'courager of Ingenuity, I have brought with me No. 29.] I am, &c. C. [Addison. Tuesday, April 3, 1711. 49 Tone or Accent, I do not mean the Pronunciation of each particular Word, but the Sound of the whole Sentence. Thus it is very common for an English Gentleman, when he hears a French Tragedy, to complain that the Actors all of them speak in a Tone; and therefore he very wisely prefers his own Country-men, not considering that a Foreigner complains of the same Tone in an English Actor. For this Reason, the Recitative Musick in every Language, should be as different as the Tone or Accent of each Language; for otherwise, what may properly express a Passion in one Language, will not do it in another. Every one who has been long in Italy knows very well, that the Cadences in the Recitativo bear a remote Affinity to the Tone of their Voices in ordinary Conversation, or to speak more properly, are only the Accents of their Language made more Musical and Tuneful. Thus the Notes of Interrogation, or Admiration, in the Italian Musick (if one may so call them) which resemble their Accents in Discourse on such Occasions, are not unlike the ordinary Tones of an English Voice when we are angry; insomuch that I have often seen our Audiences extreamly mistaken as to what has been doing upon the Stage, and expecting to see the Hero knock down his Messenger, when he has been [asking him a Question, or fancying that he quarrels with his Friend, when he only bids him Good-morrow. For this Reason the Italian Artists cannot agree with our English Musicians in admiring Purcell's Compositions, and thinking his Tunes so wonderfully adapted to his Words, because both Nations do not always express the same Passions by the same Sounds. HERE is nothing that [has] more startled our English Audience, than the Italian Recitativo at its first Entrance upon the Stage. People I am therefore humbly of Opinion, that an were wonderfully surprized to hear Generals sing-English Composer should not follow the Italian ing the Word of Command, and Ladies delivering Recitative too servilely, but make use of many Messages in Musick. Our Country-men could not gentle Deviations from it, in Compliance with his forbear laughing when they heard a Lover chant- own Native Language. He may Copy out of it ing out a Billet-doux, and even the Superscription all the lulling Softness and Dying Falls (as Shakeof a Letter set to a Tune. The Famous Blunder spear calls them), but should still remember that in an old Play of Enter a King and two Fidlers he ought to accommodate himself to an English Solus, was now no longer an Absurdity, when it Audience, and by humouring the Tone of our was impossible for a Hero in a Desart, or a Prin- Voices in ordinary Conversation, have the same cess in her Closet, to speak anything unaccompanied with Musical Instruments. 1 [only asking] But however this Italian method of acting in Henry Purcell died of consumption in 1695, Recitativo might appear at first hearing, I cannot aged 37. 'He was,' says Mr. Hullah, in his but think it much more just than that which pre- Lectures on the History of Modern Music, 'the vailed in our English Opera before this Innova-first Englishman to demonstrate the possibility of tion The Transition from an Air to Recitative Musick being more natural than the passing from a Song to plain and ordinary Speaking, which was the common Method in Purcell's Operas. 'a national opera. No Englishman of the last century succeeded in following Purcell's lead into 'this domain of art; none, indeed, would seem to have understood in what his excellence consisted, The only Fault I find in our present Practice, is for how his success was attained. His dramatic the making use of Italian Recitativo with Eng-music exhibits the same qualities which had lish Words. To go to the Bottom of this Matter, I must observe, that the Tone, or (as the French call it) the Accent of every Nation in their ordinary Speech is altogether different from that of every other People, as we may see even in the Welsh and Scotch, [who] border so near upon us. By the I [that] ' already made the success of Lulli.. For some years after Purcell's death his compositions, of whatever kind, were the chief, if not the only, music heard in England. His reign might have 'lasted longer, but for the advent of a musician who, though not perhaps more highly gifted, had enjoyed immeasurably greater opportunities of 'cultivating his gifts,' Handel, who had also the advantage of being born thirty years later. 