EVERY Man that goes to a Play is not obliged to ⚫ have either Wit or Understanding; and I infift upon it, that all who go there fhould fee fomething which may improve them in a Way of which they are capable. In fhort, Sir, I would have fomething done as well as faid on the Stage. A Man may have an active Body, though he has not a quick Conception; for the Imitation there'fore of fuch as are, as I may fo fpeak, corporeal Wits or nimble Fellows, I would fain ask any of the prefent Mifmanagers, Why fhould not Rope-dancers, Vaulters, Tumblers, Ladder-walkers, and Pofture-makers appear again on our Stage? After fuch a Reprefentation, a Fivebar Gate would be leaped with a better Grace next Time any of the Audience went a Hunting. Sir, thefe Things cry loud for Reformation, and fall properly under the Province of SPECTATOR General; but how indeed fhould it be otherwife, while Fellows (that for Twenty ⚫ Years together were never paid but as their Mafter was in the Humour) now presume to pay others more than ever they had in their Lives; and in Contempt of the Practice of Perfons of Condition, have the Infolence to owe no Tradesman a Farthing at the End of the Week.' Sir, all I propofe is the publick Good; for no one can · * imagine I fhall ever get a private Shilling by it: There 'fore I hope you will recommend this Matter in one of your this Week's Papers, and defire when my House opens you will accept the Liberty of it for the Trouble you have received from, 4 P. S. I have Affurances that the Trunk-maker will declare for us.. Mr. SPECTATOR, SIR, Your Humble Servant, Ralph Crotchet. WE whofe Names are fubfcribed, think you the propereft Perfon to fignifie what we have to offer the Town in Behalf of our felves, and the Art which we profefs, Mufick. We conceive Hopes of your Favour from the Speculations on the Miftakes which the Town run into with Regard to their Pleasure of this Kind, and believing your Method of judging is, that " you you confider Mufick only valuable, as it is agreeable to, and heightens the Purpofe of Poetry, we confent that That is not only the true Way of relishing that Pleafure, butalfo, that without it a Compofure of Mufick is "the fame thing as a Poem, where all the Rules of Poetical Numbents are obferved, but the Words of no Senfe or Meaning; to fay it fhorter, meer mufical Sounds are in our Art no other than nonfenfe Verfes are in Poetry. • Mufick therefore is to aggravate what is intended by. Poetry iomust always have fome Paffion or Sentiment, to exprefs, ar elfe Violins, Voices, or any other Organs, of Sound, afford an Entertainment very little above the Rattles of Children. It was from this Opinion of the Matter, that when Mr. Clayton had finifhed his Studies in Haly, and brought over the Opera of Arfinoe, that Mr. Haym and Mr. Dienpart, who had the Honour to be 'well known and received among the Nobility and Gentry, were zealously inclined to affift, by their Sollicitations, in introducing fo elegant an Entertainment as the • Italian Mufick grafted upon English Poetry, For this End Mr. Dienpart and Mr. Haym, according to their feveral Opportunities, prometed the Introduction of Arz finoe, and.did it to the best Advantage fo great a Novelty 'would allow. It is not proper to trouble you with Particulars of the juft Complaints we all of us have to make; but fo it is, that without Regard to our obliging Pains, we are all equally fet afide in the prefent Opera. Our Application therefore to you is only to infert this Letter in your Papers, that the Town may know we have all Three joined together to make Entertainments of Mufick for the future at Mr. Clayton's Houfe in York-Build- ́ ings. What we promife our felves, is, to make a Subfcription of Two Guineas, for eight Times; and • that the Entertainment, with the Names of the Authors of the Poetry, may be printed, to be fold in the Houfe, with an Account of the feveral Authors of the Vocal as well as the Inftrumental Mufick for each Night; the Money to be paid at the Receipt of the Tickets, at Mr. Charles Lillie's. It will, we hope, Sir, be eafily allowed, that we are capable of undertaking to exhibit by our joint Force and different Qualifications all that can be done in Mufick; but left you'fhould think fo dry à thing thing as an Account of our Propofal fhould be a Matter unworthy your Paper, which generally contains fomething of publick Ufe; give us Leave to fay, that favouring our Defign is no lefs than reviving an Art, which runs to Ruin by the utmost Barbarism under an Affectation of Knowledge. We aim at establishing fome fettled Notion of what is Mufick, at recovering from Neglect and Want very many Families who depend upon it, at making all Foreigners who pretend to fucceed in England to learn the Languge of it as we our felves have done, and not be fo infolent as to expect a whole Nation, a refined and learned Nation, fhould fubmit to learn them. In a Word, Mr. SPECTATOR, with alF Deference and Humility, we hope to behave our felves in this Undertaking in fuch a Manner, that all English "Men who have any Skill in Musick may be furthered in it for their Profit or Diverfion by what new Things we fhall produce; never pretending