st
refined taste of the true pleasures and elegance of life, joined to an
indefatigable industry in business; a man eloquent in assemblies,
agreeable in conversation, and dextrous in all manner of public
negotiations. These letters add, that Verono,[112] who is also of this
council, has lately set sail to his government of Patricia, with design
to confirm the affections of the people in the interests of his queen.
This minister is master of great abilities, and is as industrious and
restless for the preservation of the liberties of the people, as the
greatest enemy can be to subvert them. The influence of these
personages, who are men of such distinguished parts and virtues, makes
the people enjoy the utmost tranquillity in the midst of a war, and
gives them undoubted hopes of a secure peace from their vigilance and
integrity.[113]

[Footnote 96: In a copy of the original edition of the _Tatler_, with
MS. notes written early in the last century, which was sold at Messrs.
Sotheby's, in April, 1887, the ladies here described were said to be
Mrs. Chetwine and Mrs. Hales respectively. Mrs. Hales was a maid of
honour who married Mr. Coke, vice-chamberlain, in July, 1709 (Luttrell's
"Brief Relation," vi. 462); "Mrs. Chetwine" was probably the wife of
William Richard Chetwynd, afterwards third Viscount Chetwynd, who
married Honora, daughter of John Baker, Consul at Algiers; or the wife
of his brother Walter, M.P. for Stafford, and Master of the Buckhounds.
In 1717, Lady M. W. Montagu, describing a week spent by a fashionable
lady, said, 'Friday, Mrs. Chetwynd's, &c.; a perpetual round of hearing
the same scandal' (Pope's Works, ix. 385).]

[Footnote 97: Charles Jervas, portrait painter (died 1739), became
principal painter to George I. and George II. He also made a translation
of "Don Quixote," first published in 1742.]

[Footnote 98: A translation of Owen McSwiney (1709) from the Italian of
Scarlatti.]

[Footnote 99: In the _Spectator_ (Nos. 1, 5, 13, &c.) Addison often
wrote against the Italian opera. In 1706, Dennis published "An Essay on
the Operas after the Italian Manner, which are about to be established
on the English Stage: with some reflections on the damage which they may
bring to the Public." He traces to the recent alterations in the
entertainments of the stage, the fact that familiar conversation among
all classes was confined to two points, news and toasting, neither of
which required much intelligence.