50 Regard to the Accent of his own Language, as those Persons had to theirs whom he professes to imitate. It is observed, that several of the singing Birds of our own Country learn to sweeten their Voices, and mellow the Harshness of their natural Notes, by practising under those that come from warmer Climates. In the same manner, I would allow the Italian Opera to lend our English Musick as much as may grace and soften it, but never entirely to annihilate and destroy it. Let the Infusion be as strong as you please, but still let the Subject Matter of it be English. who serves only to raise the Psalm, and is afterwards drown'd in the Musick of the Congregation. Every Actor that comes on the Stage is a Beau. The Queens and Heroines are so Painted, that they appear as Ruddy and Cherry-cheek'd as Milk-maids. The Shepherds are all Embroider'd, and acquit themselves in a Ball better than our English Dancing-Masters. I have seen a couple of Rivers appear in red Stockings; and Alpheus, instead of having his Head covered with Sedge and Bull-Rushes, making Love in a fair full-bottomed Perriwig, and a Plume of Feathers; but with a Voice so full of Shakes and Quavers that I should have thought the Murmurs of a Country Brook the much more agreeable Musick. A Composer should fit his Musick to the Genius of the People, and consider that the Delicacy of Hearing, and Taste of Harmony, has been formed upon those Sounds which every Country abounds with: In short, that Musick is of a Relative Na-Nation was the Rape of Proserpine, where Pluto, ture, and what is Harmony to one Ear, may be Dissonance to another. The same Observations which I have made upon the Recitative part of Musick may be applied to all our Songs and Airs in general. Signior Baptist Lully acted like a Man of Sense in this Particular. He found the French Musick extreamly defective, and very often barbarous However, knowing the Genius of the People, the Humour of their Language, and the prejudiced Ears [he] had to deal with, he did not pretend to extirpate the French Musick, and plant the Italian in its stead; but only to Cultivate and Civilize it with innumerable Graces and Modulations which he borrow'd from the Italian. By this means the French Musick is now perfect in its kind; and when you say it is not so good as the Italian, you only mean that it does not please you so well; for there is [scarce3] a Frenchman who would not wonder to hear you give the Italian such a Preference. The Musick of the French is indeed very properly adapted to their Pronunciation and Accent, as their whole Opera wonderfully favours the Genius of such a gay airy People. Chorus in which that Opera abounds, gives the Parterre frequent Opportunities of joining in Consort with the Stage. This Inclination of the Audience to Sing along with the Actors, so pre The I remember the last Opera I saw in that merry to make the more tempting Figure, puts himself in a French Equipage, and brings Ascalaphus along with him as his Valet de Chambre. This is what we call Folly and Impertinence; but what the French look upon as Gay and Polite. I shall add no more to what I have here offer'd, than that Musick, Architecture, and Painting, as well as Poetry, and Oratory, are to deduce their Laws and Rules from the general Sense and Taste of Mankind, and not from the Principles of those Arts themselves; or, in other Words, the Taste is not to conform to the Art, but the Art to the Taste. Music is not design'd to please only Chromatick Ears, but all that are capable of distinguishing harsh from disagreeable Notes. A Man of an ordinary Ear is a Judge whether a Passion is express'd in proper Sounds, and whether the Melody of those Sounds be more or less pleasing.1 No. 30.] C. Wednesday, April 4, 1711. [Steele. Si, Mimnermus uti censet, sine amore Focisque Nil est Jucundum; vivas in amore Focisque. vails with them, that I have sometimes known the ONE Performer on the Stage do no more in a Celebrated Song, than the Clerk of a Parish Church, I John Baptist Lulli, a Florentine, died in 1687, aged 53. In his youth he was an under-scullion in the kitchen of Madame de Montpensier, niece to Louis XIV. The discovery of his musical genius led to his becoming the King's Superintendent of Music, and one of the most influential composers that has ever lived. He composed the occasional music for Molière's comedies, besides about twenty lyric tragedies; which succeeded beyond all others in France, not only because of his dramatic genius, which