| Citation |
VGW(HU.771.027
14 Mar 1771:21 (1024)
From Baron Bierfield's letters (lately published) Secretary
of Legation to the King of Prussia. To his friend at
Berlin, from London, March 2, 1741. . . [3 paragraphs,
commentary on the taste of the English for cruel sports as
entertainment]
They tell me that an industrious Italian contrived a very
singular exhibition, a few years since, in London. The
first part was a concert of cats, whom he had ranged
according to their several ages, their size, and the compass
of their voices, on the benches of an amphitheatre All the
cats were dressed with ruffs, and ruffles, made of paper.
They had before them desks, to which their feet were
fastened. Each cat had also a musick book, and two wax
tapers. They assured me that this assembly afforded a most
comick appearance at the instant the curtain was drawn up,
that there were among them cats of a very droll physiognomy,
that all of them seemed to roll their eyes in different
manners, that the musick and the instruments that
accompanied the voices were equally fantastick, and that all
their tails being placed between pincers the master of the
chapel had nothing to do but draw them together in order to
make his performers exert their vocal faculties at the
proper intervals.
The second part of this burlesque entertainment was
performed by turkies, who were made to dance in a kind of
circular enclosure on a platform, the bottom of which was
made of iron or brass; and under it were placed pans with
hot coals, which gradually heated the iron. The turkies at
first made slow and grave steps, to the sound of instruments
that played sarabands, louvres, &c. As the floor increased
in heat the turkeys quickened their steps, and the musick
its time, till at last, the iron becoming almost red hot,
the poor birds could not longer preserve any regular step .
. . They say this Italian made his fortune in London, by
these drole exhibitions.
|