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the other fide of the Garden; but they only laugh at the child.

• I defire you would lay this before all the world, 'that I may not be made fuch a tool for the future, ' and that punchinello may chuse hours less canon'ical. As things are 'now, Mr. Powell has a full congregation, while we have a very thin house; which if you can remedy, you will very much oblige,

• Sir,

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The following epistle I find is from the undertaker of the masquerade.

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SIR,

I HAVE observed the rules of my mask so carefully (in not inquiring into perfons), that I cannot tell whether you were one of the company or not last Tuesday; but if you were not, and ftill defign to come, I defire you would, for your own entertainment, please to admonish the town, that all persons indifferently are not fit for this fort of diverfion. I could wish, Sir, you could make them understand, that it is a kind of acting to go in masquerade, and a man should be able to fay or do things proper for the dress in which he appears. We have now and then rakes in the habit of Roman fenators, and grave politicians in the dress of rakes. The misfortune of the thing. is, that people dress themselves in what they have a mind to be, and not what they are fit for. There is not a girl in the town, but let her have • her will in going to a masque, and she shall dress as a shepherdess. But let me beg of them to read the Arcadia, or fome other good romance, be• fore they appear in any fuch character at my house. The last day we presented, every body • was so rafhly habited, that when they came to • speak to each other, a nymph with a crook had VOL.I.

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not a word to say but in the pert style of the pit'bawdry; and a man in the habit of a philofopher was speechless, until an occafion offered of expreffing himself in the refuse of the tiringrooms. We had a judge that danced a minuet, with a quaker for his partner, while half a dozen harlequins stood 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 maskers preserve their characters in my assemblies, I hope you will allow there is a foundation laid for more elegant and improving gallantries than any the town at prefent affords; 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 second time in the same paper; for indeed there cannot be too great encouragement given to his skill in motions, provided he is under proper restrictions.

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'SIR,

TH 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. Powell profeffing in his advertisements to • fet up Whittington and his Cat against Rinaldo and Armida, my curiofity led me the beginning of last week to view both these performances, and make my observations upon them.

First, therefore, I cannot but observe that, Mr. Powell wisely forbearing to give his company a bill ' of fare before hand, every scene is new and unexpected; whereas it is certain, that the undertakers of the Hay-market, having raised too great an expectation in their printed opera, very much disappoint their 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 horses, as my operabook had promised ine; and thus, while I expect'ed Armida's dragons should rush forward towards Argantes, I found the hero was obliged to go to Armida, and hand her out of her coach. We had 'alfo but a very short allowance 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 spit fire and smoke: He flashed out his rofin in fuch juft 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 observe 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 dif• ferent fuccefs. The sparrows and chaffinches at 'the Hay-market fly as yet very irregularly over 'the stage; and, instead of perching on the trees, ⚫ and performing their parts, thefe young actors ' either get into the galleries, or put out the can'dles; whereas Mr. Powell has so well disciplined ' his pig, that in the first scene he and Punch dance

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a minuet together. I am informed, however, that • Mr. Powell refolves to excel his adverfaries in their own way; and introduce larks in his next opera • of Susanna, or Innocence betrayed, which will he ' exhibited next week with a pair of new elders.

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• The moral of Mr. 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.

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As to the mechanism and scenery, every thing

indeed was uniform and of a piece, and the scenes were managed very dexterously; which calls on me to take notice, that at the Hay-market the undertakers forgetting to change their fide-scenes, we were presented with a prospect 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 astonished to fee a well-dressed young fellow, in a full-bottomed wig, appear in the midst of the fea, and, without any visible concern, taking snuff.

• 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;

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and, as the wit in both pieces is equal, I must pre• fer the performance of Mr. Powell, because it is in our own language.

I am, &c.'

R

NO 15. SATURDAY, MARCH 17.

Parva leves capiunt animos..

OVID. Ars Am. 1. i. ver. 159.

Light minds are pleas'd with trifles.

WHEN I was in France, I used to gaze with

great astonishment at the fplendid equipages, and party-coloured 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 horses, and loaden behind with the fame number of powdered footmen. Just before the Lady were a couple of beautiful

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15. THE SPECTATOR. beautiful pages, that were stuck among the harness, and, by their gay dresses and smiling 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 several years, received the addresses of a gentleman, whom, after a long and intimate acquaintance, she forsook, upon the account of this shining equipage, which had been offered to her by one of great riches but a crazy constitution. The circumstances in which I faw her, were, it feems, the disguises only of a broken heart, and a kind of pageantry to cover distress; for in two months after she 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 smitten with every thing that is showy and fuperficial; and on the numberless evils that befal the sex, from this light fantastical difpofition. I myself remember a young Lady, that was very warmly folicited by a couple of importunate rivals, who, for several months together, did all they could to recommend themselves, by complacency of behaviour and agreeableness of conversation. 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 a fupernumerary lace to his liveries, which had fo good an effect, that he married her the very week after.

The ufual converfation of ordinary women very much cherishes this natural weakness of being taken with outside and appearance. Talk of a newmarried couple, and you immediately hear whether they keep their coach and fix, or eat in plate. Mention

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