enabled him to give to the persons of these operas a musical language fitted to their characters and expressive of the situations in which they were placed; but also, says Mr. Hullah, because Lulli being the first modern composer who caught the French ear, was the means, to a great extent, of forming the modern French taste.' His operas kept the stage for more than a century. [that he] 3 [not] 2 Hor. common Calamity makes Men extremely affect each other, tho' they differ in every other Particular. The Passion of Love is the most general Concern among Men; and I am glad to hear by my last Advices from Oxford, that there are a Set of Sighers in that University, who have erected themselves into a Society in honour of that tender Passion. These Gentlemen are of that Sort of Inamoratos, who are not so very much lost to common Sense, but that they understand the Folly they are guilty of; and for that Reason separate themselves from all other Company, because they will enjoy the Pleasure of talking incoherently, without being ridiculous to any but each other. When a Man comes into the Club, he is not obliged to make any Introduction to his Discourse, but at once, as he is seating himself in his Chair, speaks in the Thread of his I To this number of the Spectator was added in the original daily issue an announcement of six places at which were to be sold Compleat Setts of this Paper for the Month of March.' 'is the Secrecy which we are obliged to live under own Thoughts, 'She gave me a very obliging 'Glance, She Never look'd so well in her Life as 'this Evening,' or the like Reflection, without Regard to any other Members of the Society; for in this Assembly they do not meet to talk to each other, but every Man claims the full Liberty of talking to himself. Instead of Snuff-boxes and Canes, which are the usual Helps to Discourse with other young Fellows, these have each some Piece of Ribbon, a broken Fan, or an old Girdle, which they play with while they talk of the fair Person remember'd by each respective Token. According to the Representation of the Matter from my Letters, the Company appear like so many Players rehearsing behind the Scenes; one is sighing and lamenting his Destiny in beseech-pulsion from our gentle Society. As we are at ing Terms, another declaring he will break his Chain, and another in dumb-Show, striving to express his Passion by his Gesture. It is very ordinary in the Assembly for one of a sudden to rise and make a Discourse concerning his Passion in general, and describe the Temper of his Mind in such a Manner, as that the whole Company shall join in the Description, and feel the Force of it. In this Case, if any Man has declared the Violence of his Flame in more pathetick Terms, he is made President for that Night, out of respect to his superiour Passion. present all of us Gown-men, instead of duelling 'when we are Rivals, we drink together the Health of our Mistress. The Manner of doing this sometimes indeed creates Debates; on such Occasions we have Recourse to the Rules of 'Love among the Antients. to Betty. We look upon a Man as no Company, 'that does not sigh five times in a Quarter of an Hour; and look upon a Member as very absurd, that is so much himself as to make a direct 'Answer to a Question. In fine, the whole As'sembly is made up of absent Men, that is, of such Persons as have lost their Locality, and 'whose Minds and Bodies never keep Company 'with one another. As I am an unfortunate 'Member of this distracted Society, you cannot expect a very regular Account of it; for which Reason, I hope you will pardon me that I so ab'ruptly subscribe my self, Nævia sex Cyathis, septem Justina bibatur. 'This Method of a Glass to every Letter of her 'Name, occasioned the other Night a Dispute of some Warmth. A young Student, who is in Love with Mrs. Elizabeth Dimple, was so unWe had some Years ago in this Town a Set of reasonable as to begin her Health under the People who met and dressed like Lovers, and 'Name of Elizabetha; which so exasperated the were distinguished by the Name of the Fringe-Club, that by common Consent we retrenched it Glove Club; but they were Persons of such moderate Intellects even before they were impaired by their Passion, that their Irregularities could not furnish sufficient Variety of Folly to afford daily new Impertinencies; by which Means that Institution dropp'd. These Fellows could express their Passion in nothing but their Dress; but the Oxonians are Fantastical now they are