has found out the prodigious Art
of Singing like a _Cricket_? Who could have ever imagin'd, before the
Introduction of the _Mode_, that ten or a dozen Quavers in a Row could
be trundled along one after the other, with a Sort of _Tremor_, of the
Voice, which for some time past has gone under the name of _Mordente
Fresco_?[107]

Sec. 66. He will have a still greater Detestation for the Invention of
Laughing in Singing, or that screaming like a Hen when she is laying her
Egg. Will there not be some other little Animal worth their Imitation,
in order to make the Profession more and more ridiculous?

Sec. 67. He will disapprove the malicious Custom of a Singer in Repute,
who talks and laughs on the Stage with his Companions, to induce the
Publick to believe that such a Singer, who appears the first time on the
Stage, does not deserve his Attention; when in reality he is afraid of,
or envies, his gaining Applause.

Sec. 68. He cannot endure the Vanity of that Singer, who, full of himself
from the little he has learned, is so taken with his own Performance,
that he seems falling into an Extasy; pretending to impose Silence and
create Wonder, as if his first Note said to the Audience, _Hear and
Die_: But they, unwilling to die, chuse not to hear him, talk loud, and
perhaps not much to his Advantage. At his second Air the Noise
encreases, and still encreasing, he looks upon it as a manifest Injury
done him; and, instead of correcting his conceited Pride by Study, he
curses the deprav'd Taste of that Nation that does not esteem him,
menacing never to return again; and thus the vain Wretch comforts
himself.

Sec. 69. He will laugh at one who will not act unless he has the Choice of
the Drama, and a Composer to his liking; with this additional Condition,
not to sing in Company with such a Man, or without such a Woman.

Sec. 70. With the like Derision, he will observe some others, who with an
Humility worse than Pride, go from one Box to another, gathering Praises
from the most illustrious Persons, under a Pretence of a most profound
Obsequiousness, and become in every Representation more and more
familiar. Humility and Modesty are most beautiful Virtues; but if they
are not accompanied with a little Decorum, they have some Resemblance to
Hypocrisy.

Sec. 71. He will have no great Opinion of one, who is not satisfied with
his Part, and never learns it; of one, who never sings in an Opera
without thrusting in one _Air_ which h