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N° 5. Tuesday, March 6, 1710-II.

Spectatum admiffi rifum teneatis?

HOR. Ars Poet. ver. 5.

Admitted to the fight, would you not laugh?

A

N Opera may be allowed to be extravagantly lavish in its decorations, as its only defign is to gratify the fenfes, and keep up an indolent attention in the audience. Common sense 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 seen Nicolini expofed to a tempeft in robes of ermine, and failing in an open boat upon a fea of pafte-board? What a field of raillery would they have been led into, had they been entertained with painted dragons fpitting wild-fire, enchanted chariots drawn by Flanders mares, and real cascades in artificial landscapes? A little skill in criticism would inform us, that shadows and realities ought not to be mixed together in the fame piece; and that the scenes which are defigned as the representations of nature should be filled with refemblances, and not with the things themselves. If one would represent a wide champaign country filled with herds and flocks, it would be ridiculous to draw the country only upon the scenes, and

to

to crowd several parts of the stage with fheep and oxen. This is joining together inconfiftencies, and making the decoration partly real, and partly imaginary. I would recommend what I have here faid, 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 at cage full of little birds upon his fhoulder; and, as I was wondering with myfelf what use he would put them to, he was met very luckily by an acquaintance, who had the fame curiofity. Upon his asking what he had upon his shoulder, 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 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* practifed upon his miftrefs: for though they flew in fight, the mufic proceeded from a concert

* A Comedy by J. DRYDEN, borrowed from QUINAULT'S Amant Indiferet, and the Etourdi of MOLIERE. The D. of Newcastle gave it to DRYDEN, who adapted it to the stage; and it is entered on the books of the Stationer's Company, as the production of that nobleman.

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of flagelets and bird-calls which were planted behind the scenes. At the fame time I made this discovery, I found by the difcourfe 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 New-river into the house, to be employed in jetteaus and water-works. This project, as I have fince heard, is poftponed till the fummer season; 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-feason, 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 several engines filled with water, and ready to play at a minute's warning, in case 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 houfe before he would let this Opera be acted in it.

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It is no wonder, that thofe fcenes fhould

* An alarm of fire having occafioned great confufion in the playhouse, a manager came forward, and begged the audience to be compofed, for he had the pleasure to affure them that there was water enough a-top to drown them all.

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be very surprising, 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 must 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.

"Be

To confider the poet after the conjurers, I fhall give you a taste of the Italian from the first lines of his preface. Eccoti, benigno lettor, un parto di poche fero, che fe ben eato di notte, non è però aborto di tenebre, mà fi farà conofcere figlio d'Apollo con qualche raggio di Parnaffe. hold, gentle reader, the birth of a few evenings, which, though it be the offsprings of the night, is not the abortive of darkness, but will make itself known to be the son 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 ftile, 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 fineft writers among the modern Italians exprefs themselves in fuch a florid form of words, and fuch tedious circumlocutions, as are ufed by none but pedants in our own country; and at the fame time fill their writings with fuch poor imagi

nations

nations and conceits, as our youths are ashamed of, before they have been two years at the university. 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, such as Cicero and Virgil, we fhall find that the English writers, in their way of thinking and expreffing themselves, resemble thofe authors much more than the modern Italians pretend to do. as for the poet himself, from whom the dreams. of this opera* are taken, I muft entirely agree with Monfieur Boileau, that one verfe in Virgil is worth all the clinquant or tinfel of Taffo.

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But to return to the fparrows; there have been so 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-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 a defign of cafting into an opera the ftory of Whittington and his Cat, and that

* RINALDO, an opera, 8vo. 1711. The plan by Aaron Hill; the Italian words by Sign. G. Roffi; and the mufic by Handel. It is neither better nor worse than most other operas, but was uncommonly fuccefsful; Walfh, it is faid, got 1500l. by printing it.

+"Oeuvres de Boileau." Sat. ix.

See more of the puppet-fhew of Whittington and his Cat, N° 14; and TAT. in 6 vols. vol. v. p. 412.

VOL. I.

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