ornia <$"'r y Jl V .-.si o \ $ ^ X ' *&# - Short History of the late \lr I'eter . Inthony Mottcux a \'atwe of I ^rance whilom J >rainatist < hina Merchant and litctioneer who departed this life on tJie i8th of l-ebruary 1718 (old style] being then precisely fifty-eight years old tty Henri van Laun - / Privately Printed This short history of the late Peter Anthony Motteux is reprinted by the kind permission of Messrs. J. C. Nimmo and Bain, 0/14, King William Street, Strand, W.C.,for whom it was written as an introduction to their new edition of Motteux 's translation of Don Quixote, illustrated by sixteen beautiful etchings, made purposely for this work by the celebrated Spanish artist JR. de los Rios. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF PETER ANTHONY MOTTEUX. IT is an uncommon occurrence for a man to leave his native land at the age of twenty-five, settle in a foreign country, and after residing there for a few years, render himself so completely master of its language as to write in it comedies, operas, farces, epilogues, prologues, and poems, which are acknowledged to be as good as most of those which were written by the wits of the times in which he lived. Such a man was Peter Anthony Motteux, a native of France, born at Rouen, in Normandy, on the 18th of February, 1660, who was probably a sou of a merchant of that town, Antoine le Motteux ', and who, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, came over to England, where he lived at first with his godfather and relation, Paul Dominique, a merchant of considerable standing in the City, but afterwards is said to have become himself the head of a large East India warehouse in Leadeuhall 1 In Eugene and Ernile Haag La France Protestaitte, 1857, pt. 14, it is said " that in a list of refugees of Houen, made in IfJJio, are mentioned several children of a merchant named Antoine le Motteux, who left France at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes." We shall meet the names of some of the male children later on. 4 LIFE OF MOTTEUX. Street/- and also to have oceupied a good place iii the foreign department of the Post-office. 3 He acquired such an intimate knowledge of the English language, that in the year 1691, old style, he already edited a Monthly Miscellany, called The Gentleman's Journal, of which the first number appeared on the 1st of January. This Miscellany was con- tinued for three years, and consisted of " News, History, Philosophy, Poetry, Musick, Translations, &c.," all contained in " A Letter to A Gentleman in the Country." The first volume is dedicated to the Earl of Devonshire, " who so naturally recon- ciling greatness with affability, and the highest capacity with the nicest gallantry, must be ac- counted an exact pattern even to the most accom- plished, and a kind protector to the meanest Ad- dresser/' and contains a goodly number of verses written by Nahum Tate, Prior, Chs. Dryden, Sir Charles Sedley, Durfey, Tbs. Brown, Sergeant, John Dennis, and many others, as well as by the editor himself. It is astonishing that a Frenchman like M. Motteux, who had scarcely been six years in England, could write verses like the following, " which were sent on May-day with a Nosegay" 4 You that adorn'd the meadows where I rove, And lost in sorrows linger out my days, Go, beauteous flowers, go to the Nymph I love, Whilst banisli'd here her faithful lover stays. 2 Sir Walter Scott says in bis edition of The Works of John Dryden, vol. xi. p. 67, that Motteux was a bookseller. I have seen this nowhere mentioned, and venture to think that Sir Walter must have been mistaken. 3 A. Chalmers, The General Biographical Dictionary, 1815, vol. xxii. 4 The Gentleman's Journal, May, 1692, LIKE OF MOTTKUX. 5 Like you, she's blooming, gentle, gay, and sweet, Like you, from Nature she derives each grace ; And on her lovely cheeks yourselves you'll meet, For Rose and Lily never leave the place. Like Flora, where she comes she makes the Spring, Enamour'd Fauns and Shepherd round her move, The pretty birds with tuneful voices sing, And Zephyr in warm sighs declares his love. Go, haste, this day perhaps she may be kind ; Now Phcebus smiles, so may her radiant eyes. Gently (lest you displease) the Nymph remind Of an unhappy wretch who for her dies. You see, my love, my torments, and my cares, Describe 'em feelingly, and let her know You owe your birth to rny continual tears, And strive my languishment by yours to show. Tell her, her beauty soon like yours will fade-, Like yours, alas ! no more to bloom again. To bless our eyes alone you were not made, But to impart your sweets arid ease our pain. Die on that breast whose killing charms outdo Yours, and whate'er mistaken men admire : Whilst here in vain (not half so blest as you) I wish that at her feet I may expire. At the begiimiug of the second number there is an " Advertisement," in which it is said that " the Rigor of the Weather, and the Author's indisposi- tion, have kept back this journal a week at least, you may expect the next in the first week of every month duely. The Author . . . cannot insert such things as any ways reflect on particular Persons, or are either against Religion, or good manners." 