"At two we generally go to dinner: ordinaries are not so common here as abroad; yet the French have set up two or three pretty good ones, for the conveniency of foreigners, in Suffolk-street, where one is tolerably well served; but the general way here is to make a party at the coffee-house to go dine at the tavern, where we sit till six, then we go to the play; except you are invited to the table of some great man, which strangers are always courted to, and nobly entertained.
"I know abundance of French, that by keeping a pocket-list of tables, live so almost all the year round, and yet never appear at the same place above once in a fortnight. By looking into their pocket-book in the morning, they fix their place of dining, as on Monday with my Lord ——, and so for two weeks, fourteen Lords, Foreign Ministers, or men of quality; and so they run their round all the year long, without notice being taken of them.
"There are three very noble Theatres here: that for Opera's at the end of the Pall-mall, or Hay-market, is the finest I ever saw, and where we are entertained in Italian music generally
twice a-week: that for History, Tragedy, and Comedy, is in Covent-garden (a Piazza I shall describe to you in the sequel of this letter), and the third for the same, is by Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, at a small distance from the other.
"The Theatres here differ from those abroad; in that those at Venice, Paris, Brussels, Genoa, and other parts, you know, are composed of rows of small shut-boxes, three or four stories in a semi-circle, with a Parterre below; whereas here the Parterre, commonly called the Pit, contains the gentlemen on benches; and on the first story of boxes sit all the ladies of quality; in the second, the Citizens wives and daughters; and in the third, the common people and footmen: so that between the Acts you are as much diverted by viewing the beauties of the audience, as, while they act, with the subject of the Play; and the whole is illuminated to the greatest advantage. Whereas abroad, the stage being only illuminated, and the lodge or boxes close, you lose the pleasure of seeing the company; and indeed the English have reason in this, for no nation in the world can shew such an assembly of shining beauties as here.
"The English affect more the Italian than the French music; and their own compositions are between the gravity of the first, and the levity of the other. They have had several great masters of their own: Henry Purcel's works in that kind
are esteemed beyond Lully's every where; and they have now a good many very eminent masters: but the taste of the town being at this day all Italian, it is a great discouragement to them.
"No nation represents History so naturally, so much to the life, and so close to truth, as the English; they have most of the occurrences of their own History, and all those of the Roman Empire, nobly acted. One Shakespear, who lived in the last century, laid down a masterly foundation for this in his excellent plays; and the late Mr. Addison hath improved that taste by his admirable Cato, which hath been translated into several languages, particularly into Italian blank verse, and is frequently acted in Italy.
"Their comedies are designed to lash the growing follies in every age; and scarce a fool or a coxcomb appears in town, but his folly is represented. And most of their comedians, in imitation of Moliere, have taken that province; in which Mr. Cibber, an extreme good player, hath succeeded very well.
"They seldom degenerate into farce, as the Italians; nor do they confine their tragedies to rhyme and whining, as the French. In short, if you would see the greatest actions of past ages performed over again, and the present follies of mankind exposed, you must come here.