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Eſſay on the Opera’s.
There appears to have been of late Years, a Combination of all ſorts of People, to ſet up Opera’s, and Entertainments of Singing and Dancing in the room of Dramatick Poems. At a time when we are contending with our Enemies for our very Being; we are aukwardly Aping their Luxuries and their Vices, which we neglected or contemn’d while we were at full Peace with them; as if by a certain foreboding Deluſion we were preparing our ſelves for Slavery, and endeavouring to make our ſelves agreeable to our new Maſters.
But that ſo many people of great Quality, and of greater Parts, Lovers of their Country, and Encouragers of Art, and of Poetry more particularly, ſhould prove ſo zealous in the encouraging and promoting Entertainments, which tend ſo directly to the Detriment of the Publick, to the Detriment of Arts, and eſpecially of expiring Poetry; Entertainments which are ſo directly contrary to their Nobler Pleaſures, and their real Intereſts, can proceed from nothing but from that Weight of Affairs which oppreſſes them, and deprives them of time and leiſure to conſider deliberately of theſe things.
There is no Man living, who has either a higher eſteem than my ſelf for their natural and acquir’d Endowments, or a greater Veneration for their reſtleſs Endeavours to promote the real good of their Country
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