SIR,

SINC

INCE I find you take notice of Clubs, I beg leave to give you an Account of one in Oxford, which you have no where mentioned, and perhaps never heard of. We diftinguish our felves by the Title of the Amorous Club, are all Votaries of Cupid, and Admirers of the Fair Sex. The Reason that we are . fo little known in the World, is the Secrecy which we are obliged to live under in the University. Our Conftitution runs counter to that of the Place wherein we live: For in Love there are no Doctors, and we all profefs fo high Paffion, that we admit of no Graduates in it. Our Prefidentship is bestowed according to the Dignity of Paffion; our Number is unlimited; and our • Statutes are like those of the Druids, recorded in our • own Breafts only, and explained by the Majority of the Company. A Mistress, and a Poem in her Praise, ⚫ will introduce any Candidate: Without the latter no one can be admitted; for he that is not in Love enough to rhyme, is unqualified for our Society. To fpeak difrefpectfully of any Woman is Expulfion from our gentle Society. As we are at prefent all of us Gownmen, inftead of duelling when we are Rivals, we drink together the Health of our Mistress. The Manner of doing this fometimes indeed creates Debates; on fuch Occafions we have Recourse to the Rules of Love among the Ancients.

Navia fex Cyathis, feptem Juftina bibatur,

Mart. Epig. 72. 1. 1. Six Cups to Navia, to Juftina feven.

• This Method of a Glafs to every Letter of her Name, ⚫ occafioned the other Night a Difpute of fome Warmth. A young Student, who is in Love with Mrs. Elizabeth Dimple, was fo unreasonable as to begin her Health under the Name of Elizabetha; which fo exasperated the Club, that by common Confent we retrench'd it to • Betty. We look upon a Man as no Company, that does not figh five times in a Quarter of an Hour; and look upon a Member as very abfurd, that is fo much him

८

felf as to make a direct Answer to a Question.

In

fine,

fine, the whole Affembly is made up of abfent Men, that is, of fuch Perfons as have loft their Locality, and whofe Minds and Bodies never keep Company with one another. As I am an unfortunate Member of this ' distracted Society, you cannot expect a very regular Account of it; for which Reafon, I hope you will pardon me that I fo abruptly fubfcribe my felf,

SIR,

Your most obedient,

bumble Servant,

T. B.

I forgot to tell you, that Albina, who has fix Votaries in this Club, is one of your Readers.

No 31. Thursday, April 5.

Sit mihi fas audita loqui

Virg. Æn. 6. v. 266.

What I have heard, permit me to relate.

L

AST Night, upon my going into a Coffee-house not far from the Hay-market Theatre, I diverted my felf for above half an Hour with over-hearing the Difcourfe of one, who, by the Shabbiness of his Drefs, the Extravagance of his Conceptions, and the Hurry of his Speech, I discovered to be of that Species who are generally diftinguished by the Title of Projectors. This Gentleman, for I found he was treated as fuch by his Audience, was entertaining a whole Table of Liftners with the Project of an Opera, which he told us had not coft him above two or three Mornings in the Contrivance, and which he was ready to put in Execution, provided he might find his Account in it. He said, that he had obferved the great Trouble and Inconvenience which Ladies were at, in travelling up and down to the feveral Shows that are exhibited in different Quarters

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Quarters of the Town. The Dancing Monkies are in one Place; the Puppet-show in another; the Opera in a third; not to mention the Lions, that are almost a whole Day's Journey from the Politer Part of the Town. By this means People of Figure are forced to lose half the Winter after their coming to Town, before they have feen all the ftrange Sights about it. In order to remedy this great Inconvenience, our Projector drew out of his Pocket the Scheme of an Opera, Entitled, The Expedition of Alexander the Great; in which he had‍ dispofed all the remarkable Shows about Town, among the Scenes and Decorations of his Piece. The Thought, he confeffed, was not originally his own, but that he had taken the Hint of it from feveral Performances which he had feen upon our Stage: in one of which there was a Raree-Show; in another, a Ladder-Dance; and in others a Pofture-Man, a Moving Picture, with many Curiofities of the like Nature.

