" The Amazon
immediately singled out this well-dressed warrior, being seized with
a woman's longing for the pretty trappings that he was adorned with:
- Totumque incauta per agmen,
Faemineo praedae et spoliorum ardebat amore.
AEn., xi. 781.
- So greedy was she bent
On golden spoils, and on her prey intent.
DRYDEN.
This heedless pursuit after these glittering trifles, the poet, by a
nice concealed moral, represents to have been the destruction of his
female hero.
THE ITALIAN OPERA.
- Equitis quoque jam migravit ab aure voluptas
Omnis ad incertos oculos, et gaudia vana.
HOR., Ep. ii. 1, 187.
But now our nobles too are fops and vain,
Neglect the sense, but love the painted scene.
CREECH.
It is my design in this paper to deliver down to posterity a
faithful account of the Italian opera, and of the gradual progress
which it has made upon the English stage; for there is no question
but our great-grandchildren will be very curious to know the reason
why their forefathers used to sit 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 first opera that gave us a taste of Italian music.
The great success this opera met with produced some attempts of
forming pieces upon Italian plans, which should give a more natural
and reasonable entertainment than what can be met with in the
elaborate trifles of that nation.
Pages:
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45