ference to modern remarks, since the pub-| riety of other equally interesting and imlication of M. Wagenfeld's abridgement. portant points unexplained. We hear from Thus, we are personally flattered, by seeing him nothing of the discovery, nothing of that the Song of the Royal Scribe of Zidon, the convent, nothing of its name, of the MS., to which we ourselves took the freedom of the fac-simile, nor even of the doubts and objecting (No. xxxvii. p. 188,) as misplaced circumstances that have attended the whole in the mouth of a native, was (subsequently) process. Practised liars, we know, always uttered by a hostile warrior, whose swan avoid the lie circumstantial, as the most like energies were called forth by death, difficult to support; but this never can rethough the exact tune to which the words fer to Mr. Frederick Wagenfeld. Nor are were sung, and the proper accompaniment, we furnished as before, with the Zidonian are unfortunately both wanting. We have, array and navy list, the double list of soveof course, no means of ascertaining the reigns, after the fashion of the Saxe-Gotha mode of notation in those days, nor the almanack, nor the geographical memoranstyle of the ancient Phoenician Melodies, da. Possibly these will be published sepunless, with Sir W. Betham, we conclude arately, with Statistical Tables, and, for them to be Irish. If so, Moore, Stevenson, aught we know, a Trigonometrical Survey and Bunting, will be doubly welcome to us from the same hand. For all this, and for henceforth. We fain would suggest, how the country of the shepherds, we can afford ever, that some of the character on the Bab- to wait; but we must confess our solicitude ylonian seals, and which Mr. William to know how it happens that the German Price, in his Persepolitan researches, so lu- condensation is occasionally longer than the minously discovered to be a musical alpha- entire passage; or why the Inhalt, i. e. conbet of the Pehlivi(!) would furnish the de- tents, is so often verbatim with the comsideratum in question; and that thus the plete narrative. We are anxious too to "Book of the Songs of Zidon" might be learn why the German abridgment, the now published with advantage, arranged, Latin translation, and the Greek text, each and with variations, for the piano-forte: severally contain passages nowhere to be such a work could scarcely fail of becoming met with in the two others. Compare pp. popular. 32, 39, 45, 167, 186, and also 82 of the The posthumous knowledge which the German, with 158-9 of the original, and foregoing correction evinces is admirably these varieties are common throughout the illustrated by a passage at the close of the work. But the most astounding fact of all first book, p. 18, which we have subjoined, these marvels is, that the German abridgand in which Sanchoniatho (in a strain of ment is actually longer than the entire work, singularly German philosophizing), dis in the proportion of 107 to 101, (for we cusses the Cyclic poets and literature of the have had the curiosity to count;) and this, Greeks. We are not quite certain, howev- not merely from the greater compression er, that the merit of this foresight properly of the Latin and Greek, but from containbelongs to Sanchoniatho; since, as he abridg- ing more incidents than either of the origied his history from the books of Thoth, the nals from which it is derived. passage in question may be taken from the But our readers may wish to see some latter and hence we cannot positively de-extracts from the volume, and judge for cide whether it was Egyptian or Phoenician ears that were familiarized thus early, in every sense, with Grecian mythology and fables, a few centuries before Exodus and the Cadmean importation of letters.

:

of

themselves of the light it is calculated to
throw on doubtful points of antiquity:-
"Sydyc also had children, the Dioscuri, or
Cabiri, or Corybantes, or lastly, Samothra-
ces"-the eternal seu of the Latin, and
the original, being equally elucidatory of
whether these various denominations were
synonymous, as implied above, or only par-
tially so, as is more probably conjectured.