Lovers, in proportion to their Learning and Understanding before they became such. Thoughts of the ancient Poets on this agreeable Phrenzy, are translated in honour of some modern Beauty; and Chloris is won to Day, by the same Compliment that was made to Lesbia a thousand Years ago. But as far as I can learn, the Patron of the Club is the renowned Don Quixote. The Adventures of that gentle Knight are frequently mention'd in the Society, under the colour of Laughing at the Passion and themselves: But at the same Time, tho' they are sensible of the Extravagancies of that unhappy Warrior, they do not observe, that to turn all the Reading of the best and wisest Writings into Rhapsodies of Love, The Sir, T. B. 'I forgot to tell you, that Albina, who has six 'Votaries in this Club, is one of your Readers.' R. Thursday, April 5, 1711. [Addison. Sit mihi fas audita loqui!-Vir. is a Phrenzy no less diverting than that of the No. 31.] SIR, 'Since I find you take Notice of Clubs, I beg 'Leave to give you an Account of one in Oxford, 'which you have no where mention'd, and perhaps 'never heard of. We distinguish our selves by 'the Title of the Amorous Club, are all Votaries ' of Cupid, and Admirers of the Fair Sex. The 'Reason that we are so little known in the World, LAST Night, upon my going into a CoffeeHouse not far from the Hay-Market Theatre, I diverted my self for above half an Hour with overhearing the Discourse of one, who, by the Shabbiness of his Dress, the Extravagance of his Conceptions, and the Hurry of his Speech, I discovered to be of that Species who are generally distinguished by the Title of Projectors. This Gentleman, for I found he was treated as such by his Audience, was entertaining a whole Table of Listners with the Project of an Opera, which he told us had not cost him above two or three Mornings in the Contrivance, and which he was ready to put in Execution, provided he might find his Account in it. He said, that he had observed the great Trouble and Inconvenience which Ladies were at, in travelling up and down to the several Shows that are exhibited in different Quarters of the Town. The dancing Monkies are in one place; the Puppet-Show in another; the Opera in a third; not to mention the Lions, that are almost a whole Day's Journey from the Politer Part of the Town. By this means People of Figure are forced to lose half the Winter after their coming to Town, before they have seen all the strange Sights about it. In order to remedy this great Inconvenience, our Projector drew out of his Pocket the Scheme of an Opera, Entitled, The Expedition of Alexander the Great; in which he had disposed of all the remarkable Shows about Town, among the Scenes and Decorations of his Piece. The Thought, he confessed, was not originally his own, but that he had taken the Hint of it from several Performances which he had seen upon our Stage: In one of which there was a Rary-Show; in another, a Ladder-dance; and in others a Posture-man, a inoving Picture, with many Curiosities of the like nature. the Diversions of that Place, the Bull-baiting only excepted, which cannot possibly be exhibited in the Theatre, by Reason of the Lowness of the Roof. The several Woods in Asia, which Alexander must be supposed to pass through, will give the Audience a Sight of Monkies dancing upon Ropes, with many other Pleasantries of that ludicrous Species. At the same time, if there chance to be any Strange Animals in Town, whether Birds or Beasts, they may be either let loose among the Woods, or driven across the Stage by some of the Country People of Asia. In the last great Battel, Pinkethman is to personate King Porus upon an Elephant, and is to be encountered by Powell, representing Alexander the Great upon a Dromedary, which nevertheless Mr. Powell is desired to call by the Name of Bucephalus. Upon the Close of this great decisive Battel, when the two Kings are thoroughly reconciled, to shew the mutual Friendship and good Correspondence that reigns between them, they both of them go together to a Puppet-Show, in which the ingenious Mr. Powell, junior,3 may have an Op In Hockley Hole, dealers in rags and old iron congregated. This gave it the name of Rag Street, euphonized into Ray Street since 1774. In the Spectator's time its Bear Garden, upon the site of which there are now metal works, was a famous resort of the lowest classes. You must go to Hockley-in-the-Hole, child, to learn valour,' says Mrs. Peachum to Filch in the Beggar's Opera. William Penkethman was