[No. 51]Saturday, April 28, 1711Steele

Torquet ab Obscenis jam nunc Sermonibus Aurem.
Hor.

Mr. Spectator,
'My Fortune, Quality, and Person are such as render me as Conspicuous as any Young Woman in Town. It is in my Power to enjoy it in all its Vanities, but I have, from a very careful Education, contracted a great Aversion to the forward Air and Fashion which is practised in all Publick Places and Assemblies. I attribute this very much to the Stile and Manners of our Plays: I was last Night at the Funeral, where a Confident Lover in the Play, speaking of his Mistress, cries out:

[Oh] that Harriot! to fold these Arms about the Waste of that Beauteous strugling, and at last yielding Fair![1]

Such an Image as this ought, by no means, to be presented to a Chaste and Regular Audience. I expect your Opinion of this Sentence, and recommend to your Consideration, as a Spectator, the conduct of the Stage at present with Relation to Chastity and Modesty.
I am, Sir,
Your Constant Reader
and Well-wisher.

[Oh] that Harriot! to fold these Arms about the Waste of that Beauteous strugling, and at last yielding Fair![1]

[The]

Complaint of this Young Lady is so just, that the Offence is

great

[2]

enough to have displeased Persons who cannot pretend to that Delicacy and Modesty, of which she is Mistress. But there is a great deal to be said in Behalf of an Author: If the Audience would but consider the Difficulty of keeping up a sprightly Dialogue for five Acts together, they would allow a Writer, when he wants Wit, and can't please any otherwise, to help it out with a little Smuttiness. I will answer for the Poets, that no one ever writ Bawdy for any other Reason but Dearth of Invention.

[When]