6 LIFE OF MOTTEUX. And then, with a humour which can even now be understood, the "Advertisement" finishes as follows : " Such persons as have anything to com- municate, may be pleas'd to send it at the Black- boy Coffeehouse in Ave Mary Lane, not forgetting to discharge the postage." Each number of the first volume of this Mis- cellany has about from twenty-six to thirty-six pages, one or more songs with the music, and was probably sold for a shilling. Some of the tales and verses appear rather tainted with the spirit of the age, and very few of the poetical riddles and fables could even be quoted at the present time. But the short account of the foreign political and literary news is very fairly compiled, and was most likely written by M. Motteux himself. The second volume of the Miscellany consists of four hundred and twenty-eight pages, and is divided in monthly parts, and paginated all through ; it has for its device a hand holding a bunch of flowers, with the Latin motto, "E pluribus unum." It is dedicated to Charles Montague, one of the Lords Commissioners of their Majesties Treasury, and the dedication ends in the following words : "As I cannot imagine any good quality that is requisite to the accomplishment of a gentleman which is not already conspicuous in you, beyond the power of my expressing, I must content myself to join with the rest of your admirers, and beg to subscribe myself, sir, your most humble and most obedient servant, Peter Motteux." This volume, as well as the third, which has only two hundred and fifty- LIFE OF MOTTKUX. 7 eiglit pages, is inferior to the first, and even broader in the tendency of many of its inserted pieces. In the last number of the second volume there is a very free paraphrase of Ovid's fifth elegy of the first book. In the year 1693, our author published in London, at R. Bentley's, a parody, in French, on Boileau's Ode on the Taking of Numur by Louis XIV., in 1692, which shows that he had not yet forgotten his own language. Whenever the French satirist praises Louis XIV., M. Motteux lauds William of Orange, or ridicules the French King. For example, Boileau begins : Quelle douce et sainte ivresse Aujourd'hui me fait la loi, Chastes Nyraphes du Pernesse N'est-ce pas vous quo je vo si ? Accourez, troupe savante, Des sons que ma lyre enfante Ces arbres sont rejouis, Marquez en bien la cadence ; Et vous, vents, faites silence : Je vais parler de Louis. and M. Motteux writes : Grand Druide, quclle ivresse A ta muse fait la loi ? Quel avorton du Permesse, Quelle Ode est-ce que je vois ? Cette Montagne savante De la souris qu'elle enfante Va rSgaler nos coteaux ; Boileau marque la cadence ; Vieux Gaulois, faites silence, Je vais parler en Despre aux. 8 LIFE OF MOTTEUX. Aud when Boileau, in another couplet, says of the French King : N'en doute point, c'est Lui-meme, Tout brille en lui, tout est Roi, Dans Bruxelles Nassau bleme Commence a trembler pour toi. (Namur) En vain il voit le Batave, Desormais docile esclave, Range sous ses etendards. En vain au lion Belgique 11 voit 1'aigle Germanique Uni sous les Leopards. M. Motteux parodies this stanza as follows : C'est Guillaume, c'est lui-meme ; Tout brille en lui, tout est Roi ; Dans Versailles Louis bleme Commence a trembler pour toi. II craint de voir le Batave, Au Francais docile esclave, Arracher les etendards ; II craint le lion Belgique, II craint 1'aigle Germanique, Mais surtout les Leopards. In the year 1694 Motteux edited Sir Thomas Urquhart's translation of Rabelais' Heroic Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and Pantagruel, and dedicated this edition to Admiral Russell, after- wards Earl of Orford. He also wrote a preface to Urquhart's translation, which has become a classical introduction to this author, even in his own native country, France. Nahum Tate, Pittis, Oldys, Drake, and Motteux printed some verses in praise of Rabe- lais, after the preface, of which those of the editor have certainly a strong Pantagruelistic flavour. M. Motteux published, the following year, a translation from the French of An Account of LIFE 01' AlOLTKVX. 9 Marocco, written by M. Piolindc Saint Olon, who was French ambassador in that country iu 1693. Accord- ing to the dedication to SirWm. Trumball,one of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, the author seems at that time not to have been very wealthy, for he speaks of Sir William's "obliging goodness, singular humanity, or rather charity, which, as it extends to many of our unhappy Refugees, has made me (him) a sharer in the effects of your (his) bounty " Mary, the daughter of James II., and the wife of William III, died oil the 28th of December, 1694, and was buried on the 5th of March of the follow- ing year. Motteux came out that year with a poem, called Maria, occasioned by the death of Her Majesty, and addressed to three persons of honour. This poem has the usual number of loyal lamentations, and begins, of