he nation, especially among the sharpers, sellers
of bearskins--_i.e._ stockjobbers, &c." (Swift). See No. 38.]

[Footnote 133: Dr. Richard Bentley, Master of Trinity College,
Cambridge, took a leading part in the controversy regarding the
genuineness of the Epistles of Phalaris. In 1709 he published critical
notes on the Tusculan Disputations.]

[Footnote 134: There are several sneers at the members of the Royal
Society in the _Tatler_.]

[Footnote 135: See No. 1.]

[Footnote 136: See No. 4.]

[Footnote 137: William Bullock was a comic actor whose abilities are
praised by Gildon and others. He was the original Sir Tunbelly Clumsy in
Vanbrugh's "Relapse." Later on in this number (p. 70), Steele says that
Bullock had a peculiar talent of looking like a fool, and in No. 188 he
compares Bullock and Pinkethman in a satirical vein.]

[Footnote 138: Perhaps Colonel Hunter, afterwards Governor of New York;
or Colonel Brett, one of the managers of Drury Lane Theatre.]

[Footnote 139: See No. 34.]

[Footnote 140: The pun is, of course, on the word "unmarred."]

[Footnote 141: By Thomas Shadwell, 1676.]

[Footnote 142: See note on p. 67, above.]

No. 8. [STEELE.

From _Tuesday, April 26._ to _Thursday, April 28_, 1709.

* * * * *

Wills Coffee-house, April 26.

The play of "The London Cuckolds"[143] was acted this evening before a
suitable audience, who were extremely well diverted with that heap of
vice and absurdity. The indignation which Eugenio, who is a gentleman
of a just taste, has, upon occasion of seeing human nature fall so low
in their delights, made him, I thought, expatiate upon the mention of
this play very agreeably. "Of all men living," said he, "I pity players
(who must be men of good understanding to be capable of being such) that
they are obliged to repeat and assume proper gestures for representing
things, of which their reason must be ashamed, and which they must
disdain their audience for approving. The amendment of these low
gratifications is only to be made by people of condition, by encouraging
the presentation of the noble characters drawn by Shakespeare and
others, from whence it is impossible to return without strong
impressions of honour and humanity. On these occasions, distress is laid
before us with all its causes and consequences, and our resentment
placed according to the merit of the persons afflicted. Were dramas of
this nature more acce