Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

regularity of his Shape, which he defcribes as very much refembling the Letter Z. He diverts himfelf likewife by reprefenting to his Reader the Make of an Engine and Pully, with which he used to take off his Hat." When there happens to be any thing ridiculous in a Vifage, and the Owner of it thinks it an Afpect of Dignity, he must be of very great Quality to be exempt from Raillery: The beft Expedient therefore is to be pleafant upon himself. Prince Harry and Falftaffe, in Shakespear, have carried the Ridicule upon Fat and Lean as far as it will go. Falftaffe is humorously called Woolfack, Bed-preffer, and Hill of Flesh; Harry, a Starveling, an Elves-Skin, a Sheath, a Bow-cafe, and a Tuck. There is, in feveral Incidents of the Converfation between them, the Jeft ftill kept up upon the Perfon. Great Tenderness and Senfibility in this Point is one of the greatest Weakneffes of Self-love. For my own part, I am a little unhappy in the Mold of my Face, which is not quite fo long as it is broad: Whether this might not parily arife from my opening my Mouth much feldomer than other People, and by Confequence not fo much lengthning the Fibres of my Vifage, I am not at leifure to determine. However it be, I have been often put out of Countenance by the Shortnefs of my Face, and was formerly at great Pains in concealing it by wearing a Periwig with an high Foretop, and letting my Beard grow. But now I have thoroughly got over this Delicacy, and could be contented were it much fhorter, provided it might qualifie me for a Member of the Merry Club, which the following Letter gives me an Account of. I have received it from Oxford, and as it abounds with the Spirit of Mirth and good Humour which is natural to that Place, I shall set it down Word for Word as it came to me.

Moft Profound Sir,

HAVING been very well entertained, in the last of your Speculations that I have yet feen, by your Specimen upon Clubs, which I therefore hope you will continue, I fhall take the Liberty to furnish you with. brief Account of fuch a one as perhaps you have not feen in all your Travels, unless it was your Fortune to touch upon fome of the woody Parts of the African Continent,

6

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Continent, in your Voyage to or from Grand Cairo. There have arofe in this Univerfity (long fince you. left us without faying any thing) feveral of these in'ferior Hebdomadal Societies, as the Punning Club, the Witty Club, and amongst the reft, the Handfome Club; as a Burlefque upon which, a certain merry Species, 'that feem to have come into the World in Masquerade, ' for fome Years last past have affociated themselves to'gether, and affumed the Name of the Ugly Club: This ⚫ ill-favoured Fraternity confifts of a Prefident and twelve Fellows; the Choice of which is not confined by Patent to any particular Foundation, (as St. John's Men 'would have the World believe, and have therefore erected a feparate Society within themfelves) but Liberty is left to elect from any School in Great-Britain, provided the Candidates be within the Rules of the Club, as fet forth in a Table, entituled, The Act of Deformity. A Claufe or two of which I fhall transmit to you.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

I. THAT no Perfon whatsoever fhall be admitted ' without a visible Quearity in his Afpect, or peculiar 'Caft of Countenance; of which the Prefident and Officers for the time being are to determine, and the Pre'fident to have the cafting Voice.

II. THAT a fingular Regard be had, upon Exa'mination, to the Gibbofity of the Gentlemen that of 'fer themselves, as Founders Kinfmen; or to the Obliquity of their Figure, in what fort foever.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

III. THAT if the Quantity of any Man's Nofe be eminently mifcalculated, whether as to Length or Breadth, he fhall have a juft Pretence to be elected.

[ocr errors]

Laftly, THAT if there shall be two or more Competitors for the fame Vacancy, cateris paribus, he that has the thickeft Skin to have the Preference.

EVERY fresh Member, upon his firft Night, is to entertain the Company with a Difh of Cod-filh, and a Speech in Praise of fop; whofe Portraiture they have in full Proportion, or rather Difproportion, o ver the Chimney; and their Defign is, as foon as their Funds are fufficient, to purchafe the Heads of Therfites, Duns Scotus, Scarron, Hudibrafs, and the old VOL. I.

