D ODE FOR MUSIC ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY*. I. ESCEND, ye Nine! descend and fing; Wake into voice each filent string, In a fadly-pleafing strain Let the warbling lute complain: 'Till the roofs all around The fhrill echos rebound: NOTES. While *Our Author, as Mr. Harte told me, frequently and earnestly declared, that if Dryden had finished a tranflation of the Iliad, he would not have attempted one, after fo great a mafter; he might have said, with even more propriety, I will not write a mufic ode after Alexander's Feaft; which the variety and harmony of its numbers, and the beauty, force, and energy of its images, have confpired to place at the head of modern Lyric compofitions: always excepting The Bard of Gray, which, being of a more exalted strain than the moral poetry we had been accustomed to, was not, at its first appearance, fo much relished as it deferved; but which, I will prefume to fay, will, in every fucceeding year, gain more and more admiration and applaufe, notwithstanding the unjuft, and I may fay taftelefs, animadverfions which Dr. Johnson degraded himself by throwing out upon it, in the Lives of the Poets. The fubject of Dryden's ode is fuperior to this of Pope's, because the former is hiftorical, and the latter merely mythological. Dryden's is also more perfect in the unity of the action; for Pope's is not the recital of one great action, but a description of many of the adventures of Orpheus. We all know, and have felt, the effects of Handel's having fet Dryden's ode to mufic. Mr. Smith, a worthy pupil of Handel, (as Mr. Mafon informs us), intended to have fet Mr. Gray's ode to While in more lengthen'd notes and flow, Hark! the numbers foft and clear Gently steal upon the ear; Now louder, and yet louder rife, And fill with spreading founds the skies; Exulting in triumph now swell the bold notes, In broken air, trembling, the wild mufic floats; 'Till, by degrees, remote and small, The ftrains decay, And melt away, In a dying, dying fall. NOTES. ΤΟ 15 20 By mufic, and Mr. Gray, whofe mufical feelings were exquifite, with a knowledge of the art, gave him an idea for the overture, which feemed equally proper and striking. In this refpect, as well as many others, he resembled Milton. The name and the genius of Cowley gave, for many years, a currency and vogue to irregular odes, called Pindaric. One of the best of which species is that of Cobb, called, the Female Reign; and two of the worit, Sprat's Plague of Athens, and Bolingbroke's Almahide. Congreve is thought to be the first writer that gave a fpecimen of a legitimate Pindaric ode, with ftrophe, antistrophe, and ode, elucidated with a fenfible and judicious preface on the fubject. But it does not feem to have been obferved, that, long before, Ben Johnson had given a model of this very species of a regular Pindaric ode, addreft to Sir Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morrison, page 233 of his works, folio, in which he entitles each stanza the turne, the counter-turne, and the stand. Though Congreve's ode is not extraordinary, yet the difcourse prefixed to it has a great deal of learning. Dr. Akenfide frequently mentioned to me, as one of the best of the regular Pindaric odes, Fenton's to Lord Gower, 1716. Mr. Gray was of opinion, that the stanzas of these regular odes ought not to confist of above nine lines each, at the most. VER. 7. Let the loud trumpet found, c.] Our Author, in his rules for good writing, had faid, that the found should be an echo to II. By Mufic, minds an equal temper know, 25 Or, when the foul is prefs'd with cares, Exalts her in enliv'ning airs. Warriors fhe fires with animated founds; Pours balm into the bleeding lover's wounds: Melancholy lifts her head, Morpheus rouzes from his bed, Sloth unfolds her arms and wakes, Lift'ning Envy drops her fnakes; Inteftine war no more our Paffions wage, 30 And giddy Factions hear away their rage, 35 But NOTES. to the fenfe. The graces it adds to the harmony are obvious. But we should never have seen all the advantages arising from this rule, had this ode not been written. In which, one may venture to fay, is found all the harmony that poetic found, when it comes in aid of fenfe, is capable of producing. W. This panegyric is certainly carried too high: this ode is not the confummation of true poetic harmony. VER. 22.] This stanza much resembles the fifth of Congreve's mufic ode; the fecond of which, by the way, is uncommonly good. It is remarkable that Pope knew nothing of mufic, and had no ear for it; as had Milton, Gray, and Mason: the laft of whom is an excellent performer and compofer. VER. 35. Dr. Greene fet this ode to mufic, in 1730, as an exercise for his Doctor's Degree at Cambridge, on which occafion Pope made confiderable alteration in it, and added the following ftanza in this place. Amphion thus bade wild diffenfion cease, Amphion |