a ferious and feddy affertion of thefe privileges may be expected; and, if there be fuch a one, I must do him the juftice to fay, it is Mr. DENNIS the worthy prefident of our fociety.

1

THE

NARRATIVE

OF

DR. ROBERT NORRIS,

CONCERNING

The ftrange and deplorable Frenzy of Mr. JOHN DENNIS, an Officer of the Custom-house.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR MDCCXIII.

THE

NARRATIVE

IT

OF

DR. ROBERT NORRIS.

T is an acknowledged truth, that nothing is fo dear to an honeft man as his good name, nor ought he to neglect the juft vindication of his character, when it is injuriously attacked by any man. The perfon I have at prefent caufe to complain of, is indeed in very melancholy circumftances, it having pleafed God to deprive him of his fenfes, which may extenuate the crime in him. But I fhould be wanting in my duty, not only to myfelf, but also to my fellow-creatures, to whom my talents may prove of benefit, fhould I fuffer my profeffion or honefty to be undefervedly afperfed. I have therefore refolved to give the public an account of all that has paft between the unhappy gentleman and myself.

On the 20th inftant, while I was in my clofet, pondering the cafe of one of my patients, I heard

* Addison highly difapproved of this bitter fatire on Dennis, and Pope was not a little chagrined at this difapprobation; for the narrative was intended to court the favor of Addifon, by defending his Cato; in which feeming defence Addison was far from think. ing our author fincere.

VOL. VI.

X

a knocking at my door, upon opening of which entered an old woman with tears in her eyes, and told me, that without my affiftance her mafter would be utterly ruined. I was forced to interrupt her forrow, by enquiring her master's name and place of abode. She told me, he was one Mr. Dennis, an officer of the custom-house, who was taken ill of a violent frenzy laft April, and had continued in thofe melancholy circumftances with few or no intervals. Upon this I asked her fome questions relating to his humour and extravagancies, that I might the better know under what regimen to put him, when the cause of his diftemper was found out. Alas! fir, fays he, this day fortnight in the morning, a poor fimple child came to him from the printer's; the boy had no fooner entered the room, but he cried out, the devil was come. He often ftares ghaftfully, raves aloud, and mutters between his teeth the word Cator or Cato, or fome fuch thing. Now, Doctor, this Cator is certainly a witch, and my poor mafter is under an evil tongue; for I have heard him say Cator has bewitched the whole nation. It pitied my very heart to think, that a man of my mafter's understanding and great scholarship, who, as the child told me, had a book of his own in print, fhould talk fo outrageously. Upon this I went and laid out a groat for a horfe-fhoe, which is at this time nailed on the threshold of his door; but I don't find my mafter is at all the better for it; he perpetually flarts and runs to the window when any one knocks, crying out, S'death! a meffenger from the French King! I fhall die in the Bafile.

Having faid this, the old woman prefented me with a vial of his urine; upon examination of which