Mr. SPECTATOR, I was this Day looking over your Papers, and reading in that of December the 6th with great delight, the amiable Grief of Asteria for the Absence of her Husband, it threw me into a great deal of Reflection.

She is, at present, I am sure, no way below your Asteria for Conjugal Affection:

It is formed principally of coral, on the surface of which we found the gray trepang; a small Chama gigas, a cypraea, a pretty azure-coloured species of asteria, and a few bivalve shells.

ASTERIA, the Queen's confident.

Enter CELADON and ASTERIA, meeting each other, he in a riding habit; they embrace.

Dear Asteria!

[Exit ASTERIA.

A catalogue of such persons, What's this he has let fall, Asteria?

Hold, Asteria!

ASTERIA alone.

[Exit ASTERIA.

Yet fortune, stopthis is the likeliest place To meet Asteria, and by her convey

Enter Queen and ASTERIA.

What does he mean, Asteria?

Asteria, mend my cousin's handkerchief; It sits too narrow there, and shows too much

The broadness of her shouldersNay, fie, Asteria, Now you put it too much backward, and discover The bigness of her breasts.

How do I look to-day, Asteria? Methinks, not well.

[Exeunt Queen and ASTERIA.

Look, look, Asteria, yet they are not gone.

[Exit ASTERIA.

Enter the Queen in black, with ASTERIA.

[Lays her hand on ASTERIA'S shoulder.

I see Asteria deluded me, With flattering hopes of the queen's love.

Now, my Asteria, my joys are full; [To ASTERIA.

Now, my Asteria, my joys are full; [To ASTERIA.