and of the gradual progress which it has made upon the English stage; for there is no question but our great-grand-children will be very curious to know the reason why their forefathers used to sit 5 together like an audience of foreigners in their own country, and to hear whole plays acted before them in a tongue which they did not understand.

Arisinoe was the first opera that gave us a taste of Italian music. The great success this opera 10 met with produced some attempts of forming pieces upon Italian plans, which should give 1 a more natural and reasonable entertainment than what can be met with in the elaborate trifles of that nation. This alarmed the poetasters and fiddlers of the 15 town, who were used to deal in a more ordinary kind of ware; and therefore laid down an established rule, which is received as such to this day,2 "That nothing is capable of being well set to music, that is not nonsense."

20

4

This maxim was no sooner received, but we immediately fell to translating the Italian operas; and as there was no danger of hurting the sense of those extraordinary pieces, our authors would often make words of their own which were entirely 25 foreign to the meaning of the passages they pretended to translate; their chief care being to make the numbers of the English verse answer to those of the Italian, that both of them might go to the same tune. Thus the famous song in Camilla,

Barbara, si, t'intendo, etc.

5

Barbarous woman, yes, I know your meaning,

which expresses the resentments of an angry lover, was translated into that English lamentation,

Frail are a lover's hopes, etc.

6

And it was pleasant enough to see the most refined persons of the British nation dying away and languishing to notes that were filled with a spirit of 5 rage and indignation. It happened also very frequently, where the sense was rightly translated, the necessary transposition of words which were drawn out of the phrase of one tongue into that of another, made the music appear very absurd in 10 one tongue that was very natural in the other. I remember an Italian verse that ran thus word for word,

And turned my rage into pity;

which the English for rime's sake translated,

7

And into pity turned my rage.

By this means the soft notes that were adapted to 15 pity in the Italian, fell upon the word rage in the English; and the angry sounds that were tuned to rage in the original, were made to express pity in the translation. It oftentimes happened likewise, that the finest notes in the air fell upon the 20 most insignificant words in the sentence. I have known the word and pursued through the whole gamut, have been entertained with many a melodious the, and have heard the most beautiful graces, quavers, and divisions bestowed upon then, for, and 25

6

1711, words that were.

7 1711, turned to rage. Corrected in No. 19, [1711], to tuned.

from; to the eternal honour of our English particles.

The next step to our refinement, was the introducing of Italian actors into our opera; who sung 5 their parts in their own language, at the same time that our countrymen performed theirs in our native tongue. The King or hero of the play generally spoke in Italian, and his slaves answered him in English: the lover frequently made his court, and to gained the heart of his princess, in a language which she did not understand. One would have thought it very difficult to have carried on dialogues after this manner, without an interpreter between the persons that conversed together: but this was the 15 state of the English stage for about three years.

At length the audience grew tired of understanding half the opera; and therefore to ease themselves entirely of the fatigue of thinking, have so ordered it at present, that the whole opera is performed in 20 an unknown tongue. We no longer understand the language of our own stage; insomuch that I have often been afraid, when I have seen our Italian performers chattering in the vehemence, of action, that they have been calling us names, and abus25 ing us among themselves; but I hope, since we do put such an entire confidence in them, they will not talk against us before our faces, though they may do it with the same safety as if it were 8 behind our backs. In the mean time, I cannot forbear think30 ing how naturally an historian who writes two or three hundred years hence, and does not know the taste of his wise forefathers, will make the follow

8 1711, as if it was.

ing reflection, "In the beginning of the eighteenth century the Italian tongue was so well understood in England, that operas were acted on the public stage in that language."

One scarce knows how to be serious in the con- 5 futation of an absurdity that shows itself at the first sight. It does not want any great measure of sense to see the ridicule of this monstrous practice; but what makes it the more astonishing, it is not the taste of the rabble, but of persons of the great- 10 est politeness, which has established it.

If the Italians have a genius for music above the English, the English have a genius for other performances of a much higher nature, and capable of giving the mind a much nobler entertainment. 15 Would one think it was possible (at a time when an author lived that was able to write the Phædra and Hippolitus) for a people to be so stupidly fond of the Italian opera, as scarce to give a third day's hearing to that admirable tragedy? Music is cer- 20 tainly a very agreeable entertainment, but if it would take the entire possession of our ears, if it would make us incapable of hearing sense, if it would exclude arts that have a much greater tendency to the refinement of human nature; I must 25 confess I would allow it no better quarter than Plato has done, who banishes it out of his commonwealth.

9

At present, our notions of music are so very uncertain, that we do not know what it is we like; only, in general, we are transported with any thing 30 that is not English: so it be of a foreign growth, let it be Italian, French, or High-Dutch, it is the

same thing. In short, our English music is quite rooted out, and nothing yet planted in its stead.

When a royal palace is burnt to the ground, every man is at liberty to present his plan for a new one; 5 and though it be but indifferently put together, it may furnish several hints that may be of use to a good architect. I shall take the same liberty in a following paper, of giving my opinion upon the subject of music; which I shall lay down only in Io a problematical manner, to be considered by those who are masters in the art.

No. 23.

TUESDAY, MARCH 27. [1711.]

Sævit atrox Volscens, nec teli conspicit usquam

Auctorem, nec quo se ardens immittere possit.-VIR.

THERE is nothing that more betrays a base ungenerous spirit, than the giving of secret stabs to a man's reputation. Lampoons and satires, that are 15 written with wit and spirit, are like poisoned darts, which not only inflict a wound, but make it incurable. For this reason I am very much troubled when I see the talents of humour and ridicule in the possession of an ill-natured man. There can20 not be a greater gratification to a barbarous and inhuman wit, than to stir up sorrow in the heart of a private person, to raise uneasiness among near relations, and to expose whole families to derision, at the same time that he remains unseen and undis25 covered. If, besides the accomplishments of being witty and ill-natured, a man is vicious into the bargain; he is one of the most mischievous creatures