nce, were passionately fond of
them.

One Mr. Prynne, a man of most furiously scrupulous principles, who would
have thought himself damned had he worn a cassock instead of a short
cloak, and have been glad to see one-half of mankind cut the other to
pieces for the glory of God, and the _Propaganda Fide_; took it into his
head to write a most wretched satire against some pretty good comedies,
which were exhibited very innocently every night before their majesties.
He quoted the authority of the Rabbis, and some passages from St.
Bonaventure, to prove that the OEdipus of Sophocles was the work of the
evil spirit; that Terence was excommunicated _ipso facto_; and added,
that doubtless Brutus, who was a very severe Jansenist, assassinated
Julius Caesar for no other reason but because he, who was Pontifex
Maximus, presumed to write a tragedy the subject of which was OEdipus.
Lastly, he declared that all who frequented the theatre were
excommunicated, as they thereby renounced their baptism. This was
casting the highest insult on the king and all the royal family; and as
the English loved their prince at that time, they could not bear to hear
a writer talk of excommunicating him, though they themselves afterwards
cut his head off. Prynne was summoned to appear before the Star Chamber;
his wonderful book, from which Father Le Brun stole his, was sentenced to
be burnt by the common hangman, and himself to lose his ears. His trial
is now extant.

The Italians are far from attempting to cast a blemish on the opera, or
to excommunicate Signor Senesino or Signora Cuzzoni. With regard to
myself, I could presume to wish that the magistrates would suppress I
know not what contemptible pieces written against the stage. For when
the English and Italians hear that we brand with the greatest mark of
infamy an art in which we excel; that we excommunicate persons who
receive salaries from the king; that we condemn as impious a spectacle
exhibited in convents and monasteries; that we dishonour sports in which
Louis XIV. and Louis XV., performed as actors; that we give the title of
the devil's works to pieces which are received by magistrates of the most
severe character, and represented before a virtuous queen; when, I say,
foreigners are told of this insolent conduct, this contempt for the royal
authority, and this Gothic rusticity which some presume to call Christian
severity, what an idea must they entertain of our nation? And how