it is thought the coolnefs 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-season, the opera of Rinaldo is filled with thunder and lightning, illuminations, and fireworks; 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 should happen. However, as I have a very great friendship for the owner of this theatre, I hope that he has been wife enough to infure his house before he would let this opera be acted in it. It is no wonder, that thofe fcenes fhould be very furprising, which were contrived by two poets of different nations, and raised by two magicians of different fexes. Armida (as we are told in the argument) was an Amazonian enchantrefs, and poor Signior Caffani (as we learn from the perfons reprefented) a Chriftian-conjurer (Mago Chriftiano). I muft confefs I am very much puzzled to find how an Amazon fhould be verfed 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 shall give you a tafte 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 abort. di tenebre, ma si farà conoscere figlio d' Apollo con qualche raggio di Parnaffo. Behold, gentle reader, the birth of a few evenings, which, though it be the offspring of the night, is not the abortive of darkness, but will make itself 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 fublimity of ftyle, that he compofed this opera in a fortnight. Such Such are the wits, to whofe taftes we fo ambitiously conform ourselves. 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 imaginations 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 this 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 expreting 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 Tafo. But to return to the fparrows; there have been fo many flights of them let loofe in this opera, that it is feared the houfe will never get rid of them; and that in other plays they may make their entrance in very wrong and improper fcenes, so as to be feen flying in a Lady's bed-chamber, or perching upon a King's throne; befides the inconveniencies which the heads of the audience may fometimes fuffer from them. I am credibly informed, that there was once 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 confidered that it would be impoflible 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 reafon he would not permit it to be acted in his house. 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 mufick, and by that means cleared the place of those little noxious animals. Before I difmifs 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 play-house) 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 tomtits: The undertakers being refolved to fpare neither pains nor money for the gratification of the audience. C No 6. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7. Gredebant hoc grande nefas, & morte piandum, Juv. Sat. xiii. l. 54. '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 diffused itself thro’· 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 honesty and virtue. But this unhappy affectation of being wife rather than honeft, witty than goodnatured, is the fource of moft of the ill habits of life. Such falfe impreffions are owing to the abanVOL. I. doned C doned writings of men of wit, and the aukward imitation of the reft of mankind. a very 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 fo 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 capa cities. There is no greater monfter in being, than ill man of great parts: He lives like a man in a palfy, with one fide of him dead. While perhaps he enjoys the fatisfaction of luxury, of wealth, of ambition, he has loft the tafte of good-will, of friendship, of innocence. Scarecrow, the beggar in Lincolns-Inn-Fields, who difabled himfelf in his right leg, and afks alms all day to get himself a warm fupper and a trull all night, is not half fo defpicable a wretch as fuch a man of fenfe. The beggar has no relifh above fenfations; he finds reft inore agreeable than motion; and while he has a warm fire and his doxy, never reflects that he deferves to be whipped. Every man who terminates his fatisfactions and enjoyments within the fupply of his own neceffities and paffions, is, fays Sir ROGER, in my eye, as poor a rogue as Scarecrow. But, continued he, for the lofs of publick and private virtue, we are beholden to your men of parts forfooth; it is with them no matter what is done, so it be done with an air. But to me, who am fo whimfical in a corrupt age as to act according to nature and reafon, a felfifh man, in the moft fhining circumftance and equipage, appears in the fame condition with the fellow above-mentioned, but more contemptible, in proportion to what more he robs the public of, and enjoys above him. I lay it down there fore fore for a rule, that the whole man is to move together; that every action of any importance, is to have a profpect of public good; and that the general tendency of our indifferent actions, ought to be agreeable to the dictates of reafon, of religion, of good-breeding; without this, a man, as I before have hinted, is hopping instead of walking, he is not in his intire and proper motion. While the honeft knight was thus bewildering himself in good starts, I looked attentively upon him, which made him, I thought, collect his mind a little. What I aim at, fays he, is to reprefent, that I am of opinion, to polish our understandings and neglect our manners, is of all things the most inexcufable. Reason fhould govern paffion, but instead of that, you fee, it is often fubfervient to it; and,. as unaccountable as one would think it, a wife man is not always a good man. This degeneracy is not only the guilt of particular perfons, but at fome times of a whole people; and perhaps it may appear upon examination, that the most polite ages are the least virtuous. This may be attributed to the folly of admitting wit and learning as merit in themselves, without confidering the application of them. By this means it becomes a rule, not fo much to regard what we do, as how we do it. But this falfe beauty will not pafs upon men of honest minds and true tafte. Sir Richard Blackmore fays, with as much good fenfe as virtue, It is a mighty difbonour and fhame to employ excellent faculties and abundance of wit to humour and please men in their viees and follies. The great enemy of mankind, notwithstanding his wit and angelick faculties, is the mos odious being in the whole creation. He goes on foon after to fay very generously, that he undertook the writing of his poem to refcue the mufes out of the hands of ravifbers, to restore them to their fweet and chafte manfions, and to engage them in an employment fuitable to their dignity. This certainty ought to be C 2 the |