D

Gentle

• Gentleman in Oldham, with all the celebrated ill Faces of Antiquity, as Furniture for the Club Room.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

AS they have always been profeffed Admirers of the other Sex, fo they unanimously declare that they will give all poffible Encouragement to fuch as will take the Benefit of the Statute, though none yet have appeared to do it.

a top

THE worthy Prefident, who is their most devoted Champion, has lately fhewn me two Copies of Verfes compofed by a Gentleman of his Society; the firft, a Congratulatory Ode inscribed to Mrs. Touchwood, upon the lofs of her two Fore-teeth; the other, a Panegyrick · upon Mrs. Andiron's left Shoulder. Mrs. Vizard (he fays) fince the Small-Pox, is grown tolerably ugly, and Toaft in the Club; but I never hear him fo lavish of his fine Things, as upon old Nell Trot, who constantly Officiates at their Table; her he even adores and ex<tols as the very Counterpart of Mother Shipton; in short, Nell (fays he) is one of the Extraordinary Works of Nature; but as for Complexion, Shape, and Features, fo valued by others, they are all mere Outside and Symmetry, which is his Averfion. Give me leave to add, that the Prefident is a facetious pleasant Gentleman, and never more fo, than when he has got (as he 'calls 'em) his dear Mummers about him; and he often protests it does him good to meet a Fellow with a right genuine Grimace in his Air, (which is fo agreeable in the generality of the French Nation;) and, as an Inflance of his Sincerity in this particular, he gave me a fight of a Lift in his Pocket-book of all of this Clafs, who for thefe five Years have fallen under his Obfervation, with himself at the Head of 'em, and in the Rear (as one of a promifing and improving Afpect)

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

N° 18. Wednesday, March 21.

I

·Equitis quoque jam migravit ab aure voluptas Omnis ad incertos oculos & gaudia vana.

Hor.'

T is my Defign in this Paper to deliver down to Pofterity a faithful Account of the Italian Opera, and of the gradual Progrefs which it has made upon the English Stage; for there is no queftion but our great Grand-children will be very curious to know the Reafon why their Forefathers used to fit together like an Audience of Foreigners in their own Country, and to hear whole Plays acted before them in a Tongue which they did not understand.

ARSINOE was the firft Opera that gave us a Tafte of Italian Mufick. The great Success this Opera met with, produced fome Attempts of forming Pieces upon Italian Plans, which fhould give a more natural and reasonable Entertainment than what can be met with in the elaborate Trifles of that Nation. This alarmed the Poetafters and Fidlers of the Town, who were used to deal in a more ordinary kind of Ware; and therefore laid down an esta blished Rule, which is received as fuch to this Day, Thar nothing is capable of being well fet to Mufick, that is not Nonfenfe.

THIS Maxim was no fooner received, but we immediately fell to tranflating the Italian Opera's; and as there was no great Danger of hurting the Senfe of those extraordinary Pieces, our Authors would often make Words of their own which were entirely foreign to the Meaning of the Paffages they pretended to tranflate; their chief Care being to make the Numbers of the English Verse answer to those of the Italian, that both of them might go to the fame Tune. Thus the famous Song in Camilla,

Barbara fi t'intendo, &c.

Barbarous Woman, yes, I know! your Meaning,
D 2

which

which expreffes the Refentments of an angry Lover, was tranflated into that English Lamentaton,

Frail are Lover's Hopes, &c.

And it was pleafant enough to fee the moft refined Perfons of the British Nation dying away and languishing to Notes that were filled with a Spirit of Rage and Indignation. It happened alfo very frequently, where the Senfe was rightly tranflated, the neceffary Tranfpofition of Words which were drawn out of the Phrafe of one Tongue into that of another, made the Mufick appear very abfurd in one Tongue that was very natural in the other. I remember an Italian Verfe that ran thus Word for Word,

And turn'd my Rage into Pity;

which the English for Rhyme fake translated,

And into Pity turn'd my Rage.

By this means the foft Notes that were adapted to Pity in the Italian, fell upon the Word Rage in the English; and the angry Sounds that were tuned to Rage in the Origi ninal, were made to exprefs Pity in the Tranflation. It oftentimes happened likewife, that the finest Notes in the Air fell upon the most infignificant Words in the Sentence. I have known the Word And purfued through the whole Gamut, have been entertained with many a melodious The, and have heard the most beautiful Graces, Quavers and Divifions bestowed upon Then, For, and From; to the eternal Honour of our English Particles.

THE next Step to our Refinement, was the introducing of Italian Actors into our Opera; who fung their Parts in their own Language, at the fame time that our Country-men performed theirs in our native Tongue. The King or Hero of the Play generally fpoke in Italian, and his Slaves anfwered him in English: The Lover frequently made his Court, and gained the Heart of his Princefs, in a Language which fhe did not understand. would have thought it very difficult to have carried on Dialogues after this manner, without an Interpreter between the Perfons that converfed together; but this was the State of the English Stage for about three Years.

One

« НазадПродовжити »