hough not for recitative, to our neighbours.

Through these difficulties I have made a shift to struggle in my part
of the performance of this opera; which, as mean as it is, deserves at
least a pardon, because it has attempted a discovery beyond any former
undertaker of our nation; only remember, that if there be no
north-east passage to be found, the fault is in nature, and not in me;
or, as Ben Jonson tells us in "The Alchymist," when projection had
failed, and the glasses were all broken, there was enough, however, in
the bottoms of them, to cure the itch; so I may thus be positive, that
if I have not succeeded as I desire, yet there is somewhat still
remaining to satisfy the curiosity, or itch of sight and hearing. Yet
I have no great reason to despair; for I may, without vanity, own some
advantages, which are not common to every writer; such as are the
knowledge of the Italian and French language, and the being conversant
with some of their best performances in this kind; which have
furnished me with such variety of measures as have given the composer,
Monsieur Grabut, what occasions he could wish, to shew his
extraordinary talent in diversifying the recitative, the lyrical part,
and the chorus; in all which, not to attribute any thing to my own
opinion, the best judges and those too of the best quality, who have
honoured his rehearsals with their presence, have no less commended
the happiness of his genius than his skill. And let me have the
liberty to add one thing, that he has so exactly expressed my sense in
all places where I intended to move the passions, that he seems to
have entered into my thoughts, and to have been the poet as well as
the composer. This I say, not to flatter him, but to do him right;
because amongst some English musicians, and their scholars, who are
sure to judge after them, the imputation of being a Frenchman is
enough to make a party, who maliciously endeavour to decry him. But
the knowledge of Latin and Italian poets, both which he possesses,
besides his skill in music, and his being acquainted with all the
performances of the French operas, adding to these the good sense to
which he is born, have raised him to a degree above any man, who shall
pretend to be his rival on our stage. When any of our countrymen excel
him, I shall be glad, for the sake of old England, to be shewn my
error; in the mean time, let virtue be commended, though in the person
of a stranger[3].

If I thought i