Mr. URBAN, PERMIT me May 13. to prefent to your readers another view of the old Marshalfea; to the hitiory of which I have little to add, after what has been ftated in-vol. LXXII. p 805, except that the Court-houle appears to be the work of Inigo Jones. There is a painting over the Judge's feat, but fo defaced by dirt and me as to preclude all judgment of its execution. The cieling is richly ornamented; and has certainly been one of the most handfome of our Courts of Justice. When Queen Elizabeth was foliciting confecration for Abp. Parker and the reft of the Protestant bishops, of the Catholic bishops in the different gaols, it is faid that he could not get any to consent but the bishop of Armagh, then in the Tower; which when Bp. Bonner heard, who was then prifoner in the Marfhalfeu, he fent his chaplain, Mr. Neal, to him, who by threats and perfuafion fo worked upon him that he refufed. THE PROJECTOR, N° XXXI. "Librorum inopiam quereris. Non refert quam multos habes, fed quam bonas. Faftidientis ftomachi ett molta deguftare." SENECA, EPIST. PROJECTORS may be divided into two claffes, namely, into thofe who employ their skill on purposes of utility, and those who devote themdelves to the invention of amulement; but their fate has been very different. Of those who have employed themfelves on fubjects of real inility, I thall fay bur little, because egotifin does not become me. Of the inventors of amulement, it is frequently complained that they have ever been the greateft favourites with the bulk of mankind. because, it is faid, the bulk of mankind had rather be amufid than inftructed. Yet, as I wish to put the most gentle interpretation on fuch partialities, and had rather be handed down to pofterity as the most eminent Apologist than as the feverett Caftigator of my own times, I am inclined to think, that the popularity of the authors of amusement does not proceed to much from a principle of injustice, as from an opinion that, as the demand for anfement is urgent and clamorons, a musement may be ranked among the neceffaries of GENT MAG. May, 1804. life; and thofe perfons are therefore to be praifed who can fupply it in the greateft quantity. Hence we ought not to repine, if fome thould prefer the machinery of a poem to that of a nianufactory, and pay more atention p the man who diverts their leisure hours, than to him who works their looms. This mut ever be the cafe with those to whom it is more neceflary to know how to spin out their time dan their cotton, and to whom the intricacies of an amour have far more charins than the texture of the most curions web. But it is the misfortune of us ferious Projectors, that we do not pay more attention to fuch judicions contiderations as are evidently founded ou a knowledge of the world; and hence we complain, that our fcheines of inftruction are neglected by those whofe only objećt is to be pleased, and that we find very few difpofed to fitien to the plans of felicity we anticipate in another world, because the majority are perfe&ily fatisfied with the prefent. As I, however, have the honour to poffefs a more philofophical spirit, together with as much candour as the world can reasonably expect, I have thought proper to introduce the following remarks with the truly liberal fentiments that have juft dropped from my pen. Among the inventors of amufement, I have lately been led to confider the unfortunate fituation and impending fate of Novel-writers, a nost induftrious and numerous body of both fexes, who have for fome time past been firiggling with unbeard-of adventures, and incredible hardships, in order to contrive a variety of temporary delights, and relieve the tedioufnefs of homan life, which, I know not why, appears to many perfons infinitely too long for ahy useful purpose. Yet raff, wondeifid, and indeed incomprehenfible as their materials have hitherto been, there is every profpect of their being very foon exhaufted, bevand ell posters of replenishment. On every freth attempt, and froth attempts are made weekly, if not daily, I clearly perceive a decline of refources, a working-up of old materials; a furbishing, fen tring and mangling of old escapes and wornout wonders, to make them pals to new; a pamiting, varnishing, tering of old ncidents, a new-vamping of old dialogue; and a botching and patching of thread-bare fentiment, which cannot very long hide the poverty of those wardrobes of the imagination, and repofitories of fiction. The time, therefore, I ftrongly fufpect, is coming, when the nakedness of the land must be difcovered, and when it will be proved that the combined force of three or four hundred mannfacturers of miracles cannot produce an incident that is not as familiar as a newfpaper cafualty. It is melancholy to contemplate in what a deplorable state a great part of the nation will be when this dreadful period arrives. I cannot dwell upon it; but muft leave it to the compaffionate feelings of my tender-hearted readers. This, however, I may affert, that those who will feel this calamity with most acuteness will, at the fame time, wish, and with heartily, that the inventors of amufement had not looked down with a fort of contemptuous fuperiority on the projectors of cottonmills and fieam-engines. Inftead of boafting that they were too fentimental to be mechanical, it would have been wifer had they condefcended to borrow fomewhat from the acknowledged principles of trade, and dip a little into its history. They would then have learned, that, when any article is manufactured beyond the demand for it, it either falls in price, that is, becomes cheap, common, and confequently vulgar; or, from a multitude of eager rival hips, it frequently falls off in quality. My readers, I prefume, can illuitrate this by many well-known and familiar inftances, while I purfue my application of the doctrine to the article in queftion. About fifty or fixty years ago, the Novel firft made its appearance, and in the hands of fuch men as