No. 238. [Steele and Swift.[143]
From Saturday, Oct. 14, to Tuesday, Oct. 17, 1710.

——Poetica surgit
 Tempestas——

Juv., Sat. xii. 23.

From my own Apartment, Oct. 16.

Storms at sea are so frequently described by the ancient poets, and copied by the moderns, that whenever I find the winds begin to rise in a new heroic poem, I generally skip a leaf or two till I come into fair weather. Virgil's Tempest is a masterpiece in this kind, and is indeed so naturally drawn, that one who has made a voyage can scarce read it without being sea-sick.

Land showers are no less frequent among the poets than the former, but I remember none of them which have not fallen in the country; for which reason they are generally filled with the lowings of oxen and the bleatings of sheep, and very often embellished with a rainbow.

Virgil's Land Shower is likewise the best in its kind: it is indeed a shower of consequence, and contributes to the main design of the poem, by cutting off a tedious ceremonial, and bringing matters to a speedy conclusion between two potentates of different sexes. My ingenious kinsman, Mr. Humphrey Wagstaff, who treats of every subject after a manner that no other author has done, and better than any other can do, has sent me the description of a City Shower. I do not question but the reader remembers my cousin's description of the Morning as it breaks in town, which is printed in the ninth Tatler, and is another exquisite piece of this local poetry:

Careful observers may foretell the hour
 (By sure prognostics) when to dread a shower:
 While rain depends, the pensive cat gives o'er
 Her frolics, and pursues her tail no more.
 Returning home at night, you'll find the sink
 Strike your offended sense with double stink.
 If you be wise, then go not far to dine,
 You'll spend in coach-hire more than save in wine.
 A coming shower your shooting corns presage,
 Old aches throb,[144] your hollow tooth will rage.
 Saunt'ring in coffee-house is Dulman seen;
 He damns the climate, and complains of spleen.
Meanwhile the south rising with dabbled wings,
 A sable cloud athwart the welkin flings,
 That swilled more liquor than it could contain,
 And like a drunkard gives it up again.
 Brisk Susan whips her linen from the rope,
 While the first drizzling shower is borne aslope.
 Such is that sprinkling which some careless quean
 Flirts on you from her mop, but not so clean.
 You fly, invoke the gods; then turning, stop
 To rail; she singing, still whirls on her mop.
 Not yet the dust had shunned th'unequal strife,
 But aided by the wind, fought still for life;
 And wafted with its foe by violent gust,
 'Twas doubtful which was rain and which was dust.
 Ah! where must needy poet seek for aid,
 When dust and rain at once his coat invade;
 His only coat, where dust confused with rain
 Roughen the nap, and leave a mingled stain.
Now in contiguous drops the flood comes down,
 Threatening with deluge this devoted town.
 To shops in crowds the daggled females fly,
 Pretend to cheapen goods, but nothing buy.
 The Templar spruce, while every spout's abroach,
 Stays till 'tis fair, yet seems to call a coach.
 The tucked-up sempstress walks with hasty strides,
 While streams run down her oiled umbrella's sides.
 Here various kinds by various fortunes led,
 Commence acquaintance underneath a shed.
 Triumphant Tories and desponding Whigs
 Forget their feuds, and join to save their wigs.
 Boxed in a chair the beau impatient sits,
 While spouts run clattering o'er the roof by fits;
 And ever and anon with frightful din
 The leather sounds, he trembles from within.
 So when Troy chairmen bore the wooden steed,
 Pregnant with Greeks, impatient to be freed.
 (Those bully Greeks, who, as the moderns do,
 Instead of paying chairmen, run them through.)
 Laocoon struck the outside with his spear,
 And each imprisoned hero quaked for fear.
Now from all parts the swelling kennels flow,
 And bear their trophies with them as they go:
 Filth of all hues and odours seem to tell
 What street they sailed from, by their sight and smell.
 They, as each torrent drives, with rapid force,
 From Smithfield or St. Pulchre's shape their course,
 And in huge confluent joined at Snow Hill ridge,
 Fall from the Conduit, prone to Holborn Bridge.
 Sweepings from butchers' stalls, dung, guts, and blood,
 Drowned puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud,
 Dead cats and turnip-tops come tumbling down the flood.

FOOTNOTES:

[143] "I am going to work at another Tatler" (Swift's "Journal," Oct. 4, 1710). "And now I am going in charity to send Steele another Tatler, who is very low of late" (Ib., Oct. 7, 1710). "I am now writing my poetical description of a 'Shower in London,' and will send it to the Tatler" (Ib., Oct. 10, 1710). "I have finished my poem on the 'Shower,' all but the beginning; and am going on with my Tatler" (Ib., Oct. 12, 1710). "This day came out the Tatler, made up wholly of my 'Shower,' and a preface to it. They say it is the best thing I ever wrote, and I think so too. I suppose the Bishop of Clogher will show it you. Pray tell me how you like it" (Ib., Oct. 17, 1710). "They both [Rowe and Prior] fell commending my 'Shower' beyond anything that has been written of the kind; there never was such a 'Shower' since Danae's," &c. "You must tell me how it is liked among you" (Ib., Oct. 27, 1710). "The Bishop of Clogher says, I bid him read the London 'Shaver,' and that you both swore it was 'Shaver,' and not 'Shower.' You all lie, and you are puppies, and can't read Presto's hand" (Ib., Nov. 28, 1710). "My 'Shower' admired with you; why the Bishop of Clogher says, he has seen something of mine of the same sort, better than the 'Shower.' I suppose he means 'The Morning'; but it is not half so good" (Ib., Nov. 30, 1710).

[144] Altered in Johnson's "Poets," and other editions, to "old aches will throb"; otherwise "aches" must be pronounced as a dissyllable.