Steele, in No. 14 of the _Spectator_, tells us that--"The sparrows and chaffinches at the Haymarket fly, as yet, very irregularly over the stage; and instead of perching on the trees and performing their parts, these young actors either get into the galleries or put out the candles," for which and other reasons equally good, he decides that Mr. Powell's Puppet-show is preferable as a place of entertainment to the Opera, and that Handel's _Rinaldo_ is inferior as a production of art to a puppet-show drama. Indeed, though Steele, in the _Tatler_, and Addison in the _Spectator_, have said very civil things about Nicolini, neither of them appears to have been impressed in the slightest degree by Handel's music, nor does it even seem to have occurred to them that the composer's share in producing an opera was by any means considerable. Steele, thought the Opera a decidedly "unintellectual" entertainment (how much purely intellectual enjoyment is there, we wonder, in the pleasure derived from the contemplation of a virgin, by Raphael, and what is the meaning in criticising art of looking at it merely in its intellectual aspect?); but he at the same time bears testimony to the high (æsthetic) gratification he derived from the performance of Nicolini, who "by the grace and propriety of his action and gesture, does honour to the human figure," and who "sets off the character he bears in an opera by his action as much as he does the words of it by his voice."[18] In 1711, in addition to Handel's _Rinaldo_, _Antiochus_, an opera, by Apostolo Zeno and Gasparini, was performed, and about the same time, or soon afterwards, _Ambleto_, by the same author and composer, was brought out. If we smile at Signor Verdi for attempting to turn _Macbeth_ into an opera, what are we to say to Zeno's and Gasparini's experiment with the far more unsuitable tragedy of _Hamlet_? In _Macbeth_, the songs and choruses of witches, the banquet with the apparition of the murdered Banquo, and above all, the sleep-walking scene might well inspire a composer of genius; but a "Hamlet" without philosophy, or, worse still, a "Hamlet" who searches his own soul to orchestral accompaniments--this must indeed be absurd. I learn from Dr. Burney, that _Ambleto_ was written for Venice, that it was represented at the Queen's Theatre, in London, and that "the overture had four movements ending with a jig!" An overture to _Hamlet_ "ending with a jig!" To think that this was tolerated, and that we are shocked in the present day by burlesques put forth as such! The _Spectator_, while apparently keeping a sharp look out for all that is ridiculous, or that can be represented as ridiculous in the operatic performances of the day, has not a word to say against _Ambleto_. But it must be remembered that since Milton's time, "Nature's sweetest child" had ceased to be appreciated in England even by the most esteemed writers--who, however, for the most part, if they were not good