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town, but let her have her will in going to a masque, and the shall dress as a fhepherdefs. But let me beg of them to read the Arcadia, or fome other good romance, 'before they appear in any fuch character at my house. The last day we presented, every body was fo rashiy habited, that when they came to fpeak to each other, a nymph with a crook had not a word to fay but in the pert ftile of the pit bawdry, and a man in the habit of a philofopher was ipecchless, till an occafion offered ' of expreffing himself in the refuse of the tyring-rooms. 'We had a judge that danced a minuet with a quaker ' for his partner, while half a dozen harlequins ftood by as spectators; a Turk drank me off two bottles of wine, and a Jew eat me up half a ham of bacon. If I can bring my design to bear, and make the masquers pre• ferve their characters in my afsemblies, I hope you will 'allow there is a foundation laid for more elegant and improving gallantries than any the town at present atfords; and confequently that you will give your approbation to the endeavours of,

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• Sir,

Your most obedient

humble fervant."

I am very glad the following epistle obliges me to mention Mr. Powell a fecond time in the fame paper; for indeed there cannot he too great encouragement given to his skill in motions, provided he is under proper reftrictions.

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Sir,

THE Opera at the Hay-Market, and that under the little Piazza in Covent-Garden, being at present ' the two leading diverfions of the town, and Mr. Pow⚫ ell profeffing in his advertisements to fet up Whitting

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ton and his Cat against Rinaldo and Armida, my curiofity led me the beginning of last week to view both • thefe performances, and make my observations upon

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• First therefore, I cannot but observe that Mr. Powell, wifely forbearing to give his company a bill of fare ⚫ beforehand, every scene is new and unexpected; • whereas it is certain, that the undertakers of the Hay• Market, having raifed too great an expectation in their printed opera, very much difappoint the audience on ' the stage.

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The King of Jerufalem is obliged to come from the 'city on foot, instead of being drawn in a triumphant • chariot by white horfes, as my opera-book had pro' mised me; and thus while I expected Armida's dra

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gons should rush forward towards Argantes, I found ⚫ the hero was obliged to go to Armida, and hand her

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out of her coach. We had alfo but a very short al• lowance of thunder and lightning; though I cannot in ' this place omit doing justice to the boy who had the • direction of the two painted dragons, and made them ' fpit fire and smoke; he flashed out his rosin in fuch

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just proportions and in fuch due time, that I could not • forbear conceiving hopes of his being one day a most ' excellent player. I faw indeed but two things wanting to render his whole action complete, I mean the keeping his head a little lower, and hiding his candle.

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I obferve that Mr. Powell and the undertakers had ' both the fame thought, and I think much about the 'fame time, of introducing animals on their several stages, though indeed with very different fuccess. The Sparrows and Chaffinches at the Hay-Market fly as vet very irregularly over the stage; and instead of perching on the trees and performing their parts, thefe young • actors cither get into the galleries, or put out the can`dles; whereas Mr. Powell has fo well difciplined his Pig, that in the firft scene he and Punch dance a minuet together. I am informed, however, that Mr. • Powell refolves to excel his adverfaries in their own

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way, and introduce larks in his next opera of Sufannah,

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nah, or Innocence Petraved, which will be exhibited next week with a pair of new Elders.

The moral of Powell's drama is violated, I confefs, by Punch's national reflections on the French, and King Harry's laying his leg upon the Queen's lap in too ludicrous a manner before fo great an affembly. • As to the mechanism and scenery, every thing in• deed was uniform and of a piece, and the fcenes were managed very dexteroufly, which calls on me to take notice, that at the Hay-Market, the undertakers forgetting to change their fide-fcenes, we were presented with a profpect of the ocean in the midst of a delightful grove; and though the gentlemen on the stage had very much contributed to the beauty of the grove, by walking up and down between the trees, I must own • I was not a little aftonished to fee a well-dressed young ' fellow, in a full-bottomed wig, appear in the midft of the fea, and, without any visible concern, taking

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I shall only observe one thing farther, in which • both dramas agree; which is, that by the squeak of their voices the heroes of each are eunuchs; and as • the wit in both pieces is equal, I must prefer the per• formance of Mr. Powell, because it is in our own language.

