'SIR,

I

HAVE obferved the rules of my Mask * fo carefully, (in not inquiring into perfons) that I cannot tell whether you were one of the company or not, laft Tuesday; but if you ⚫ were not, and still defign to come, I defire you 'would, for your own entertainment, please to admonish the town, that all perfons indifferently, are not fit for this fort of diverfion. I 'could wish, Sir, you could make them underftand, that it is a kind of acting to go in Mafquerade, and a man fhould 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 Mask, and she shall drefs as a fhepherdefs. But let me beg of 'them to read the Arcadia, or fome other good 'romance, before they appear in any fuch cha⚫racter at my houfe. The laft day we prefented, every body was fo rafhly 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 fpeechlefs, till an occafion offered of expreffing him

*See SPECT. N° 8, N° 101; GUARD. N° 142, N° 154, and Notes on the Masquerade.

felf

'felf in the refufe of the tyring rooms.

We

had a judge that danced a minuet, with a qua'ker for his partner, while half a dozen harle'quins ftood by as fpectators: a Turk drank 'me off two bottles of wine, and a few eat me 'up half a ham of bacon. If I can bring my 'defign to bear, and make the Maskers preferve 'their characters in my affemblies, I hope you 'will allow there is a foundation laid for more 'elegant and improving gallantries than any the 'town at present affords; and confequently, that you will give your approbation to the en'deavours of,

'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 be too great encouragement given to his skill in motions*, provided he is under proper restrictions.

'SIR,

T

HE opera at the Haymarket, and that under the little Piazza in Covent-Gar

den, being at present the two leading diver'fions of the town, and Mr. Powell profeffing ' in his advertisements to fet up Whittington and his Cat + against Rinaldo and Armida, my cu

* Puppet-shews were formerly called Motions.

The curious may fee the original advertisement of this puppet-fhew, and ample accounts of Powell, in a late edition of the TATLER, Vol. III. N° 78, p. 27, Vol. v. p. 412, Vol. VI. N° 236. p. 173, & passim.

G 3

• riofity

riofity led me the beginning of laft week to view both these performances, and make my. obfervations upon them.

Firft, therefore, I cannot but obferve that Mr. Powell wifely forbearing to give his com-. pany a bill of fare before hand, every scene is. new and unexpected; whereas it is certain, that the undertakers of the Haymarket, having raised too great an expectation in their printed opera, very much difappoint their audience on the stage,

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 opera-book had promifed me; and thus while I expected Armida's dragons should rush 'forward towards Argentes, I found the hero was obliged to go to Armida, and hand her out of her coach. We had also 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 fpit fire and smoke. He flashed out his rofin in fuch just proportions, and in fuch due time, that I could not forbear conceiving hopes of his being one day a 'moft 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.

I obferve that Mr. Powell and the undertakers of the opera had both the fame thought, and I think much about the fame time, of in

troducing

'troducing animals on their several stages, though ' indeed with very different fuccefs. The fpar'rows and chaffinches at the Haymarket fly as yet very irregularly over the ftage; and inftead of perching on the trees, and performing their parts, thefe young actors either get in

'to the galleries, or put out the candles; whereas Mr. Powell has fo well difciplined his pig, that in the firft fcene he and Punch dance a 'minuet together. I am informed however, 'that Mr. Powell refolves to excel his adver• faries in their own way; and introduce larks in his next opera of Sufannah, or Innocence Betrayed, which will be exhibited next week, ' with a pair of new elders.

6

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.

As to the mechanifm 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 Haymarket, the undertakers forgetting to change the fide-fcenes, we were prefented with a profpect of the ocean in the midst of ⚫ a delightful grove; and though the gentlemen on the ftage had very much contributed to the beauty of the grove, by walking up and down between the trees, I muft own I was not a little aftonifhed to fee a well-dreffed young fellow, in a full-bottomed wig, appear G 4

'in

in the midst of the fea, and without any vifi'ble concern taking fnuff.

6 I fhall only obferve one thing further, in "which both dramas agree; which is, that by the fqueak of their voices the heroes of each are eunuchs; and as the wit in both pieces is equal, I must prefer the performance of Mr. Powell, because it is in our own language. 'I am, &c.'

ADVERTISEMENT.

On the first of April will be performed, at the playhouse in the Haymarket, an opera called "The cruelty of Atreus."

N. B. The scene, wherein Thyeftes eats his own children, is to be performed by the famous Mr. PSALMANAZAR, lately arrived from Formofa: the whole fupper being fet to kettledrums. TATLER in folio. See " Life of Pfalmanazar, &c.” 8vo. 1764. He ate all his flesh-meat raw.

N° 15. Saturday, March 15, 1710-11.

Parva leves capiunt animos

R*.

OVID, Ars Am. i. 159.

Light minds are pleas'd with trifles.

W

HEN I was in France, I ufed to gaze with great astonishment at the fplendid Equipages, and party-coloured habits of that fan

*By STEELE. The humour of the ftrictures on the Opera in thefe Papers is pointed: it is faid, the Pope, on reading them, laughed till his fides fhook. There are very many Numbers befides this, that well merit the attention of such as pretend to diftinguifh with wonderful facility between ADDISON'S and STELLE'S Papers. See N° 6, final Note.