rivalry in 1726 and 1727 is here referred to, were singers
of remarkable powers. Cuzzoni's voice was a soprano, her rival's a
mezzo-soprana, and while the latter excelled in brilliant execution,
the former was supreme in pathetic expression. Dr. Burney("History of
Music," iv. 319) quotes from M. Quanta the statement that so keen was
their supporter's party spirit, that when one party began to applaude
their favourite, the other party hissed!--R.W. LOWE, "Notes to the
Apology."]

"But when it came to the proof of this musical project, behold! what
woful work they made of it! every performer would be a Caesar or
Nothing; their several pretentions to preference were not to be
limited within the laws of harmony; they would all choose their own
songs, but not more to set off themselves than to oppose or deprive
another of an occasion to shine. Yet any one would sing a bad song,
provided nobody else had a good one, till at last they were thrown
together like so many feather'd warriors, for a battle-royal in a
cock-pit, where every one was oblig'd to kill another to save himself!
What pity it was these froward misses and masters of musick had not
been engag'd to entertain the court of some King of Morocco, that
could have known a good opera from a bad one! With how much ease would
such a director have brought them to better order? But alas! as it has
been said of greater things,

"'Suis et ipsa Roma viribus ruit.'

"Imperial Rome fell by the too great strength of its own citizens! So
fell this mighty opera, ruin'd by the too great excellency of its
singers! For, upon the whole, it proved to be as barbarously bad as if
Malice itself had composed it."

It was a pity, no doubt, that the light of opera shone but dimly at
the Haymarket, yet the ill wind which almost extinguished that light
blew a blessing towards the nimble Santlow. For the dear creature
prospered exceeding well as Dorcas Zeal; the heart of the public waxed
warm toward the ex-dancer, and so did the cardiac organ of Barton
Booth. A few years later Booth married the charmer, and she, having
become virtuous and prim, made the remainder of his life a bed of
domestic roses.

And now for the brief story of Booth's dignified career. Barton came
of good English stock, and his father, with a true British desire to
rule the destinies of his family, mapped out a clerical life for the
boy. But the latter had no thought of the pulpit, and from the time
that he acted in