But to come to more real contests; Handel has set up an oratorio against the opera @ind succeeds.  He has hired all the goddesses from farces and the singers of Roast Beef(779) from between the acts at both theatres, with a man with one note in his voice, and a girl without ever an one; and so they sing, and make brave hallelujahs; and the good company encore the recitative, if it happens to have any cadence like what they call a tune.  I was much diverted the other night at the opera; two gentlewoman sat before my sister, and not knowing her, discoursed at their ease.  Says one, “Lord! how fine Mr. W. is!” “Yes,” replied the other, with a tone of saying sentences, “some men love to be particularly so, your petit-maitres-but they are not always the brightest of their sex.’@-Do thank me for this period!  I am sure you will enjoy it as much as we did.

I shall be very glad of my things, and approve entirely of your precautions; Sir R. will be quite happy, for there is no telling YOU how impatient he is for his Dominichin.  Adieu!

(777) This alludes to an engagement, which took place on the 8th of February, near Bologna, between the Spaniards under M. de Gages, and the Austrians under General Traun, in which the latter were successful.-D.

(778) With regard to Corsica, of which he had declared himself King.  By this declaration, which was dated January 30, Theodore recalled, under pain of confiscation of their estates, all the Corsicans in foreign service, except that of the Queen of Hungary, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany.-E.

(779) It was customary at this time for the galleries to call for a ballad called “The Roast Beef of Old England,” between the acts, or before or after the play.

310 Letter 99 To Sir Horace Mann.  March 3d, 1743.

So, she is dead at last, the old Electress!(780)-well, I have nothing more to say about her and the Medici; they had outlived all their acquaintance:  indeed, her death makes the battle very considerable -makes us call a victory what before we did not look upon as very decided laurels.

Lord Hervey has entertained the town with another piece of wisdom:  on Sunday it was declared that he had married his eldest daughter the night before to a Mr. Phipps,(781) grandson of the Duchess of Buckingham.  They sent for the boy but the day before from Oxford, and bedded them at a day’s notice.  But after all this mystery, it does not turn out that there is any thing great in this match, but the greatness of the secret.  Poor Hervey,(782) the brother, is in fear and trembling, for he apprehends being ravished to bed to some fortune or other with as little ceremony.  The Oratorios thrive abundantly-for my part, they give me an idea of heaven, where every body is to sing whether they have voices or not.

The Board (the Jacobite Club) have chosen his Majesty’s Lord Privy Seal(783) for their President, in the room of Lord Litchfield.  Don’t you like the harmony of parties?  We expect the parliament will rise this month:  I shall be sorry, for if I am not hurried out of town, at least every body else will-and who can look forward from April to November?  Adieu! though I write in defiance of having nothing to say, yet you see I can’t go a great way in this obstinacy; but you will bear a short letter rather than none.