Malaga, Seville, Cordova, all became successively mad on the
theme; nothing was talked of throughout Andalusia but the beautiful
minstrel of the Alhambra. How could it be otherwise among a people
so musical and gallant as the Andalusians, when the lute was magical
in its powers, and the minstrel inspired by love!
While all Andalusia was thus music mad, a different mood prevailed
at the court of Spain. Philip V, as is well known, was a miserable
hypochondriac, and subject to all kinds of fancies. Sometimes he would
keep to his bed for weeks together, groaning under imaginary
complaints. At other times he would insist upon abdicating his throne,
to the great annoyance of his royal spouse, who had a strong relish
for the splendors of a court and the glories of a crown, and guided
the sceptre of her imbecile lord with an expert and steady hand.
Nothing was found to be so efficacious in dispelling the royal
megrims as the power of music; the queen took care, therefore, to have
the best performers, both vocal and instrumental, at hand, and
retained the famous Italian singer Farinelli about the court as a kind
of royal physician.
At the moment we treat of, however, a freak had come over the mind
of this sapient and illustrious Bourbon that surpassed all former
vagaries. After a long spell of imaginary illness, which set all the
strains of Farinelli and the consultations of a whole orchestra of
court fiddlers at defiance, the monarch fairly, in idea, gave up the
ghost, and considered himself absolutely dead.
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