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No. XV. SATURDAY, MARCH 17.

Parva leves capiunt animos

Light minds are pleas'd with trifles.

OVID.

WHEN I was in France I used to gaze with great aftonishment at the splendid equipages and partycoloured habits of that fantastic nation. I was one day in particular contemplating a lady that fat in a coach adorned with gilded Cupids, and finely painted with the loves of Venus and Adonis. The coach was drawn by fix milk-white horfes, and loaded behind with the fame number of powdered footinen. Juft before the lady were a couple of beautiful pages, that were stuck among the harness; and by their gay dresses and fmiling features, looked like the elder brothers of the little boys that were carved and painted in every corner of the

coach.

The lady was the unfortunate Cleanthe, who afterwards gave an occafion to a pretty melancholy novel. She had for feveral years received the addresses of a gentleman, whom after a long and intimate acquaintance she forfook, upon the account of this shining equipage, which had been offered to her by one of great riches, but a crazy conftitution. The circumstances in which I faw her, were, it seems, the disguises only of a broken heart, and a kind of pageantry to cover distress; for in two months after, the was carried to her grave with the fame pomp and magnificence; being fent thither partly by the lofs of one lover, and partly by the poffeffion of another.

I have often reflected with myself on this unaccountable humour in womankind, of being finitten with every thing that is showy and fuperficial; and on the numberless evils that befal the fex from this light fantastical difposition. I myself remember a young lady that was very warmly folicited by a couple of importunate rivals; who, for feveral months together, did all they could to recommend themselves, by complacency of behaviour, and agreeableness of converfation. At length, when the competition was doubtful, and the lady undetermined in her choice, one of the young lovers very luckily bethought himself of adding fupernumerary lace to his liveries; which had fo good an effect that he married her the very week after.

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The usual conversation of ordinary women very much cherishes this natural weakness of being taken with outfide appearance. Talk of a new-married couple, and you immediately hear whether they keep their coach and fix, or eat in plate; mention the name of an abfent lady,

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and it is ten to one but you learn fomething of her gown and petticoat. A ball is a great help to difcourse, and a birth-day furnishes converfation for a twelvemonth after: a furbelow of precious stones, an hat buttoned with a diamond, a brocade waistcoat or petticoat, are standing topics. In short, they confider only the drapery of the fpecies, and never cast away a thought on those ornaments of the mind that make perfons illuftrious in themselves and useful to others. When women are thus perpetually dazzling one another's imaginations, and filling their heads with nothing but colours, it is no wonder that they are more attentive to the fuperficial parts of life than the folid and fubftantial blessings of it. A girl who has been trained up in this kind of conversation, is in danger of every embroidered coat that comes in her way:-A pair of fringed gloves may be her ruin. In a word, lace and ribbons, filver and gold galloons, with the like glittering gew-gaws, are fo many lures to women of weak minds or low educations; and when artificially difplayed, are able to fetch down the most airy coquette from the wildest of her flights and rambles.

True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noife; it arifes, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's felf; and, in the next, from the friendship and converfation of a few felect companions; it loves shade and folitude, and naturally haunts groves and fountains, fields and meadows: in short, it feels every thing it wants within itself, and receives no addition from multitudes of witnesses and spectators. On the contrary, falfe happiness loves to be in a crowd, and to draw the eyes of the world upon her. She does not receive any satisfaction from the applaufes which she gives herself, but from the admiration which the raifes in others. She flourishes in courts and palaces, theatres and affemblies, and has no existence but when the is looked upon.

Aurelia, though a woman of great quality, delights in the privacy of a country life, and passes away a great part of her time in her own walks and gardens. Her husband, who is her bosom friend and companion in her folitudes, has been in love with her ever fince he knew her. They both

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