to furpafs others, or afferting that any Thing which is a Science is not attainable by all Men of all Nations who have proper Genius for it: We fay, Sir, what we hope for is not expected will arrive to us by contemning others, but through the £ utmost Diligence recommending our felves. Quod decet honeftum eft & quod honeftum eft decet. TH Tull. HERE are fome Things which cannot come under certain Rules, but which one would think could not need them. Of this kind are outward Civi Tities and Salutations. Thele one would imagine might > be be regulated by every Man's common Sense, without the Help of an Inftructor; but that which we call common Senfe fuffers under that Word; for it fometimes implies no more than that Faculty which is common to all Men, but fometimes fignifies right Reason, and what all Men fhould confent to. In this latter Acceptation of the Phrafe, it is no great Wonder People err fo much against it, fince it is not every one who is poffeffed of it, and there are fewer, who against common Rules and Fashions, dare obey its Dictates. As to Salutations, which I was about to talk of, I obferve, as I ftrole about Town, there are great Enormities committed with regard to this Particular. You shall fometimes fee a Man begin the Offer of a Salutation, and obferve a forbidding Air, or efcaping Eye, in the Perfon he is going to falute, and ftop fhort in the Pole of his Neck. This in the Perfon who believed he could do it with a good Grace, and was refused the Opportunity, is juftly refented with a Coldness in the whole enfuing Seafon. Your great Beauties, People in much Favour, or by any Means or for any Purpofe overflattered, are apt to practife this which one may call the preventing Afpect, and throw their Attention another Way, left they fhould confer a Bow or a Curtfie upon a Person who might not appear to deferve that Dignity. you fhall find fo obfequious, and fo very courteous, as there is no efcaping their Favours of this Kind. Of this Sort may be a Man who is in the fifth or fixth Degree of Favour with a Minifter; this good Creature is refolved to fhew the World, that great Honours cannot at all change his Manners, he is the fame civil Person he ever was. He will venture his Neck to bow out of a Coach in full Speed, at once, to fhew he is full of Bufinefs, and yet is not fo taken up as to forget his old Friend. With a Man, who is not fo well formed for Courtship and elegant Behaviour, fuch a Gentleman as this feldom finds his Account in the Return of his Compliments, but he will still go on, for he is in his own Way, and must not omit; Jet the Neglect fall on your Side, or where it will, his Bufinefs is ftill to be well-bred to the End. I think I have read, in one of our English Comedies, a Defcription of a Fellow that affected knowing every Body, and for Want of Judgment in Time and Place, would bow and smile Others in the Face of a Judge fitting in the Court, would fit in an oppofite Gallery, and fimile in the Minifter's Face as he came up into the Pulpit, and nod as if he alluded to fome Familiarities between them in another Place. But now I happen to speak of Salutation at Church, I must take Notice that feveral of my Correfpondents have importaned me to confider that Subject, and settle the Point of Decorum in that Particular, I do not pretend to be the best Courtier in the World, but I have often on publick Occasions thought it a very great Abfurdity in the Company (during the Royal Prefence) to exchange Salutations from all Parts of the Room, when certainly common Senfe fhould suggest, that all Regards at that Time fhould be engaged, and cannot be diverted to any other Object, without Difrefpect to the Sovereign. But as to the Complaint of my Correfpondents, it is not to be imagined what Offence fome of them take ac the Custom of Saluting in Places of Worship. I have a very angry Letter from a Lady, who tells me, one of her Acquaintance, out of meer Pride, and a Pretence to be rude, takes upon her to return no Civilities done to her in Time of Divine Service, and is the most Religious Woman for no other Reafon but to appeara Woman of the best Quality in the Church. This abfurd Cuftom had better be abolished than retained, if it were but to prevent Evils of no highera Nature than this is; but I am informed of Objections much more confiderable: A Diffenter of Rank and Di ftinction was lately prevailed upon by a Friend of his to come to one of the greatest Congregations of the Church of England about Town: After the Service was over, he declared he was very well fatisfied with the little Ceremo ny which was used towards God Almighty, but at the fame Time he feared he fhould not be able to go through those required towards one another: As to this Point he was in a State of Despair, and feared he was not well-bred enough to be a Convert. There have been many Scandals of this Kind given to our Proteftant Diffenters from the outward Pomp and Respect we take to our felves in our Religious Affemblies. A Quaker who came one Day into a Church, fixed his Eye upon an old Lady with a Carpet Jarger than that from the Palpit before her, expecting when he would hold forth. An Anabaptift who defigns |