red that you do not exert
yourself, and crush them at once. I am,

"Sir (with great respect),
"Your most humble Admirer
"and Disciple."

In answer to this, I shall act like my predecessor AEsop, and give him a
fable instead of a reply.

It happened one day, as a stout and honest mastiff (that guarded the
village where he lived against thieves and robbers) was very gravely
walking, with one of his puppies by his side, all the little dogs in the
street gathered about him, and barked at him. The little puppy was so
offended at this affront done to his sire, that he asked him why he
would not fall upon them, and tear them to pieces?

To which the sire answered, with a great composure of mind, "If there
were no curs, I should be no mastiff."[9]

[Footnote 4: See No. 108.]

[Footnote 5: Cavalier Nicolini Grimaldi was a Neapolitan actor and
singer, who appeared first in England in McSwiney's "Pyrrhus and
Demetrius." He is often mentioned in the _Spectator_ (see Nos. 5, 13,
405), and seems to have been a friend of both Addison and Steele.
Addison praises him alike as an actor and as a singer. The following
letter from Hughes to Nicolini, dated February 4, 1709-10, is given in
Hughes' "Correspondence" (Dublin, 1773, i. 33-4): "Depuis que j'ai eu
l'honneur d'etre chez vous a la repetition de l'opera, j'ai dine avec
Mr. Steele, et la conversation roulante sur vous, je lui dis la maniere
obligeante dont je vous avois ou parler de Mr. Bickerstaff, en disant
que vous aviez beaucoup d'inclination a etudier l'Anglois pour avoir
seulement le plaisir de lire le _Tatler_. Il trouvre que votre
compliment a l'auteur du _Tatler_ est fort galant." Nicolini sang in
Italian to the English of Mrs. Tofts (see No. 20, and _Spectator_, No.
22), but Cibber observes that "whatever defect the fashionably skilful
might find in her manner, she had, in the general sense of her
spectators, charms that few of the most learned singers ever arrive at."
A letter from Lady Wentworth, dated December 10, 1708, gives us a
curious glimpse of Nicolini and Mrs. Tofts: "My dearest and best of
children ... Yesterday I had lyke to have been ketched in a trap, your
Brother Wentworth had almoste persuaded me to have gon last night to
hear the fyne muisick the famous Etallion sing att the rehersall of the
Operer, which he asured