their strength, and the mules would not move onwards. My

or to excommunicate Signor Senesino or Signora Cuzzoni. With regard

to myself, I could presume to wish that the magistrates would

suppress I know not what contemptible pieces written against the

stage. For when the English and Italians hear that we brand with

the greatest mark of infamy an art in which we excel; that we

excommunicate persons who receive salaries from the king; that we

condemn as impious a spectacle exhibited in convents and

monasteries; that we dishonour sports in which Louis XIV. and Louis