IT is to be regretted, that Mr. Handel has not fet to mufic the former, as well as the latter, of these celebrated odes, in which he has displayed the combined powers of verse and voice, to a wonderful degree. No poem indeed, affords fo much various matter for a composer to work upon; as Dryden has here introduced and expreffed all the greater paffions, and as the tranfitions from one to the other are fudden and impetuous. Of which we feel the effects, in the pathetic defcription of the fall of Darius, that immediately fucceeds the joyous praises of Bacchus. The fymphony, and air particularly, that accompanies the four words, "fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen," is ftrangely moving, and confifts of a few fimple * The mention of this pathetic air, reminds me of a story of the celebrated Lully, who having been one day accufed of never fetting any thing to mufic, but the languid verses of Quinault, was immediately animated with the reproach, and as it were feized with a kind of enthusiasm; he ran instantly to his harpfichord, and striking a few cords, fung in recitative these four lines in the Iphigenia of Racine, which are full of the ftrongest imagery, and are therefore much more difficult to express in music, than verfes of mere fentiment, Un fimple and touching notes, without any of those intricate variations, and affected divifions, into which, in compliance with a vicious and vulgar tafte, this great master hath fometimes defcended. Even this piece of Handel, fo excellent on the whole, is not free from one or two blemishes of this fort, particularly in the air, " with ravish'd ears," &c. THE moderns have perhaps practised no fpecies of poetry with fo little fuccefs, and with fuch indisputable inferiority to the anci Un prêtre environné d' une foule cruelle Dans fon cœur palpitant confultera les dieux. One of the company has often declared that they all thought themselves prefent at this dreadful spectacle, and that the notes with which Lully accompanied these words, erected the hair of their heads with horror. The opinion of Boileau concerning mufic is remarkable; he afferts, qu'on ne peut jamais faire un bon opera; parceque la mufique ne fauroit narrer; que les paffions n'y peuvent etre peintes dans toute l'etenduë qu'elles demandent; que d'ailleurs elle ne fauroit fouvent mettre en chant les expreffions vraiment fublimes et courageufes. ents, ents, as the ODE; which feems owing to the harshness and untuneableness of modern languages, abounding in monofyllables, and crowded with confonants. This particularly is the cafe of the English, whose original is Teutonic, and which therefore, is not fo mufical as the Italian, the Spanish, or even the French, as not having fo great a quantity of words derived from the Latin. But the Latin language itself, as well as all others, must yield to the unparalled sweetness and copioufnefs of the Greek. "Tantò eft fermo græcus latino jucundior, fays Quintilian, in his twelfth book, ut noftri poetæ, quoties dulce carmen effe voluerunt, illorum id nominibus exornent." * *He gives fome inftances that are curious and worth attention. Quid quod pleraque nos illa quafi mugiente literâ cludimus M, quâ nullum Græcè verbum cadit? At illi N jucundam et in fine præcipuè quafi tinnientem, illius loco ponunt, quæ eft apud nos rariffimè in claufulis. Quid quod fyilabæ noftræ in B literam et Dinnituntur? adeò afperè, ut plerique non antiquiffimorum quidem, fed tamen veterum mollire tentaverint, non folum averfa pro adverfis dicendo, fed et in præpofitione B literæ abfonam et ipfam S fubjiciendo. Apply these observations with proper alterations to the English tongue. Quintil. 1. xii. c. 10. What line even in the Italian poets is fo foft and mellifluous, as * Αλλ' αιει ζεφύροιο λιγυπνείοντας άλλας or as in the tender Bion, Αιαζω τον Αδωνιν, απωλεῖο καλά. Αδωνις, to inftance in no more? If we caft a tranfient view over the most celebrated of the modren lyrics, we may obferve, that the stanza of Petrarch, which has been adopted by all his fucceffors, displeases the ear, by its tedious uniformity, and by the number of identical cadences. And indeed to speak truth, there appears to be little valuable in Petrarch, except the purity of his diction. His fentiments even of love, are metaphyfical and far fetched, neither is there much variety in his fubjects, or fancy in his method of treating them; Metaftafio is a much better lyric poet. When Boileau attempted an ode, he exhibited a glaring proof, of what will be more fully infifted on in the course of this Effay, that the writer whofe grand, characteristical talent, is fatyric or moral poetry, will never fucceed, with equal merit, in the higher branches of this art. In his ode on the taking Namur, are inftances of the PROSAIC, and of the PUERILE. BOMBASTIC, of the And it is no small confirmation of the ruling paffion of this author, that he could not conclude his ode, but with a fevere ftroke on his old antagonist Perrault, though the majesty of this fpecies of compofitions is so much injured, by defcending to perfonal fatire. The name of Malherbe is refpectable, as he was the first reformer of the French poefy, and the first who gave his countrymen any idea of a legitimate ode, though his own pieces have hardly any thing but harmony to recommend them. The odes of la Motte, are fuller of delicate * An instance of the FIRST, is to be found in the third stanza. Of the SECOND, in the ninth stanza, Qui domta Lille, Coutrai, Of the THIRD fort, is, his making a star or comet, fatal to his enemies, of the white feather, which the king ufually wore in his hat. K 2 fentiment, |