To Arne succeed several masters, many of whose compositions are still popular.  Arnold, Boyce, Battishall, Shield, Horsley, Webbe, and Calcott, are the leading names of a numerous class who are chiefly remembered for their anthems and glees, amongst which may be found the chefs-d’oeuvres of a school of which we shall more particularly speak hereafter.  The dramatic compositions of these masters are, for the most part, consigned to oblivion; nor has any permanent impression been made upon the public, by a native opera, for many years.  While our national school has been thus barren, the Italian opera has been long cultivated and esteemed.  The first opera, performed wholly in Italian, was given at the Haymarket theatre in 1710.  Handel began to write for this theatre in 1712, and continued to produce operas for many years.  The Italian opera appears to have been in the most flourishing state about the years 1735 and 1736.  London then possessed two lyric theatres, each managed by foreign composers, carrying on a bitter rivalry, and each backed by all the vocal and instrumental talent that could be found in Europe.  Porpora, by Rousseau styled the immortal, at the Haymarket, and Handel at Covent-Garden—­the former boasting the celebrated Farinelli and Cuzzoni among his performers, the latter supported by Caustini and Gizziello.  The public, however, appears to have been surfeited by such prodigality; for Dr Burney observes, “at this time”—­about 1737—­“the rage for operas seems to have been very much diminished in our country; the fact was, that public curiosity being satisfied as to new compositions and singers, the English returned to their homely food, the Begger’s Opera and ballad farces on the same plan, with eagerness and comfort.”  In 1741, Handel, after producing thirty-nine Italian lyric dramas, and after struggling against adversity, with a reduced establishment in a smaller theatre, was compelled by ruin to retire for ever from the direction of the Italian stage.  The opera then passed into other hands, and was continued, with various success and few intermissions, down to the present time.  It has been the means of introducing to our countrymen the works of an almost innumerable host of foreign composers.  Bach, the first composer who observed the laws of contrast as a principle, Pergolisi, Gluck, Piccini, Paesiello, Cimarosa, Mozart, Rossini, and Bellini, are the principal names, among a long list of masters, of whom we might otherwise have remained in utter ignorance.  Performers of every kind, singers of the highest excellence, have come among us; the powers and performances of Farinelli, Caffarelli, Pachierotti, Gabrielli, Mara, and others, are handed down by tradition, while all remember the great artists of still later times.  These have been our preceptors in the art of song, and to them, and them alone, are we indebted for our knowledge of the singer’s, powers; and but for their guidance and instruction, our native home-taught professors