⚫ morning and evening, to go to a puppet-show fet forth • by one Powell under the Piazzas. By this means, I have not only loft my two customers, whom I used to place for fix-pence a-piece over-against Mrs. Rachel • Eye-bright, but Mrs. Rachel herself is gone thither alfo. There now appear among us none but a few ordinary people, who come to church only to fay their prayers, fo that I have no work worth fpeaking of but on Sundays. I have placed my fon at the Piazzas, to acquaint the ladies that the bell rings for church, and that it stands on the other fide of the Garden; but they only laugh at the child.

• I defire you would lay this before all the world, that I may not be made fuch a tool for the future, and that Punchinello may choose hours lefs canonical. As things are now, Mr. Powell has a full congregation, while we have a very thin house; which if you can remedy, you will very much oblige,

• Sir,

• Yours, &c.'

The following epiftle I find is from the undertaker of the Masquerade.

·

I

SIR,

HAVE obferved the rules of my mafque fo carefully (in not inquiring into perfons), that I cannot tell whether you were one of the company or not last Tuesday; but if you were not, and still defign to come, I defire you would, for your own entertainment, please to admonish the town, that all perfons indifferently are not fit for this fort of diverfion. I could with, Sir, you could make them understand, that it is a kind of acting to go in Masquerade, and a man should be ❝ able to fay or do things proper for the dress, in which he appears. We have now and then rakes in the habit of Roman fenators, and grave politicians in the drefs of rakes. The misfortune of the thing is, that · people drefs themselves in what they have a mind to be, and not what they are fit for. There is not a girl in the town, but let her have her will in going to a mafque,

and

⚫ 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 speak to each other, a nymph with a crook had not a word to fay but in the pert file of the pit bawdry; and a man in the habit of a philofopher was fpeechlefs, till an occafion offered of expreffing 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 mafquers 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 prefent affords; and confequently, that you will give your ap probation to the endeavours of,

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

6 SIR,

TH

HE 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 profeffing in his advertisements to fet up Whittington and his Cat against Rinaldo and Armida, my curiofity led me the beginning of last week to view both thefe performances, and make my obfervations upon

⚫ them.

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

Hay

Hay-Market, having raised too great an expectation in their printed opera, very much difappoint the au⚫dience on the stage.

The King of Jerufalem is obliged to come from the city on foot, instead 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 also but a very short allowance of thunder and lightning; though I cannot in this place omit doing justice to the boy who had the direction of the two painted dragons, and made them fpit fire and finoke; he flashed out his rofin in fuch just proportions and in fuch due time, that I could not forbear conceiving hopes of his being one day a moft 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.

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 stage; and instead of perching on the trees and performing their parts, these C young actors either get into the galleries, or put out the candles; whereas Mr. Powell has fo well difciplined his Pig, that in the first scene 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 Sufanna, or Innocence betrayed, which will be • exhibited next week with a pair of new Elders..

The moral of Mr. 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 af fembly.

As to the mechanism and scenery, every thing indeed was uniform and of a piece, and the scenes were

managed

managed very dexteroufly; 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 delight• ful grove; and though the gentlemen on the stage had very much contributed to the beauty of the grove, by walking up and down between the trees, I must 6 own I was not a little aftonished to fee a well-dreffed young fellow, in a full-bottomed wig, appear in the midit of the fea, and without any visible concern taking fnuff.

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.

• I am, &c.'

R

N° 15.

Saturday, March 17.

Parva leves capiunt animos

OVID. Ars Am. i. 159.

Light minds are pleas'd with trifles.

WHEN I was in France, I used to gaze with great aftonishment at the fplendid equipages, and party-coloured habits, of that fantastic 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 horses, and loaden behind with the fame number of powdered footmen. Juft before the lady were a couple of beautiful pages that were ftuck among the harness, and by their gay dreffes 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

She had for feveral years received the addreffes of a gentleman, whom after a long and intimate acquaintance the forfook, upon the account of this shining equipage, which had been offered to her by one of great riches but a crazy conftitution. The circumstances in which I faw her, were, it feems, the disguises only of a broken heart, and a kind of pageantry to cover diftrefs; for in two months after she was carried to her grave with the fame pomp and magnificence; being fent thither partly by the lofs of one lover, and partly by the poffeffion of

another.

I have often reflected with myself on this unaccountable humour in womankind, of being fmitten with every thing that is fhowy and fuperficial; and on the numberless evils that befal the fex from this light fantaftical 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 themselves 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 himself 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 and 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 absent lady, and it is ten to one but you learn fomething of her gown and petticoat. A ball is a great help to difcourfe, and a birth-day furnishes converfation for a twelvemonth after. A furbelow of precious ftones, an hat buttoned with a diamond, a brocade waistcoat or petticoat, are ftanding topics. In fhort, they confider only the drapery of the fpecies, and never caft away a thought on thofe ornaments of the mind that make perfons illuftrious in themselves and useful to others. When women are thus perpetually dazzling one another's imaginations, and filling their heads with nothing but colours, it is no wonder that they are more atrentive to

the