LETTERS OF JONATHAN OLDSTYLE, GENT by Washington Irving

Author:Washington Irving [Irving, Washington]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788027202775
Publisher: Musaicum Press
Published: 2017-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

LETTER V.

Table of Contents

SIR,

As I was sitting quietly by my fireside the other morning, nursing my wounded shin, and reading to my cousin, Jack Stylish, a chapter or two from Chesterfield’s Letters, I received the following epistle from my friend Andrew Quoz; who, hearing that I talked of paying the actors a visit, and shaking my cane over their heads, has written the following letter, part of which is strongly in their defence.

To Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent.

My Dear Friend, I perceive by the late papers, you have been entertaining the town with remarks on the Theatre. As you do not seem from your writings to be much of an adept in the Thespian arcana, permit me to give you a few hints for your information.

The Theatre, you observe, begins to answer all the purposes of a coffeehouse. Here you are right; it is the polite lounge, where the idle and curious resort, to pick up the news of the fashionable world, to meet their acquaintances, and to show themselves off to advantage. As to the dull souls who go for the sake of the play, why, if their attention is interrupted by the conversation of their neighbours, they must bear it with patience; it is a custom authorized by fashion. Persons who go for the purpose of chatting with their friends are not to be deprived of their amusement; they have paid their dollar, and have a right to entertain themselves as well as they can. As to those who are annoyed by their talking, why they need not listen to it; let them mind their own business.

You are surprised at so many persons using opera-glasses, and wish to know whether they were all near-sighted. Your cousin, Jack Stylish, has not explained that matter sufficiently, for though many mount glasses because it is the go, yet I am told that several do it to enable them to distinguish the countenances of their friends across our scantily illuminated Theatre. I was considerably amused the other evening with an honest tar, who had stationed himself in front of the gallery, and with an air of affected foppishness, was reconnoitring the house through a pocket telescope. I could not but like his notion, tor really the gods are so elevated among the clouds, that unless they are unusually strong of vision, I can’t tell how they manage to discern with the naked eye what is passing in the little painted world below them.

I think you complain of the deficiency of the music; and say that we want a greater variety, and more of it. But you must know that, though this might have been a grievance in old times, when people attended to the musicians, it is a thing of but little moment at present; our orchestra is kept principally for form sake. There is such a continual noise and bustle between the acts, that it is difficult to hear a note; and if the musicians were to get up a new piece of

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