Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

town, but let her have her will in going to a mafque, and the fhall drefs as a fhepherdefs. But let me beg of them to read the Arcadia, or fome other good romance, before they appear in any fuch character at my houfe. The last day we prefented, every body was fo rafhly habited, that when they came to fpeak to each other, a nymph with a crook had not a word to fay but in the · pert ftile of the pit bawdry; and a man in the habit of a philofopher was ipecchlefs, till an occafion offered of exprelling himself in the refufe of the tyring-rooms. We had a judge that danced a minuet with a quaker for his partner, while half a dozen harlequins stood by as fpectators; a Turk drank me off two bottles of wine, and a Jew eat me up half a ham of bacon. If I can bring my defign to bear, and make the masquers preferve their characters in my affemblies, I hope you will allow there is a foundation laid for more elegant and improving gallantries than any the town at present affords; and confequently that you will give your approbation to the endeavours of,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

• Sir,

Your moft obedient

humble fervant.'

I am very glad the following epiftle obliges me to mention Mr. Powell a fecond time in the fame paper; for indeed there cannot he too great encouragement given to his fkill in motions, provided he is under proper reftrictions.

• Sir,

THE Opera at the Hay-Market, and that under the little Piazza in Covent-Garden, being at prefent the two leading diverfions of the town, and Mr. Powell profefling in his advertisements to fet up Whitting

• ton

ton and his Cat against Rinaldo and Armida, my curiofity led me the beginning of laft week to view both thefe performances, and make my obfervations upon ⚫ them.

[ocr errors]

• First therefore, I cannot but obferve that Mr. Powell, wifely forbearing to give his company a bill of fare ⚫ beforehand, every fcene is new and unexpected; ⚫ whereas it is certain, that the undertakers of the HayMarket, having raifed too great an expectation in their printed opera, very much difappoint the audience on the ftage.

[ocr errors]

The King of Jerufalem is obliged to come from the city on foot, inftead of being drawn in a triumphant chariot by white horfes, as my opera-book had promifed me; and thus while I expected Armida's dragons fhould rush forward towards Argantes, I found the hero was obliged to go to Armida, and hand her out of her coach. We had alfo but a very short al⚫lowance of thunder and lightning; though I cannot in this place omit doing juftice to the boy who had the direction of the two painted dragons, and made them fpit fire and fmoke; he flashed out his rofin in fuch juft proportions and in fuch due time, that I could not • forbear conceiving hopes of his being one day a most ⚫ excellent player. I faw indeed but two things wanting to render his whole action complete, I mean the keeping his head a little lower, and hiding his candle.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

6

I obferve that Mr. Powell and the undertakers had • both the fame thought, and I think much about the fame time, of introducing animals on their feveral ftages, though indeed with very different fuccefs. The Sparrows and Chaffinches at the Hay-Market fly as yet very irregularly over the ftage; and instead of perching on the trees and performing their parts, thefe young actors cither get into the galleries, or put out the candles; whereas Mr. Powell has fo well difciplined his Pig, that in the firft fcene he and Punch dance a minuet together. I am informed, however, that Mr. • Powell refolves to excel his adverfaries in their own way, and introduce larks in his next opera of Sufan

[ocr errors]

nah,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

nah, or Innocence Petraved; which will be exhibited next week with a pair of new Elders.

The moral of Powell's drama is violated, I confefs, by Punch's national reflections on the French, and King Harry's laying his leg upon the Queen's lap in too ludicrous a manner before fo great an affembly.

As to the mechanifm and feenery, every thing in• deed was uniform and of a piece, and the fcenes were managed very dexterously; which calls on me to take notice, that at the Hay-Market, the undertakers forgetting to change their fide-fcenes, we were prefented with a profpect of the ocean in the midst of a delightful grove; and though the gentlemen on the fiage had very much contributed to the beauty of the grove, by walking up and down between the trees, I muft own I was not a little aftonished to fee a well-dreffed young fellow, in a full-bottomed wig, appear in the midst of the fea, and, without any vifible concern, taking • fnuit.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

I fhall only obferve one thing farther, in which both dramas agree; which is, that by the fqueak of their voices the heroes of each are eunuchs; and as the wit in both pieces is equal, I must prefer the performance of Mr. Powell, because it is in our own language.

