N° 5 Tuesday, March 6. Spectatum admiffi rifum teneatis? HOR. Ars Poet. ver. 5. Admitted to the fight, wou'd you not laugh? ANO m decorations, as its only delign is to N Opera may be allowed to be extravagantly lagratify the fenfes, and keep up an indolent attention in the audience. Common fenfe however requires, that there should be nothing in the fcenes and machines which may appear childish and abfurd. How would the wits of King Charles's time have laughed to have feen Nicolini expofed to a tempeft in robes of ermine, and failing in au open boat upon a fea of paiteboard? What a field of raillery would they have been let into, had they been entertained with painted dragons fpitting wild-fire, enchanted chariots drawn by Flanders mares, and real cascades in artificial landfkips? A little fkill in criticifm would inform us, that fhadows and realities ought not to be mixed together in the fame piece; and, that the fcenes which are defigned as the reprefentations of nature, fhould be filled with refemblances, and not with the things themfelves. If one would reprefent a wide champain country filled with herds and flocks, it would be ridiculous to draw the country only upon the fcenes, and to croud feveral parts of the ftage with sheep and oxen. This is joining together inconfiftencies, and making the decoration partly real and partly imaginary. I would recommend what I have faid here to the directors, as well as to the admirers of our modern Opera, As I was walking in the streets about a fortnight ago, I faw an ordinary fellow carrying a cage full of little birds upon his fhoulder; and, as I was wondering with myself what ufe he would put them to, he was met very luckily by an acquaintance, who had the fame curiolity, B 2 curiofity. Upon his afking him what he had upon his fhoulder, he told him that he had been buying fparrows for the opera. Sparrows for the opera, fays his friend, licking his lips, what, are they to be roafted? No, no, fays the other, they are to enter towards the end of the first act, and to fly about the stage. This ftrange dialogue awakened my curiofity fo far, that I immediately bought the opera, by which means I perceived that the fparrows were to act the part of finging birds in a delightful grove; though upon a nearer inquiry I found the fparrows put the fame trick upon the audience, that Sir Martin Mar-all practised upon his mistress; for though they flew in fight, the mufic proceeded from a confort of flagelets and birdscails which were planted behind the fcenes. At the fame time I made this difcovery, I found by the discourse of the actors, that there were great defigns on foot for the improvement of the opera; that it had been propofed to break down a part of the wall, and to furprise the audience with a party of an hundred horfe, and that there was actually a project of bringing the NewRiver into the houfe, to be employed in jetteaus and water-works. This project, as I have fince heard, is poftponed till the fummer-feafon; when it is thought the coolness that proceeds from fountains and cafcades will be more acceptable and refreshing to people of quality. In the mean time, to find out a more agreeable entertainment for the winter-feafon, the opera of Rinaldo is filled with thunder and lightning, illuminations and fire-works; which the audience may look upon without catching cold, and indeed, without much danger of being burnt; for there are feveral engines filled with water, and ready to play at a minute's warning, in cafe any fuch accident fhould happen. However, as I have very great friendship for the owner of this theatre, I hope that he has been wife enough to infure his houfe before he would let this opera be acted in it. It is no wonder that thofe fcenes fhould be very furprifing which were contrived by two poets of different nations, and railed by two magicians of different fexes. Armida (as we are told in the argument) was an Ama zonian enchantrefs, and poor Signior Caffani (as we learn from the perfons reprefented) a Chriftian-conjurer (Mago Chriftiano). I must confefs I am very much puzzled to find how an Amazon fhould be versed in the black art, or how a good Chriftian, for fuch is the part of the magician, fhould deal with the devil. To confider the poet after the conjuror, I fhall give you a taste of the Italian from the firft lines of his preface. Eccoti, benigno lettore, un parto di poche fere, che fe ben nato di notte, non è però aborto di tenebre, mà fi fara conofcere figlio d'Apollo con qualche raggio di Parnaffo. • Behold, gentle reader, the birth of a few evenings, which, tho' it be the offspring of the night, is not the abortive of darknefs, but will make itfelf known to be the fon of Apollo, with a certain