Fielding and Smollett was an article quite new, and very flriking, and foon became very fafhionable. For a long time, thefe gentlemen, without afpiring to a monopoly, or applying for a patent, coutrived to keep imitators at a diftance. The market, however, was but fparingly fupplied; and, what will be thought very wonderful in our days, we have good reafon to believe that the fame novel was read over, often a fecond, and even a third time, and with increafing pleasure at every repetition. Some ingenious men, however, fancying that this proceeded from the fcarcity of the article, as a man muft wear the fame coat pretty often who knows not where to get another; they imagined, that by increafing the quantity they might carry on a very profitable trade. The quantity was accordingly increased; and that, if I am not misinformed, at a very fmall expence. Volumes upon volumes appeared, in which the fame ftory was repeated, with as many little variations as could be invented; and now and then an article rifing to fome degree of popularity, more writers embarked their fame in the fame concern, until at length fupplies of novels were as regularly brought to fale as any other articles of home confumption; and the circulating li braries exhibited a plenty as luxuriant as an epicure delights to fee in the markets of Leadenhall or Billingfgate. It was the misfortune, however, or perhaps the mistaken policy of the venders of this article, that they were at all times more attentive to quantity than quality, and were indifferent as to any thing good, provided they could answer the inceffant demand for fomething new. Nor was it lefs unfortunate for the writers, that they did not confider the utmost extent to which it is poffible to wire-draw a fingle paffion; and that the paffion of Love, which, in my humble opinion, requires lefs inftruétion from books than any other. It was at first mighty easy to groupe together a pair of unfortunate lovers, a maiden aunt addicted to contradiction and brandy, a rakish lord or colonel, an intriguing chambermaid, a spiteful fifter, and a couple of flintyhearted parents: but it became impoffible to re-create and new-model these characters in fuch a manner as to give them the appearance of novelty. The publick, although not very foon, yet in due time, became tired of the fameaunts, the fame colonels, the fame chambermaids, and the fame fpiteful fitters and fiern fathers. Even elopements lol their effect, when repeated experience proved that lovers could efcape only by the door or window (the chimney was unluckily never thought of); and houses, in general, happened to have no other outlets. Stormy nights and peals of thunder, too, became backnied; and it was difcovered, although not until after much ink-fhed, that one form is extremely like another, and that few men had the power of king their flathes of lightning, or their torrents of rain, appear more terrible than those of their neighbours. Intercepted letters, which at one time were thought indifpenfably neceffary to create embarrassments and multiply perplexities, might perhaps differ in Hyle or length; but when it was found out that they muft either be dropt by accident, mifcarried by a blundering fervant, or ftolen by a roguifh one, there was an end to this refource. Fits, likewife, lafted a confiderable time; but the best written fits cannot laf always; and, however ufeful it has been found to bring delirium on, it became obvious to the moft fuperficial reader, that it must go off again with a found fleep. Mad fcenes, however, were long very delightful, and nothing was fuppofed to confer more grace and dignity on a heroine, or to thow more decidedly that the author underfloodwhat belongs to the tender paffion; but it was at length complained, that love-madness had not fuflicient variety; and that talking nonfenfe, by the help of Italics and SMALL CAPITALS, gives but a faint idea of the converfation of a lunatic. and dungeons of the fame darkness. It must, indeed, be allowed, that for a year or two our cafiles produced a confiderable variety. It was fomething new and delightful to exchange the elegant manfions or beautiful cottages in which the bufinefs of Love was formerly tranfacted, for hideous old maffes of ruins hanging over the fea, or awfully frowning upon the valley: it was charming to exchange the chefnut walks, the fhrubbery, or the finooth lawn, for frightful precipices, paffages made through rocks, and alpine promontories, not decorated with flowers, or cooled by zephyrs, but inhabited by tigers, or infetted by banditti. It was for fome time enchanting to rove amidst fuch fcenery, while, with the help of a few terms borrowed from the writers on Gothick Architecture, the castlebuilders contrived “"to elevate and furprize," and to variegate their horrors with fome ingenuity. But yet repetition rendered the best horrors familiar and harmlets; and the moft tender miffes purfued their way down ftone fieps, faft mouldering and decaying by unwholefome damps, and continual droppings, into depths unfathomable, without fear or candle; then mounted again by back ways, and entered blue chambers without amazement or difmay; viewed glimmering tapers with as little concern as Vauxhall lamps, and drew afide curtains, regardless whether they hid an old chett, or a dead body. In this dilemma, with an exhaufted treafury, and no hopes of replenishing from the flores of domelic love and intrigue, having completely worn out the whole race of peevith aunts, fpiteful fifters, cruel fathers, gay colonels, and foppifh lords, a bankruptcy feemed faft approaching, when, in a lucky hour, a new manufactory farted of haunted cafiles, blue chambers, pale Such is the prefent fate of these gholts, and bloody murders. Thefe fchemes of amufement. Domeftic admaterials were confefledly compofed of ventures are exhausted, and cafties and the remains of the old romance, with murderers far exceed any probable dea few additions from the