N° 258.

Wednesday, December 26.

Divide & impera.

Divide and rule.

PLEASURE

LEASURE and recreation of one kind or other are abfolutely neceffary to relieve our minds and bodies from too conftant attention and labour: where therefore public diverfions are tolerated, it behoves perfons of diftinction, with their power and example, to prefide over them in fuch a manner as to check any thing that tends to the corruption of manners, or which is too mean or trivial for the entertainment of reasonable creatures. As to the diverfions of this kind in this town, we owe them to the arts of poetry and music: my own private opinion, with relation to fuch recreations, I have heretofore given with all the franknefs. imaginable; what concerns thofe arts at prefent the reader fhallave from my correfpondents. The first of the letters with which I'acquit myfelf for this day, is. written by one who proposes to improve our entertainments of dramatic poetry, and the other comes from three perfons, who, as foon as named, will be thought capable of advancing the prefent ftate of mufic.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I AM confiderably obliged to you for your fpeedy publication of my laft in yours of the 18th inftant,. and am in no finall hopes of being fettled in the post * of comptroller of the cries. Of all the objections I have 'hearkened after in public coffee-houfes, there is but one that feems to carry any weight with it, viz. That 'fuch a poft would come too near the nature of a monopoly. Now, fir, because I would have all forts of people made eafy, and being willing to have more ftrings than one to my bow; in cafe that of comptroller fhould fail me, I have fince formed another project,. which being grounded on the dividing of a prefent

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monopoly, I hope will give the public an equivalent to their full content. You know, fir, it is allowed ⚫ that the bufinefs of the ftage is, as the Latin has it, jucunda & idonea dicere vita. Now there being but one dramatic theatre licensed for the delight and pro⚫fit of this extenfive metropolis, I do humbly propose, ⚫ for the convenience of fuch of its inhabitants as are too diftant from Covent-Garden, that another Theatre of Eafe may be erected in fome fpacious part of the city; and that the direction thereof may be made a franchise in fee to me, and my heirs for ever.

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And ⚫ that the town may have no jealoufy of my ever coming to an union with the fet of actors now in being, I do further propofe to conftitute for my deputy my near kinfman and adventurer, Kit Crotchet, whofe long ⚫ experience and improvements in thofe affairs need no ' recommendation. It was obvious to every spectator what a quite different foot the ftage was upon during his government; and had he not been bolted out of his trap-doors, his garrifon might have held out for ever, he having by long pains and perfeverance arrived at the art of making his army fight without pay or provifions. I must confefs it with a melancholy amazement, I fee fo wonderful a genius laid afide, and the late flaves of the stage now become its mafters, dunces, that will be fure to fupprefs all thea ⚫trical entertainments and activities that they are not able themselves to thine in!

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Every man that goes to a play is not obliged to ⚫ have either wit or understanding, and I infift upon it, that all who go there fhould fee fomething which may improve them in a way of which they are capable. In hort, fir, I would have fomething done as well as faid on the stage. A man may have an active body, though he has not a quick conception; for the imitation therefore of fuch as are, as I may fo fpeak, corporeal fa ⚫ wits or nimble fellows, I would fain afk any of the prefent mifmanagers, why fhould not rope-dancers, ⚫ vaulters, tumblers, ladder-walkers, and pofture-maf*ters appear again on our flage? After fuch a reprefentation, a five-bar gate would be leaped with a better grace next time any of the audience went a

hunting. Sir, thefe things cry aloud for reformation, and fall properly under the province of Spectator General; but how indeed should it be otherwife, while fellows, that for twenty years together were never paid 'but as their mafter was in the humour, now presume to pay others more than ever they had in their lives; and in contempt of the practice of perfons of condition have the infolence to owe no tradefman a farthing at the end of the week. Sir, all I propofe is the public good; for no one can imagine I shall ever get a private fhilling by it: therefore I hope you will recommend this matter in one of your chis week's papers, and de fire when my houfe opens you will accept the liberty of it for the trouble you have received from, Sir,

'P. S. I have furances that the trunk-maker will dedare for us.'

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Your humble fervant,

RALPH CROTCHET?

