Ij8 SHADY CHARACTERS

so common, in fact, that the word “dash” became a mild epithet in its
own right; by 1883 the cumbersomely named Lord Ronald Charles
Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, a member of Parliament, historian, and
sculptor, could write in his Reminiscences, “Who the Dash is this person
whom none of us know? and what the Dash does he do here?”56 The
dash had transcended punctuation.

* * *

While Richardson, Defoe, and other novelists were striking
out words in the name of art, for certain other eighteenth-
century writers the dash was less a literary device than a get-out-
of-jail-free card. In 1737, a young journalist named Samuel Johnson
joined London’s monthly Gentleman’s Magazine. Among his duties,
Johnson was required to report on parliamentary proceedings,
but herein lay a problem. Reporting “any votes or proceedings of
the House” was illegal while Parliament was in session, though it
was generally tolerated during the summer recess, when Johnson
would reconstruct debates from notes taken by a cadre of report¬
ers in the public gallery. Then, in 1738, all reporting was banned
outright.57

Determined to circumvent the ruling, the magazine’s proprietor,
Edward Cave, directed Johnson to take his already part-fictional
approach to its logical conclusion: Cave extracted summaries of
important debates and the names of those involved from the door¬
keepers to the House of Commons, from which Johnson fabricated
accounts of those debates. Publishing them as “Debates in the Sen¬
ate of Great Lilliput”—Lilliput being the fictional land of tiny people
described in Jonathan Swift’s 1726 satire Gulliver’s Travels—Johnson
created Swiftian pseudonyms for the politicians and institutions
involved.58 Prime Minister Robert Walpole became “Walelop” and
Lord Halifax “Haxilaf”; members of the Commons were “Clinabs"

THE DASH 159

To Mr Urban, on his Vol. ХГ.

Prtitjfe & iikltan. é Опт tulit риіШит, qui mìfcuìt utile ittici,

w

HI L E pleas’d thy length’ning
Labeur I perufe,

Accept this Tribute from the
gmteful Ще,

Who read* thy Page with fliil

enamcur'tl fght,

And mixes mental Profit and Delight,

To plan with Judgment, and colle£t with
Skill.

And one fair Whole with due Proportion fill :
With Truth to form the Mind, with Senfc,
to pleale,

]s not (however thought) a Work of Eafe.

Thus rightly mcdeU’df thy iMlruflrve Page,
Or to improve the Reader/«¿'engage,'

On Learn i rg’» Bafis fix’d) lecurely {lands,

And monthly fills unpu.mbcr’d-—wjfliirgHands.

When Lilliputian (Patriots warm debate, •

We ice the ModcLof our Free fern State ;

Where Rtajen Jdnfwa the SVtbrd in Truth'f De¬
fence,) '

And Liberty is the Refult of Sen ft •

Hear howAj« g«—— l t in Independence ibong
Pours the fiijí Tid с of Eloquence along /

Born in ффрітр or Scrute to excel,

Jn aftingjg really, tÿ iu Грел king well. f.

There C..,sT...i*...fe up aiviih attkk Spirit
ihines.

And D.gmty with fprightly Eafe conjoins ,
С...ИТ...1 in Courts experienc'd long, fe¬
dite

Marks the impending Dangers of the State j
As the calm Ri lot o’er the dubious Wave,

Forebodes the Storm, and fonds piepat’dto

fave.

Honour from FI—l—r—x new Worth re¬
ceives,

And all the Englifiman in E-th—x 5T lives.
С—к i— i allerts his Jong ilhftrious Name,
And T— l—D -• t '» patriot Boium pants for
Fame.

Nut bolder breaks the Thunder from on high,
Than P— LTк — y breathes the Voiced Li¬
berty.

In V- -K N — n blamclefs Cato lives crnfelf,
bhintsin his Speech, ard animates hit lì rea It ;
And . L-т T -J.-K in Virtue’s early Hour,

Begins to be what IVyn.ibam was before,

To Language, ibeft its niblefi ufe impart,

Aod mend the Judgment --while they move
the Heart

v’e impartial Views by Ht,

nour led,

And HmNTi.n'i Thought, ia claffic Lea*
ing read,

By W...N N.-NOT.iitt the Call to ОЫв
fpokc,

The Skill ol P-H-M, and the Strength tf
C...K к j

But chief Hit envied Energy of 'Thought,

Who never fpthe (at Icalljbut at be ought, f

Nor lefi, feledted with judicioutCare,

Thy Eflays grave or gay amufc the Ear.

All Ranks, all Tempers Lntcrtainment find,
Such Charnu has Novelty with Truth combin'd,

But moil (for moil the Mufe like A3
delight)

Thy tuneful Numbers tempt my eager Sight.
Pleas’d 1 behold a thoufar.d Beauties fhinc.

And new Improvements grace thy fair Defija
While bright Elira ltrikes the war bürg
firing«,

What Heart but fattens as the Seraph fmgs ? •

Or when affliíled Caroline complains,

E’en Pity Iiftens at the melting Strain?.

Not fonder mourns the Turtle for its Dor i,
Than tender Emma wails her ahfent larve j
'Ihefe flrew how Learning, join’d to Bewtj,
fools

The Pride cf Man and Pedantry of Schools.

When Cbtfier tunes th* Anacreontic Lyre,
The fponivc Graces waken gay Delire j
Nor can he cheat ui in a boi row’d Name ;

We feel the Sun, tho’ clouded, by his FUnti.

If Grcviük ùge, produce th’ infiruftive Plan, 1

And bld the reafoning Brute, direct the Мао, I

Improv’d we liften to the moral Tale,

“ For oit Examples mend, where Precepts fail Ì

Savage with native Dvnity can charm, j

Oh may his Vería it» l»:r lnlpirtf warm! j

Thefc canfdous fed die tiuc poetic Flame,
Know to excel! and brighten into Fu»! ,
Nor yield thy moral Poems left Delight,
Fkixndsiiu* * revives, and * PovrRT.t
grows bright.

Nor blame die Mufe—-who views thy gre*« ,
ing flute,

If, prudent, Ike forbear to mention more} j

’One Tiain ct Light the Gallaxy appears.

Tis Knowledge cniy Ihcws it made of StR* ■

Ncr

Ѣ

Auvtfatc

(to own the Truth J the pow’rful

Firm Au víate, her Meafurcsto fupport.

N-c -lb fpeaks with iemtcnal Grace,

And H -v -y’s folerr.n Periodi lncthto Peace,
H-R n w-K’a diflir.ftivcPow’rs to thefc belong,
The Wit of Hor- j, with the Flow of
Y-vc t.

Proceed fuccefiful then, each rolling Year
With added Excellence sdori.’d appear j 1

Ali Malice fcorn, all Artifice defy,

And fee new Rivals, in Oblivion die.
t Fari q_uæ Sx n tiat, Si iReb.W¿'
pele'» Motto.

* Two Pieces fign’d V, by the Suae Hand«**
thefe fign’d Aletea.

Figure 8.3 The poem that opened the December 1741 issue of The
Gentleman’s Magazine. The names of contemporaneous political figures are
obscured by a smattering of em dashes, en dashes, and periods. Gentleman’s
Magazine, December 1741. SC 1490. Courtesy of Edinburgh University
Library, Special Collections Department.