Mr. Mainwaring, Mr. Steele, and many members of both houfes of parliament, drew their pens for the whigs; but they seem to have been over-matched, though not in argument yet in writing, by Eolingbroke, Prior, Swift, Arbuthnot, and the other friends of the oppofite party. They, who oppofe a miniftry, have always a better field for ridicule and reproof than they who defend it.

Since that period our writers have either been encouraged above their merits or below them. Some who were poffeffed of the meaneft abilities acquired the highest preferments, while others who feemed born to reflect a luftre upon their age perifhed by want and neglect. More, Savage, and Amherst, were poffeffed of great abilities, yet they were fuffered to feel all the miferies, that ufually attend the ingenious and the imprudent, that attend men of ftrong paffions, and no phlegmatic referve in their command.

At prefent, were a man to attempt to improve his fortune, or increase his friendship by poetry, he would foon feel the anxiety of difappointment. The press lies open, and is a benefactor to every fort of literature but that alone.

I am at a loss whether to afcribe this falling off of the public to a vicious tafte in the poet, or in them. Perhaps both are to be reprehended. The poet either drily didactive gives us rules, which might appear abftrufe even in a fyftem of ethics, or triflingly volatile writes upon the most unworthy fubjects; content, if he can give mufic instead of fenfe; con. tent, if he can paint to the imagination without any defires or endeavours to affect; the publick therefore with justice difcard fuch empty found, which has nothing but a jingle, or, what is worse, the unmufical flow of blank verfe to recommend it. The late method also, into which our newspapers have fallen, of

giving an epitome of every new publication, muft greatly damp the writer's genius. He finds himself in this cafe at the mercy of men, who have neither abilities nor learning to diftinguifh his merit. He finds his own compofition mixed with the fordid trafh of every daily fcribbler. There is a fufficient fpecimen given of his work to abate curiofity, and yet fo mutilated as to render 'him contemptible. His firft, and perhaps his fecond work, by these means fink, among the crudities of the age, into oblivion. Fame he finds begin to turn her back : he therefore flies to Profit which invites him, and he enrols himself in the lifts of Dulness and of Avarice for life.

Yet there are still among us men of the greatest abilities, and who in fome parts of learning have furpaffed their predeceffors: Juftice and Friendship might here impel me to speak of names which will fhine out to all pofterity, but Prudence reftrains me from what I fhould otherwise eagerly embrace. Envy might rife against every honoured name I fhould mention, fince scarcely one of them has not those who are his enemies, or those who defpife him, &c.

OF THE OPERA IN ENGLAND.

THE rife and fall of our amusements pretty much refemble that of empire. They this day flourish without any visible caufe for fuch vigour; the next they decay without any reason that can be affigned for their downfall. Some years ago the Italian opera was the only fashionable amufement among our nobility. The managers of the playhouses dreaded it as a mortal enemy, and our very poets lifted them

felves in the oppofition; at prefent the house feems deferted, the caftrati fing to empty benches, even Prince Vologefe himself, a youth of great expectations, fings himself out of breath, and rattles his chain to no purpose.

To fay the truth, the opera, as it is conducted among us, is but a very humdrum amusement; in other countries the decorations are entirely magnificent, the fingers all excellent, and the burlettas or interludes quite entertaining; the beft poets compose the words, and the best masters the mufic, but with us it is otherwife; the decorations are but trifling and cheap; the fingers, Matei only excepted, but indifferent. Inftead of interlude, we have those forts of skipping dances, which are calculated for the galleries of the theatre. Every performer fings his favourite fong, and the mufic is only a medley of old Italian airs, or fome meagre modern Capricio!

When fuch is the cafe, it is not much to be wondered if the opera is pretty much neglected; the lower orders of people have neither tafte nor fortune to relish fuch an entertainment; they would find more fatisfaction in the Roast Beef of Old England than in the finest clofes of an eunuch, they fleep amidst all the agony of recitative; on the other hand people of fortune or tafte can hardly be pleafed, where there is a vifible poverty in the decorations, and an entire want of tafte in the compofition.

Would it not furprise one, that when Metaftafio is fo well known in England, and fo univerfally admired, the manager or the compofer fhould have recourfe to any other operas than those written by him. I might venture to fay, that written by Metaftafio, put up in the bills of the day, would alone be fufficient to fill an houfe, fince thus the admirers of fenfe as well as found might find entertainment.

The performers alfo fhould be entreated to fing only their parts, without clapping in any of their own favourite airs. I muft own, that fuch fongs are generally to me the moft difagreeable in the world. Every finger generally choofes a favourite air, not from the excellency of the mufic, but from the difficulty; fuch fongs are generally chofen as furprize rather than pleafe, where the performer may show his compafs, his breath, and his volubility.

Hence proceed those unnatural startings, thofe unmufical clofings, and shakes lengthened out to a painful continuance; fuch indeed may fhew a voice, but it muft give a truly delicate ear the utmost uneafinefs. Such tricks are not mufic; neither Corelli nor Pergolefi ever permitted them, and they begin even to be difcontinued in Italy, where they first had their rife.

And now I am upon the fubject: our compofers alfo fhould affect greater fimplicity; let their bafe cliff have all the variety they can give it; let the body of the mufic (if I may fo exprefs it) be as various as they please, but let them avoid ornamenting a barren ground work; let them not attempt by flourishing to cheat us of folid harmony.

The works of Mr. Rameau are never heard without a furprifing effect. I can attribute it only to this fimplicity he every where obferves, infomuch that fome of his fineft harmonies are often only octave and unifon. This fimple manner has greater powers than is generally imagined; and were not fuch a demonftration mifplaced, I think from the princi les of mufic it might be proved to be moft agreeable.

But to leave general reflection. With the prefent fet of performers, the operas, if the conductor thinks proper, may be carried on with fome fuccefs, finçe they have all fome merit; if not as actors, at

leaft

leaft as fingers. Signora Matei is at once both a perfect actress and a very fine finger. She is poffeffed of a fine fenfibility in her manner, and feldom indulges thofe extravagant and unmufical flights of voice complained of before. Cornacini on the

other hand is a very indifferent actor, has a most unmeaning face, feems not to feel his part, is infected with a paffion of fhowing his compass; but to recompenfe all these defects, his voice is melodious, he has vaft compafs and great volubility, his fwell and shake are perfectly fine, unless that he continues the latter too long. In fhort, whatever the defects of his action may be, they are amply recompensed by his excellency as a finger; nor can I avoid fancying that he might make a much greater figure in an oratorio than upon the ftage.

However, upon the whole, I know not whether ever operas can be kept up in England; they feem to be entirely exotic, and require the niceft management and care. Inftead of this, the care of them is affigned to men unacquainted with the genius and difpofition of the people they would amufe, and whose only motives are immediate gain. Whether a difcontinuance of fuch entertainments would be more to the lofs or the advantage of the nation, I will not take upon me to determine, fince it is as much our intereft to induce foreigners of taste among us on the one hand, as it is to difcourage thofe trifling members of fociety, who generally compofe the operatical dramatis perfonæ, on the other.