ray of Parnaffus.? He afterwards proceeds to call Mynheer Handel the Orpheus of our age, and to acquaint us, in the fame sublimity of stile, that he compofed this opera in a fortnight. Such are the wits to whofe taftes we fo ambitiously conform ourfelves. The truth of it is, the finest writers among the modern Italians exprefs themfelves in fuch a florid form of words, and fuch tedious circumlocutions, as are used by none but pedants in our own country; and at the fame time fill their writings with fuch poor ima ginations and conceits, as our youths are ashamed of before they have been two years at the univerfity. Some may be apt to think that it is the difference of genius which produces the difference in the works of the two nations; but to fhew there is nothing in this, if we look into the writings of the old Italians, fuch as Cicero and Virgil, we fhall find that the English writers, in their way of thinking and expreffing themselves, refemble thofe authors much more than the modern Italians pretend to do. And as for the poet himself, from whom the dreams of this opera are taken, I must intirely agree with Monfieur Boileau, that one verfe in Virgil is worth all the Clincant or Tinfel of Taffo. But to return to the fparrows; there have been fo many flights of them let loofe in this opera, that it is feared the house will never get rid of them; and that in other plays they may make their entrance in very wrong and improper fcenes, fo as to be feen flying in a Lady's bed B 3 bed-chamber, or pearching upon a King's throne; beides the inconveniencies which the heads of the audiences may fometimes fuffer from them. I am credibly informed, that there was once a defign of cafting into an opera the ftory of Whittington and his cat, and that in order to it, there had been got together a great quantity of mice; but Mr. Rich, the proprietor of the play-houfe, very prudently confider'd that it would be impoffible for the cat to kill them all, and that confequently the princes of the ftage might be as much infefted with mice, as the prince of the ifland was before the cat's arrival upon it; for which reafon he would not permit it to be acted in his houfe. And indeed I cannot blame him; for, as he faid very well upon that occafion, I do not hear that any of the performers in our opera pretend to equal the famous pied piper, who made all the mice of a great town in Germany follow his mufic, and by that means cleared the place of those little noxious animals. Before I difinifs this paper, I must inform my reader, that I hear there is a treaty on foot with London and Wife (who will be appointed gardeners of the playhoufe) to furnish the opera of Rinaldo and Armida with an orange-grove; and that the next time it is acted, the finging-birds will be perfonated by tom-tits; the undertakers being refolved to fpare neither pains nor money for the gratification of the audience. C. Wednesday, N° 6. Wednesday, March 7. Credebant hoc grande nefas, & morte piandum, Juv. Sat. xiii. 34. 'Twas impious then (fo much was age rever'd) For youth to keep their feat, when an old man appear❜d. I KNOW no evil under the fun fo great as the abuse of the understanding, and yet there is no one vice more common. It has diffufed itself through both fexes and all qualities of mankind; and there is hardly that perfon to be found, who is not more concerned for the reputation of wit and fenfe, than honefty and virtue. But this unhappy affectation of being wife rather than honeft, witty than good-natur'd, is the fource of most of the ill habits of life. Such falfe impreffions are owing to the abandoned writings of men of wit, and the aukward imitation of the rest of mankind. For this reafon Sir Roger was faying laft night, that he was of opinion none but men of fine parts deferve to be hanged. The reflections of fuch men are so delicate upon all occurrences which they are concerned in, that they fhould be expofed to more than ordinary infamy and punishment for offending against fuch quick admonitions as their own fouls give them, and blunting the fine edge of their minds in fuch a manner, that they are no more fhocked at vice and folly, than men of flower capacities. There is no greater monster in being, than a very ill man of great parts: he lives like a man in a pally, with one fide of him dead. While perhaps he enjoys the fatisfaction of luxury, of wealth, of ambition, he has lost the taste of good-will, of friendship, of innocence. Scarecrow, the beggar in Lincoln's-InnFields, who difabled himself in his right leg, and afks alms all day to get himself a warm fupper and a trull at night, is not half fo defpicable a wretch as fuch a man of fenfe. The beggar has no relifh above fenfations; B 4 |