course, as follows : Weep, Britons, ease your pangs of grief; Your breasts, o'erswoln with unborn sighs, Now heave and labour for relief; The melting vapours claim a passagethrough your eyes. He manages to praise " Noble Montague/' the Marquess of Normandy, and the ' 'immortal Dorset," and imitates and paraphrases the fourteenth Ode of Horace, of which we give the beginning : Vain is our hope, and vain our strife, To stem the rapid stream of life ; None can that Flux of Moments, Time, control ; Driv'n down the boisterous Torrent all Impetuously we roll ; Into that boundless Ocean sure to fall Where, as Time ends, Eternity begins, And man is ever lost, or endless pleasure wins. 10 LIFE OF MOTTEUX. There are a few smart, epigrammatic sayings in this monody, for Motteux cannot long put on a mourning countenance. He remarks, for example: The King still courted, while the Husband swayed, The Queen commanded, and the wife obeyed. Her Royal hands, above debasing pride, Could wield a sceptre, yet a needle guide. And a little further on he writes : By her example Industry was blest, E'en City Matrons darling Sloth disclaim, And sleeping Deans awake at Great Maria's name. But his flattery is as fulsome as that with which Louis XIX. was bespattered, and if the taciturn Dutchman ever read Motteux's lines, he must have grimly smiled in being addressed as " godlike Wil- liam," and in being called " dauntless like a god." The same year, Motteux, Nahum Tate, Richard- son, and other literary men, wrote some verses before a skit, The History of the Athenian Society fur the resolving all nice and curious questions, in which the real Society of that name was ridiculed by Charles Gildou, under the name of " a gentleman, who got secret intelligence of their whole proceed- ings." M. Motteux also added a Latin translation of his own English verses. The Athenian Society was an association of wits, established in 1690-1691, by John Dunton, an author and bookseller, to answer curious queries in divinity, physic, law, philosophy, poetry, mathematics, trade, &c.; review all publications, and insert all interesting experi- ments in their weekly paper, the Athenian Mercury, which extended to twenty volumes, and which gave rise to a great deal of ridicule. In 1691, Swift, who was then living at Sir William Temple's place, LIKE OK MOTTKUX. 11 Moor Park, addressed in sober earnest to the Society a very dull ode, which, according to Dr. Johnson, was the cause of SwifVs malevolence to Dryden, because the latter, on perusing these verses, is credited with having said, " Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet." In 1696, was acted at the Theatre, Lincoln's Inn Fields, a comedy, in five acts, called Love's a Jest, by Motteux, aud his first attempt to write for the stage. This play, dedicated to Charles, Lord Clifford, of Lanesborough, in the usual fulsome style of that time, Avas printed with a Preface, admitting its great success, and in which the audience is thanked for its indulgence to a stranger. The author states frankly that he " would borrow from his own countrymen, but Moliere, and most of 'em have been so gleaned, that there's scarce anything left," and that he has " far'd better among the Italians, for he must own himself in- debted to 'em for the hint of the two last scenes, where Love is made in Jest, and also for some speeches and thoughts here and there." He also says that he will freely use, and as freely acknowledge, whatever he takes from foreign plays; admits that Th. Shad- well is right when, in his Preface to The Miser, he states that English dramatists borrow from foreigners out of laziness, and not out of poverty of wit, 5 and ends his Preface as follows : 5 Shadwell, whose Miser was acted in 1671, says more than this in the Prologue : French plays in which true wit 's as rarely found, As mines of silver are on English ground .... For our good-natured nation thinks it fit To count French toys good wares ; French nonsense, wit. 12 LIFE OF MOTTEUX. " Nor will I value the base and notoriously false insinuations of envious impotent Poetasters, and, least of all, those of a pitiful, conceited, noisy, scribling, would-be quack, below naming ; one whose wretched riddles, songs, &c., were denied a place in my late Miscellanies, though, like other things of his, recommended by himself, as if written by a lady. Such an insiduous traducer is well coupled with an idle, sharping, dialogue-monger, whose zany he is ; like him, so base as to detract in the most bar- barous manner, from those who never wrong'd him, and so cowardly as to deny it. But they might as well charge those of ruining themselves by marriage, who have not yet committed that folly, as of ruining a bookseller by books, by which he owns he was a gainer. Had I but room I would stigmatise that brace of libellers ; for, how despicable soever such scoundrels may be, they are to be feared as well as hated ; for what is more to be hated than a professed liar, or more to be feared than a public slanderer." These are " brave words," as Fluellen says, but they certainly do not seem to be written by a Frenchman. The names of the two gentlemen whom Motteux so fiercely attacks, will now hardly be discovered, and perhaps it is as well that they should remain in oblivion, if only half of what the irate dramatist says, is true. The author's sneer at marriage appears to prove that he was still a bachelor, though this is no conclusive evidence, for in nearly all his works, as well as in most of those which were written about that time, marriage is attacked in coarse and obscene language. The prologue to Love's a Jest describes more LIFE OF MOTTKUX. 