annals of Ty-mand of the markets. It may be atkburn, or rather from the maflacres in a neighbouring nation. With what fuccefs this new scheme has been car ried on for the last ten years, it would be unneceflary to detail. But here again a refource, that might have lafted for half a century with good manage ment, was fpeedily exhaufted by the moft foolish and wanton profufion; and here again, our Projectors fell into the fame unhappy blunder as before; and their employers, I am forry to fay it, were equally difdainful of past experience. Cafiles became multiplied as the fand on the fea-fhore, and upon a foundation not much more folid; and it ought not to have been furprifing, if their readers became tired of saulted paflages. of the fame length, ed, what plan can fupply the place of articles already almofi exploded, and become indeed fo common that, if I am not misinformed by my refpectable friends the bookfellers, every mifs and lady's maid thinks herfelf qualified to become her own cafile-builder, and approaches the prefs with the confi dence of a D'Arblay, a Ratcliffe, or an Inchibald. But I know not that it is within my province to fingeeft a remedy for every grievance of which it may be expected I should take notice. I have ftated what appears to me to be the caufe; but whether that caufe has not produced an effect which is without all remedy must be left to the fagacity of my readers. If I might, however, venture to fuggeft a fomething it would be be an act of parliament, I mean of the fenate of failion, to fufpend the mapufacture of novel for a certain numher of years. Workmen in other branches know that, if the market is overflocked, they mu ftop their machinery; and if the article remains with out buyers, or goes out of fashion, they must think of fome other employment. This in the cafe of the filkweavers fome years ago, when Manchefter turned the public afte in her favour, was found a very difficult matter, and I am afraid it will not be much Ex one ealy in the cafe of Novellifts. They have lived fo long in an ideal world, and among an imaginary clafs of people; they have been converfant fo much with marvellous events and wonderful incidents, and at the fame time fpeak a language fo foreign to the buffels of common life, that there may be fome danger in bringing them too fuddenly down from the eminences on which they delight to dwell. portation, indeed, has been fuggefted to me, as a mercantile remedy for a more extenfive manufacture than a country requires; and I fhould have cheerfully recommended to many of our Novellitis who complain of the dulleets of the market at home, to emigrate to fome place where the article is fearce and little known. But the prefemt hate of Europe (not to speak of the war) is unfavourable to fuch a fcheme. Alas! France and Germany are overstocked by their own produetions in this line, and have as much need of the fufpenfion act I have hinted at as ourfelves I must therefore leave this fubject to the confideration of the parties molt deeply interested. Before I conclude, however, it is but iuftice to remark that a scheme has of late been tried, which appears at firft fight to be confiderably ingenions: I allude to thofe Novellifts, who, despairing of inventing any thing new in the way of table, adventure, or any of the legitimate characterifiics of a novel, have introduced dialogues or differtations on contefied points of religion or politics. This, indeed, may be faid to be opening a very wide field; but how far it is likely to contribute to amulement, is not quite fo certain. We can be at no lofs, from recent events, to find a reafon why certain writers fhould endeavour to poiton the fources of amufement by interweaving in a novel the infidel fentiments of Voltaire or Rouffeau; but their imita" tors must forfeit all pretenfions to ingenuity if they adopt a plan fo obvioufly calculated to interrupt the bufels of the scene. Nor will our political contefts appear more out of place ju fuch compofitions, if they are in tended as imitations of life and mans ners. Few readers of novels, impa tient for the denouement, will be much pleafed if detained, at a critical mo inent, with a difcuffion on parliamentary reform; nor will they take time to trace any connexion between the revolution of France, and the caprice of a young lady about to fix a ladder of ropes to her window, and throw herfelf into the arms of a feducer. Dif fertations on the hardness of the times, and the weight of taxes, come with a forry grace from the pen of a writer who knows that in his latt volume he is to difpenfe riches in the utmost profufion among all his characters. Upon the whole, therefore, although an intermixture of politics and religion has been attempted, as it is very eafily imitable, and may be carried to any length; it can aufwer no purpose in refcuing the manufacture of novels from public difregard, although I am ready to allow that in its confequences it may afford fome furprize; and that the incident of a Novellift's taking precedence of a political writer in the pillory may be fomewhat new. Mr. URBAN, May 10. SEND this trifle because I think it comes exactly within the meaning and intent of your Magazine; and becaufe I fear that this century will not produce fuch another correfpondence. It is impoflible not to refpect and admire the writer's zeal and piety; and it is well known that the perfon addreffed expended very large fumus for forty years together in promoting fuch publications. Yours, &c. Kettering, Northamptonshire, Rev. Dr. Booth, July 28, 1752. I have for feveral years intended to have written to you, hearing fo much of your pious and generous disposition ; especially when, inttead of being fought to you, feek for worthy men to beltowy your favours upon; as upon Mr. John Hill, the fou of your friend Mr. Hal at Rothwell, whom I have known many years; Mr. John Hill, rector of Thorp, refiding generally in my parith of Kettering, as being near to Thorp. |