sure. To be sensible of this pleasure, however, depends as much upon skill as a practitioner, as upon taste as a connoisseur. The prevailing fashion of the present times is by no means favourable to the union of the best efforts of poetry with the noblest productions of music. Handel indeed gave new charms to the lyric muse of Dryden, and Arne composed the opera of Artaxerxes in the most delightful style. But the sound and the sense, far from possessing uniform spirit, are in more recent productions, especially in several Italian operas, a heavy burthen upon the exertions of each other. The most insipid airs are not "married to immortal verse," but united to unmeaning words, and their alliance is forced and unnatural. Nothing indeed can be more tiresome or absurd than recitative in general. It has neither the charm of singing, nor the intelligible expression of plain speech, as it consists of an unmeaning quantity of notes brought together to the confusion of all sense. "What can be more contrary to nature than the singing a whole piece from beginning to end, as if the persons represented were ridiculously matched, and had agreed to settle in music both the most common and most important affairs of life. Is it to be imagined that a master calls his servant, or sends him on an errand singing; that one friend imparts a secret to another singing; that men deliberate in council, and that orders in the field of battle are given singing; and that men are melodiously killed with swords and darts? This is the downright way to lose the life of representation, which without doubt is preferable to that of harmony; for harmony ought to be no more than a bare attendant, and the great masters of the stage have introduced it as pleasing, not as necessary, after they have performed all that relates to the subject and discourse. Nevertheless, our thoughts run more upon the performers than the hero in the opera, and Viganoni and Morelli are seldom out of our minds. The mind not being able to conceive a hero that sings, runs to the actor or the actress; and there is no question but that in our most fashionable operas, Banti, or Bolla are a hundred times more thought of than Zenobia, or Dido."* In our most fashionable concerts, instrumental per formance is, in many instances, carried to such a degree of vicious refinement, that one sense is gratified at the expense of another; since it is converted into an amusement for the eye, rather than a delight to the ear, or a solace to the mind. The brilliant execution of an eminent performer, displayed in some hasty and trifling symphony, quartetto, or quintetto of his own is regarded as an excellence of the first value. Salomon, Pinto, and Raimondi are recommended for habitual skill, and mechanical dexterity, and the rapidity with which they can run through passages in the smallest space of time. The audience judge of such music by the difficulty of its execution; they lavish their praise upon the principal performer, but are unmoved by the music, and their applause operates as an en *These remarks of St. Evremond relate to the musical tragedy of the Italians. With respect to the musical comedy or burletta, it affords an additional proof how little music, as such, is able to support itself. In the tragic opera it borrows aid from the tumidity of the poetry; in the comic from the powers of ridicule, to which music has not the least relation." Hawkins on Music, p. 74. Preface. couragement to new extravagance of the same kind. But amid this prevailing taste which leads to what is capricious and desultory, a judicious hearer seeks for delight in the compositions of Purcell, Jomelli, Handel, and Haydn. He prefers the steady and spirited performance of their works to the modish refinements in practice, and what are deemed the improvements in the power of execution; because he feels that the productions of these great composers are original and spirited, truly grand and affecting, and exert the sweetest influence of harmony over his mind. II. PAINTING. The art of painting gives the most direct and expressive representation of objects; so that probably for this reason it was originally employed by many `nations, before the introduction of letters, to communicate their thoughts and to convey intelligence to distant places. The Egyptians pourtrayed their ideas by tracing the resemblance of plants and animals; and the Mexicans conveyed to their emperor Montezuma the information of the arrival of the Spaniards upon their coasts, by sending him a picture representative of the event. The pencil may be said to write a universal language; for every one can instantly understand the meaning of a painter, provided he be faithful to the rules of his art. His skill enables him to open the various scenes of nature at one view; and by his delineation of the striking effects of passion, he instantaneously penetrates and agitates the soul of the spectator. The influence of the pencil indeed is so great and extensive, that its productions have constantly been the delight of all countries of the world, and of all seasons of life.* Poetry and painting are sister arts; if the latter borrow many subjects from the former, the obligation is repaid by the glowing metaphors and striking illustrations, with which painting requites poetry. The Grecian painters caught many of their finest ideas from poets and historians. The imagination of Phidias was aided in forming his Olympian Jupiter by the sublime description of Homer. The horrid story of Count Ugolino and his family, as described in the expressive strains of Dante, in his Inferno, gave a noble subject to the bas-relief of Michael Angelo, and was afterwards as affectingly represented by the masterly pencil of Reynolds. Gray, when describing the bard, says, "Loose his beard, and hoary hair Streamed, like a meteor, to the troubled air :" He is supposed to have recollected the celebrated picture of Raphael, at Florence, representing the Supreme Being, in the vision of Ezekiel. A good picture produces a momentary enchantment, carries us beyond ourselves, and either trans * Richardson, chap. i. Quintilian, lib. xii, c. 10. Reynolds, p. 101. The peculiar beauties of the great masters of the Italian schools are finely touched by Fresnoy, 1. 519, &c. His poem De Arte Graphica, with the translation of Mason, and the notes of Reynolds, furnishes the general rules of the art, and therefore may supply the principles of criticism ports us into the midst of the most delightful scenery, or places us by the side of saints, martyrs, and heroes. It brings before us the most eminent persons, either living or dead, charms the imagination with their ideal presence, and assists us while we contemplate their persons, and examine the expression of their features, to recal the memory of their virtues. It amuses the eye with the views of nature, however remote the original scenes may be from the spectator, and gives to the Swede or the Russian the fair portrait of Circassian beauty, or the bright and smiling objects of Italian scenery. The landscapes of Claude Lorraine delight the eye with the rich selection of palaces, extensive prospects, and glowing skies. The sea views of Vandervelde are justly admired for truth and accuracy. The portraits of Vandyke charm by lively expression of character, grace of design, and delicacy of colouring. Hogarth displays that just representation of common manners, which conveys to every spectator a moral lesson. Thy works a school, Where strongly painted in gradations nice, Reached through the laughing eye the mended mind, While fleeting manners as minutely shown, As the clear prospect on the mirror thrown; And drest in all the dyes of comic wit ; Hayley on Painting |