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her that he composed his Ariadne abbandonata, which rivals that of Benda.

One of the English princes commissioned Reynolds to take Haydn's portrait. Flattered by the honour, he went to the painter's house, and sat to him, but soon grew tired. Reynolds, careful of his reputation, would not paint a man of acknowledged genius, with a stupid countenance, and deferred the sitting to another day. The same weariness and want of expression occurring at the next attempt, Reynolds went to the prince, and informed him of the circumstance. The prince contrived a stratagem; he sent to the painter's house a pretty German girl, in the service of the queen his mother. Haydn took his seat for the third time, and as soon as the conversation began to flag, a curtain fell, and the fair German, elegantly attired in white, and crowned with roses, addressed him in his native tongue: "O, great man, how happy am I to have an opportunity of seeing thee, and of being in thy presence!" Haydn, delighted, overwhelms the lovely enchantress with questions; his countenance

recovered its animation, and Reynolds seized it with rapidity.

George III., who liked no music but Handel's, was not insensible to that of Haydn. He and the queen gave a flattering reception to the German professor; and the University of Oxford sent him a doctor's diploma, a dignity which had been conferred on only four persons since the year 1400, and which Handel himself had not obtained.

Custom requiring that Haydn should send to the university a specimen of musical learning, he addressed to it a sheet of music so composed, that, whether it was read backwards or forwards, beginning at the top, the bottom, or the middle of the page, in short, in every possible way, it always presented an air, and a correct accompaniment *.

1

He left London, delighted with Handel's music, and carrying with him a few hundred guineas, which seemed to him a

treasure.

* We have given this musical curiosity at the conclusion.

G.

On his return through Germany, he gave a few concerts; and, for the first time, his little fortune received an augmentation. His appointments in the Esterhazy family, were of small amount; but the condescension with which he was treated by the members of that august house, was of more value to a man whose works are the productions of his feelings, than any pecuniary advantages. He had always a cover at the prince's table; and when his Highness gave a uniform to his orchestra, Haydn received the dress, usually worn by persons coming to Eisenstädt to pay their court to the Prince. It is by a course of attentions such as these, that the great families of Austria gain the affections of all by whom they are surrounded; it is by this moderation that they render tolerable, and even agreeable, privileges and manners which put them almost on an equality with crowned heads. German pride is ridiculous only in the printed accounts of their public ceremonies; the air of kindness which accompanies the reality, gives a pleasing colour to every thing.

Haydn took with him, from London, 15,000 florins*. Some years afterwards, the sale of the score of the Creation, and the Four Seasons, brought him an additional sum of 2,000 sequins †, with which he purchased the small house and garden in the fauxbourg Gumpendorff, on the road to Schönbrunn, where he resides. Such is the state of his fortune.

I was with him at his new house, when he received a flattering letter from the French Institute, to inform him that he had been nominated foreign associate. Haydn suddenly melted into tears when he read it, and never referred without emotion to this letter, which is, in reality, distinguished by that dignified and graceful turn of expression, in which the French suc-ceed with a felicity superior to every other nation +.

* About 1,400l. About 1,000/.

The late R. B. Sheridan was put in nomination at the same time to fill this honorary station, but the choice of the Institute fell on the Father of Harmony. G.

LETTER XVI.

Saltzburg, May 28, 1809.

COME, my friend,-the same Haydn who, in instrumental music, was sublime, in the opera, only respectable, now invites follow him to the sanctuary, where,

La gloria di colui che tutto muove,

you to

inspired him, at times, with hymns worthy of their divine object.

Nothing has been more justly admired, and at the same time more warmly censured, than his masses; but in order to form a correct estimate of their beauties, their faults, and the causes which occasioned them, the most expeditious method will be to see what was the state of sacred music about the year 1760.

Every one knows that music formed a part of the sacred worship, both of the Jews and the Gentiles, and it is to this circumstance

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