The Covent-Garden Journal/Number 4

by Henry Fielding

TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1652. Numb. 4.

--Nanum cujusdam Atlanta vocamus:

Æthiopem Cygnum: parvam extortamque puellam

Europen. Canibus pigris Scabieque vetusta

Lavibus, et siccæ lambentibus Ora lucernæ

Nomen erit Pardus, tigris, Leo; si quid adhuc est

Quod fremat in Terris violentius. --

Juv. Sat. 8.

'ONE may observe,' says Mr. Locke, 'in all Languages, certain Words, that, if they be examined, will be found, in their first Original, and their appropriated Use, not to stand for any clear and distinct Ideas.' Mr. Locke gives us the Instances 'of Wisdom, Glory, Grace. Words which are frequent enough (says he) in every Man's Mouth; but if a great many of those who use them, should be asked what they mean by them, they would be at a Stand, and not know what to answer: A plain Proof, that tho' they have learned those Sounds, and have them ready at their Tongue's End; yet there are no determin'd Ideas laid up in their Minds, which are to be expressed to others by them.'

Besides the several Causes by him assigned of the Abuse of Words, there is one, which, tho' the great Philosopher hath omitted it, seems to have contributed not a little to the Introduction of this enormous Evil. This is That Privilege which Divines and moral Writers have assumed to themselves of doing Violence to certain Words, in Favour of their own Hypotheses, and of using them in a Sense often directly contrary to that which Custom (the absolute Lord and Master, according to Horace, of all Modes of Speech) hath allotted them.

Perhaps, indeed, this Fault may be seen in somewhat a milder Light, (and I would always see the Blemishes of such Writers in the mildest.) It may not, perhaps, be so justly owing to any designed Opposition to Custom as a total Ignorance of it. An Ignorance which is almost inseparably annexed to a collegiate Life, and which any Man, indeed, may venture to own without blushing.

But whatever may be the Cause of this Abuse of Words, the Consequence is certainly very bad: For whilst the Author and the World receive different Ideas from the same Words, it will be pretty difficult for them to comprehend each other's Meaning; and hence, perhaps, it is that so many Gentlemen and Ladies have contracted a general Odium to all Works of Religion or Morality; and that many others have been Readers in this Way all their Lives without understanding what they read, consequently without drawing from it any practical Use.

It would, perhaps, be an Office very worthy the Labour of a good Commentator to explain certain hard Words which frequently occur in the Works of Barrow, Tillotson, Clark, and others of this Kind. Such are Heaven, Hell, Judgment, Righteousness, Sin, Etc. All which, it is reasonable to believe, are at present very little understood.

Instead, however, of undertaking this Task myself, at least, at present, I shall apply the Residue of this Paper to the Use of such Writers only. I shall here give a short Glossary of such Terms as are at present greatly in Use, and shall endeavour to fix to each those exact Ideas which are annext to every of them in the World; for while the Learned in Colleges do, as I apprehend, consider them all in a very different Light, their Labours are not likely to do much Service to the polite Part of Mankind.

A MODERN GLOSSARY.

ANGEL. The Name of a Woman, commonly of a very bad one.

AUTHOR. A laughing Stock. It means likewise a poor Fellow, and in general an Object of Contempt.

BEAR. A Country Gentleman; or, indeed, any Animal upon two Legs that doth not make a handsome Bow.

BEAUTY. The Qualification with which Women generally go into Keeping.

BEAU. With the Article A before it, means a great Favourite of all Women.

CAPTAIN.} Any Stick of Wood with a Head to it, and

COLONEL.} a Piece of black Ribband upon that Head.

CREATURE. A Quality Expression of low Contempt, properly confined only to the Mouths of Ladies who are Right Honourable.

CRITIC. Like Homo, a Name common to all human Race.

COXCOMB. A Word of Reproach, and yet, at the same Time, signifying all that is most commendable.

DAMNATION. A Term appropriated to the Theatre; though sometimes more largely applied to all Works of Invention.

DEATH. The final End of Man; as well of the thinking Part of the Body, as of all the other Parts.

DRESS. The principal Accomplishment of Men and Women.

DULNESS. A Word applied by all Writers to the Wit and Humour of others.

EATING. A Science.

FINE. An Adjective of a very peculiar Kind, destroying, or, at least, lessening the Force of the Substantive to which it is joined: As fine Gentlemen, Fine Lady, fine House, fine Cloaths, fine Taste; -- in all which fine is to be understood in a Sense somewhat synonymous with useless.

FOOL. A complex Idea, compounded of Poverty, Honesty, Piety, and Simplicity.

GALLANTRY. Fornication and Adultery.

GREAT. Applied to a Thing, signifies Bigness; when to a Man, often Littleness, or Meanness.

GOOD. A Word of as many different Senses as the Greek Word Ἒχω, or as the Latin Ago: for which Reason it is but little used by the Polite.

HAPPINESS. Grandeur.

HONOUR. Duelling.

HUMOUR. Scandalous Lies, Tumbling and Dancing on the Rope.

JUDGE }

JUSTICE} An old woman

KNAVE. The Name of four Cards in every Pack.

KNOWLEDGE. In general, means Knowledge of the Town; as this is, indeed, the only Kind of Knowledge ever spoken of in the polite World.

LEARNING. Pedantry.

LOVE. A Word properly applied to our Delight in particular Kinds of Food; sometimes metaphorically spoken of the favourite Objects of all our Appetites.

MARRIAGE. A Kind of Traffic carried on between the two Sexes, in which both are constantly endeavouring to cheat each other, and both are commonly Losers in the End.

MISCHIEF. Funn, Sport, or Pastime.

