PREFACE.
As
the Story of this Masque is taken
from the Fabulous History of the Heathen
Gods; I hope there will be no occasion
for an Apology, why they are treated with that
Familiarity, I might say, Contempt of their Divinity,
since we have so good an Authority as
Lucian, from whose Dialogues this is chiefly
copied; therefore, if any Thing appear harsh
or grating, as Momus's Usage of Jupiter,
the Reader is desired to consider, that it is
agreeable to the Manner that Lucian writ in;
and the Story must have been lost, or the Sentiments
which the Antients had of those Deities,
if we had not pursued the Language they made
use of. I own here is a great deal of Room for
fine Machinery Decoration of the Stage, and
the like; but as that wou'd have encreas'd the
Expences of the House too considerably, we
hope the Musick to this Masque will prove as
agreeable an Entertainment to the Town, as
hath been produced in this Kind some Years; for
the Composing of which, we own ourselves obliged
to Mr. William Turner, who hath a happy
Genius in Naturalizing Italian Musick into a
true English Manner, without losing the Spirit
and Force of the Original in the Imitation, or
the Masterly Touches of the Art in the Composition.
[_]
N. B. Those Lines Mark'd with a Comma [thus] ‘are Airs, and those without, are Recitative.
