| "A | an Organ |
| B | an Angel playing on it |
| C | the shortest Ioint of the Arm. |
| D | the longest Ioint |
| E | An Angel tuning an harp |
| F | the inside of his Leg but whether right or Left is yet undiscover'd |
| G | a hand Playing on a Lute |
| H | the other leg judiciously Omitted to make room for the harp |
| I&K | 2 Smaller Angells as appears by their wings" |
This picture produced a tract, intituled, "A Letter from a Parishioner of St. Clement Danes to Edmund [Gibson] Lord Bishop of London, occasion'd by his lordship's causing the picture over the altar to be taken down: with some observations on the use and abuse of Church-paintings in general, and of that picture in particular, 1725." 8vo. See [Appendix II]. The proofs of this plate are commonly on blue paper, though I have met with more than one on white. The original, after it was removed from the church, was for some years one of the ornaments of the music-room at The Crown and Anchor in the Strand. As this house has frequently changed its tenants, &c. I am unable to trace the picture in question any further. There is a good copy of this print by Livesay.
4. A scene in Handel's opera of Ptolomeo, performed in 1728, with Farinelli, Cuzzoni, and Senesino, in the characters of Ptolemy, Cleopatra, and Julius Cæsar. Those who are inclined to doubt the authenticity of this performance, will do well to consult the representation on a painted canvas in the small print on masquerades and operas, where the same figures occur in almost the same attitudes. I do not, however, vouch for the genuineness of this plate. In Southwark Fair, our artist has borrowed the subject of his show-cloth from Laguerre; and might, in the present instance, have adopted it from another hand.
The appearance Farinelli makes on this occasion may be justified by the following quotation from a Pamphlet, intituled, Reflections upon Theatrical Expression in Tragedy, &c. printed for W. Johnston, &c. 1755. "I shall therefore, in my further remarks upon this article, go back to the Old Italian Theatre, when Farinelli drew every body to the Haymarket. What a pipe! what modulation! what extasy to the ear! But, heavens! what clumsiness! what stupidity! what offence to the eye! Reader, if of the city, thou mayest probably have seen in the fields of Islington or Mile-end, or if thou art in the environs of St. James's, thou must have observed in the park, with what ease and agility a Cow, heavy with Calf, has rose up at the command of the Milk-woman's foot. Thus from the mossy bank sprung up the Divine Farinelli. Then with long strides advancing a few paces, his left hand settled upon his hip, in a beautiful bend like that of the handle of an old-fashioned caudle-cup, his right remained immoveable across his manly breast, till numbness called its partner to supply its place; when it relieved itself in the position of the other handle to the caudle-cup." p. 63, &c.
Under a copy of the print abovementioned, which must have been made soon after its publication, appear the following inscription, and wretched ungrammatical lines:
The three most Celebrated Singers at the Opera.
Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter.
Sigra the great, harmoniously inclin'd,
Who charms the ear and captivates the mind.
Cuzzoni.
Thou little slave an emblem is of those
Whose hearts are wholly att ye worlds dispose.
Great Barrenstadt[1] encomiums great and true
is very short of whats your right and due.
The characters in the print under consideration, might have been new-christen'd by the copier of it.
Either the dignity of Senesino must have been wonderful, or the following passage in Dr. Warburton's "Enquiry into the Cause of Prodigies and Miracles," (printed in 1727) affords a most notorious example of the Bathos. "Observe," says he, p. 60. "Sir Walter Raleigh's great manner of ending the first part of the History of the World. 'By this which we have already set down is seen the beginning and end of the Three first Monarchies of the World; whereof the founders and erectors thought that they could never have ended: that of Rome, which made the fourth, was also at this time almost at the highest. We have left it flourishing in the middle of the field; have rooted up, or cut down, all that kept it from the eyes and admiration of the world; but after some continuance, it shall begin to lose the beauty it had; the storms of ambition shall beat her great boughs and branches one against another; her leaves shall fall off; her limbs wither, and a rabble of barbarous nations enter the field and cut her down.' What strength of colouring! What grace, what nobleness of expression! With what a majesty does he close his immortal labour! It puts one in mind of the so much admired exit of the late famed Italian Singer."
[1] Berenstadt; a castrato engaged by Handel in the operas.
5. A just View of the British Stage, or three heads better than one, scene Newgate, by M. D. V—to.[1] This print represents the rehearsing a new farce, that will include the two famous entertainments Dr. Faustus and Harlequin Shepherd.[2] To which will be added, Scaramouch Jack Hall the Chimney-sweeper's Escape from Newgate through the Privy, with the comical Humours of Ben Johnson's Ghost, concluding with the Play Dance, performed in the air by the figures A. B. C. [Wilks, Booth, and Cibber] assisted by ropes from the Muses. Note, there are no Conjurors concerned in it, as the Ignorant imagine. The Bricks, Rubbish, &c. will be real; but the Excrements upon Jack Hall will be made of chewed Gingerbread, to prevent Offence. Vivat Rex. Price Sixpence. Such is the inscription on the plate; but I may add, that the ropes already mentioned are no other than halters, suspended over the heads of the three managers;[3] and that labels issuing from their respective mouths have the following characteristic words. The airy Wilks, who dangles the effigy of Punch, is made to exclaim—"Poor R-ch! faith I pitty him." The laureat Cibber, with Harlequin for his playfellow, invokes the Muses painted on the cieling—"Assist, ye sacred Nine;" while the solemn Booth, letting down the image of Jack Hall into the forica, is most tragically blaspheming—"Ha! this will do, G-d d-m me." On a table before these gentlemen lies a pamphlet, exhibiting a print of Jack Shepherd, in confinement; and over the forica is suspended a parcel of waste paper, consisting of leaves torn from The Way of the World—Hamlet—Macbeth, and Julius Cæsar. Ben Jonson's Ghost, in the mean while, is rising through the stage, and p——g on a pantomimic statue tumbled from its base. A fidler is also represented hanging by a cord in the air, and performing, with a scroll before him, that exhibits—Music for the What—[perhaps the What d' ye call it] entertainment. The countenances of Tragedy and Comedy, on each side of the stage, are hoodwinked by the bills for Harlequin Dr. Faustus and Harlequin Shepherd, &c. &c. There is also a dragon preparing to fly; a dog thrusting his head out of his kennel; a flask put in motion by machinery, &c. Vivetur Ingenio is the motto over the curtain. In Mr. Walpole's catalogue the description of this plate is, "Booth, Wilks, and Cibber, contriving a pantomime. A satire on farces. No name."