But the chief feature of the revived _Tempest_ was the music, the elaborate scenery, and the scenic mechanism.[19] There was an orchestra of twenty-four violins in front of the stage, with harpsichords and "theorbos" to accompany the voices; new songs were dispersed about the piece with unsparing hand. The curious new "Echo" song in Act III.--a duet between Ferdinand and Ariel--was deemed by Pepys to be so "mighty pretty" that he requested the composer--Bannister--to "prick him down the notes." Many times did the audience shout with joy as Ariel, with a _corps de ballet_ in attendance, winged his flight to the roof of the stage. [Footnote 19: The Dryden-D'Avenant perversion of _The Tempest_ which Pepys witnessed underwent a further deterioration in 1673, when Thomas Shadwell, poet laureate, to the immense delight of the playgoing public, rendered the piece's metamorphosis into an opera more complete. In 1674 the Dryden-D'Avenant edition was reissued, with Shadwell's textual and scenic amplification, although no indication was given on the title-page or elsewhere of his share in the venture. Contemporary histories of the stage make frequent reference to Shadwell's "Opera" of _The Tempest_; but no copy was known to be extant until Sir Ernest Clarke proved, in _The Athenaeum_ for August 25, 1906, that the second and later editions of the Dryden-D'Avenant version embodied Shadwell's operatic embellishments, and are copies of what was known in theatrical circles of the day as Shadwell's "Opera." Shadwell's stage-directions are more elaborate than those of Dryden and D'Avenant, and there are other minor innovations; but there is little difference in the general design of the two versions. Shadwell merely bettered Dryden's and D'Avenant's instructions.]