[blocks in formation]

WHEN I was in France I used to gaze with great aftonishment at the fplendid equipages and partycoloured habits of that fantaftic nation. I was one day in particular contemplating a lady that fat in a coach adorned with gilded Cupids, and finely painted

with the loves of Venus and Adonis. The coach was drawn by fix milk-white horfes, and loaded behind with the fame number of powdered footmen. Juft before the lady were a couple of beautiful pages, that were stuck among the harnefs; and by their gay dielfes and fmiling features, looked like the elder brothers of the little boys that were carved and painted in every corner of the coach.

The lady was the unfortunate Cleanthe, who afterwards gave an occafion to a pretty melancholy novel. She had for feveral years received the addreifes of a gentleman, whom after a long and intimate acquaintance the forfook, upon the account of this fhining equipage, which had been offered to her by one of great riches, but a crazy conftitution. The circumftances in which I faw her, were, it feems, the difguifes only of a broken heart, and a kind of pageantry to cover diftrefs; for in two months after, fhe was carried to her grave with the fame pomp and magnificence; being fent thither partly by the lots of one lover, and partly by the poffeflion of another.

I have often reflected with myfelf on this unaccountable humour in womankind, of being finitten with every thing that is fhowy and fuperficial; and on the numberlefs evils that befal the fex from this light fantastical difpofition. I myself remember a young lady that was very warmly folicited by a couple of importunate rivals; who, for feveral months together, did all they could to recommend themfelves, by complacency of behaviour, and agreeablenefs of converfation. At length, when the competition was doubtful, and the lady undetermined in her choice, one of the young lovers very luckily bethought himfelf of adding a fupernumerary lace to his liveries which had fo good an effect that he married her the very week after.

;

The ufual converfation of ordinary women very much cherishes this natural weakness of being taken with outfide appearance. Talk of a new-married couple, and you immediately hear whether they keep their coach and fix, or eat in plate; mention the name of an abfent lady,

G

and

and it is ten to one but you learn fomething of her gown and petticoat. A ball is a great help to discourse, and a birth-day furnishes converfation for a twelvemonth after: a furbelow of precious ftones, an hat buttoned with a diamond, a brocade waiftcoat or petticoat, are ftanding topics. In fhort, they confider only the drapery of the fpecies, and never caft away a thought on those ornaments of the mind that make perfons illuftrious in themselves and ufeful to others. When women are thus perpetually dazzling one another's imaginations, and filling their heads with nothing but colours, it is no won‐ der that they are more attentive to the fuperficial parts of life than the folid and fubftantial bleffings of it. A girl who has been trained up in this kind of converfation, is in danger of every embroidered coat that comes in her way :-A pair of fringed gloves may be her ruin. In a word, lace and ribbons, filver and gold galloons, with the like glittering gew-gaws, are fo many lures to women of weak minds or low educations; and when artificially dif played, are able to fetch down the moft airy coquette from the wildest of her flights and rambles.

True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noife; it arifes, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's felf; and, in the next, from the friendthip and converfation of a few select companions; it loves fhade and folitude, and naturally haunts groves and fountains, fields and meadows: in hort, it feels every thing it wants within itself, and receives no addition from multitudes of witneffes and fpe&tators. On the contrary, falfe happiness loves to be in a crowd, and to draw the eyes of the world upon her. She does not receive any fatisfaction from the applaufes which the gives herself, but from the admiration which the raifes in others. She flourishes in courts and palaces, theatres and affemblies, and has no existence but when he is looked upon.

Aurelia, though a woman of great quality, delights in the privacy of a country life, and paffes away a great part of her time in her own walks and gardens. Her husband, who is her bofom friend and companion in her folitudes, has been in love with her ever fince he knew her. They

both

« PředchozíPokračovat »