taken notice of in my dedication of the "Wife's Resentment" to the marquis (now duke) of Kent, and then lord-chamberlain, which was published above thirty years ago, when I had no thought of ever troubling the world with this theatrical history, I see no reason why it may not pass as a voucher of the facts I am now speaking of. I shall therefore give them in the very light I then saw them. After some acknowledgment for his lordship's protection of our (Haymarket) theatre, it is further said :

"The stage has for many years, until of late, groaned under the greatest discouragements, which have been very much if not wholly owing to the mismanagement of those that have awkwardly governed it. Great sums have been ventured upon empty projects and hopes of immoderate gains; and when those hopes have failed, the loss has been tyrannically deducted out of the actors' salary. And if your lordship had not redeemed them

this is meant of our being suffered to come over to Swiney)-they were very near being wholly laid aside, or at least the use of their labour was to be swallowed up in the pretended merit of singing and dancing."

What follows relates to the difficulties in dealing with the then impracticable manager; viz.

"And though your lordship's tenderness of oppressing is so very just, that you have rather staid to convince a man of your good intentions to him, than to do him even a service against his will; yet since your lordship has so happily begun the establishment of the separate diversions, we live in hope that the same justice and resolution will still persuade you to go as successfully through with it. But while any man is suffered to confound the industry and use of them, by acting publicly in opposition to your lordship's equal intentions, under a false and intricate pretence of not being able to comply with them, the town is likely to be more entertained with the private dissensions than the public performance of either, and the actors in a perpetual fear and necessity ofitioning your lordship every season for new relief."

Such was the state of the stage immediately preceding the time of Mr Brett's being admitted a joint patentee, who, as he saw with clearer eyes what was its evident interest, left no proper measures unattempted to make this so long despaired-of union practicable. The most apparent difficulty to be got over in this affair was, what could be done for Swiney, in consideration of his being obliged to give up those actors whom the power and choice of the lord chamberlain had the year before set him at the head of, and by whose management those actors had found themselves in a prosperous condition. But an accident at this time happily contributed to make that matter easy. The inclination of our people of quality for foreign operas had now reached the ears of Italy; and the credit of their taste had drawn over from thence, without any more particular invitation, one of their capital singers, the famous signor Cavaliero Nicolini; from whose arrival, and the impatience of the town to hear him, it was concluded that operas, being now so completely provided, could not fail of success; and that by making Swiney sole director of them, the profits must be an ample compensation for his resignation of the actors. This matter being thus adjusted by Swiney's acceptance of the opera, only to be performed at the Haymarket house, the actors were all ordered to return to Drury-lane, there to remain (under the patentees) her majesty's only company of comedians.

CHAPTER XII.

A short view of the opera, when first divided from the comedy. -Plays recover their credit.-The old patentee uneasy at their success.-Why.-The occasion of colonel Brett's throwing up his share in the patent. The consequences of it.-Anecdotes of Goodman the actor.-The rate of favourite actors in his time. The patentees, by endeavouring to reduce their price, lose them all a second time.The principal comedians return to the Haymarket in shares with Swiney.-They alter that theatre.--The original and present form of the theatre in Drury-lane compared.Operas fall off. The occasion of it.-Farther observations upon them. The patentee dispossessed of Drury-lane theatre.-Mr Collier, with a new license, beads the remains of that company.

PLAYS and operas being thus established upon separate interests, they were now left to make the best of their way into favour by their different merit. Although the opera is not a plant of our native growth, nor what our plainer appetites are fond of, and is of so delicate a nature that without excessive charge it cannot live long among us, especially while the nicest connoisseurs in music fall into such various heresies in taste, every sect pretending to be the true one; yet, as it is called a theatrical entertainment, and by its alliance or neutrality has more or less affected our domestic theatre, a short view of its progress may be allowed a place in our history.

After this new regulation, the first opera that appeared was "Pyrrhus." Subscriptions at that time were not extended, as of late, to the whole season, but were limited to the first six days only of a new opera. The chief performers in this were Nicolini, Valentini, and Mrs Tofts; and for the inferior parts, the best that were then to be found. Whatever praises may have been given to the most famous voices that have been heard since Nicolini, upon the whole I cannot but come into the opinion that still prevails among several persons of condition, who are able to give a reason for

their liking, that no singer since his time has so justly and gracefully acquitted himself, in whatever character he appeared, as Nicolini. At most the difference between him and the greatest favourite of the ladies, Farinelli, amounted but to this, that he might sometimes more exquisitely surprise us; but Nicolini (by pleasing the eye as well as the ear) filled us with a more various and rational delight. Whether in this excellence he has since had any competitor, perhaps will be better judged by what the critical censor of Great Britain says of him in his 115th Tatler; viz.

"Nicolini sets off the character he bears in an opera by his action, as much as he does the words of it by his voice; every limb and finger contributes to the part he acts, insomuch that a deaf man might go along with him in the sense of it. There is scarce a beautiful posture in an old statue which he does not plant himself in, as the different circumstances of the story give occasion for it. He performs the most ordinary action in a manner suitable to the greatness of his character, and shows the prince even in the giving of a letter or despatching of a message," &c.

His voice at this first time of being among us (for he made us a second visit when it was impaired) had all that strong, clear, sweetness of tone so lately admired in Senesino. A blind man could scarce have distinguished them; but in volubility of throat the former had much the superiority. This so excellent performer's agreement was eight hundred guineas for the year, which is but an eighth part more than half the sum that has since been given to several that could never totally surpass him. The consequence of which is, that the losses by operas for several seasons, to the end of the year 1738, have been so great, that those gentlemen of quality who last undertook the direction of them, found it ridiculous any longer to entertain the public at so extravagant an expense, while no one particular person thought himself obliged by it.

Mrs Tofts, who took her first grounds of music here in her own country, before the Italian taste had

so highly prevailed, was then not an adept in it: yet whatever defect the fashionably skilful might find in her manner, she had, in the general sense of her spectators, charms that few of the most learned singers ever arrive at. The beauty of her fine-proportioned figure, and exquisitely sweet silver tone of her voice, with that peculiar rapid sweetness of her throat, were perfections not to be imitated by art or labour. Valentini I have already mentioned; therefore need only say farther of him, that though he was every way inferior to Nicolini, yet as he had the advantage of giving us our first impression of a good opera singer, he had still his admirers, and was of great service in being so skilful a second to his superior.

Three such excellent performers, in the same kind of entertainment at once, England till this time had never seen: without any farther comparison then with the much dearer-bought who have succeeded them, their novelty at least was a charm that drew vast audiences of the fine world after them. Swiney their sole director was prosperous, and in one winter a gainer by them of a moderate younger brother's fortune. But as music, 'by so profuse a dispensation of her beauties, could not always supply our dainty appetites with equal variety, nor for ever please us with the same objects, the opera after one luxurious season, like the fine wife of a roving husband, began to lose its charms, and every day discovered to our satiety imperfections which our former fondness had been blind to. But of this I shall observe more in its place in the mean time let us inquire into the productions of our native theatre.

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It may easily be conceived that, by this entire reunion of the two companies, plays must generally have been performed to a more than usual advantage and exactness for now every chief actor, according to his particular capacity, piqued himself upon rectifying those errors which during their divided state were almost unavoidable. Such a choice of actors added a richness to every good play, as it was then served up to the public entertainment: the common people crowded to