ufe among the Ancients, but will find, that they did not want the Order of Time, Reafon, Proportion, and Mufical Harmony, and therefore may be apt to think them not unlike the HobbyHorfe Dancing of our Days, which both Men and Women ufe for the promoting of Luft; but there is no body but may perceive this Difference between theirs and ours, that theirs were employ'd as Exercifes often, and conducive to Health, ours after Supper, Feafts, and in the Night Time. Theirs were always directed to exprefs fome Paffion or Action, or Story of the Gods or Men, ours to nothing but frisking about to fhew a ufelefs Activity. And yet how much greater Deference has been paid to L'Abbe, Ballon, Subligniy, and the reft, than to Otway, Shakespear, or Johnfon ? And while our own Poets were neglected, the French Dancers got Eftates; and this by the Influence of thofe, who at the fame Expence might have made their own Names and their Country famous for the Encouragement of the politeft Arts and Sciences, now neglected to a Degree of Barbarity, greater, than moft Nations on this fide Lapland.

I muft own, that the Excufe of our Leaders feems greater and more reasonable in the Indulgence they fhew to Mufic, in their Subscriptions for Italian Singers; tho fo fenfible a Man as Monfieur St. Euremont evidently gives the Palm of Singing to his own Nation" Solus gallus cantat, fays he, none but the Frenchman fings. "I will not be injurious to all other Nations

«in maintaining what an Author has publish'd, ❝ the SPANIARD weeps, the ITALIAN grieves, "the GERMAN hollows, the FLANDERKIN "bowls, and only the FRENCHMAN fings; I "leave him to all these pretty Diftinctions, and "fhall only back my Opinion with the Autho"rity of Louigi, who could not endure to hear "an Italian fing Airs, after he had heard Vyert, "Hilaire, and La Petite Varenne fing. Upon "his Return to Italy, he made all the Muficians "of that Nation his Enemies, faying openly

at Rome, as he had at Paris, that to make "pleasant Mufick, Italian Airs fhould be in a "French Man's Mouth- It is very certain, he "was much difgufted with the Harness and

Rudeness of the greatest Masters of Italy, when "he had tafted the Sweetnefs of the French, "the Neatnefs and Manner of the French."The Italians with their Profoundness in Mufic, bring their Art to our Ears without any Sweetnefs, &c. Whether this Man of an acknowledg'd fine Tafte be in the right or not, I leave to the Judges of the Art; but I am fure, if he has fhewed himself but an indifferent Critic in Mufic, he has fhewn himself a good Patriot, in preferring his own Country-men to a Company of Stroling Foreigners, who in my poor Opinion have little Advantage of either of us, but that of coming a great way, and requiring a great deal of Money, and the Witchery of being a Foreigner; when scarce any Nation has given us, for all our Money, better Singers,

than

than Mrs. Tofts and Mr. Leveridge, who yet being of our own Growth, maintain but a fecond or third Character among worse Voices.

But were thefe Foreigners as excellent, as they themselves would be thought, yet to be drawn wholly by Sound, tho the most harmonious, that Art and Nature can fupply, is neither the greatest nor the justest Praife.

It muft, however, be allow'd, that Mufic discovers a wonderful Power, a Power not to be refifted; but I am afraid, that Power acts more on the Body, than the Mind, or by the Body on the Mind, the Ear has a pleafing Senfation at melodious Sounds, and that gratifies the Mind, which cannot naturally be uneafy when the Body is delighted with agreeable Senfations: But this proves Mufic as tranfporting, as it is to be but a fenfual Pleasure, and deriving no part from Reafon, nor directing any part to the Gratification of the rational Soul. But then this Power and Force of Mufic is heigh ten'd by the Addition of Poetry, which among the Ancients even in Dancing (as we have feen) was very feldom left out; for paffionate Words give a double Vigour to Harmony, and make for it a furer way to the Heart, than when the Soul is unconcern'd in the bare and folitary Notes. And Vocal. Mufic is agreed by all to be the most noble, and moft touching, that Tone being esteem'd the most excellent, which comes neareft to Vocal Sounds.

Mu

Mufic therefore ought ftill, as originally it was, to be mingled with the Drama, where it is fubfervient to Poetry, and comes into the Relief of the Mind, when that has been long intenfe on fome noble Scene of Paffion, but ought never to be a separate Entertainment of any Length.

2

But tho we allow the Vocal the Preheminence of all other forts of Mufic, yet we cannot without the greatest Abfurdities receive even that on Subject's improper for it, or in a manner unnatural, that is, as it is offer'd to us in our Opera's, with which of late the Town (I mean the leading part of the Audience) has been perfectly intoxicated, and in that drunken Fit has thrown away more Thousands of Pounds for their Support, than would have furnish'd us with the best Poetry, and the best Music in the World, without declaring against common Sense. Opera's have been faid to be the Invention of modern Italy, e'er the Return of Learning, and in the midst of that barbarous Ignorance, with which the Inundations of Vandals, Goths, Huns and Lombards had o'er-whelm'd it but I think it is pretty plain, that the Romans were, before that, funk as far from their ancient Learning and Senfe, as Virtue and Warlike Glory; and Lucian puts it beyond Controverfy, that the Entertainment, which we now call Opera's, was in ufe in his Time, when he fays, after he had been ridiculing the Tragedies of his Age"And alfo his Clamour from within, he breaks ❝ open

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open,

and unlocks himself, and most ridicu loufly SINGS his own Sufferings, and renders "himself by the very Tone odious; yet as "long, as he perfonates fome Andromache, or "Hecuba, his Singing is tolerable, but for a "HERCULES to enter dolefully SINGING, and to forget himself, and neither regard bis Lion's Skin or Club, muft needs to a judging Man appear a Solecifm.

But this, as I have faid, was in the Corrup tion of the Roman State, under the Empire, when Learning was almoft again engrofs'd by the Greeks, and fcarce any elfe appear'd in Books of Note but that Nation, as thofe of Plutarch, Sextus, Lucian, &c, for it was never fo in Greece, as is plain from the Alceftis of Euripides; where the Servants of Admetus are fcandaliz'd at the Singing of Hercules, when Alceftis lay dead in the Palace, and the Family with its Lord were all in the extremeft Grief and Sorrow ; which is a plain Argument, that the reft of the Play was fpoken, and not fung. Mr. Barns indeed, who is the Author of extraordinary Conjectures, fancies, that the Greek Tragedies were fung like our Opera's; whereas what we have here inftanced, and the Conftitution of the Chorus in its Divifion into Strophe, Antiftrophe, and Epod, prove the contrary. But this may pafs from a Gentleman, who would fain per-. fuade us, that Solomon was the Author of the