'caft of countenance; of which the president and officers for the time being are to determine, and the pre'fident to have the cafting voice.

• II. That a fingular regard be had upon examina tion, to the gibbofity of the gentlemen that offer themselves, as founders kinfmen; or to the obliquity ' of their figure, in what fort foever.

III. That if the quantity of any man's nose bè eminently mifcalculated, whether as to length or • breadth, he shall have a just pretence to be elected. Lastly, That if there shall be two or more compe 'titors for the fame vacancy cæteris paribus, he that has the thickest skin to have the preference.

Every fresh member, upon his first night, is to entertain the company with a dish of cod-fish, and a fpeech in praife of Æjop; whofe portraiture they have in full proportion, or rather difproportion, over the chimney; and their defign is, as foon as their funds are fufficient, to purchase the heads of Ther fites, Duns Scotus, Scarron, Hudibras, and the old gentleman ' in Oldham, with all the celebrated ill faces of antiquity, as furniture for the club-room.

As they have always been profeffed admirers of the other fex, fo they unanimously declare that they will give all poffible encouragement to fuch as will take the benefit of the ftatute, though none yet have appeared to do it.

The worthy prefident, who is their moft devoted champion, has lately fhewn me two copies of verses compofed by a gentleman of his fociety; the first, a 'congratulatory ode infcribed to Mrs. Touch-wood, upon the lofs of her two fore-teeth; the other, a panegyric upon Mrs. Andiron's left shoulder. Mrs. Vizard (he fays) fince the small-pox, is grown tolerable ugly, and a top toast in the club; but I never heard him fo lavish of his fine things, as upon old Nell Trot, who conftantly ' officiates at their table; her he even adores and extols as the very counterpart of mother Shipton; in fhort, Nell (fays he) is one of the extraordinary works of nature; but as for complexion, fhape, and features, 'fo valued by others, they are all mere outfide and fymmetry, which is his averfion. Give me leave to

No 18. add, that the prefident is a facetious pleasant gentleman, and never more fo, than when he has got (as ⚫ he calls them) his dear mummers about him; and he often protefts it does him good to meet a fellow ⚫ with a right genuine grimace in his air, (which is so agreeable in the generality of the French nation ;) and, as an inftance of his fincerity in this particular, he gave me a fight of a lift in his pocket-book of all this clafs, who for these five years have fallen under ⚫ his observation, with himself at the head of them, and in the rear (as one of a promifing and improving • afpect)

SIR,

your obliged and
bumble fervant,

Alexander Carbuncle.

N° 18.

Wednesday, March 21.

Equitis, quoque jam migravit ab aure voluptas Omnis ad incertos oculos & gaudia vana,

HOR. Ep. 1.

1. 2. ver. 187.

But now our nobles too are fops and vain,
Neglect the fenfe, but love the painted scene.

CREECH.

IT is my defign in this paper to deliver down to pof

terity a faithful account of the Italian opera, and of the gradual progrefs which it has made upon the Englifb ftage; for there is no queftion but our great grandchildren will be very curious to know the reason why their forefathers ufed to fit together like an audience of foreigners in their own country, and to hear whole plays acted before them in a tongue which they did. not understand.

Arfinoe was the first opera that gave us a taste of Italian mufic. The great fuccefs this opera met with produced fome attempts of forming pieces upon Italian

plans, which fhould give a more natural and reasonable entertainment than what can be met with in the elaborate trifles of that nation. This alarmed the poetafters and fiddlers of the town, who were used to deal in a more ordinary kind of ware; and therefore laid down an established rule, which is received as fuch to this day, That nothing is capable of being well set to music, that is not nonfenfe.

This maxim was no fooner received, but we immediately fell to tranflating the Italian operas; and as there was no great danger of hurting the fenfe of thofe extraordinary pieces, our authors would often make words of their own which were entirely foreign to the meaning of the paffages they pretended to tranflate; their chief care being to make the numbers of the English verfe answer to thofe of the Italian, that both of them might go to the fame tune. Thus the famous fong in Camilla,

Barbara fi t'intendo, &c.