Referring to the "Saturnia Regna," Sanchoniatho, the Phoenician, thus, and before the Trojan war, philosophizes on history in lofty disdain of anachronisms:

If so much courtesy was shown to our objection above cited by the original historian, we are equally bound in gratitude to notice that his Greek translator has followed the example. In the German Abridgment, it is true, the proper names are given, as we noticed, in the Hebræo-Chaldaic character, but Philo-Byblius himself has politely expunged them subsequently from the second original MS., in which they are "But the Greeks, beyond all nations the nowhere to be found! That M. Wagen- most polished and mentally refined, at feld ever got them at all, therefore, is to us first, in truth, assumed several of these correct (details) as their own; till, wisha matter of unfeigned admiration. This gentleman, however, has left a va- graces of fable, they subsequently exaging to charm ears and intellects by the

gerated them beyond measure, by novel | passengers could traverse without wetting and multifarious additions, and an acces sion of ornaments. Hence Hesiod, and the cyclic poets,* turning every thing into fable, claimed for Greece the wars, &c. of Giants and Titans, overwhelming the truth itself every where by their boastings. Our ears, accustomed from infancy to their fictions, and pre-occupied by notions existing through many centuries, once imbued with the falsehood, retain, as I have already said, what from that time gathers strength and fortifies itself in the mind: so that to expel it becomes extremely difficult, and fact itself of no avail, while spurious and fabricated narratives obtain its place and estimation."

S

ART. VI.-Curtosttiés Historiques de la
Musique, complément nécessaire de la
Musique mise à la portée de tout le Monde.
Par M. Fetis. 2 tomes. Paris.
and interesting in the records of past days
As there is so much that is really amusing
ited by many experienced writers in bring-
in remote countries, and as the zeal exhib-
ing to light hidden treasures on subjects
connected with art and literature so exactly
corresponds with the ideas of the enlight-
ened critic and reader, we may in this arti-
cle, although professedly on a musical sub-
ject, crave the attention of the poet, the his-

imagined that historical points should occu- tiquities may one day solve a question be py much attention with the historian. We yond the power of M. Wagenfeld to set a find that the art of swallowing the sword rest. The book of Taaut, we nevertheles was known in that day at Babylon, though suspect, would hardly contain the history omitted by Voltaire in his "authentic histo- of those who lived after his death, and who ry" of its Princess and Court: but we do were neither his cotemporaries, descennot find the problem of the Shepherd Kings dants, nor countrymen; nor was Taaut nesolved by this concise and authentic relation. cessarily gifted, we presume, like his comWe would suggest in passing, that an patriot Sanchoniatho, with the faculty of cient history usually narrated the acts of writing volumes some centuries after his the great and of nations, not little anecdotes own decease, to supply the lacuna of subof tea-table scandal in private life, nor de- sequent historians through the medium of tails of the feats of jugglers and mounte M. Wagenfeld of Bremen. banks. The story of the bull, at pp.32, 33, wants nothing but the cock to establish it in our estimation; and the passage respecting Cadytis (in the German) bears a marvellous verbal coincidence with the passage at p. 97 of the German translation of Rask on the Egyptian Chronology; the more remarkable, as it must have been written some thousand years previous to the latter work. We formerly referred to the Greek, we now must notice M. Wagenfeld's Latin style, which assuredly is not such as to raise his reputation for scholarship any where out of Phoenicia at the present day; see pp. 69, 77, and 125, for specimens, and particularly the passage beginning "Mor. tuo enim Taauto iisque," &c. The verisimilitude of the following is remarkable. "After the death of Taaut and his detorian, and even the learned; while we scendants, the Egyptian kings, waging war against the shepherds dwelling near the sea, were conquered. Many perished in the contest. Those who fled, shut them- Although but auxiliaries in the great selves up in a large city, where they were drama of life, melody and shyme have so besieged by the shepherds, and suffered highly contributed to the progress of civiliextreme misery, so that numbers died of hunger. But when they were reduced to zation, by humanizing the mind, and prethe utmost extremity and want of every paring the way for the acumulated advanthing, a certain priest invented scythed-tages of the present times, that we can hardchariots, and laid the invention before the ly estimate the great effect they have had king. The king, causing 100 to be built, on the formation of character and the sucquickly conquered the enemy, and reco- cess of enterprize. Connected with these, vored the whole country possessed formerly by Taaut, driving out ALL the shep-tis, the title of which heads this paper, a we may notice the two volumes by M. Feherds. He could not, however, take the work exhibiting much sound musical impregnable fortress on the sea-shore. Thus the Egyptians, first of all nations, knowledge and extensive reading, and disemployed scythed chariots. playing that lively yet solid style, which characterizes all his writings. Instead of analyzing his volumes, the object we have in view will be better advanced by giving all the information we can from memoran.... Many built themselves ci-da we have long been collecting, in the ties, infested the mountains, and, procuring horses and chariots, spread fear hope that some qualified person among our amongst their neighbors. The Indauri literati may be induced to take up the suband Asibuni derive their origin from them.ject All these things are described in the book of Taaut."