WE whofe names are fubfcribed, think you the propereft perfon to fignify what we have to offer the town in behalf of ourselves, and the art which we profefs, mufic. We conceive hopes of your favour from the fpeculations on the mistakes which the town run into with regard to their pleasure of this kind; and believing your method of judging is, that you confider mufic only valuable, as it is agreeable to, and heightens the purpose of poetry, we confent that that' is not only the true way of relifhing that pleasure, but alfo that without it a composure of mufic is the fame thing as a poem, where all the rules of poetical nun"bers are obferved, though the words have no fenfe or * meaning; to fay it fhorter, mere mufical founds are: in our art no other than nonfenfe verfes are in poetry. Mufic therefore is to aggravate what is intended by poetry; it must always have fome paflion or fentiment to exprefs, or elfe violins, voices, or any other organs of found, afford an entertainment very little above the rattles of children. It was from this opinion of the matter, that when Mr. Clayton had finished hist !ftudies in Italy, and brought over the opera of Arfinöe,,

that Mr. Haym and Mr. Dieupart, who had the honour to be well known and received among the * nobility and gentry, were zealoufly inclined to affitt, by their folicitations, in introducing fo elegant an ⚫ entertainment as the Italian mufic grafted upon English poetry. For this end Mr. Dieupart and Mr. Haym, according to their feveral opportunities, promoted the introduction of Arfinöe, and did it to the beft advantage Co great a novelty would allow. It is not proper to trouble you with particulars of the juft complaints we all of us have to make; but fo it is, that without regard to our obliging pains, we are all equally fet afide in the prefest opera. Our appli⚫cation therefore to you is only infert this letter in your papers, that the town may know we have all three joined together to make entertainments of mufic for the future at Mr. Clayton's houfe in Yorkbuildings. What we promife ourfelves, is, to make a fubfcription of two guineas, for eight times; and that the entertainment with the names of the authors of the poetry, may be printed, to be fold in the house, with an account of the feveral authors of the vocal as well as the inftrumental mufic for each night; the money to be paid at the receipt of the tickets, at Mr. Charles Lillie's. It will, we hope, fir, be easily allowed, that we are capable of undertaking to exhibit by our joint force and different qualifications all that can be done in mufic; but let you fhould think fo dry a thing as an account of our propofal fhould be a matter unworthy your paper, which generally contains fomething of public ufe; give us leave to fay, that favouring our defign is no less than reviving an art, which runs to ruin by the utmost barbarifin under an affectation of knowledge. We aim at etablishing fome fettled notion of what is mufic, at recovering from neglect and want very inany families, who depend upon it, at making all foreigners who pretend to fucceed in England to learn the language of it as we ourselves have done, and not be fo infolent as to expect a whole nation, a refined and learned nation, fhould fubmit: to 8 learn theirs.

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In a word, Mr. SPECTATOR, with alt

⚫ deference and humility, we hope to behave ourselves in this undertaking in fuch a manner, that all English men who have any skill in mufic may be furthered in it for their profit or diverfion by what new things we 'fhall produce; never pretending to furpafs others, or afferting that any thing which is a fcience is not attainble by all men of all nations who have proper genius for it: we fay, fir, what we hope for is not expected will arrive to us by contemning others, but through the utmost diligence recommending ourselves.

• We are, Sir,

Your most humble fervants,

THOMAS CLAYTON.

NICOLINO HAYM.

T.

CHARLES DIEUPART.'

N° 259.

Thursday, December 27.

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Quod decet boneftum eft, quod honeftum eft decet. TULL. What is becoming is honourable, and what is honourable is becoming.

THERE

HERE are fome things which cannot come under certain rules, but which one would think could not need them. Of this kind are outward civilities and falutations. Thefe one would imagine might be regulated. by every man's common fenfe, without the help of an inftructor; but that which we call common fenfe fuffers. under that word; for it fometimes implies no more than that faculty which is common to all men, but fometimes. fignifies right reason, and what all men fhould confent to. In this latter acceptation of the phrafe, it is no great wonder people err fo much against it, fince it is not every one who is poffeffed of it, and there are fewer, who, against common rules and fashions, dare obey its dictates. As to falutations, which I was about to talk of, I obferve, as I ftroll about town, there are great enorinities committed, with regard to this particular.