yet to him are present auditors indebted for that very pleasant scene, where Lucinda imposes her lover upon her father in a counterfeit character, with the vain efforts of her aunt to point out the deception.

It is great praise to the author of this opera, that music has neither made his lovers insipid, nor the other characters dull. Young Meadows and Rosetta excite sympathy, and their friends and acquaintance produce mirth; yet, happily, not that species of merriment, which makes an enlightened auditor sigh whilst he laughs.

Justice Woodcock's humour is perfectly natural; and such is likewise the ill humour of his sister, the old maid.

Hawthorn, the rustic sportsman, is nicely distinguished from the coarse, clownish, Hodge; and the underplot of Eustace with the Justice's daughter is more amusing than secondary fables generally are; while Madge, forsaken, is a perfect description of the ill-fated state of many a rural servant maid.

The dialogue is easy and appropriate; and if the songs are not distinguished by much poetical skill, they are pleasing through simplicity and rational senti

ment.

Perhaps the denouement might have been delayed with better effect; for though Sir William Meadows heard of the situation of his son, it was not requisite that he should likewise know Rosetta was in the same house. The fable, thus conducted, the final discovery of events would have been postponed till the conclusion of the piece.

The famed Miss Brent was the original Rosetta ; the equally famed Miss Catley succeeded her; and they each enriched the managers, and enraptured their audience, almost as much as Mrs. Billington has since done in any of her most favourite characters.

Messrs. Abbot-L. Bologna-Lee-Odwell-Street

LOVE IN A VILLAGE.

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

A Garden.

ROSETTA and LUCINDA are discovered at Work, seated Two Garden Chairs.

upon

AIR I.

Ros.

Hope! thou nurse of young desire,

Fairy promiser of joy;

Painted vapour, glow-worm fire,

Temp'rate sweet, that ne'er can cloy:

Lucin. Hope! thou earnest of delight,
Softest soother of the mind;
Balmy cordial, prospect bright,
Surest friend the wretched find:

Both. Kind deceiver, flatter still,

Deal out pleasures unpossest ;
With thy dreams my fancy fill,
And in wishes make me blest.

Lucin. Heigho-Rosetta!

Ros. Well, child, what do you say?

Lucin. "Tis a devilish thing to live in a village an hundred miles from the capital, with a preposterous gouty father, and a superannuated maiden aunt.—I am heartily sick of my situation.

Ross. And with reason-But 'tis in a great measure your own fault: here is this Mr. Eustace, a man of character and family; he likes you, you like him; you know one another's minds, and yet you will not resolve to make yourself happy with him.

AIR II.

Whence can

you

inherit

So slavish a spirit?

Confin'd thus and chain'd to a log!
Now fondled, now chid,

Permitted, forbid:

'Tis leading the life of a dog.

For shame, you a lover!
More firmness discover ;

Take courage, nor here longer mope;
Resist and be free,

Run riot like me,

And to perfect the picture, elope.

Lucin. And this is your advice?

Ros. Positively.

Lucin. Here's my hand; positively I'll follow it-I have already sent to my gentleman, who is now in the country, to let him know he may come hither this day; we will make use of the opportunity to settle all preliminaries-And then-But take notice, whenever we decamp, you march off along with us.

Ros. Oh! madam, your servant; I have no inclination to be left behind, I assure you-But you say you got acquainted with this spark, while you were with your mother, during her last illness at Bath, so that your father has never seen him?