"The conquered shepherds quitted Egypt, and many turned to Arabia, where were large uninhabited tracts

Many went to the mountains, &c. to the giants

This is a very convenient reference. The eager inquiries making into Egyptian an

treat, in rather a desultory manner, of the poetry and song of the olden time, endeavouring to prove the eastern origin of both.

Among the musical curiosities* that the passion for discovery has lately brought to

* In the "Humble Suggestions to his Countrymen who believe in the one True God," by Pru

light, there are two that claim particular | companions, with the almost modern chantnotice. The first was among the Manu-ant air of "J'ai encore à tel pastè," sung scrits du Roi in the Royal Library at Pa- by the character of Robin in this curious ris, of four collections of songs and other work. It is conjectured that he learnt from pieces, by a Troubadour of the name of the Italians tho principles of this art, which Adam de la Hale, known also by the ap- at that time were not even dreampt of in pellation of Le Bossu d'Arras, on account France. of his deformity, and the place of his na- The next musical curiosity we shall notivity. He was born about 1240, and died tice, is one that carries us still farther back at Naples 1287. Like all the Trouba-into the dark ages and into the East; undourst of the twelfth and thirteenth centu-doubtedly the nursing mother of modern ries, Adam de la Hale was born a poet and poetry and romance. Among the MSS. in a musician. Among these MSS, highly the British Museum there is one called important to musical history, are twelve of" Cantici erotici Arabice cum notis usihis songs for three voices, and six motetts. ca," No. 3114 in the Ayscough Catalogue;* The songs have the form of the rondeau, it is a collection of very curious Arabic and are entitled Li rondel Adam. The love-songs, hymns, &c. set to music! The motetts are composed of the plain chant of date of this volume is 1060; there is a a hymn or anthem, set as a bass to Latin Latin index, from the items of which a wriwords, upon which two other voices make ter in the late "Quarterly Musical Review," a sort of florid counterpart. Le ssu d'Ar- who discovered this curiosity, proves the ras, it appears, is the author of the most existence of counterpoint among that peoancient comic opera known to exist; it is ple. The specimen he adduces is a very entitled Le Jeu de Robin et de Marion, and rude one certainly; but when the scarcity, twenty-five copies have been printed by the or rather total want, of information at that society of Bibliophiles, of Paris, for distri-remote period is considered, this book must bution among its members. This work was be deemed a rarity worth translating,† not composed at Naples, about the year 1285, for the amusement of the court, which at that period consisted almost entirely of natives of France.

The appearance of free melody in this pristine opera is very extraordinary, when we consider the time of its composition, and compare the dry, psalmodic, semi-barbarous style of the Troubadours, Adam de la Hale's

sunnu Koomar Thakoor, Calcutta, 1823, there is a passage which, if considered as authority, will settle the long-disputed point as to which is the greatest personage in a concert-the singer, the composer, or the conductor:

"The divine hymns, Rik, Gatha, Panika, and Dubshubieta, should be sung, because, by their constant use, man attains supreme beatitude. He who is skilled in playing on the lute (veena), who is intimately acquainted with the various tones and harmonies, and who is able to beat time in music, will enter without difficulty upon the road

to salvation."

