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TOC
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he was to all other singers as superior as
the famous horse Childers was to all other
running-horses; but it was not only in
speed that he excelled, for he had now
every excellence of every great singer
united. In his voice, strength, sweetness,
and compass; and in his stile, the tender,
the graceful, and the rapid. Indeed he
possessed such powers as never met before,
or since, in any one human being; pow-
ers that were irresistible, and which must
have subdued every hearer; the learned
and the ignorant, the friend and the
foe.
With these talents he went into Spain
in the year 1737, with a full design to
return into England, having entered into
articles with the nobility, who had then
the management of the opera, to perform
the ensuing season. In his way thither
he sung to the king of France at Paris,
where, according to Riccoboni, he en-
chanted even the French themselves, who
at that time universally abhorred Italian
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