The Tatler: By the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq;.

Addison, Joseph, 1672-1719.

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No. 20. Thursday, May 26. 1709.

—THOUGH the theatre is now breaking, it is allowed still to sell animals there; therefore, if any la∣dy or gentleman have occasion for a tame elephant, let them enquire of Mr. Pinkethman, who has one to dis∣pose of at a reasonable rate. The downfal of May-Faire has quite sunk the price of this noble creature, as well as of many other curiosities of nature. A tiger will sell almost as cheap as an ox; and I am credibly informed, a man may purchase a cat with three legs, for very near the value of one with four. I hear like∣wise, that there is a great desolation among the gen∣tlemen and ladies who were the ornaments of the town, and used to shine in plumes and diadems; the heroes being most of them pressed, and the queens beating hemp. Mrs. Sarabrand, so famous for her ingenious puppet-show, has set up a shop in the Exchange, where she sells her little troop under the term of jointed ba∣bies. I could not but be sollicitous to know of her, how she had disposed of that rake hell Punch, whose lewd life and conversation had given so much scandal, and did not a little contribute to the ruin of the faire. She told me, with a sigh, that despairing of ever reclaiming him, she would not offer to place him in a civil family, but got him in a post upon a stall in Wapping, where he may be seen from sun-rising to sun-setting, with a glass in one hand, and a pipe in the other, as centry to a brandy-shop. The great revolutions of this nature bring to my mind the distresses of the unfortunate Ca∣milla, Page 2 who has had the ill luck to break before her voice, and to disappear at a time when her beauty was in the height of its bloom. This lady entered so throughly into the great characters she acted, that when she had finished her part, she could not think of re∣trenching her equipage, but would appear in her own lodgings with the same magnificence that she did upon the stage. This greatness of soul has reduced that un∣happy princess to an involuntary retirement, where she now passes her time among the woods and forests, think∣ing on the crowns and scepters she has lost, and often humming over in her solitude,

I was born of royal race,

Yet must wander in disgrace, etc.

But for fear of being over-heard, and her quality known, she usually sings it in Italian;

Naqui al Regno, naqui al Trono
E pur sono
Iventurata Pastorella—

Since I have touched upon this subject, I shall commu∣nicate to my reader part of a letter I have received from a friend at Amsterdam, where there is a very noble the∣atre; though the manner of furnishing it with actors is something peculiar to that place, and gives us occasion to admire both the politeness and frugality of the people.

'MY friends have kept me here a week longer than ordinary to see one of their plays, which was perform∣ed last night with great applause. The actors are all of them tradesmen, who, after their day's work is over, earn about a gilder a night by personating kings and generals. The hero of the tragedy I saw, was a jour∣ney-man taylor, and his first minister of state a coffee-man. The empress made me think of Parthenope in Page 3 the Rehearsal; for her mother keeps an ale-house in the suburbs of Amsterdam. When the tragedy was o∣ver, they entertained us with a short farce, in which the cobler did his part to a miracle; but upon enqui∣ry, I found he had really been working at his own trade, and representing on the stage what he acted eve∣ry day in his shop. The profits of the theatre main∣tain an hospital: for as here they do not think the profession of an actor the only trade that a man ought to exercise, so they will not allow any-body to grow rich on a profession that in their opinion so little con∣duces to the good of the common-wealth. If I am not mistaken, your play-houses in England have done the same thing; for, unless I am misinformed, the ho∣spital at Dulledge was erected and endowed by Mr. Allen a player: and it is also said, a famous she-trage∣dian has settled her estate, after her death, for the maintenance of decayed wits, who are to be taken in as soon as they grow dull, at whatever time of their life that shall happen.'

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