MODESTY. Aukwardness, Rusticity.

NO BODY. All the People in Great Britain, except about 1200.

NONSENSE. Philosophy, especially the Philosophical Writings of the Antients, and more especially of Aristotle.

OPPORTUNITY. The Season of Cuckoldom.

PATRIOT. A Candidate for a Place at Court.

PROMISE. Nothing.

RELIGION. A Word of no Meaning; but which serves as a Bugbear to frighten Children with.

RICHES. The only Thing upon Earth that is really valuable, or desirable.

ROGUE. }

RASCAL. } A Man of a different Party from yourself.

SERMON. A Sleeping-Dose.

SUNDAY. The best Time for playing at Cards.

SHOCKING. An Epithet which fine Ladies apply to almost every Thing. It is, indeed, an Interjection (if I may so call it) of Delicacy.

TEMPERANCE. Want of Spirit.

TASTE. The present Whim of the Town, whatever it be.

TEASING. Advice; chiefly that of a Husband.

VIRTUE. }

VICE. } Subjects of Discourse

WIT Prophaneness, Indecency, Immorality, Scurrility, Mimickry, Buffoonery. Abuse of all good Men, and especially of the Clergy.

WORTH. Power. Rank. Wealth.

WISDOM. The Art of acquiring all Three.

WORLD. Your own Acquaintance.

• * * *

JOURNAL of the WAR concluded.

THIS Morning, early, when every Man's Expectations were at the highests, of an immediate Battle

between the two Armies, on a sudden we were surprized with the News of a Peace, of which the following Articles were soon after made public.

Art. 1. That there shall henceforth be a firm Peace, Amity, and Concord, between Sir Alexander Drawcansir, Knt. Lord of &c. and their Lowness the Republic of Grub-Street.

Art. 2. That all Things shall remain in the Condition they were before the Commencement of the War; and that all Parties thereto shall sit down contented with their own Losses.

Art. 3. That Billingsgate shall be acknowledged for ever, to be a Fief of the low and unmighty Republic; and that Sir Alexander, and all the High Allies do renounce any Right, Title, or Claim to that Fief for ever.

Art. 4. Contains the Boundaries of Grub-Street, and those of Sir Alexander's Dominions, and is too long to be inserted here. The curious may consult the Treaty at large.

Art. 5. That all the Subjects of the contracting Powers shall have free Liberty to reside, and settle, if they please, in the Dominions of any of the said Powers, and shall have free Ingress, Egress, and Regress, without any Molestation, or Examination whatsoever.

Art. 6. That it shall be lawful for all the Subjects of the Low and Unmighty Republic to carry on a free and open Trade in the Dominions of Sir Alexander: Provided, however, that all Blasphemy, Profaneness, and Indecency, shall be accounted contraband Goods, and as such, be liable at all Times to be seized, and burnt; but that it shall be lawful for the Subjects of the said Republic to import their Dulness the usual; and that all the Booksellers of the said Republic, settled in the Dominions of Sir Alexander, shall have free Liberty, as usual, to vend the said Dulness, as if it was the lawful Property, and in the Name of the Subjects of the said Alexander.

Art. 7. That his Lowness the Prince of Billinsgate, and all his Liege People, shall have free Liberty to import every Kind of Scurrility, as heretofore, into the Dominions of Sir Alexander; but that the aforesaid Booksellers shall not vend the said Wares under the Name of Sir Alexander himself, or any of his Subjects. And to prevent this most effectually, as well as to secure to the said Low and Unmighty Republic the sole Property of all the Productions of its said Fief, it is hereby declared, agreed, and ratified, that all Kinds of Scurrility, personal Abuse, and other the known Wares of Billinsgate, shall henceforth be acknowledged to belong to, and to be the sole and undoubted Property of the Low Republic of Grub-Street aforesaid.

Art. 8. That it shall not be lawful for the said Sir Alexander, or any of his Subjects, or Allies, to publish and vend from henceforth, any more than one Paper of Entertainment and News, to be called and known by the Name of the Covent-Garden Journal. And that all other Papers, commonly called News Papers, shall be, and remain, to the said Low Republic, as the sole and entire Property of the said Low Republic, for ever.

Art. 9. That the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane, shall be , and remain to the said Sir Alexander for so long Time only as David Garrick and James Lacy, Esqs; the well-beloved Subjects of the said Sir Alexander, shall continue to supertend the said Theatre; and at the Expiration of the said Superintendency and Acting of the said David, the Right of the said Theatre shall again revert unto the Low Republic, to whom it had, of many Years belonged, when the said David and James first came to the Superintendency thereof. That as to the Theatre in Covent-Garden, it shall still remain in the same neutral State in which it hath continued from Time immemorial.

Art. 10. That the acting Subjects of the Low Republic shall be admitted to subaltern Parts on the Stage in Drury-Lane, and to capital Parts on the other Stage, and that the writing Subjects of the said Low Republic, shall be at all Times at Liberty to puff up, and commend, their acting Brethren.

Art. 11. That Sir Alexander Drawcansir may, when he pleases, erect one Court of Criticism, and preside in the same, as he and his Predecessors, Censors of this Realm, have of Right always done. And that all the Wares of the Low Republic, except the News Papers, may be tried and examined in the said Court; but that the Persons of all the Subjects of the said Republic, together with their moral, or rather immoral Characters, shall be exempted from the Jurisdiction of the said Court.

These are the most material Articles, there are some others of less Moment with which we may possibly acquaint our Readers hereafter.

On Saturday next in this Paper will be held a Court of Censorial Enquiry, of which all Persons concerned are required to take Notice.