13 energetically than elegantly the crowd on the road to Epsom, and ends with the folloAving lines : At the least hiss you'd swear his (the author's) soul were fled, But a sound clap can raise him from the dead ; He's cock-a-hoop, and scarce can talk to you, E'gad, he cries, I knew the play would do. But if another hiss his ears but reaches, Down sinks at once his heart into his breeches. Yet scorns our writer threatening foes to fear ; The generous Britons will a stranger spare ; Thus low the Frenchman bows then learns of you to dare. His satire bites but like a lover's kiss, And none of you, he's sure, can take 't amiss. The " stranger " can at least write well enough to please the " generous Britons," and in the epilogue spoken by Mr. Mynns, as one of Gipsies, and in which the fortunes of the audience are told in language which cannot even be quoted, he claims the applause of the ladies because he " spared your (their) blushes here to-day.'' The ladies of that time must have laid on their paint very thickly, so that their blushes could not be seen ; but, in any case, the dramatist has not spared them as lie pre- tends to have done. The intrigue of the comedy turns chiefly upon the permission given to Lord Lovewell to marry Miss Francelia Gaymood, a per- mission which is afterwards withdrawn by her father, Sir Thomas, because Squire Illbred offers to take her without any dowry. There is an under- plot in which Frankly, the lover of Miss Kitty, a sister of Lady Single, dresses himself as a chamber- maid, to get admission into the house, and is made love to by young Gaymood, a character which is 14 LIFE OF MOTTEUX. very well drawn, though not better than that of his friend Railmore. The last scene of the fourth act in which Railmore persuades Lady Single to love, is cleverly written. Squire Illbred marries Frankly, whom he believes to be a woman, but in the end everything comes right, and all the lovers marry their beloved fair. The song of the smith and his wife in the first act, and of the girl and boy in the last, are filthy in the extreme. In 1696, Namur was retaken from the French by William III., and Motteux, to show his loyalty, wrote the words of a short cantata, sung at a musical entertainment at the theatre, Lincoln's Inn Fields, which has very little merit, but in which he gives vent to his feelings by saying : Haste, Loyal Britons, haste, prepare ; William, Victorious William comes, Sound, sound ye trumpets, beat ye drums; A martial sound best greets a martial ear. Haste, loyal Britons, haste prepare ; William, victorious William comes. In the following year, Motteux wrote The Loves of Mars and Venus, a musical piece in three acts, which was represented with Ravenscroft's Anatomist, or the Sham Doctor, to which he also added two pro- logues and an epilogue. Each of its acts concludes with an act of Motteux's Masque, supposed to be exhibited for the amusement of the characters in the Anatomist, and which relates to the well-known history of Vulcan, Venus, and Mars. It has not much to recommend itself but the music and a few songs, which are rather too sprightly to be quoted. We give, as a sample, the song of Vulcan and the LIFE OK MOTTKUX. chorus of Cyclops striking the anvil, to he found in the second act of the play. Come, away ; strike and sing, Ting, ting, ting, terry terre, terry ting, &c. Let us make the caves ring. Ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting While we forge thunderbolts for Heaven's King Ting, ting, ting. Steropes, one of the Cyclops, holding a. red-hot holt, This he'll fling, ting, ting, ting, At cowards at sieges, and atheists at prayers : At a husband, who by his wife's chastity swears. Chorus of Cyclops. This he'll fling ting, ting, ting. At promising courtiers, and fools that believe 'em ; At poor rogues that give bribes and rich rogues that This he'll fling, &c. [receive 'em ; At a weathercock priest who ne'er thinks as he teaches. At a Cit in his Buff with his heart in his breeches. This he'll fling, &c. At beaux who protest they of favours ne'er boast, Yet drink the fair's health ev'ry night with a toast. This he'll fling, , second edition, Thomas Frankland, a Yorkshire squire of good estate, was appointed Postmaster-General in 1690, and later on was made a baronet by Queen Anne. In 1696, Sir Robert Cotton was named joint Postmaster; but "why two chiefs were appointed instead of one is not clear." VOL. I. D OZ LIFE OF MOTTEUX. considered valuable even in the native