Being at a coffee-house the other day, where one of
these ladies kept the bar, I bespoke a dish of rice tea, but Madam was
so taken up with her sparks that she quite forgot it. I spoke for it
again, and with some temper, but was answered after a most taunting
manner, not without a toss of the head, a contraction of the nostrils,
and other impertinences, too many to enumerate. Seeing myself thus
publickly insulted by such an animal, I could not choose but show my
resentment. 'Woman,' said I sternly, 'I want a dish of rice tea, and not
what your vanity and impudence may imagine; therefore treat me as a
gentleman and a customer, and serve me with what I call for. Keep your
impertinent repartees and impudent behaviour for the coxcombs that swarm
round your bar, and make you so vain of your blown carcass.' And indeed,
I believe the insolence of this creature will ruin her master at last,
by driving away men of sobriety and business, and making the place a den
of vagabonds."
In July, 1704, Defoe commenced a periodical which he called a "Review of
the Affairs of France." It appeared twice, and afterwards three times a
week. From the introduction, we might conclude that the periodical,
though principally containing war intelligence, would be partly of a
humorous nature. He says--
"After our serious matters are over, we shall at the end of every paper
present you with a little diversion, as anything occurs to make the
world merry; and whether friend or foe, one party or another, if
anything happens so scandalous as to require an open reproof, the world
may meet with it there.
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