and Tragedies were acted. The Empress asked, Whether they were real? No, said the Duchess, they are feigned. Then the Empress desired to enter into the Theatre; and when she had seen the Play that was asked, the Duchess asked her how she liked that Recreation? I like it very well, said the Empress; but I observe that the Actors make a better show than the Spectators; and the Scenes a better than the Actors and the Musick and Dancing is more pleasant and acceptable than the Play it self; for I see, the Scenes stand for Wit, the Dancing for Humour, and the Musick is the Chorus. I am sorry, replied the Duchess, to hear your Majesty say so; for if the Wits of this part of the World should hear you, they would condemn you. What, said the Empress, would they condemn me for preferring a natural Face before a Sign-post; or a natural Humour before an artificial Dance; or Musick before a true and profitable Relation? As for Relation, replied the Duchess, our Poets defie and condemn it into a Chimney-corner, fitter for old Womens Tales, than Theatres. Why, said the Empress do not your Poets Actions comply with their Judgments? For their Plays are composed of old Stories, either of Greek or Roman, or some new-found World. The Duchess answered Her Majesty, That it was true, that all or most of their Plays were taken out of old Stories; but yet they had new Actions, which being joined to old Stories, together with the addition of new Prologues, Scenes, Musick and Dancing, made new Plays. After this, both the Souls went to the Court, where all the Royal Family was together, attended by the chief of the Nobles of their Dominions, which made a very magnificent Show; and when the Soul of the Empress viewed the King and Queen, she seemed to be in a maze, which the Duchess's Soul perceiving, asked the Empress how she liked the King, the Queen, and all the Royal Race? she answered, that in all the Monarchs she had seen in that World, she had not found so much Majesty and Affability mixt so exactly together, that none did overshadow or eclipse the other; and as for the Queen, she said that Vertue sat Triumphant in her face, and Piety was dwelling in her heart; and that all the Royal Family seem'd to be endued with a Divine splendor: but when she had heard the King discourse, she believ'd that Mercury and Apollo had been his Cœlestial Instructors; and, my dear Lord and Husband, added the Duchess, has been his Earthly Governor. But after some short stay in the Court, the Duchess's soul grew very Melancholy; the Empress asking the cause of her sadness? she told her, That she had an extreme desire to converse with the soul of her Noble Lord and dear Husband, and that she was inpatient of a longer stay. The Empress desired the Duchess to have but patience so long, until the King, the Queen, and the Royal Family were retired, and then she would bear her Company to her Lord and Husband's Soul, who at that time lived in the Country some 112 miles