broken bottles and pen-knives flung on the flage, the benches torn up, the fcenes hurried into the ftreet, and fet on fire. The curtain drew up; the mufic was of Cocchi, with a few airs of Pergoleli interfperfed. The fingers were (as ufual) deplorable, but there was one girl (he called herself the Niccolina), with little voice, and lefs beauty; but with the utmoft juftnefs of ear, the firongeft exprellion of counteuance, the moft fpeaking eyes, the greateft vivacity and variety of gelture. Her first appearance instantly fixed their attention; the tumult funk at once, or, if any murmur rofe, it was foon hufhed by a general cry for filence. Her first air ravifhed every body; they forgot their prejudice; they forgot that they did not underftand a word of the language; they entered into all the humour of the part, made her repeat all her fongs, and continued their tranfports, their laughter, and applaufe, to the end of the piece. Within thefe three last years, the Paganina and Amici have met with almoft the fame applaufe, once a week, from a polite audience, on the Opera flage. The truth is, the Opera itself, though fupported here, at a great expenfe, for fo many years, has rather maintained itfelf by the admiration beflowed on a few particular voices, or the borrowed tafte of a few men of condition, that have learned in Italy how to admire, than by any genuine love we bear to the beft Italian mufic. Nor have we yet got any ftyle of our own; and this I attribute, in great meafure, to the language, which, in fpite of its energy, plenty, and the crowd of excellent writers this nation has produced, does yet (I am forry to fay it) retain too much of its barbarous original, to adapt itself to mufical compofition. I by no means with to have been born any thing but an Englishman; yet I thould rejoice to exchange tongues with Italy. Why this Nation has made no advance, hitherto, in Painting and Sculp ture, is hard to fay. The fact is undeniable; and we have the vanity to apologize for ourselves, as Virgil did for the Romans, excudent alii, &c. It is fure, that Architecture had introduced itfelf in the reign of the unfortunate Charles the Firft; and Inigo Jones has left us fome few monuments of fkill, that fhew him capable of greater things. Charles had not only You, Sir, have pointed out the true z fources and the best examples to your countrymen. They have nothing to s do, but to be what they once were; and yet, perhaps, it is more difficult to restore good tafte to a nation that has degenerated, than to introduce it in one, where, as yet, it has never fourifhed. You are generous enough to with, and fanguine enough to forefee, that it fhall one day flourish in England. I, too, muft with, but can hardly extend my hopes fo far. It is well for us, that you do not fee our public exhibitions: but our artifis are yet in their infancy, and therefore I will not abfolutely defpair. I owe to Mr. How the honour I A Monfieur Monfieur Le Comte 2. SIR, York, Sept. 20, 1763. I think myself more honoured than I can exprefs, both by your most obliging letter to myfelf, and the very flattering account you have condefcended to give of my dramatic poems in the Venetian Journal. The fuffrage of a name, fo well known and greatly refpected in the literary world, as that of Count Algarotti, makes me much more than fufficient amends for all the abufe, which the nameless Critics here have chofen to throw out against my writings. Pleafe, Sir, to be affured, that I fhould much fooner have paid you this tribute tribute of my gratitude for the great honour you have done me, had I not waited (though alas! in vain) for the pleafure of returning you, at the fame time, my thanks for the very valuable prefent which you intended me. This alone made me defer writing; and it is now, with extreme concern, that I can only add I never received it. My friend Mr. Gray, I find, has the fame lofs. As I live at a distance from the metropolis, it is by his means that I endeavour to tranfinit this to you. I hope in a few months to compleat a collection of my Poems, which I have already revifed with fome care; and particularly Elfrida, which I have pruned of many luxuriant puerilities. Thefe I fhall have the honour of fending you by the affiftance of Lord Holdernetle, who is now at Paris, and intends to winter there. If Mr. How is fill at Pifa, I beg you to make my belt compliments acceptable to him, and that you will believe me to be with the moft fincere and profound refpect, Sir, your moft obliged and moft obedient fervant, W. MASON. Count Algarotti. 3. SIR, London, Nov. 1763. I am ashamed of my own indolence in not anfwering your former letter; a fecond, which I have fince received, adds to my fhame, and quickens my motions. I can fee no manner of objection to your design of publishing C. A.'s works compleat in your own Country +. It will be an evidence of your regard for him that cannot but be very acceptable to him. The Glasgow prefs, or that of Bafkervile, have given fpecimens of their art equal at least in beauty to any thing that Europe can produce. The expence you will not much regard on fuch an occafion; and, if you fuffer them to be fold, that would be greatly diminished, and moft probably reimbursed, As to the notes (and I think fome will be neccffany), I eafily believe you will not overload the text with them; and, hefide, every thing of that kind will be concerted between you. If you propofe any vignettes, or other matters of orna ment, it would be well they were defigned in Italy, and the_gravings executed either there or in France; for in this country they are woeful, and be. yond meafure dear. The reviling of the prefs must be your own labour, as tedious as it is inglorious: but to this you must fubmit. As we improve in our types, &c. we grow daily more negligent in point of correctness, and this even in our own tongue. What will it be in the Italian ? I did not mean you thould have told Count Algarotti ny objection ‡, at leaft not as from me, who have no pretence to take fuch a liberty with him ; but I am glad he has altered the paffage. He cannot wonder if I wifhed to fave to our