ther decorations of the stage, I
had from Mr Betterton, who has spared neither for industry, nor cost,
to make this entertainment perfect, nor for invention of the ornaments
to beautify it.

To conclude, though the enemies of the composer are not few, and that
there is a party formed against him of his own profession, I hope, and
am persuaded, that this prejudice will turn in the end to his
advantage. For the greatest part of an audience is always
uninterested, though seldom knowing; and if the music be well
composed, and well performed, they, who find themselves pleased, will
be so wise as not to be imposed upon, and fooled out of their
satisfaction. The newness of the undertaking is all the hazard. When
operas were first set up in France, they were not followed over
eagerly; but they gained daily upon their hearers, till they grew to
that height of reputation, which they now enjoy. The English, I
confess, are not altogether so musical as the French; and yet they
have been pleased already with "The Tempest," and some pieces that
followed, which were neither much better written, nor so well composed
as this. If it finds encouragement, I dare promise myself to mend my
hand, by making a more pleasing fable. In the mean time, every loyal
Englishman cannot but be satisfied with the moral of this, which so
plainly represents the double restoration of His Sacred Majesty.

POSTSCRIPT.

This preface being wholly written before the death of my late royal
master, (_quem semper acerbum, semper honoratum, sic dii voluistis,
habebo_) I have now lately reviewed it, as supposing I should find
many notions in it, that would require correction on cooler thoughts.
After four months lying by me, I looked on it as no longer mine,
because I had wholly forgotten it; but I confess with some
satisfaction, and perhaps a little vanity, that I found myself
entertained by it; my own judgment was new to me, and pleased me when
I looked on it as another man's. I see no opinion that I would retract
or alter, unless it be, that possibly the Italians went not so far as
Spain, for the invention of their operas. They might have it in their
own country; and that by gathering up the shipwrecks of the Athenian
and Roman theatres, which we know were adorned with scenes, music,
dances, and machines, especially the Grecian. But of this the learned
Monsieur Vossius, who has made our nation his second country, is the
best, and