land of the original author. In 1712 M. Motteux published A Poem in Praise of Tea, from which it appears that he was a confirmed teetotaller, and even abjured coffee, for he says : "Tis vain in wine to seek a solid joy, All fierce enjoyments soon themselves destroy, Wine fires the fancy to a dangerous height, With smoky flame and with a cloudy light. From boisterous wine I fled to gentle tea ; For calms compose us after storms at sea. In vain would coffee boast an equal good ; The crystal stream transcends the flowing mud, Tea even the ills from coffee sprung repairs, Disclaims its vices, and its virtue shares. He sees, in a vision, the gods of Olympus, after dinner, when " Bacchus boisterous grew," take their cup of tea, prepared by fair Hebe. This poem continues the even tenor of its way, in its attacks on the juice of the grape, and in its praises of its favourite beverage, for Wine proves most fatal when it most invites, Tea is most healthful when it most delights. .... Healing tea, the only liquid gold ! Improved by age, see how it age improves, And adds new pleasure and old pain removes. What greater good from tea can mortals reap ? It lengthens life, while thus it shortens sleep. Of course King William is brought in, for " Tea promotes what William recommends," which may be "improvement of commerce," or, perhaps, "teeto- talism." The name of King William was to M. Motteux what the head of Charles the First was to Uncle Dick it could not be kept out of his writings. The Dutch hero died on the 8th of March, LIFE OF MOTTEUX. 33 1702, and it is difficult to see why he should have been dragged iu some rhymes written iu praise of tea, and published ten years later. The poem ends with the following odd alliterative connection between wine and war : Immortals, hear, said Jove, and cease to jar ! Tea must succeed to wine, as peace to war ; Nor by the grape let men be set at odds, But share, in tea, the nectar of the gods. Did M. Motteux practise what he preached in those hard-drinking days in which he was living, and did he refuse to be solaced by "the cup that cheers and does inebriate ?" According to Lowndes, The Bibliographer's Manual, Motteux also assisted in the translation of Bayle's Dictionary and Montaigne's Essays, but I can find no proofs that he ever did so. He wrote, however, several epilogues and pro- logues to plays of his friends, which seem to be aU tainted with the peculiar coarseness of the times. I imagine that the epilogue to Sir John Vanbrugh's Mistake, a free imitation of Moliere's DepitAmoureux, and which was acted in 1706, is about the broadest. M. Motteux is also said to have writ; en a farce called Love Dragooned, but it seems never to have been printed or played. His last work was sent forth a year after his death. In 1719 the Reverend John Harris pub- lished a History of Kent, in a large folio, profusely illustrated, of which only the first volume has ap- peared. In the list of subscribers I find the name of Peter Motteux, of Leadenhall Street. The book is dedicated to the King, and after the dedication 34 LIFE OF MOTTEUX. comes an "Ode in Praise of Kent, part of which was formerly sung at a feast of the gentlemen of that county, which/' says the reverend historian, " I inserted because I promised it to the late M. Motteux." This ode has very little poetical merit. What connection M. Motteux ever had with Kent is now almost impossible to say, unless his wife Priscilla 17 belonged to that county, and this is only a mere supposition. We have, as yet, hardly spoken of our author's private life or of his domestic relations. There is, indeed, very little known of either the one or the other, for no account has ever been given of them, even by men who knew him well. The notices of his career to be found in biographical dictionaries are very scanty, and consist of hardly a dozen lines. All say that he was a rich East- India merchant in Leadenhall Street, was con- nected with the foreign department of the Post- Office. had a wife, and was of licentious habits, and died a very peculiar death ; and then they give an incomplete list of his works, and pass on to the biography of another gentleman, whose name comes next in alphabetical order. We will attempt to elucidate M. Motteux's career a little more, even with the very meagre records which exist. M. Motteux came to England in 1685, when he was already twenty-five years old. He seems hardly to have frequented any of his fellow-refugees, or visited 17 That his wife was named Priscilla, is mentioned in the register of St. Andrew Undershaft, for the year 1705, where Motteux's son, Anthony, was christened. LIFE OF MOTTEUX. 