THIS Expedition of Alexander opens with his con-, fulting the Oracle at Delphos, in which the dumb Conjurer, who has been vifited by fo many Persons of Quality of late Years, is to be introduced as telling him his Fortune: At the fame time Clinch of Barnet is reprefented in another Corner of the Temple, as ringing the Bells of Delphos, for Joy of his Arrival. The Tent of Dartus is ta be Peopled by the ingenious Mrs. Salmon, where Alexander is to fall in love with a Piece of Wax-work, that reprefents the beautiful Statira. When Alexander comes into that Country, in which Quintus Curtius tells us the Dogs were fo exceeding fierce that they would not lofe their hold, tho' they were cut to Pieces Limb by Limb, and that they would hang upon their Prey by their Teeth when they had nothing but a Mouth left, there is to be a Scene of Hockley in the Hole, in which is to be reprefented all the Diverfions of that Place, the Bull-baiting only excepted, which cannot poffibly be exhibited in the Theatre, by reason of the Lowners of the Roof. The feveral Woods in Afia, which Alexander must be fuppofed to pass through, will give the Audience a Sight of Monkies dancing upon Ropes, with many other Pleafantries of that ludicrous Species. At the fame time, if there chance to be any Strange Animals in Town, whether

Birds

Birds or Beafts, they may be either let loose among the Woods, or driven across the Stage by fome of the Country People of Afia. In the laft great Battle, Pinkethman is to perfonate King Porus upon an Elephant, and is to be encountered by Powell, reprefenting Alexander the Great, upon a Dromedary, which nevertheless Mr. Powell is defired to call by the Name of Bucephalus. Upon the Clofe of this great decifive Battle, when the two Kings are thoroughly reconciled, to fhew the mutual Friendfhip and good Correfpondence that reigns between them, they both of them go together to a Puppet-Show, in which the ingenious Mr. Powell, Junior, may have an Opportunity of difplaying his whole Art of Machinery, for the Diverfion of the two Monarchs. Some at the Table urged, that a Puppet-Show was not a fuitable Entertainment for Alexander the Great; and that it might be introduced more properly, if we fuppofe the Conqueror touched upon that Part of India which is faid to be inhabited by the Pigmies. But this Objection was looked upon as frivolous, and the Propofal immediately over-ruled. Our Projector further added, that after the Reconciliation of these two Kings they might invite one another to Dinner, and either of them entertain his Guest with the German Artist, Mr. Pinkethman's Heathen Gods, or any of the like Diverfions, which fhall then chance to be in vogue.

THIS Project was received with very great Applaufe by the whole Table. Upon which the Undertaker told us, that he had not yet communicated to us above half his Defign; for that Alexander being a Greek, it was his Intention that the whole Opera fhould be acted in that Language, which was a Tongue he was fure would wonderfully please the Ladies, efpecially when it was a little raifed and rounded by the Tonick Dialect; and could not but be acceptable to the whole Audience, because there are fewer of them who understand Greek than Italian. The only Difficulty that remained, was how to get Performers, unless we could perfuade fome Gentlemen of the Universities to learn to fing, in order to qualify themselves for the Stage; but this Objection foon vanished, when the Projector informed us that the Greeks were at present the only Muficians in the Turkish Empire,

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and

and that it would be very eafy for our Factory at Smyrna to furnish us every Year with a Colony of Muficians, by the Opportunity of the Turkey Fleet; befides, fays he, if we want any fingle Voice for any lower Part in the Opera, Lawrence can learn to speak Greek, as well as he does Italian, in a Fortnight's time.

THE Projector having thus fettled Matters, to the good liking of all that heard him, he left his Seat at the Table, and planted himself before the Fire, where I had unluckily taken my Stand for the Convenience of overhearing what he faid. Whether he had obferved me to be more attentive than ordinary, I cannot tell, but he had not ftood by me above a quarter of a Minute, but he turned fhort upon me on a fudden, and catching me by a Button of my Coat, attacked me very abruptly after the following manner: Befides, Sir, I have heard of a very extraordinary Genius for Mufick that lives in Switzerland, who has fo ftrong a Spring in his Fingers, that he can make the Board of an Organ found like a Drum, and if I could but procure a Subfcription of about ten thousand Pound every Winter, I would undertake to fetch him over, and oblige him by Articles to fet every thing that fhould be fung upon the English Stage. After this he looked full in my Face, expecting I would make an Answer; when by good Luck, a Gentleman that had entered the Coffee-houfe fince the Projector applied himself to me, hearing him talk of his Swiss Compofitions, cry'd out with a kind of Laugh, Is our Mufick then to receive farther Improvements from Switzerland! This alarmed the Projector, who immediately let go my Button, and turned about to answer him. I took the Opportunity of the Diverfion which feemed to be made in favour of me, and laying down my Penny upon the Bar, retired with fome Precipitation,

C

Friday,