the clouds, or hissed, or rather howled at, without mercy. In an Italian
theatre, they shout, they scream, they stamp, they belabour the backs of
their seats with their canes, with all the violence of persons
possessed. It is thus that they force on others the judgment which they
have formed, and strive to prove it a sound one; for, strange to say,
there is no intolerance equal to that of the eminently sensitive. At the
close of each air the same terrific uproar ensues; the bellowings of an
angry sea could give but a faint idea of its fury. Such, at the same
time, is the taste of an Italian audience, that they at once distinguish
whether the merit of an air belongs to the singer, or composer."

Contrast the scene here described with the appearance presented on
similar occasion by the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket. There, few are
bold enough either to applaud or disapprove. Many simple, perhaps, but
beautiful and refined, characteristics of the composer or performer, may
pass unnoticed; but some common-place embellishment, which is considered
safe, will command the expression of approbation which the trait of real
genius had failed to elicit. After a few representations, the fear of
applauding _unwisely_ is diminished, but still, as was once said of the
French under similar circumstances, "they affirm with the lips, but with
the eye they interrogate;" and it is not till a sort of prescription has
been established in favour of certain airs and passages, that the
Englishman banishes doubt and distrust, and claps his hands, and shouts
_bravo_--accenting the word strongly on the first syllable--with an air
of confidence and decision. We would, nevertheless, entertain the hope,
that our national reserve, or the _mauvaise honte_, which our countrymen
contrive to exhibit on every possible occasion, is one cause of this
apparent dulness; at all events, it would seem highly probable that a
people among whom music is a necessity, should, in the unbiassed
judgment of contemporary nations, be our superiors in the art.