Prodiga non fentit pereuntem fæmina cenfum : Non unquam reputat quanti fibi gaudia conflent. Juv. Mr. SPECTATOR, I Am turned of my great Climacteric, and am naturally a Man of a meek Temper. About a dozen Years ago I was married, for my Sins, to a young • Woman of a good Family, and of an high Spirit; but ⚫ could not bring her to clofe with me, before I had entered into a Treaty with her longer than that of the • Grand Alliance. Among other Articles, it was therein ftipulated, that the fhould have 400 l. a Year for Pin-money, which I obliged myfelf to pay Quarterly ⚫ into the Hands of one who acted as her Plenipotentiary in that Affair. I have ever fince religioufly obferved my Part in this folemn Agreement. Now, Sir, fo it is, that the Lady has had feveral Children fince I ⚫ married her; to which, if I fhould credit our malicious Neighbours, her Pin-money has not a little contributed. The Education of these my Children, who, contrary to my Expectation, are born to me every Year, ftrengthens me fo much, that I have begged their Mother to free me from the Obligation of the above-mentioned Pin-money, that it may go towards making a Provision for her Family. This Propofal makes her • noble Blood fwell in her Veins, infomuch that finding me a little tardy in her last Quarter's Payment, fhe threatens me every Day to arreft me; and proceeds fo far as to tell me, that if I do not do her Juftice, I fhall die in a Jail. To this fhe adds, when her Paffion will let her argue calmly, that fhe has feveral Play-Debts on her Hand, which must be difcharged very fuddenly, and that fhe cannot lofe her Money as becomes a Woman of her Fashion, if the makes me any Abate . 6 ments 'ments in this Article. I hope, Sir, you will take an Occafion from hence to give your Opinion upon a Sub'ject which you have not yet touched, and inform us • if there are any Precedents for this Ufage among our • Ancestors ; or whether you find any mention of Pin-money inGrotius, Puffendorf, or any other of the Civilians. I am ever the humbleft of your Admirers, Jofiah Fribble, Efq; As there is no Man living who is a more professed Advocate for the Fair Sex than myself, fo there is none that would be more unwilling to invade any of their ancient Rights and Privileges: but as the Doctrine of Pin-money is of a very late Date, unknown to our Great Grandmothers, and not yet received by many of our Modern Ladies, I think it is for the Interest of both Sexes to keep it from spreading. MR. FRIBBLE may not, perhaps, be much mistaken where he intimates, that the supplying a Man's Wife with Pin-money, is furnishing her with Arms against himfelf, and in a manner becoming acceffary to his own Difhonour. We may, indeed, generally observe, that in proportion as a Woman is more or lefs Beautiful, and her Husband advanced in Years, she stands in need of a greater or lefs number of Pins, and upon a Treaty of Marriage, rifes or falls in her Demands accordingly. It muft likewise be owned, that high Quality in a Miftrefs does very much inflame this Article in the Marriage Reckoning. BUT where the Age and Circumstances of both Parties are pretty much upon a level, I cannot but think the infifting upon Pin-money is very extraordinary ; and yet we find feveral Matches broken off upon this very Head. What would a Foreigner, or one who is a Stranger to this Practice, think of a Lover that forfakes his Mistress, because he is not willing to keep her in Pins; but what would he think of the Mistress, should he be informed that she asks five or fix hundred Pounds a Year for this Use ? Should a Man unacquainted with our Cuftoms be told the Sums which are allowed in Great-Britain under the Title of Pin-money, what a prodigious Confumption of Pins would he think there was in this Ifland? A Pin a Day, fays our frugal Proverb, is a Great a Year; lo H 2 A " that that according to this Calculation, my Friend Fribble's Wife must every Year make use of Eight millions fix hundred and forty thousand new Pins. I am not ignorant that our British Ladies alledge they comprehend under this general Term feveral other Conveniencies of Life; I could therefore wifh, for the Ho nour of my Country-women, that they had rather called it Needle-money, which might have implied fomething of Good-house-wifry, and not have given the malicious World occafion to think, that Drefs and Trifle have always the uppermoft Place in a Woman's Thoughts. I know feveral of my fair Readers urge, in defence of this Practice, that it is but a neceffary Provifion to make for themselves, in cafe their Husband proves a Churl or a Mifer; fo that they confider this Allowance as a kind of Alimony, which they may lay their Claim to without actually feparating from their Husbands. But with Submiffion, I think a Woman who will give up herself to a Man in Marriage, where there is the leaft Room for fuch an Apprehenfion, and truft her Perfon to one