Excerpt from Operatic Performances in England Before Handel

No field in English Literature has received less attention than that of the heroic drama, and inseparably connected with this is the so-called literary opera, for the composers who wrote the one, also wrote the other. I have chronicled the rise and progress of the English opera from 1656, the date of its initial performance, until the introduction in 1710 of Italian librettos by Handel and his co-workers. Little or nothing has been written on the consecutive history of the opera between those two dates. The works themselves are not easily available and for that reason I have given epitomes of the operas and I have collected many facts concerning this excrescence of literature. I have read every extant opera, many of which are to be found only in the library of the British Museum.

My indebtedness to the librarians of Havard and Columbia Colleges, of the University of Pennsylvania, of the Congressional Library and of the British Museum, I gratefully acknowledge.

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