A vehicle for mufic! The expreffion will be found to have its fource in the apothecary's fhop, where the fyrup, or other fweet and pleafant liquid in which a medicine is taken, is called its vehicle. Were there' any propriety, therefore, in the comparison, we must conclude that mufic is a naufeous preparation, which must be fweetened to make it go down; and how fweetened? Here, indeed the fimile halts; for a vehicle must be very difagreeable indeed, when the patient would prefer taking the medicine without it.

The truth is, Mr. Editor, the mufic is the vehicle (and I am forry it is fo employed) for the dialogue and the poetry, which could not exist without it.Mufic, indeed, in this country, is a plea for all kinds of diftrefs, for blindnefs, deformity, and every fpecies of lameness; and why not for the disjeti membra poete? But ftill I can fee no reafon why our theatres, originally dedicated to the productions of genius, fhould be converted into begging ftands, and that we fhould be obliged to pay a band of mufic to drown the clamours of poor Helpless creatures, who have no other means of getting their bread."

But remonstrances on thefe fubjects, I am afraid, come too late. The bufinefs of the ftage is now all mechanifm. The carpenter or the painter write the play, as much as the acknowledged author, and the eye is the only fenfe which is thought worthy of attention. Even where mufic is employed, the band and fingers are fo confcious of the degrading alliance, that they have in fact invented thofe overpowering accompaniments which keep the words entirely out of hearing. I once thought that mufic might have been independent but it now is thought to require the difcord of foolif dialogue as a component part; and the mufician thinks the audience will be glad of a fong of any merit as a happy relief from a converfation which has none. The efcape is indeed fortunate; but mufical compofers

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who

who form affociations of this kind, muft not be offended if they fuffer the evils of bad company, and if, even where a temporary fuccefs feems to apologize for their want of tafte, it should be thought they are more attentive to money than reputation.

Yours,

P. P.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE TARANTULANIA, A DREADFUL EPIDEMIC, WHICH NOW RAGES IN THIS METROPOLIS.

[From the Oracle.]

Mufie can foften pain to ease,

And make despair and madness please. PorE.

HOW tranfitory are all human enjoyments! At the very moment when we felicitate each other on the fufpenfion of hoftilities and the delightful prospect of peace, a difeafe of the most terrible nature has infected numbers of our fellow-citizens. Its effects have hitherto been chiefly confined to the higher claffes, and it seems to be occafioned by a species of fpider called the tarantula, the bite of which is only curable by mufic.

Some malignant perfons fcruple not to infinuate that Mrs. Billington imported a trunk-full of these noxious creatures from the continent, that the might. profit by their depredations on the human fpecies; nay, fome people declare that the brought a pocketful of tarantulas to Covent Garden Theatre the other night, and occafionally threw them into the pit and the boxes. Thefe calumnies, however, are too ridiculous to require refutation; and it is more probable that the tarantulas were carried away from the Opera Houfe in the clothes of our nobility and gentry laft

winter.

By

By whatever means they have been introduced to "the rich and perfumed chambers of the great," certain it is that they have affected the auricular nerves of the whole community, with a degree of irritation which nothing lefs than vocal and inftrumental mufic can remove. For this purpose the managers of the winter theatres, infpired with the most lively fympathy, like true patriots, engaged Mrs. Billington to fing, for the comfort and alleviation of the public! Her first efforts have been uncommonly fuccefsful, and have given temporary relief, which, however, it is feared, will only be like an opiate.

Meanwhile the tarantulas are not idle, and about a thousand of them, which have crawled in different directions, have within thefe few nights done more to difcompofe the wives and daughters of our tradefmen and mechanics, than the united efforts of a million of bugs were able to, effect during the fummer.

A tailor in Oxford Street, who used to beat his wife and apprentices, has, by the magic influence of fweet founds, become as meek as a dove to his rib, and fo full of benignity to his apprentices, that they confider the fair phyfician as their benefactrefs.

A petit-maitre man-milliner, who had forfaken a mantua-maker to whom he formerly made love, caught the infection from Lady Languifh the other morning. A huge tarantula, at least as big as a walnut, crept from her Ladyfhip's wig to the hair of the poor young man, and bit his ear, exciting a moft unpleafant titillation. He haftened to the theatre, and felt his pain much mitigated by mufic. Next morning he vifited his charmer, whom he found at her harpfichord, playing " Crazy Jane." Overcome by the united powers of love and melody, he threw himself on a feat, whining out, "If mufic be the food of love, play on:" and he was fo tranfported

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with her skill, that he led her to the hymeneal altar the fame day.

How long this populous city will be diftreffed with this disease is uncertain, as it is not yet come to a crisis. It is univerfally agreed, however, that there are but two remedies for the tarantulania-either Mrs. Billington's voice, or an empty purses

SATYRICUS.

PARALLEL BETWEEN ST. VITUS'S DANCE AND A MODERN MASKED BALL.

[From the famé.]

DISEASES of the mind, like thofe of the body, are fometimes communicated to the people of a particular diftrict, and in fome inftances the contagious virus has been known to infect a whole people.

Such was St. Vitus's Dance, a mental malady, which prevailed in Germany in the feventeenth century, and is thus defcribed by an English writer of that period"The dance of St. Vitus was a fpecies of madnefs which raged in Germany, and with which perfons of all ranks, especially the common people, were feized. Shoemakers, tailors, and country fellows, throwing afide their tools, being feized with a horrid fury, on meeting together, would dance till their breath failed. Sometimes they danced on precipices and rocks till they fell and broke their necks, and fometimes on the banks of the Rhine and other rivers, into which they would precipitate and drown themfelves. They would run hooting about, bawling and dancing with geminated clamours, truculent afpect, and foaming mouths, that their friends were fain to lay high forms in their way, on purpose for them to leap over. Pregnant women did not escape this fury, but ran about, up and down in the dance, without any inconvenience. The magiftrates were fain to appoint muficians and drum

mers,

mers, and the ftouteft fellows they could get, to affift them in their dances, out of the public treafury, till their furious fits expired. They betook themfelves to prayer to St. Vitus (John Baptift), in hopes of recovering their health."

From the above account it is evident, that the German malady has attacked the people of England; but in this country its malignancy feems confined to the higher claffes. The frantic orgies, called masked balls, are only a more refined fpecies of St. Vitus's Dance; and the unhappy wights who labour under its influence, are fo well convinced of its being ridiculous, that they conceal their faces during the paroxyfm.

It is fomewhat fingular that this difeafe fhould, like gaming, or any other fafhionable evil, attack its victims only during the night; and their cafe is the more pitiable, as the fit commonly begins about the time when the regular part of the community retire to rest.

Only let a perfon of fenfibility reflect on the deplorable feene exhibited in that fashionable hofpital of incurables, where hundreds of elegant human beings of both fexes meet in difguife, abfurdly perfonating the moft grotefque and ridiculous characters, while their converfation, mirth, aud dancing, are exactly fuch as we might expect to witnefs in Bedlam.

The patients, however, feldom go to fuch extremes as dancing on rocks; but they fearlessly gambol on the edge of that moft tremendous precipice Eternity! while they wafte the prime of their days in folly and excefs. In fome inftances, they employ " ftout fellows," commonly called police officers, who may be confidered as mafters of the ceremonies at a masked ball. But instead of being entertained with mufic at the public expenfe, they lavish away their own treafure, on thefe occafions, with a profufion that commonly

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