from that country none of the graces of his art. It was first performed in its new form, with Clayton's musick, on the 24th of May, 1711; but them, however they may have rendered the lines more commodious for musick, certainly cannot be considered as improvements. In-Fallen from his high estate, the repetition of the word fallen is not adopted; and instead of these four pathetick lines, ་་ ་་ Deserted, at his utmost need, By those his former bounty fed, we find only this couplet: 66 On carth the expiring monarch lies, "With not a friend to close his eyes." Thomas Clayton was one of the royal band of musicians, in the time of King William and Queen Mary. He set to musick the first opera, properly so called, ever exhibited on the English stage, which was entitled ARSINOE, QUEEN OF CYPRUS, and performed at the theatre in Drury-Lane, January 16, 1704-5; the pit and boxes being open only to Subscribers. Though formed on the Italian model, it was written in English. "It is scarcely to be credited, (says Dr. Burney,) that in the course of the first year, this miserable performance, which neither deserved the name of a drama by its poetry, nor an opera by its musick, should sustain twenty-four representations, and the scoond year, eleven." Clayton likewise set Addison's opera of ROSAMOND, which first appeared, Marchi 4, 1706-7; but the musick was so extremely bad, that notwithstanding Addison's high reputation, ROSAMOND, after three representations, was dismissed from the scene. "In the original edition of the SPECTATOR, No. 73, Thursday, May 24, 1711, it is thus announced: with so little success, that it was repeated but three times. Gildon, who seems to have been himself "An Entertainment of Musick, consisting of a poem called the Passion of Sappho, written by Mr. Harrison, and the Feast of Alexander, written by Mr. Dryden; as they are set to musick by Mr. Thomas Clayton, (Author of ARSINOE,) will be performed at his house in YorkBuildings, this day, being the 24th instant, beginning at eight in the evening. Tickets, at 5s. each, may be had," &c. Jacob Tonson had previously more than once advertised, as just published by him, "The Passion of Sappho, and Feast of Alexander, set to musick by Mr. Thomas Clayton, as it will be performed at his house," &c. The third representation, which was on the 16th of July, was announced by the following advertisement: "This evening, at 8 o'clock, at the request of several persons of quality, (who, for the better attention to the performance, and of the warmth of the season, have desired that only 100 tickets should be given out,) an Entertainment of Musick, consisting of a poem called the Passion of Sappho, written by Mr. Harrison; a Song beginning-If wine and musick have the power, by Mr. Prior; and the Feast of Alexander," &c. Mr. Hughes, having been asked by Steele to give his opinion of Clayton's musick for this Ode, thus censures it, in a letter written soon after the first performance: 66 ...-The symphonies in many places seem to me perplexed, and not made to pursue any subject or point. "The overture of ALEXANDER ought to be great and noble; instead of which, I find only a hurry of the instru ments, not proper, in my poor opinion, and without any design or fugue, and, I am afraid, perplexed and irregular in the composition, as far as I have any ideas or experience. Enquire this of better judgments. The duct of Bacchus is cheerful, and has a good effect; a musician, after observing that this admirable Ode had been twice ill set to musick, mentions, but that beginning Cupid, Phæbus,' &c. I cannot think shews any art, and is in effect no more than a single air. Nothing shews both genius and learning more than this sort of composition; the chief beauty of which consists in giving each voice different points, and making those points work together, and interchange regularly and surprisingly, or one point following itself in both the voices, in a kind of canon, as it is called. These artfulnesses, when well executed, give infinite delight to the car; but that which I have mentioned is not formed after those designs; but where the voices join, they move exactly together in plain counterpoint, which shews little more than a single air. "I think the words in general naturally enough expressed, and in some places pathetically; but because you seem to think this the whole mystery of setting, I take this opportunity to assure you, that it is as possible to express words naturally and pathetically in very faulty composition, as it is to hit a likeness in a bad picture. If the musick in score, without the words, does not prove itself by the rules of composition, which relate to the harmony and motion of different notes at the same time, the notes in the singing parts will not suffice, though they express the words ever so naturally. This is properly the art of composition, in which there is room to shew admirable skill, abstracted from the words; and in which the rules for the union of sounds are a kind of syntaxis, from which no one is allowed to err. I do not apply this last particular to any thing, but only to give you a general idea of what is composition. Yet, upon the whole, as far as I am able to judge, the musick of Sappho, and Alexander, though in some places agreeable, will not please masters." Hughes's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 40. that another composer, of no mean fame, meditated, in 1721, making a third essay upon it;' but whether he executed his intention, I know not. About fifteen years afterwards, Handel having set it anew, it was performed under his direction in 1736, at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden, with great success." The hostilities which the Puritans in England had waged against the Stage in the middle of the reign of Elizabeth, and which had been renewed by Prynne in that of Charles the First, were revived in France in 1694; and the same quotations from the Fathers and other ancient writers, to prove the unlawfulness of all scenick entertainments, which had been refuted as often as they were produced, were again brought forward, with the same intemperate and mistaken zeal; the object of these re THE LAWS OF POETRY, p. 84, 8vo. 1721. It was first performed on February 19, 1735-6, at opera prices. "The publick expectations and effects of this representation (says Dr. Burney,) seem to have been correspondent, for the next day we are told in the publick papers, [London Daily Post, and General Advertiser, Feb. 20,] that " there never was, upon the like occasion, so numerous and splendid an audience at any theatre in London, there being at least thirteen hundred persons present; and it is judged that the receipts of the house could not amount to less than £.450. It met with general applause, though attended with the inconvenience of having the performers placed at too great a distance from the audience, which we hear will be rectified the next time of performance."-HIST. OF MUSICK, iv. 391. There were at this time six theatres open in London. formers being, not merely to correct the abuses of plays, but to prove from those abuses, that all theatrical performances ought to be prohibited. After having acknowledged that he had in many instances been justly taxed, our author observes, that his antagonist, whose last argument against the stage is drawn from the opinions of the Fathers and the judgments of Ecclesiastical Councils," had lost ground at the latter end of the day, by pursuing his point too far: immoral plays to no plays, ab abusu ad usum non valet consequentia." from Congreve, whose reply to Collier was published in 1698, however weak in other parts of this controversy. has here unquestionably the advantage. "His authorities from the Fathers, (says he,) with all due respect to them, are certainly no more to the purpose, than if he had cited the two Attick laws against the licentiousness of the Old Comedy; in truth not so much: for the invectives of the Fathers were levelled at the cruelty of the Gladiators and the obscenity of the Pantomimes. If some of them have confounded the drama with such spectacles, it was an oversight of zeal very allowable in those days, and in the infancy of Christianity, when the religion of the heathens was intermingled with their poetry and theatrical representations: therefore Christians might then very well be forbidden to frequent even the best of them. As for our theatres, St. Austin and Lactantius knew no more of them than they did of the Antipodes; and they might with as much difficulty have been persuaded that the former would in aftertimes be tolerated in a Christian state, as that the latter would be received for a manifest and common truth, and made intelligible to the capacity of every child." Amendments to Mr. Collier's false and imperfect citations, &c. 8vo. 1698. |