whom fhe will not rely on for the common Neceffaries of Life, may very properly be accufed (in the Phrase of an homely Proverb) of being Penny wife and Pound foolish. IT is obferved of over cautious Generals, that they never engage in a Battle without fecuring a Retreat, in cafe the Event fhould not answer their Expectations; on the other Hand, the greatest Conquerors have burnt their Ships, or broke down the Bridges behind them, as being determined either to fucceed or die in the Engagement. In the fame manner I should very much fufpect a Woman who takes fuch Precautions for her Retreat, and contrives Methods how she may live happily, without the Affection of one to whom the joins herself for Life. Separate Purfes between Man and Wife, are, in my Opinion, as unnatural as feparate Beds. A Marriage cannot be happy, where the Pleasures, Inclinations, and Interefts of both Parties are not the fame. There is no greater Incitement to Love in the Mind of Man, than the Senfe of a Perfon's depending upon him for her Eafe and Happiness; as a Woman uses all her Endeavours to please the Perfon whom the looks upon as her Honour, her Comfort, and her Support. FOR FOR this Reason I am not very much furprized at the Behaviour of a rough Country Squire, who, being not a little fhocked at the Proceeding of a young Widow that would not recede from her Demands of Pin-money, was fo enraged at her mercenary Temper, that he told her in great Wrath, As much as the thought him her Slave, he would fhew all the World he did not care a Pin for her.' Upon which he flew out of the Room and never faw her more. SOCRATES, in Plato's Alcibiades, fays, he was informed by one, who had travelled through Perfia, that as he paffed over a Tract of Lands, and inquired what the Name of the Place was, they told him it was the Queen's Girdle; to which he adds, that another wide Field which lay by it, was called the Queen's Veil; and that in the fame Manner there was a large Portion of Ground fet afide for every part of Her Majefty's Drefs. Thefe Lands might not be improperly called the Queen of Perfia's Pin-money. I remember my Friend Sir ROGER, who I dare fay never read this Paffage in Plato, told me fome time fince, that upon his courting the perverfe Widow (of whom I have given an Account in former Papers) he had difpofed of an hundred Acres in a Diamond-Ring, which he would have prefented her with, had fhe thought fit to accept it; and that upon her Wedding-Day fhe fhould have carried on her Head fifty of the tallest Oaks upon his Estate. He further informed me that he would have given her a Cole-pit to keep her in clean Linnen, that he would have allowed her the Profits of a Windmill for her Fans, and have prefented her once in three Years with the Sheering of his Sheep for her Under-Petticoats. 1o which the Knight always adds, that though he did not care for fine Cloaths himself, there fhould not have been a Woman in the Country better dreffed than my Lady Coverley. Sir ROGER perhaps, may in this, as well as in many other of his Devices, appear fomething odd and fingular, but if the Humour of Pin-money prevails, I think it would be very proper for every Gentleman of an Eftate to mark out fo many Acres of it under the Title of The Pins. H 3 L Friday, FFFSFF3669❀636666333H No. 296. Friday, February 8. Nugis addere pondus. Hor. 6. Dear SPEC. H AVING lately converfed much with the Fair Sex on the Subject of your Speculations, (which fince their Appearance in Publick, have been the chief Exercife of the Female loquacious Faculty) I found the fair Ones poffefs'd with a Diffatisfaction at your prefixing Greek Motto's to the Frontifpiece of your late Papers; and, as a Man of Gallantry, I thought it a Duty incumbent on me to impart it to you, in Hopes of a Reformation, which is only to be effected by a Restoration of the Latin to the ufual Dignity in your Papers, which of late, the Greek, to the great Difpleasure of your Female Readers, has ufurp'd; for tho' the Latin has the Recommendation of being as unintelligible to them as the Greek, yet being written of the fame Character with their Mother-Tongue, by the Affiftance of a Spelling-Book it's legible; which Quality the Greek wants: And fince the Introduction of Opera's into this Nation, the Ladies are fo charmed with Sounds abstracted from their Ideas, that they a⚫dore and honour the Sound of Latin as it is old Italian, I am a Solicitor for the Fair Sex, and therefore • think myself in that Character more likely to be prevalent in this Request, than if I should fubfcribe myfelf by my proper Name, J. M. I defire you may infert this in one of your Speculations, to fher my Zeal for removing the Diffatisfaction of the Fair Sex, and reftoring you to their Favour. SIR, I Was fome time fince in Company with a young Officer, who entertained us with the Conqueft he had made over a Female Neighbour of his ; when a Gen⚫tleman. |