*See a more detailed account, with specimens of the three-voice song, page 218, of the Harmonicon for 1827. The MSS. are numbered 65 and 66, Fonds de Cange; No. 2736, Fonds de la Valliére; 7604, Anciens Fonds.

In a late number of "The Musical World," it is stated that Colin Muset, the Jongleur, has the reputation of having invented the Vaudeville, and round or dance song. Other authority ascribes the invention to Olivier Basselin, of Vire, who lived in the beginning of the thirteenth century. He was a fuller, and resided in the Vaux, or valleys below Vire, where he and his workmen used to sing songs of his composition as they spread out their cloth along the banks of the river. Some of these, being published, were called Vaux-de-Ville,

afterwards contracted to Vaudeville.

The Arabs had rhyme, according to Dom Calmet, "before the time of Mahomet, who died 532, and in the second century used a kind of poetry in measure similar to the Greek, and set to music." (See Dr. Burney's History, vol. ii. p. 227.) In a note to the above passage, the Doctor observes, "If this were proved, it would fortify Mr. Warton's ingenious idea (Dissertation on History of Poetry, vol. i.), that modern poetry and romance were brought into Europe from Arabia at the time of the crusades Chivalry had the same origin; and if the wild adventures of knights errant, with which the first romances were filled, are oriental, the rhymes in which they are clad may be derived from the same source."

There is a Latin introduction to this book, as follows:-"Compingere sic solent illos libros in quibus miscellaneæ volunt annotare, et præsertim quæ ad Poesin et acute dicta pertinent

"In exteriore libri incissura habentur hæc:Ad latus dexterum, literis majoribus, Dominus ac Possor. Ad latus superius, Ali Bey Esanturii, sive Cymbalista. Ad latus sinistrum, A Musicis C. accepta collectanea libri Imperatoris Muhammed Anno (vti ego conjicio) 1060.

Among the subjects of Songs in the Index, are:
"De Expeditione Babylonica;"
"Carmineex Warsagi;"

"De expugnationibus civitatis Babylonica;"
"In quendam rebellem nomine Kaidar;"
"Tetrastichon Arabicum, quod super gladio

Mahommedi Prophetæ inscriptum fuisse
tradunt;"

besides many on the Turkish and Persian expeditions, which would surely prove of some interest to many who are studying the history of those

countries.

Vol. viii. p. 308.

The spirit and good feeling which influences every other government but our own in the cause of literature is manifest from the announcement

mostly drawn from natural objects, so did the Eastern poets; they used the most outrageous hyperboles, and offended decency in their mythological allusions, so did the Eastern poets, long before the Roman era. And notwithstanding all the refinement, the profound erudition, and the classical Latinity of the great poets and historians, yet as far as imagination is concerned-after all the highest ingredient of poetry-we have the best authority for believing that the Arabians possessed that quality in an extraordinary degree:

only for the poet and musician, but even the struments? Who is to say in what style historian, as it cannot be too strongly insist- the best poetry of that people was written, ed on, that "we must look for the state of whether in rhyme, blank verse, or a mixed our forefathers in their ancient rymes, which measure partaking of both? Certainly served as their memorials and annals." It there is no recorded instance of either the is well known to the student of oriental lit- Greek or Roman writers using rhyme, but erature, that the language and poetry of they dealt largely in tropes and figures, the Arabs had attained a high degree of cultivation even in the sixth century of our There is little doubt, from an inspection of their musical instruments, that poeury went hand-in-hand with song; and any one who has looked over that superb work, "Murphy's Arabian Antiquities of Spain," must feel convinced that architecture is equally indebted to this primeval nation for beauty of structure and elaboration of or nament, which have (variously modified) served as patterns to very many architects of succeeding ages. The indefatigable spirit of inquiry that now pervades every class of writers must surely tend to bring to light, at no distant period, some more certain proofs of the taste, ingenuity, and sical knowledge of that extraordinary nation, and may tend to confirm a favourite hypothesis of ours, that the music of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Russians, is derived from Arabia.

mu

It is well known that the Romans traded extensively with the Indian markets, and from thence as far as Ocilis on the Arabian coast; may they not have imported some of the Arabic music, poetry, and musical in

in our 36th number, of the publication of a series of oriental works, with translations, in 4to., by the Imprimerie Royale at Paris.

