[338] See Nos. [120], [122]. In the continuation of the Tatler which Swift and Harrison conducted (No. 28, March 24, 1710-11) there is this passage: "The person produced as mine in the playhouse, last winter, did in no wise appertain to me. It was such a one, however, as agreed well with the impression my writings had made, and served the purpose I intended it for: which was to continue the awe and reverence due to the character I was vested with, and at the same time to let my enemies see how much I was the delight and favourite of this town," &c.
[339] This letter, in ridicule of Harley's newly formed Ministry, has been attributed to the joint authorship of Anthony Henley (see No. [11]) and Temple Stanyan. Harley is supposed to be the gentleman referred to in the letter, and Downes, it has been suggested, is Thomas Osborne, first Duke of Leeds. Steele expressly disavowed responsibility for the letter from Downes the prompter. In No. 53 of the Guardian he wrote: "Old Downes is a fine piece of raillery, of which I wish I had been author. All I had to do in it, was to strike out what related to a gentlewoman about the Queen, whom I thought a woman free from ambition, and I did it out of regard to innocence." And in the Preface to the Tatler, he said that this letter was by an unknown correspondent. A writer in the Examiner (vol. iv. No. 2) mentions Old Downes among the sufferers of figure under our author's satire. The same writer, or another in the same paper, expresses himself in the following words: "Steele broke his own maxim for trifles in which his country had no manner of concern; and by entering into party disputes, violated the most solemn repeated promises and that perfect neutrality he had engaged to maintain. As a proof that I did not wrong him, he now openly takes upon himself Downes' letter, by wishing the raillery (as he calls it) were his own." In the "Essays Divine, Moral, and Political" (1714), p. 42, Swift is made to say, "I advised him [Steele] to the publishing that letter from Downes the prompter, which was the beginning of his ruin, though I here declare I did not write it." Forster ("Biographical Essays," 3rd ed.) concludes that this fictitious letter was certainly by Mainwaring himself. In the "Journal to Stella" (Oct. 22, 1710), Swift wrote: "He [Steele] has lost his place of Gazetteer, three hundred pounds a year, for writing a Tatler, some months ago, against Mr. Harley, who gave it him at first, and raised the salary from sixty to three hundred pounds." See also Swift's "The Importance of the Guardian considered."
[340] John Downes was prompter to "The Duke's Servants" until 1706. In 1708 he published his valuable "Roscius Anglicanus, or an Historical Review of the Stage."
[341] Christopher Rich, who began life as an attorney. See Nos. [12], 99.
[342] A farce by Nahum Tate, 1685.
[344] The theatre built by Betterton and his friends in 1695, in Portugal Row, Lincoln's Inn Fields, was pulled down and rebuilt by Christopher Rich in 1714. The Roman Catholic Church here referred to was in Duke (now Sardinia) Street, on the west side of the square.
END OF VOL. III.
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
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Transcriber's Notes:
Standardized Punctuation
Page 163: Changed confess, where to confess, were
Page 301: Changed Ho Nec to Ho Nee"