have read of, is that which Lucian defcribes in the introduction to his " difcourfe

66

upon hiftory," which had a very odd original. It was begun by one Archelaus, a player, who, in the theatre at Abdera, with a loud voice and vehement action, performed a part in the Andromeda of Euripides, which ftruck the eyes and ears of his audience fo forcibly, that their blood was put into a ferment by it, and great numbers of them feized with fevers. In the height of the diftemper they fell into a kind of poetical agitations, in which they mimicked Archelaus's action, and repeated the verses in his part, fo that in a few days the whole town rung with heroics, till the next fit of cold weather reduced them once more to profe and their fenfes.

I have the rather mentioned this remarkable cafe, because I do not find it in any books of the phyficians, though fome of them have very learnedly treated on another fort of fever, caused by a

fect called the Tarantula.

little Italian inPerhaps music,

which is found to be the only remedy for the latter, might have been effectual against the other too, and may afford relief in many like cafes: and whether an art which has fo perfuafive an influence on the spirits, and is able to charm down the intemperance of paffion, and lull the mind into ferenity and pleasure, might not, on fome occafions, be made beneficial in the ftate, and become a public good as well as entertainment, is another fpeculation which is likewife left to your thoughts, when you shall think proper, by, Sir,

Your humble fervant.

MADAM,

My duty as Cenfor, with my professed

care of the tender fex, and the humour of an old man who is fond of giving advice, are the reasons why I fend you this letter.

I am informed by Pacolet (my familiar) that you are one of the moft amiable of your

your fex, which gives me much concern for you, efpecially fince I understand that your conduct is divided and wavering between love and respect, and that you want no charm but one, which is that of being fixed, and delivered from the uncertainty of a various inclination. Of two candidates for your favour, by what I can judge, you seem to resolve that one shall never have your heart, but not know it; and that the other fhall know he has it, but not be the better for it.

Though I write to you in fpectacles, I am not fo old yet, madamn, as to have forgot that this was once my own cafe with a lady, for whom I had fo great a paffion, that, after she had given me to understand I had her affections, the thought she might ufe me as the pleafed. And being perfuaded to entertain a man fhe despised, she was fo nicely civil, that, because she hated him, she would not deny him, and knowing she might be free with me, who both loved her, and was beloved by her, the yielded

to

to the importunity of her relations, and married him. By which means I have long continued an unfortunate batchelor, and fhe a joyless wife, with all the cares of a married state, and none of the fatisfactions.

There is no need to advise a woman of your sense what use to make of this example, but if it has the weight with you, which I wish it may, you will not be at a loss how to fix your happiness, and perhaps you may hereafter remember with fatisfaction Your faithful monitor,

ISAAC BICKERSTAFF.

LETTER XIII.

M. HUGHES a Signor CAVALIERO NICOLINI.

SIG. CAVALIERO,

Tower, le 4me du Fevrier, 1709-10.

DEPUIS

que j'ai eu l'honneur d'être chez vous à la repetition de l'opera *, j'ai

By an inattention to the date of this letter, this chearsal was fuppofed, in the first edition, to bê

VOL. I.

diné avec Mr. Steele, et la converfation rou. lante fur vous, je lui dis la maniere obligeante dont je vous avois oui parler de Mr. Bickerstaff, en difant que vous aviez beaucoup d' inclination à etudier l'Anglois pour avoir feulement le plaifir de lire le Tatler. Il trouve que votre compliment à l'auteur du Tatler eft fort galant.

Et comme je m'eftimerois heureux de pouvoir vous encourager dans cette incli

that of Mr. Hughes's Calypfo and Telemachus." But, on reconfideration, as that opera was not performed till 1712, the opera here meant must certainly have been an Italian one. Mr. Addifon, in the "Spectator" (numb. 405) fpeaking of the juft applaufe given to Calypfo by Sig. Nicolini, (who, he fays, "was the greatest performer in dramatic mufic

that perhaps ever appeared on a ftage,") has thefe words: "The town is highly obliged to that excel"lent artift for having fhewn us the Italian mufic in its perfection, as well as for that generous appro bation he lately gave to an opera of our own country, in which the compofer endeavoured to do justice to the beauty of the words, by following that noble example which has been fet him by the #greateft foreign mafters in that art,"