Counter-Apotheosis,
or a Deification inverted. When a Man becomes
familiar with his Goddess, she quickly sinks into a
Woman.
Old Age is likewise a great Decayer of your Idol:
The Truth of it is, there is not a more unhappy Being
than a Superannuated Idol, especially when
she has contracted such Airs and Behaviour as are only
Graceful when her Worshippers are about her.
Considering therefore that in these and many other
Cases the Woman generally outlives the Idol,
I must return to the Moral of this Paper, and desire
my fair Readers to give a proper Direction to their
Passion for being admired; In order to which, they
must endeavour to make themselves the Objects of a
reasonable and lasting Admiration. This is not
to be hoped for from Beauty, or Dress, or Fashion,
but from those inward Ornaments which are not to be
defaced by Time or Sickness, and which appear most
amiable to those who are most acquainted with them.
C.
[Footnotes 1: that]
[Footnote 2: ‘Tuscul. Quaest.’
Lib. v. Sec. 243.]
[Footnote 3: ‘Paradise Lost’, Bk.
I.]
[Footnote 4: The story is in ‘The Remedy
of Love’ Stanzas 5—10.]
* * * *
*
No. 74. Friday, May 25, 1711.
Addison.
‘...
Pendent opera interrupta ...’
Virg.
In my last Monday’s Paper I gave some
general Instances of those beautiful Strokes which
please the Reader in the old Song of Chevey-Chase;
I shall here, according to my Promise, be more particular,
and shew that the Sentiments in that Ballad are extremely
natural and poetical, and full of [the [1]] majestick
Simplicity which we admire in the greatest of the
ancient Poets: For which Reason I shall quote
several Passages of it, in which the Thought is altogether
the same with what we meet in several Passages of
the AEneid; not that I would infer from thence,
that the Poet (whoever he was) proposed to himself
any Imitation of those Passages, but that he was directed
to them in general by the same Kind of Poetical Genius,
and by the same Copyings after Nature.