35 their favourite place of meeting, the Rainbow Coffee- house in Marylebone, but only to have made friends with Englishmen. According to a remark I made about the Preface of his first comedy, Love's a Jest, acted in 1696, he was then single, but we may take it for granted that he saw the error of his ways, and married a few years after- wards, for on the third of October, 1705, was christened, in the church of St. Andrew Under- shaft, St. Mary Axe, a son of his, who was called Anthony after his father or grandfather; and on the 13th of April, 1710, another son, who received the name of Francis. Peter Motteux seems to have had several brothers, for in the list of the directors of the French Hospital in London, we find, in 1729, the name of John Motteux, who is probably the same as the " eminent Hamburgh merchant," who died in 1741, 18 whilst in the registers of the afore-mentioned church are inscribed, between the years 1713 and 1718, the christenings of four sons and two daughters, and the deaths of two boys, all children of a certain Timothy Motteux and Jane his wife, and which Timothy was most likely a younger brother of the author. A certain Mr. Peter Motteux was married in March, 1750, to a Miss West, of Bishopsgate Street, 19 whilst Mr. Arthur Motteux, a director of the French Hospital in London, in 1759, was probably a son or nephew of old Peter Motteux ; and another, John Motteux, also a director of that hospital, in 1763, was certainly a descendant of the same stock. The name is not so common 18 The Gentleman's Magazine, December, 1741. 19 The Gentleman's Magazine, March, 1750. 36 LIFE OF MOTTEUX. in England as Brown, Jones, Smith, or Robinson, and is not not to be found in any of the Post- Office Directories for this year (1880). But the family seems to have been in existence about sixty years ago, for a Mr. John Motteux is mentioned as residing in 1819 at his seat, Beacham Wells, in the county of Norfolk. - As for the easy circumstances of Mr. Peter An- thony Motteux, I suspect that he was not so well off as it is generally supposed, and that he was not even comparatively independent until the year 1708. His dedications, as we have already noticed with the exception of the one to Thomas Frank- land are as fawning as those of the ordinary Grub Street scribblers of the day ; and that he was considered poor by the general public, as late as the year 1703, is proved by The Dialogue between Motteux and his Patron Heveningham, which we have mentioned, and in which M. Motteux is found haggling about a few guineas, the price of a dedication. It may be argued that this Dialogue is a satire, but no one will, even ironically, repre- sent a wealthy author who is not a miser, as quarrelling about the price of a dedication. The following epistolary puff, printed in the Spectator, No. 288, January 30th, 1711-12, though written in a humorous way, as from a tradesman recommend- ing his wares, seems also not to have been indited by a well-to-do merchant. SIB, Since so many dealers turn authors, and write quaint advertisements in praise of their wares, one, who 20 Excursions in the County of Norfolk, vol. ii. 1819. LIKE OF MOTTEUX. 37 from an author turned dealer, may be allowed, for the advancement of trade, to turn author again. I will not, however, set up, like some of them, for selling cheaper than the most able honest tradesman can ; nor do I send this to be better known for choice and cheapness of China and Japan wares, tea, fans, muslins, pictures, arrack, and other Indian goods. Placed as I am, in Leadenhall Street, near the India Company, and the centre of that trade, thanks to my fair customers, my warehouse is graced as well as the benefit days of my plays and operas; and the foreign goods I sell are no less acceptable than the foreign books I translated Rabelais and Don Quixote. This the critics allow me, and, while they like my wares they may dispraise my writing. But as it is not so well known yet that I frequently cross the seas of late, and speak in Dutch and French, besides other languages, I have the conveniency of buying and importing rich brocades and Dutch atlases, with gold and silver or without, and other foreign silks of the newest modes and best fabrics, fine Flanders lace, linen, and pictures, at the best hand ; this my new way of trade I have fallen into I cannot better publish than by an application to you. My wares are fit only for such as your readers ; and I would beg of you to print this address in your paper, that those whose minds you adorn may take the ornaments for their persons and houses from me. This, sir, if I may presume to beg it, will be the greater favour, as I have lately received rich silks and fine lace to a considerable value, which will be sold cheap for a quick return, and as I have also a large stock of other goods. Indian silks were formerly a great branch of our trade ; and since we must not sell them we must seek amends by dealing in others. This, I hope, will plead for one who would lessen the number of teasers of the Muses, and who, suiting his spirit to his circumstances, humbles the poet to exalt the citizen. Like a true tradesman I hardly ever look into any books but those of accounts. To say the truth, I cannot, I think, give you a better idea of my being a downright man of traffic than by acknowledging I oftener read the advertisements than the matter of even 38 LIFE OF MOTTEUX. your paper. I am under a very great temptation to take this opportunity of admonishing