own Nation the only honour it has in matters of tafie; and no finall one, fince neither Italy nor France have ever had the leaft notion of it, nor yet do at all comprehend it when they fee it. Mr. Mafon has received the books in queftion from an unknown hand, which I take to be Mr. Hollis, from whom I too have received a beautiful fet of engravings as a prefent; I know not why unless as a friend of yours. [I faw and read the beginning of this year the Congreffo di Citéra§," and was exceffively pleafed in fpite of prejudice; for I am naturally no friend to allegory, nor to poetical profe. Entre nous, what gives me the leat pleasure of any of his writings that I have feen, is the Newtonianifm. It is fo direct an imitation of Fontenelle, a writer not eafy to imitate, and leaft of all in the Italian tongue, where character and graces are of a higher ftyle, and never adapt themfelves eafily to the elegant Three fmall Treatifes, on Painting, the Opera, and the French Academy for Painters in Italy. See Mafon's edition of Gray's Works, p. 386. + Mr. How (in a letter from Spa, dated Sept. 24, 1763) had afked Gray's opinion, whether an edition of all Count Algarotti's Works, fuppofing it practicable in England, would be acceptable to the lovers of Italian literature, and to the fenfible few. Algarotti, in one of his treatifes, had observed, that the English method of gardning, or rather laying out grounds, was borrowed from the Chinese. This opinion is controverted by Gray in a letter to Mr. How (inferted in Mafon's edition of Gray's Works, p. 386). Mr. How had informed Gray, nearly in the words used by Mason in p.318, of the Count's politenefs in altering the paffage in question. That he had read the "Congreffo," and with great attention, is manifefted from his Italian notes upon the whole of it, which I have now before me, under the title of "Annotazioni sopra il Congreffo di Citéra,” badinage badinage and legereté of converfation that fits fo well on the French*.] But this is a fecret between us. I am glad to hear he thinks of reviluing England; though I am a little afhamed of my Country at this prefent., Our late acquired glory does not fit becomingly upon us; and even the author of it, that Reftitutor d'Inghilterrat, is doing God knows what! If he fhould deign to follow the track of vulgar minifters, and regain his power by ways injurious to his fame, whom can we truft hereafter? M. de Nivernois, on his return to France, fays (I hear) of England, Quel Roy, quel peuple, quelle fociété ! and to fay 1. Adieu, Sir, I am your most humble fervant, T. GRAY. A Monf. Monf. Taylor How, Gentilhomme Anglois, à Bruxelles. Mr. URBAN, Yarmouth, Nov. 29. fain be a mifanthrope, and could not, "He very frequently profeffes contempt of the world, and reprefents himself as looking on mankind fometimes with gay indifference, as on emmets on a hillock, and fometimes with gloomy indignation, as on nonfters more worthy of hatred than of pity. Thefe were difpofitions apparently counterfeited. How could he defpife those whom he lived by plealing, and on whofe approbation his efieem of himself was fuperftructed? Why fhould he hate thofe to whofe favour he owed his honour and his eafe? Of things that terminate in human life the world is the most proper judge to defpife its fentence, if it were poffible, is not juft, and, if it were juft, is not poffible. Pope was far enough from this unreafonable temper; he was fufficiently a fool to fame, and yet he pretended to neglect it. His levity and his fullennels were only in his HAVING in my poffeffion a very letters; he puffed through common life, curious antient fhrine of blue enamel, around the fides of which are depicted the twelve apoftles, curioutly gilt, with the Crucifixion, and the following infcription on the lid : VINET MET ELECTA QUO MODO CONVERSA IN AOARITVDINEM ME CRVCIFICIS; I fhall feel myself. obliged to any of your correfpondents to favour me with a tranflation. WM. BARTH. *The fhrine in queftion may be paralleled with that belonging to Mr. Afile, engraved in the Vetufta Monumenta, vol. II. pl. LI. LII. The infcription is to be tranflated, "How is my chofen vine turned into bitterness? Thou crucifieft me." The first fentence alludes to the text in Jerem. ii. 21, in the Vulgate tranflation: "Ego plantavi te vincam electum; quomodo ergo converfa es mihi in pravam, viuea aliena.” Or, as the LXX. aμñedos Kapποφορος αληθινη Γραφής εις ΠΙΚΡΙΑΝ, αμπελος η αλλότρια : How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of firaunge vine unto me." H. Mr. URBAN, Di Jan. 1. R. JOHNSON'S character of Mr. fometimes vexed and sometimes pleased, with the natural emotions of common men. His fcorn of the Great is repeated too often to be real; no man thinks much of that which he defpifes ; and, as falfhood is always in danger of inconfiftency, he makes it his boast at another time that he lives among them." (Vol. IV. p. 154, 155.)—Is not this another fpecimen of the hypocrify defcribed by your correfpondent B. Poet the happier man than the Philan vol. LXXIV. p. 911? and was not the thropist whom he defcribes-by all the difference of real and affected contempt? and behaviour, the other in the con the one expreffing itfelf in the mind verfation and writings. A lamentable paradox this-that the philanthrope hould be the mifanthrope. The avarice which your correfponracteristick, was noted in the last cen dent C. p. 1028, makes a national chatury by Lord Chesterfield; who fays, all great and noble-minded spirit is dead in England; and that nothing now remains but the love of the guinea. (Wilkes's Letters, vol. I. p. 192). Others may extend this farther,and fancy that merchants and bankers are rogues but neither you nor I fhall D'Pope is that of a man who would follow there refined fentimentalifts. D. *This paffage within brackets appears in Mafon, p. 390. The letter in Mafon, of which this paffage makes a part, is compofed from two, the one of them dated November, 1763, the other January, 1768. +From feveral expreffions in the letters of Mr. How and Mr. Hollis, it appears that Mr. Pitt (the late Lord Chatham) is here intended. THE |