rantable Ambition in the Wife, and Anger in
the Husband.

'It is recorded as a sufficient Disqualification of a certain Wife,
that speaking of her Husband, she said, _God forgive him_.

'It is likewise remarkable, that a Couple were rejected upon the
Deposition of one of their Neighbours, that the Lady had once told her
Husband, that _it was her Duty to obey_; to which he replied, _Oh! my
Dear, you are never in the wrong_.

'The violent Passion of one Lady for her Lap-Dog; the turning away of
the old House-Maid by another; a Tavern-Bill torn by the Wife, and a
Taylor's by the Husband; a Quarrel about the Kissing-Crust; spoiling
of Dinners, and coming in late of Nights; are so many several Articles
which occasioned the Reprobation of some Scores of Demandants, whose
Names are recorded in the aforesaid Register.

'Without enumerating other particular Persons, I shall content my self
with observing, that the Sentence pronounced against one _Gervase
Poacher_ is, that _he might have had Bacon to his Eggs, if he had not
heretofore scolded his Wife when they were over boiled_. And the
Deposition against _Dorothy Dolittle_ runs in these Words; _That she
had so far usuped the Dominion of the Coalfire, (the Stirring whereof
her Husband claimed to himself) that by her good Will she never would
suffer the Poker out of her Hand._

'I find but two Couples, in this first Century, that were successful:
The first, was a Sea-Captain and his Wife, who since the Day of their
Marriage, had not seen one another till the Day of the Claim. The
Second, was an honest Pair in the Neighbourhood; The Husband was a Man
of plain good Sense, and a peaceable Temper; the Woman was dumb.'

[Footnote 1: Lord Macaulay, in a letter published p. 1433 ... of Mr.
Bohn's edition of Lowndes's 'Bibliographer's Manual', calls this paper
'undoubtedly Addison's, and one of his best,' although not claimed,
because he could not own it without admitting what Lord Macaulay rightly
considered quite as obvious, his authorship of No. 623. Addison wrote,
evidently, some other of these unappropriated papers.]

* * * * *

No. 609. Wednesday, October 20, 1714.

'--Farrago libelli--'

Juv.

_Mr._ SPECTATOR,

'I have for some Time desired to appear in your Paper, and have
therefore chosen a Day [1] to steal into the SPECTATOR, when