other writers to follow my example, and trouble the town no more ; but, as it is my present business to increase the number of buyers rather than sellers, I hasten to tell you that I am, sir, Your most humble and most obedient servant, PETER MOTTEUX. There exists another letter of Motteux's, 21 written in a bold and firm hand, dated as late as the 26th of May, 1714, and addressed to the "Honoured . . . Does " [here the handwriting is torn off] " at his house in Bloomsbury." The letter is as follows : "SiR, The pictures in the enclosed catalogue being right originals and to be sold fairly, as was my former sale a year ago, will, I hope, plead an excuse for my presump- tion, in which I have been encouraged the rather as it gives me this opportunity to let you know that I have Joseph Scaliger's picture from the life, which is not in this collection, but at my house in Leadenhall Street, and will not be dear. I am, with deep respect, sir, u Your most humble and most obedient servant, " P. MOTTEUX." I may be wrong, but I imagine that the tone of this letter is not that of a wealthy man. M. Motteux either sells his own pictures two years in succession, or acts as an auctioneer or agent for others. There cannot be the least doubt that Motteux was an auctioneer, for after his death the 21 Manuscript Department, British Museum. Lll'E OF MOTTEUX. 39 following advertisement appeared in the daily papers : " The late M. Motteux's collection of valuable pictures will, in a few days, be sold by auction, for the benefit of his widow and children, at his auction-room over the little Piazza in Covent Garden, whereof more particular notice will be published." 2 This advertisement does uot sound like the notice of the sale of the effects of a man who has died rich ; besides, in the same papers are several advertisements of the sales of other collections of books, pictures, wines, &c., which are quite differently worded. I am afraid that it cannot now be discovered what posi- tion M. Motteux held in the Post Office, for there are no records older than 1797 ;' 3 but, in any case, he cannot have been very well paid, for the Controller of the Foreign Department of the Post Office, under Sir R. Cotton and Ths. Frankland, had only a salary of 150 a year, whilst the Alphabet-keeper had 100, and six clerks each X50 a year.- 4 And now we approach the most extraordinary part in the career of this literary tradesman, namely, his death. And here we shall let the semi-official documents speak. The following ad- vertisement appeared in the papers of that time r* " Whereas, on Tuesday the 18th of February last, a 22 The Daily Courant, February 25, 27, 2B, and March 3, 1718. 23 Sir Francis Freeling (1764-1836) who became surveyor in the General Post-Office in 1787, ordered every record of earlier date to be sent away and destroyed ; an act of literary vandalism for which, I trust, Sir Francis got his reward. 24 W. Lewins, Her Majesty's Mails, 1865, second edition. 25 The Daily Courant, March, 20, 21, 22, 25, 1718. 40 LIFE OF MOTTEUX. gentleman in a scarlet cloak, with a sword, in company with another person, was carried to White's Chocolate House, St. James's, where the coach waited from about 9 o'clock to near 11, and then carried him and the other person, and let them down at Star Court, in the Butcher Eow, oehind St. Clement Dane's Church, 26 and the gentleman being found dead the next morning in a house in that court, and it being violently suspected that he was mur- dered there, the coachman is earnestly desired forthwith to come to Mrs. Motteux, at the ' Two Fans,' in Leaden- hall Street, to give an account what condition the gentleman was in when he set him down. Every master coachman is desired to examine his driver that day, for the better finding out the person who drove the coach. And if the master shall bring his servant to Mrs. Motteux, shall have 4 guineas, and his servant 6, and if the person who drove the coach conies alone, he shall have 10 guineas reward and his charges ; he shall come into no trouble, but may very much contribute, by his evidence, to dis- cover this supposed murderer." This advertisement of the widow states distinctly where her husband died. It was inserted, because on " Monday last (the 3rd of March) 27 the Coroner's inquest sat again upon the body of M. Motteux, the China man, [merchant] who was found dead at a house of ill-fame [the original notice has a stronger word] in Star Court, behind St. Clement's Church ; but the coachman that 26 About half a century has elapsed since a clearance was made .... of Butcher Row, a street of tenements between the back of St. Clement's and Ship Yard, in the Strand, and named from the butchers' shambles there. The houses here were mostly built in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and chiefly of wood and plaster, with overhanging stories. They were wretched fabrics, the receptacles of filth in every corner, the bane of old London, and a sort of nestling- place for the plague. The ceilings of these houses were low, with large un wrought beams, and lighted by small casement- windows. The cant name of the place among coachmen in the days of the Spectator, was ' the Pass,' or 'The Straits of St. Clements. 