Dear Sir I was very Sorry to hear in your Last Letter that you were so terribly afflicted with the gout tho For your comfort I believe you are the first English poet that has been complemented with the Distemper: I was myself at that time sick of a Feaver which I believe proceeded From the same Cause.... I cou'd have wisht for your company last night at ye Opera where you would have seen paint enough on ye actors Faces to have Dawbed a whole street of sign-posts. Every man that comes upon the Stage is a Beau: the Shepherds are all Embroiderd, Pluto has his Valet de chambre, and a couple of Riders appears in Red Stockins. Alpheus throws aside his Sedge and makes Love in a Fair periwig and a plume of Feathers but with such a horrid voice that [one] woud think the murmurs of a Country-Brook much better music. It is as ridiculous to criticise an opera as a puppet-show or I cd send you over a Long Catalogue of the like Indecencys: but since I have mention'd Musick I can't forbear telling you that Corelli has a very mean opinion of Harry Purcell's works as a gentleman told me that presented 'em to him, which I suppose Will be no Small Mortification to You Tramontane composers. I am etc... << less