th china-blue
eyes, in Church-of-England knee-breeches, high-cut vest, and shovel-hat.

Dean Swift replies with a knowing smirk, which is the nearest approach
to a laugh in which he ever indulged. Then he takes out his snuffbox and
taps it, which is a sign that he is going to say something worth while.
"Yes, one must go everywhere, and do everything, just to find out how
bad things are. By this means we clergymen are able to intelligently
warn our flocks. But I came tonight to hear that rogue Bononcini--you
know he is from County Down--I used to go to school with him," and the
Dean solemnly passes the snuffbox.

Garrick here bursts into a laugh, which is broken off short by a
reproving look from the Dean, who has gotten the snuffbox back and is
meditatively tapping it again. The friends listen and hear from the
muttering lips of the Dean, this:

Some say that Signore Bononcini,
Compared to Handel is a ninny;
Whilst others vow that to him Handel,
Is hardly fit to hold a candle.
Strange all this difference should be
'Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee.

The people are tumbling back to their seats as the musicians come
stringing in. Soon there is a general tuning up--scrapings, toots,
snorts, subdued screeches, raspings, and all that busy buzz-fuzz
business of getting ready to play.

"The first time we came to the opera Doctor Johnson thought this was all
a part of the play, and applauded with unction for an encore," says
Garrick.

"And I heard nothing finer the whole evening," answers Doctor Johnson,
accepting the defi, and winning by yielding.

"Why don't they tune up at home, or behind the scenes?" asks some one.

"I'll tell you why," says Savage, and he relates this: "Handel is a
great man for system--he is a strict disciplinarian, as any man must be
to manage musicians, who are neither men nor women, but a third sex.
Often Handel has to knock their heads together, and once he shook the
Cuzzoni until her teeth chattered."

"That's the way you have to treat any woman before she will respect
you," interrupts the Dean. Nothing else being forthcoming, Savage
continues: "Handel is absolute master of everything but Death and
Destiny. Now he didn't like all this tuning up before the audience; he
said you might as well expect the prima donna to make her toilet in
front of the curtain"--

"I like the idea," says Johnson.

Savage praises the interruption and continues: "And so ordered every m