The tenor Farinelli (whose real name was Carlo Broschi) was born in the dukedom of Modena in 1705, and died 1782.] That Cibber knew something of the wrangles which inevitably follow in the wake of an operatic troupe may be seen from the next paragraph: "There is, too, in the very species of an Italian singer such an innate, fantastical pride and caprice, that the government of them (here at least) is almost impracticable.

This distemper, as we were not sufficiently warn'd or apprized of, threw our musical affairs into perplexities we knew not easily how to get out of.

There is scarce a sensible auditor in the Kingdom that has not since that time had occasion to laugh at the several instances of it.

But what is still more ridiculous, these costly canary birds have sometimes infested the whole body of our dignified lovers of musick with the same childish animosities." It was merely an illustration of the melancholy fact that the heavenly maid of music is too often attended by the handmaiden of discord.

But to continue: "Ladies have been known," says Colley, "to decline their visits upon account of their being of a different musical party.