Barbarous woman, yes, I know

your meaning, which expreffes the refentments of an angry lover, was tranflated into that English lamentation,

Frail are a lover's hopes, &c.

And it was pleafant enough to fee the moft refined perfons of the British nation dying away and languishing to notes that were filled with a spirit of rage and indignation. It happened alfo very frequently, where the fenfe was rightly tranflated, the neceffary tranfpofition of words, which were drawn out of the phrase of one tongue into that of another, made the mufic appear very abfurd in one tongue that was very natural in the other. I remember an Italian verse that ran thus word for word,

And turn'd my rage into pity;

which the English for rhyme fake tranflated,

And into pity turn'd my rage.

By this means the foft notes that were adapted to pity in the Italian, fell upon the word rage in the English;

and the angry founds that were turned to rage in the original, were made to express pity in the tranflation. It oftentimes happened likewife, that the finest notes in the air fell upon the moft infignificant words in the fentence. I have known the word and purfued through the whole gamut, have been entertained with many a melodious the, and have heard the most beautiful graces, quavers, and divifions beftowed upon then, for, and from; to the eternal honour of our English particles. The next step to our refinement, was the introducing of Italian actors into our opera; who fung their parts in their own language, at the fame time that our countrymen performed theirs in our native tongue. The king or hero of the play generally spoke in Italian, and his flaves anfwered him in English: the lover frequently made his court, and gained the heart of his princefs, in a language which the did not understand. One would have thought it very difficult to have carried on dialogues after this manner, without an interpreter between the perfons that converfed together; but this was the state of the English stage for about three years.

At length the audience grew tired of undeftanding half the opera; and therefore to ease themfelves entirely of the fatigue of thinking, have fo ordered it at prefent, that the whole opera is performed in an unknown tongue. We no longer understand the language of our own stage; infomuch that I have often been afraid, when I have seen our Italian performers chattering in the vehemence of action, that they have been calling us names, and abufing us among themfelves; but I hope, fince we do put fuch an entire confidence in them, they will not talk against us before our faces, though they may do it with the fame fafety as if it were behind our backs. In the mean time, I cannot forbear thinking how naturally an historian who writes two or three hundred years hence, and does not know the tafte of his wife forefathers, will make the following reflection, In the beginning of the eighteenth century the Italian tongue was fo well understood in England, that operas were acted on the public ftage in that language.

One scarce knows how to be serious in the confutation of an absurdity that fhews itself at the first fight. It

does not want any great measure of fense to see the ridicule of this monftrous practice; but what makes it the more aftonishing, it is not the taste of the rabble, but of perfons of the greatest politenefs, which has eftablished it.

If the Italians have a genius for mufic above the English, the English have a genius for other performances of a much higher nature, and capable of giving the mind a much nobler entertainment.. Would one think it was poffible (at a time when an author lived that was able to write the Phedra and Hippolitus) for a people to be fo ftupidly fond of the Italian opera, as fcarce to give a third day's hearing to that admirable tragedy? Mufic is certainly a very agreeable entertainment but if it would take the entire poffeflion of our ears, if it would make us incapable of hearing fenfe, if it would exclude arts that have a much greater tendency to the refinement of human nature; I must confefs I would allow it no better quarter than Plato has done, who banishes it out of his commonwealth.

At present our notions of mufic are so very uncertain, that we do not know what it is we like; only, in general, we are tranfported with any thing that is not Englife. So it be of a foreign growth, let it be Italian, French, or High-Dutch, it is the fame thing. In fhort, our English mufic is quite rooted out, and nothing yet planted in its stead.

When a royal palace is burnt to the ground, every man is at liberty to prefent his plan for a new one; and though it be but indifferently put together, it may furnish feveral hints that may be of ufe to a good architect. I fhall take the fame liberty in a following paper, of giving my opinion upon the fubject of music; which I fhall lay down only in a problematical manner, to be confidered by those who are mafters in the art.