72 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



would lead on the one hand to the writing of history and on the 

 other liand to the study of Botany, Zoology and Geology. To 

 the play-writers tlie search for old manuscripts, for antiques of 

 literature, for art relics, for old coins, was only a transient fad. 

 In reality it was an essential part of the new scientific movement 

 whereby the natural history of the world was to be reconstructed. 

 If no experiments were needed, yet careful observation was re- 

 quired, which was an equal part of the Baconian injunction. The 

 antiquarians must find a place, therefore, among the new philoso- 

 phers. 



But the first real virtuoso, the comic archetype of the "tribe", 

 appeared in Thomas Shadwell's comedy. The Virtuoso, 1676. 

 Langbaine says, — "No man ever undertook to discover the Frail- 

 ties of such Pretenders to this kind of Knowledge before Mr. 

 Shadwell". The author himself lays claim to originality in his 

 characterization, in the prologue. 



"In this are Fools, that much infest the town. 

 Plenty of Fops, Grievances of this Age, 

 Whose nauseous Figures ne'er were on the stage. "-^ 

 He is correct so far as purely experimental science and "Physico- 

 Mechanical Inventions" are concerned, but one essential phase of 

 the new scientific interest has already been discovered. Sir Nicho- 

 las Gimcrack is, however, the most complete comic conception of 

 the new philosopher, and as such demands full consideration. 



This virtuoso is without honor in his own country; his friends 

 and relatives, with the exception of his admiring wife, do not 

 hold him in esteem. Snarl, the cynic, says of him, — "My nephew 

 is such a coxcomb, he has study 'd these twenty years about the 

 nature of Lice, Spiders, and Insects".'^ His friend Sir Samuel 

 Formal, Rhetorician, asserts, — "He is an enemy to wit as all Vir- 

 tuoso's are". Clarinda calls him "a sot that has spent £2000 in 

 Microscopes, to find out the Nature of Eels in Vinegar, Mites 

 in Cheese, and the Blue of Plums". "One, who has broken his 

 Brains," adds Miranda, "about the Nature of Maggots, who has 

 study 'd these twenty years to find out the spots of a Spider, and 

 never cared for understanding Mankind". Longvil, who has some 



^ The Virtuoso, Prologue. 

 ^The Virtuoso, Act I, bc. 1. 



