the numbers are of themſelves harmonious, there will be no need of muſic to ſet them off: a good verſe, well pronounce, is in itſelf muſical; and ſpeech is certainly more natural for diſcourſe than ſinging.
Can any thing be more prepoſterous than to behold Cato, Julius Cæſar, and Alexander the Great, ſtrutting upon the ſtage in the figure of ſongſters, perſonated by eunuchs?
The ſinging, therefore, ſhould be wholly applied to the lyrical part of the entertainment, which, by being freed from a tireſome, unnatural recitative, muſt certainly adminiſter more reaſonable pleaſure.
The ſeveral parts of the entertainment ſhould be ſo ſuited to relieve one another as to be tedious in none; and the connexion ſhould be ſuch, that not one ſhould be able to ſubmit without the other: like embroidery, ſo fixed and wrought into the ſubſtance, that no part of the ornament could be removed without tearing the ſtuff.
To introduce ſinging and dancing by head and ſhoulders, no way relative to the action, does not turn a play into an opera, though that title its now promiſcuouſly given to every farce ſprinkled here and there with a ſong and a dance.
The richeſt lace, ridiculouſly ſet on, will make but a fool’s coat.
I will not take upon me to criticiſe what has appeared of this kind on the English ſtage: we have ſe-