There is another work on Arabia which is seldom met with, by Sam. Ockley; it is entitled History of the Conquest of Egypt, Persia, Syria, &c. by the Saracens." Watts (in the Bibliotheca Brittannica) mentions that, in the latter part of this work, there is an entertaining account of the manners and customs of the Arabians. The Anthologie Arabe, by G. de Lagrange, Paris, 1828, is well worth consulting, by those who may have leisure and inclination to pursue inquiries on this subject; likewise Bibliotheca Arabica, by Schnurrer; and in the Cotton MSS. (British Museum) there are some Arabic:-Nero, B. x. 776, B. 18.; Galba, A. ix. x.

+ Mr Campbell is of opinion that there is some contradiction in the accounts we have of the state of art and science among the Egyptians. "Their temples echoed not to the sound of instruments, and their sacrifices were performed in silence; yet it is incredible that music and poetry should have been proscribed among them, as Dio Chrysostom asserts. They had pipes and lyres, and a people possessing instruments, yet destitute of Vocal and verbal melody, is a thing unimaginable: so that the song among them, which Herodotus mentions, could not have been their only one."Letter to the Glasgow Students.

M. Champollion sent to the Louvre a harp, 3ft. 8in. high, with some of the strings, a drum, like ours, tabor, &c. from Egypt.

"Obvious reasons may be assigned why imagination should be susceptible of culture at a period when the intellectual powers, which require the aid of experience and observation, must necessarily continue in infancy, and the very peculiarities which, in such circumstances, its productions exhibit, although they would justly be regarded as blemishes in those of a more refined age, may interest the philosopher, and even please the critic, as characteristical of the human mind in the earliest stages of its progress.”*

No modern poet has given to the world imagery more splendid, vivid, and effective, than that used in such profusion by the Per sian, Arabian, and Hindostanee writers:

* Names of the musical instruments in Arabia:; Arghan (organ); Assaf, Berbekia (species of lute); Bouk (horn of chase); Tsai, Dab, dab, (drum) Dirridge (do.); Zendge (drum); Zill (cymbals, ivory castagnets); Siriané, Sefakis, Schahin, Schebbour (horn, of the Hebrews); Schebbie, Schebbabe, (flageolet); Schoulbak, Schoulschoul, Schizan, Saffarè, [flute]; Thahl [drum]; Artab [species of lute]; Azf [stringed instrument]; Ghirbal [tambour de Basque]; Kossah [flute]; Kadhib [Chalumeau or Alp horn]; Kinrim [harp]; Kiz, Kieber, [kind of drum]; Kiran [lute or mandoline]; Kitsarat, Kierhé, Kiemhr, Kinnaré, [guitar, Kinnor of the Hebrews]; Kious [tymbale d'airain]; Kitsar [guitar or harp, the Katros of the Hebrews]; Kiaz [six-stringed instaument]; Mizher [lute]; Mizmar (flute, the Nizamroth of the Hebrews); Mossasik (kind of lute); Mousikal (Pan's pipes); Mizef (stringed instrument); Nakib [flute, the Nakavim of the Hebrews]; Hounboukat [kind of flute]; Heirat [shepherd's pipe]; Vann (psaltery); Venedge [lute.

"The similes form a very peculiar feature of the Iliad. Of these there are more than 200, and there is hardly one of the number that has not been imitated nearly as many times."-H. N. Coleridge.

Dugald Stewart.