This, from a man whose operas did not fail, but on the contrary, were highly successful, is rather too bad. But the author of the ill-fated "Rosamond" himself visited the French Opera, and has left an account of it, which corresponds closely enough to Favart's poetical description. "I have seen a couple of rivers," he says, (No. 29 of the _Spectator_) "appear in red stockings, and Alpheus, instead of having his head covered with sedge and bulrushes, making love in a fair, full-bottomed, periwig, and a plume of feathers, but with a voice so full of shakes and quavers that I should have thought the murmurs of a country brook the much more agreeable music. I remember the last opera I saw in that merry nation was the "Rape of Proserpine," where Pluto, to make the more tempting figure, puts himself in a French equipage, and brings Ascalaphus along with him as his _valet de chambre_." This is what we call folly and impertinence, but what the French look upon as gay and polite." Addison's account agrees with Favart's song and also with one by Panard, which contains this stanza:-- "J'ai vu le soleil et la lune Qui faissient des discours en l'air _J'ai vu le terrible Neptune_ _Sortir tout frisé de la mer_." Panard's song, which occurs at the end of a vaudeville produced in 1733, entitled _Le départ de l'Opéra_, refers to scenes behind as well as before the curtain. It could not be translated with any effect, but I may offer the reader the following modernized imitation of it, and so conclude the present chapter. WHAT MAY BE SEEN AT THE OPERA. I've seen Semiramis, the queen; I've seen the Mysteries of Isis; A lady full of health I've seen Die in her dressing-gown, of phthisis. I've seen a wretched lover sigh, "_Fra poco_" he a corpse would be, Transfix himself, and then--not die, But coolly sing an air in D. I've seen a father lose his child, Nor seek the robbers' flight to stay; But, in a voice extremely mild, Kneel down upon the stage and pray. I've seen "Otello" stab his wife; The "Count di Luna" fight his brother; "Lucrezia" take her own son's life; And "John of Leyden" cut his mother. I've seen a churchyard yield its dead, And lifeless nuns in life rejoice; I've seen a statue bow its head, And listened to its trombone voice. I've seen a herald sound alarms, Without evincing any fright: Have seen an army cry "To arms" For half an hour, and never fight. I've seen a naiad drinking beer; I've seen a goddess fined a crown; And pirate bands, who knew no fear, By the stage manager put down; Seen angels in an awful rage, And slaves receive more court than queens, And huntresses upon the stage Themselves pursued behind the scenes.