I am quite of another Opinion. She has, I will al'low, a very pleafing Afpect, but methinks that Simplicity in her Countenance is rather childish than innocent.' When I obferved her a second time, he said, I grant her Drefs is very becoming, but perhaps the Merit of that Choice is owing to her Mother; for though, continued he, I allow a Beauty to be as much. to be commended for the Elegance of her Drefs, as a • Wit for that of his Language; yet if she has stolen ⚫ the Colour of her Ribbands from another, or had Ad'vice about her Trimmings, I fhall not allow her the ⚫ Praise of Drefs any more than I would call a Plagiary

an Author.' When I threw my Eye towards the next Woman to her, WILL fpoke what I looked, according to his Romantick Imagination, in the following manner.

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BEHOLD, you who dare, that charming Virgin; • Behold the Beauty of her Perfon chaftifed by the In⚫nocence of her Thoughts. Chastity, Good-nature, and Affability,are the Graces that play in her Countenance; fhe knows she is handfom, but the knows fhe is good. Confcious Beauty adorned with confcious Virtue!: what a Spirit is there in thofe Eyes! What a Bloom in that Perfon! How is the whole Woman expreffed in her Appearance! Her Air has the Beauty of Motion, and her Look the Force of Language.

IT was Prudence to turn away my Eyes from this Object, and therefore I turned them to the thoughtless Creatures who make up the Lump of that Sex, and move a knowing Eye no more than the Protraitures of infignificant People by ordinary Painters, which are but Pictures of Pictures.

THUS the Working of my own Mind is the general Entertainment of my Life; I never enter into the Commerce of Difcourfe with any but my particular Friends, and not in Publick even with them. Such an Habit has perhaps raised in me uncommon Reflexions; but this Effect I cannot communicate but by myWritings. my Pleasures are almost wholly confined to thofe of the Sight, I take it for a peculiar Happiness that I have always had an eafy and familiar Admittance to the fair Sex. If I never praised or flattered, I never belyed or contradicted them. As thefe compose half the World, VOL. I.

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and are, by the juft Complaifance and Galantry of our Nation, the more powerful Part of our People, I fhall dedicate a confiderable Share of thefe my Speculations to their Service, and fhall lead the Young through all the becoming Duties of Virginity, Marriage, and Widowhood. When it is a Woman's Day, in myWorks, I fhall endeavour at a Stile and Air fuitable to their Underftanding. When I fay this, I must be understood to mean, that I fhall not lower but exalt the Subjects I treat upon. Difcourfe for their Entertainment, is not to be debased but refined. A Man may appear learned without talking Sentences, as in his ordinary Gesture he discovers he can dance, though he does not cut Capers. In a word, I fhall take it for the greatest Glory of my Work, if among reasonable Women this Paper may furnish TeaTable Talk. In order to it, I fhall treat on Matters which relate to Females, as they are concerned to approach or fly from the other Sex, or as they are tied to them by Blood, Intereft, or Affection. Upon this Occafion I think it but reasonable to declare, that whatever Skill I may have in Speculation, I fhall never betray what the Eyes of Lovers fay to each other in my Prefence. At the fame time I fhall not think myself obliged, by this Promife, to conceal any falfe Proteftations which I obferve made by Glances in publick Affemblies; but endeavour to make both Sexes appear in their Conduct what they are in their Hearts. By this means, Love, during the Time of my Speculations, fhall be carried on with the fame Sincerity as any other Affairs of lefs Confideration. As this is the greateft Concern, Men fhall be from henceforth liable to the greateft Reproach for Misbehaviour in it. Falfhood in Love fhall hereafter bear a blacker Afpect than Infidelity in Friendship, or Villany in Bufinefs. For this great and good End, all Breaches against that noble Paffion, the Cement of Society, fhall be feverely examined. But this and all other Matters loosely hinted at now, and in my former Papers, fhall have their proper Place in my following Difcourfes: The prefent Writing is only to admonish the World, that they fhall not find me an idle but a bufy Spectator.

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Tuesday,

N° 5

Tuesday, March 6.

Spectatum admiffi rifum teneatis ?

Hor. Ars Poet. v. 5.

Admitted to the Sight, wou'd you not laugh?

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N Opera may be allowed to be extravagantly lavish in its Decorations, as its only Defign is to gratify the Senfes, and keep up an indolent Attention in the Audience. Common Senfe however requires, that there fhould be nothing in the Scenes and Machines which may appear Childish and Abfurd. How would the Wits of King Charles's Time have laughed to have feen Nicolini expofed to a Tempeft in Robes of Ermine, and failing in an open Boat upon a Sea of Pafteboard? What a Field of Rallery would they have been let into, had they been entertained with painted Dragons fpitting Wild-fire, enchanted Chariots drawn by Flanders Mares, and real Cafcades in artificial Landskips? A little Skill in Criticism would inform us, that Shadows and Realities ought not to be mixed together in the fame Piece; and that the Scenes which are defigned as the Representations of Nature fhould be filled with Refemblances, and not with the Things themselves. If one would reprefent a wide Champian Country filled with Herds and Flocks, it would be ridiculous to draw the Country only upon the Scenes, and to crowd several Parts of the Stage with Sheep and Oxen. This is joining together Inconfiftencies, and making the Decoration partly real and partly imaginary. I would recommend what I have faid here, to the Directors, as well as to the Admirers of our Modern Opera.

