Works

They say Pacchierotti the famous Soprano Singer is ill¹, & they say Lady Mary Duncan² his frightful old Protectress has made him so by her Caresses denaturés: a little Envy of the new Woman Allegranti³ has probably not much mended his Health, for Pacchierotti—dear Creature—is envious enough.

I was however turning over Horace yesterday to look for the Expression tenui fronte in Vindication of my Assertion to Johnson that low Foreheads were classical, when the 8^th Ode of the 1^st Book of Horace struck me so, I could not help Imitating it while the Scandal was warm in my head.

1.

He’s sick indeed! and very sick,
For if it is not all a Trick,
    You’d better look about ye;
Dear Lady Mary prythee tell,
Why thus by loving him too well
    You kill your Pacchierotti?

2.

Nor Sun nor Dust can he abide,
Nor careless in a Snaffle ride
    The Steed we saw him mount ill;
You stript him of his manly Force,
When tumbling headlong from his Horse,
    He press’d the Plains at Fonthill⁴.

3.

Why the full Opera should he shun?
Where Crouds of Critics smiling run,
    To applaud their Allegrante;
Why is it worse than Viper’s Sting,
To see them Clap, or hear her Sing
    Surely he’s envious—An’t he?

4.

Forbear his House, nor haunt his Bed
With that strange Wig and fearful Head,
    Then though he now so Ill is;
We o’er his Voice again may Doze
When cover’d warm with Woman’s Clothes,
    He acts a Young Achilles.

Footnotes

1. He actually lived a further 39 years, dying on 28 October 1821.↩︎
2. Daughter of the Earl of Thanet, and widow of Sir William Duncan, physician to the King. She was sixty-four in 1782. Gentlemans Magazine lxxvi. 686-7.↩︎
3. Madalena Allegranti, the Italian soprano, made her London debut in 1781. Grove, Dictionary of Music.↩︎
4. Fonthill, the seat of young Beckford. Rival to Lady Mary Duncan for the charms of Pacchierotti.↩︎