1 '' John Tiinbs' London and Westminster, vol. i. 1868. 2 ? The W eddy Journal Saturday's Post, March 8. 1719. LIFE OF MOTTEUX. 41 carried him being not found (;is was reported), they deferred giving their verdict to that day month. The old woman who kept the house [I change here, again, a word] and her daughter, with two or three of her doxies, were com- mitted to Newgate, there being strong circumstances to believe that they murdered him." But a fortnight passed and no coachman made his appearance. Then official notices were put in the London Gazette'* and the Original IVeekly Journal stating that " Her Majesty has been pleased to promise her most gracious pardon to any person concerned in the suspected murder of M. Motteux, except him or her by whose hands the murder was committed, and a reward of 50 to any person who makes a discovery of the murderers." And this same Weekly Journal, perhaps at the moment of going to press, states, a page further on, that the hackney-coachman who carried M. Motteux to the house in Star Court has been discovered, is in custody, and will give evidence about the murder. 3 " We now approach the end. The coachman has given his evidence. The supposed criminals arc discovered and brought to justice. This is what one of the papers says : 31 "Five persons were tried for the murder of M. Motteux. It appeared that M. Motteux, 011 his way to White's 28 March 22, 29, April 5, 1718. 29 March 22, 1718. 30 That murder and injury were then not uncommon in London is proved by the fact that on the same page of the Joui-nul an account is given of a woman being found murdered in Hyde Park, with seven or eight wounds about her, " and the surgeons are of opinion that she was ravished." 31 The Original Weekly Journal, April 26 May 3, 17 IS. 42 LIFE OP MOTTEUX. Chocolate House, picked up Mary Roberts, one of them, and carried her thither and staid two hours, leaving her in the coach; and she sending for him, he went in the same coach with her to Star Court, where it appeared he went in and was seen to kiss the said Roberts in the kitchen, and then was lighted with her up the stairs, the others being present. At one of the clock a surgeon was sent for, and told a gentleman was at this .... house, and dead in a fit, who coming to view the body found he had been strangled, as appeared by others coming after- wards. The prisoners alleged he died in a fit, but several marks abouthis neck and breast were found to be occa- sioned by violence. One of the witnesses living at the next door, with several others, proved the house to be a common disorderly house, where several tumults and dis- orders are committed, and all the evidence agree that he went out in health, and was seen to be well in the house till he went up-stairs, which the prisoners denied, pre- tending he was ill and was helped out of the coach and placed in a chair, and afterwards removed up-stairs. The jury brought them in ' Not Guilty.' " Another Journal of the same date 32 contradicts this statement by merely saying that the Grand Jury at Westminster found bills of indictment against five persons in Newgate, four females and a foot-soldier, for the murder of M. Motteux, the China man in Leadenhall Street, and states that these five persons were tried at the Old Bailey, that the soldier was acquitted, but a special verdict brought against the four women. I imagine that the first statement is the cor- rect one, for nothing more was heard of the trial, nor can anything about it be found in the news- papers or in the legal reports of that time. It is 32 The Weekly Journal, April 26; May 13, 1718. LIFE 01 MOTTEUX. 43 just possible that the trial may have been conducted in private. 33 Thus died, on his 58th birthday, Peter Anthony Motteux, who was buried in the chureh of St. Andrew IJndershaft, at the corner of Coruhill and St. Mary Axe, on the 22nd of February, 1718, and who wrote wittily and fluently, but might have led a better life, and, above all, have died under more favourable circumstances. HENRI VAN LAUN. 33 At the end of the third volume of Duchat's French edition of Rabelais, Amsterdam, 1741, is given a modified translation of Mottenx's Preface and Notes to that author. This translation is preceded by a short life of Mr. Motteux, which contains the following poetical epigram, alluding to his death : Ci-git, qui par pure impuissaiice, Faisant un trop puissant effort, Mourut le jour de sa naissance, En serraut son col par trop fort. 3 197000741 1447 OCT201S85 Univer S'ty of California FAC.u ITV Date: Thu, 3 May 90 11:54 PDT To: ECL4BAT Subject: SRLF PAGING REQUEST Deliver to Shelving # UCI ILL A 000 638 248 5 Item Information Van Laun, Henri, 1820-1896 A short history of the late Mr. Item ORION # : 0091690SR Requester Information Unit : UCI ILL Terminal :UCI ILL User Information Name rogouii michael Lib card Phone Address 3^ / graduate 2300 fairview rd. #61O5 A 000 638 248 5