a low comedian dear to the gallery at Drury Lane as 'Pinkey,' very popular also as a Booth Manager at Bartholomew Fair. Though a sour critic described him as 'the Flower of Bartholomew Fair and the Idol of the Rabble; a Fellow that overdoes everything, and spoils many a Part with his own 'Stuff,' the Spectator has in another paper given honourable fame to his skill as a comedian. Here there is but the whimsical suggestion of a favourite showman and low comedian mounted on an elephant to play King Porus. This Expedition of Alexander opens with his consulting the oracle at Delphos, in which the dumb Conjuror, who has been visited by so many Persons of Quality of late Years, is to be introduced as telling him his Fortune; At the same time Clench of Barnet is represented in another Corner of the Temple, as ringing the Bells of Delphos, for joy of his arrival. The Tent of Darius is to be Peopled by the Ingenious Mrs. Salmon, where Alexander is to fall in Love with a Piece of Wax-Work, that represents the beautiful Statira. When Alexander comes into that Country, in which Quintus Curtius tells us the Dogs were so exceeding fierce that they would not loose their hold, tho' they were cut to pieces Limb by Limb, and that they would hang upon their Prey by their Teeth when they had nothing George Powell, who in 1711 and 1712 apbut a Mouth left, there is to be a scene of Hock-peared in such characters as Falstaff, Lear, and ley in the Hole, in which is to be represented all Cortez in 'the Indian Emperor,' now and then also played the part of the favourite stage hero, Alexander the Great in Lee's Rival Queens. He was a good actor, spoilt by intemperance, who came on the stage sometimes warm with Nantz brandy, and courted his heroines so furiously that Sir John Vanbrugh said they were almost in danger of being conquered on the spot. His last new part of any note was in 1713, Portius in Addison's Cato. He lived on for a few wretched years, lost to the public, but much sought by sheriff's officers. 1 An advertisement of Mrs. Salmon's wax-work in the Tatler for Nov. 30, 1710, specifies among other attractions the Turkish Seraglio in waxwork, the Fatal Sisters that spin, reel, and cut the thread of man's life, an Old Woman flying 'from Time, who shakes his head and hour-glass 'with sorrow at seeing age so unwilling to die. 'Nothing but life can exceed the motions of the 'heads, hands, eyes, &c., of these figures, &c.' 2 Hockley-in-the-Hole, memorable for its Bear Garden, was on the outskirt of the town, by Clerkenwell Green; with Mutton Lane on the East and the fields on the West. By Town's End Lane (called Coppice Row since the levelling of the coppice-crowned knoll over which it ran) through Pickled-Egg Walk (now Crawford's Passage) one came to Hockley-in-the-Hole or Hockley Hole, now Ray Street. The leveller has been at work upon the eminences that surrounded it. 2 3 Powell junior' of the Puppet Show (see note on p. 26) was a more prosperous man than his namesake of Drury Lane. In De Foe's 'Groans ' of Great Britain,' published in 1813, we read: 'I 'was the other Day at a Coffee-House when the 'following Advertisement was thrown in.-At 'Punch's Theatre in the Little Piazza, CoventGarden, this present Evening will be performed an Entertainment, called, The History of Sir portunity of displaying his whole Art of Machinery, for the Diversion of the two Monarchs. Some at the Table urged that a Puppet-Show was not a suitable Entertainment for Alexander the Great; and that it might be introduced more properly, if we suppose the Conqueror touched upon that part of India which is said to be inhabited by the Pigmies. But this Objection was looked upon as frivolous, and the Proposal immediately over-ruled. Our Projector further added, that after the Reconciliation of these two Kings they might invite one another to Dinner, and either of them entertain his Guest with the German Artist, Mr. Pinkethman's Heathen Gods, or any of the like Diversions, which shall then chance to be in vogue. This Project was receiv'd with very great Applause by the whole Table. Upon which the Undertaker told us, that he had not yet communicated to us above half his Design; for that Alexander being a Greek, it was his Intention that the whole Opera should be acted in that Language, which was a Tongue he was sure would wonderfully please the Ladies, especially when it was a 'Richard Whittington, shewing his Rise from a 'Scullion to be Lord-Mayor of London, with the Comical Humours of Old