AS I was walking in the Streets about a Fortnight ago, I faw an ordinary Fellow carrying a Cage full of little Birds upon his Shoulders; and, as I was wondering with myself what Ufe he would put them to, he was met very luckily by an Acquaintance, who had the fame Curiosity.

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Curiofity. Upon his asking him what he had upon his Shoulders, he told him that he had been buying Sparrows for the Opera. Sparrows for the Opera, fays his Friend, licking his lips, what, are they to be rosted? No, no, fays the other, they are to enter towards the End of the first Act, and to fly about the Stage.

THIS ftrange Dialogue awakened my Curiofity fo far, that I immediately bought the Opera, by which means I perceived that the Sparrows were to act the part of Singing-Birds in a delightful Grove; though upon a nearer Inquiry I found the Sparrows put the fame Trick upon the Audience, that Sir Martin Mar-all practifed upon his Mistress; for though they flew in fight, the Mufick proceeded from a Confort of Flagelets and Bird-calls which were planted behind the Scenes. At the fame time I made this Discovery, I found by the Discourse of the Actors, that there were great Defigns on foot for the Improvement of the Opera; that it had been propofed to break down a part of the Wall, and to furprise the Audience with a Party of an hundred Horfe, and that there was actually a Project of bringing the New-River into the House, to be employed in Jetteaus and Water-works. This Project, as I have fince heard, is poftponed till the Summer-Seafon; when it is thought the Coolness that proceeds from Fountains and Cascades will be more acseptable and refreshing to People of Quality. In the mean time, to find out a more agreeable Entertainment for the Winter-Season, the Opera of Rinaldo is filled with Thunder and Lightning, Illuminations and Fireworks; which the Audience may look upon without catching Cold, and indeed without much Danger of being burnt; for there are feveral Engines filled with Water, and ready to play at a Minute's warning, in cafe any fuch Accident fhould happen. However, as I have a very great Friendship for the Owner of this Theatre, I hope that he has been wife enough to infure his Houfe before he would let this Opera be acted in it.

IT is no wonder, that thofe Scenes fhould be very furprifing, which were contrived by two Poets of different Nations, and raised by two Magicians of different Sexes. Armida (as we are told in the Argu

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ment) was an Amazonian Enchartrefs, and poor Signior Caffani (as we learn from the Perfons reprefented) a Chriftian-Conjurer (Mago Chriftiano). I must confefs I am very much puzzled to find how an Amazon fhould be verfed in the Black Art, or how a good Chriftian, for fuch is the Part of the Magician, should deal with the Devil.

TO confider the Poet after the Conjurer, I fhall give you a Tafte of the Italian from the firft Lines of his Preface. Eccoti, benigno Lettore, un Parto di poche. Sere, che fe ben nato di Notte, non è però aborto di Tene bre, mà fi farà conofcere Figlio d'Apollo con qualche Raggio di Parnafjo. Behold, gentle Reader, the Birth of a fers Evenings, which, tho' it be the Offspring of the Night, is not the Abortive of Darkness, but will make itself known to be the Son of Apollo, with a certain Ray of Parnaffus. He afterwards proceeds to call Mynheer Handel the Orpheus of our Age, and to acquaint us, in the fame Sublimity of Stile, that he compofed this Opera in a Fortnight. Such are the Wits, to whofe Taftes we fo ambitiously conform ourselves. The Truth of it is, the finest Writers among the modern Italians exprefs themselves in fuch a florid Form of Words, and fuch tedious Circumlocutions, as are ufed by none but Pedants in our own Country; and at the fame time fill their Writings with fuch poor Imaginations and Conceits, as our Youths are afhamed of before they have been two Years at the University. Some may be apt to think that it is the Difference of Genius which produces this Difference in the Works of the two Nations; but to fhew there is nothing in this, if we look into the Writings of the old Italians, fuch as Cicero and Virgil, we shall find that the English Writers, in their way of thinking and expreffing themselves, resemble those Authors much more than the modern Italians pretend to do. And as for the Poet himself, from whom the Dreams of this Opera are taken, I must intirely agree with Monfieur Boileau, that one Verfe in Virgil is worth all the Clincant or Tinfel of Tafso.

BUT to return to the Sparrows; there have been fo many Flights of them let loofe in this Opera, that it is. feared the House will never get rid of them; and that in

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other