r two ago, who did not
practise it for any oblique reason, as the ancients above
mentioned, but purely for the sake of being witty. Among
innumerable instances that may be given of this nature, I shall
produce the device of one, Mr. Newberry, as I find it mentioned by
our learned Camden, in his remains. Mr. Newberry, to represent his
name by a picture, hung up at his door the sign of a yew-tree that
had several berries upon it, and in the midst of them a great
golden N hung upon the bough of the tree, which by the help of a
little false spelling made up the word N-ew-berry."

Addison disproved of that severity and malice which was too common among
the writers of his age. He refers to it in his essays on wit, in
allusion, as it is thought, to Swift.

"There is nothing that more betrays a base ungenerous spirit than
the giving of secret stabs to a man's reputation; lampoons and
satires, that are written with wit and spirit, are like poisoned
darts, which not only inflict a wound, but make it incurable. For
this reason I am very much troubled when I see the talents of
humour and ridicule in the possession of an ill-natured man.... It
must indeed be confessed, that a lampoon or a satire does not carry
in it robbery or murder; but at the same time, how many are there
that would rather lose a considerable sum of money, or even life
itself, than be set up as a mark of infamy and derision."

He goes on to notice how various persons behaved under the ordeal--

"When Julius Caesar was lampooned by Catullus he invited him to
supper, and treated him with such a generous civility that he made
the poet his friend ever after. Cardinal Mazarin gave the same kind
of treatment to the learned Guillet, who had reflected upon his
Eminence in a famous Latin poem. The Cardinal sent for him, and
after some kind expostulation upon what he had written, assured him
of his esteem, and dismissed him with a promise of the next good
Abbey that should fall, which he accordingly conferred upon him a
few months after. This had so good an effect upon the author that
he dedicated the second edition of his book to the Cardinal, after
having expunged the passages, which had given him offence. Sextus
Quintus was not of so generous and forgiving a temper. Upon his
being made Pope, the statue of Pasq