Madge, the jolly Chamber-maid, and the Representation of the 'Sea, and the Court of Great Britain, con'cluding with the Court of Aldermen, and 'Whittington Lord-Mayor, honoured with the 'Presence of K. Hen. VIII. and his Queen Anna 'Bullen, with other diverting Decorations proper to the Play, beginning at 6 o'clock. Note, No money to be returned after the Entertainment is begun. Boxes, 25. Pit, Is. Vivat Re'gina.' On enquiring into the Matter, I find this has 'long been a noble Diversion of our Quality and 'Gentry; and that Mr. Powell, by Subscriptions and full Houses, has gathered such Wealth as is 'ten times sufficient to buy all the Poets in England; that he seldom goes out without his Chair, 'and thrives on this incredible Folly to that degree, that, were he a Freeman, he might hope that some future Puppet-Show might celebrate 'his being Lord Mayor, as he has done Sir R. 'Whittington.' 53 little raised and rounded by the Ionick Dialect; and could not but be [acceptable'] to the whole Audience, because there are fewer of them who understand Greek than Italian. The only Difficulty that remained, was, how to get Performers, unless we could persuade some Gentlemen of the Universities to learn to sing, in order to qualify themselves for the Stage; but this Objection soon vanished, when the Projector informed us that the Greeks were at present the only Musicians in the Turkish Empire, and that it would be very easy for our Factory at Smyrna to furnish us every Year with a Colony of Musicians, by the Opportunity of the Turkey Fleet; besides, says he, if we want any single Voice for any lower Part in the Opera, Lawrence can learn to speak Greek, as well as he does Italian, in a Fortnight's time. The Projector having thus settled Matters, to the good liking of all that heard him, he left his Seat at the Table, and planted himself before the Fire, where I had unluckily taken my Stand for the Convenience of over-hearing what he said. Whether he had observed me to be more attentive than ordinary, I cannot tell, but he had not stood by me above a Quarter of a Minute, but he turned short upon me on a sudden, and catching me by a Button of my Coat, attacked me very abruptly after the following manner. Besides, Sir, I have heard of a very extraordinary Genius for Musick that lives in Switzerland, who has so strong a Spring in his Fingers, that he can make the Board of an Organ sound like a Drum, and if I could but procure a Subscription of about Ten Thousand Pound every Winter, I would undertake to fetch him over, and oblige him by Articles to set every thing that should be sung upon the English Stage. After this he looked full in my Face, expecting I would make an Answer, when by good Luck, a Gentleman that had entered the Coffee-house since the Projector applied himself to me, hearing him talk of his Swiss Compositions, cry'd out with a kind of Laugh, Is our Musick then to receive further Improvements from Switzerland! This alarmed the Projector, who immediately let go my Button, and turned about to answer him. I took the Opportunity of the Diversion, which seemed to be made in favour of me, and laying down my Penny upon the Bar, retired with some Precipitation. C. 1 'Mr. Penkethman's Wonderful Invention 'call'd the Pantheon: or, the Temple of the 'Heathen Gods. The Work of several Years, 'and great Expense, is now perfected; being a No. 32.] 'most surprising and magnificent Machine, con'sisting of 5 several curious Pictures, the Painting 'and contrivance whereof is beyond Expression Nil illi larvâ aut tragicis opus esse Cothurnis. Admirable. The Figures, which are above 100, 'and move their Heads, Legs, Arms, and Fingers, so exactly to what they perform, and set Hor. ting one Foot before another, like living Crea-THE late Discourse concerning the Statutes of 'tures, that it justly deserves to be esteem'd the 'greatest Wonder of the Age. To be seen from '10 in the Morning till 10 at Night, in the Little 'Piazza, Covent Garden, in the same House 'where Punch's Opera is. Price 1s. 6d., 1S., and 'the lowest, 6d.' This Advertisement was published in 46 and a few following numbers of the Spectator. the Ugly-Club, having been so well received at Oxford, that, contrary to the strict Rules of the Society, they have been so partial as to take my own Testimonial, and admit me into that select Body; I could not restrain the Vanity of publishing to the World the Honour which is done me. I [wonderfully acceptable] 2 The satire is against Heidegger. See p. 25. |