AcknowledgementsGeneral IntroductionSelect BibliographyNotes on the TextAaron Hill, Preface to Giacomo Rossini, Rinaldo, an Opera (1711)Daniel Purcell, Preface to Six Cantatas for a Voice (1713)[Anon.], A Full and True Account of a Dreadful Fire that Lately Broke Out in the Pope's Breeches (1713)Peter Anthony Motteaux, 'To the Nobility and the Gentry,' from Thomryis, Queen of Scythia, 4th edn (1719)Mr P. Aubert, Preface to Harlequin Hydaspes; or, the Greshamite (1719)John Terrasson, A Discourse Concerning the Opera (1720)[Anon.], A Letter from Signor Benedetto Baldassari (1720)[Anon.], Preface to Camilla, an Opera (1726)John Rich, Dedication to Lewis Theobold, The Rape of Proserpine (1727)The Devil to Pay at St. James's, 1727[Anon.], The Devil to Pay at St. James's (1727)[Anon.], A Little More of That Same (1727)Thomas Lediard, Prefatory Argument of a Description of the Transparent Theatre, from Britannia, an English Opera (1732)James Sterling, Prologue and Epilogue to John Dryden, King Arthur; or, Merlin, the British Inchanter (1736)John Dorman, 'Some Memoirs of F_____i [Farinelli]', from The Curiosity (1738)The Trouble with Orpheus, 1740John Hill, Orpheus: An English Opera (1740)John Rich, Mr Rich's Answer to the Many Falsities and Calumnies Advanced by Mr. John Hill (1739)John Hill, An Answer to the Many Plain and Notorious Lyes Advanc'd by Mr. John Rich (1740)John Lockman, 'An Enquiry into the Rise and Progress of Operas', from Rosalinda, a Musical Drama (1740)John Dorman, Prologue and Epilogue to the Comedy of Pamela, with the Preface to Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, an Opera