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LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE;

For OCTOBER, 1818.

A New and Improved Series.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ILLUSTRIOUS AND

DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS.

Number One Hundred and Fifteen.

MISS ELIZABETH WALKER BLANCHARD.

THE young lady whose Portrait embellishes our present Number, is the third and youngest daughter of Mr. William Blanchard, of the Theatre Royal CoventGarden, and is now in her eighteenth year, having been born on the 15th of November, 1800. When our heroine was only six years of age she had the misfortune to lose her mother; from which time her father, to the best of his ability, and with equal justice to his other children, has endeaYoured to discharge the anxious duty which devolved to him, by giving her an education suitable to some respectable situation in life, but without any reference to the stage as a profession. Miss Blanchard had, however, it seems, made up her mind to become an actress; and at length, with some difficulty, prevailed upon her father to permit her trying her talents before the We cannot forbear subjoining our meed best judges and most generous public in of praise to that excellent artist, Miss the world: the result was her making her Drummond, who painted the original of debut in Miss Blandford (the only charac- the engraving presented to our readers: a ter she had then attempted to study), in more faithful likeness, we pronounce, was Moreton's comedy of Speed the Plough, on never taken, and the turn of the head, and Friday the 19th of June, 1818, and for Mr. graceful demeanour of the figure altoBlanchard's benefit. The flattering recep-gether, confer the highest honour on the tion she met with, and the evident promise talents of this young and excellent female of future excellence, induced Mr. Colman, artist.

lady whom he expected for the opening of the Haymarket Theatre, to solicit Miss Blanchard's assistance for the first night of the season. The play fixed upon was The Poor Gentleman; Miss Blanchard had never studied Emily Worthington, but undertook it at three days' notice: and in her performance, though her timidity almost overcame her powers, yet she evinced such merit, and was so warmly encouraged by the audience, as to secure an immediate engagement from the managers, upon the most liberal terms.

who was just then disappointed of a young

Miss Blanchard has since been the representative of Berissa, in The Africans; Miss Neville, in She Stoops to Conquer ; Zorayda, in The Mountaineers; Jessey Oatland, in A Cure for the Heart Ache; Maria, in X. Y. Z. &c. &c.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MUSIC.
(Continued from page 102.)

BEFORE we say more of the state of music under James I. and his immediate successors, we must revert to it as it stood under Queen Elizabeth, who, on her coming to the throne, reckoned music amongst her most favourite amusements, and for many years delighted in the performance of it. Sir James Melvil, when sent on an embassy from Mary Queen of Scots to Elizabeth, gives an account of a curious conversation he had with the latter. Amongst other questions, as which of the two were tallest, which fairest, &c. the English Queen inquired of the Ambassador what were Mary's recreations? Sir James replied, that her Majesty played on the lute and the virginals." Does she play well?" asked Elizabeth.-" Reasonably well for a Queen," replied Melvil.

The very same day after dinner, in com pany with Lord Hunsden, Melvil withdrew into a gallery, that he might hear Elizabeth, in a contiguous apartment, play on the virginals. Having listened a while, he ventured to lift up the tapestry that hung before the entrance into her chamber, and seeing the Queen's back was towards the door, he entered, and stood within the chamber, delighted with the excellence of her performance. Turning about, the Queen discovered him, rose, and advanced, and with a badinage half serious, lifted up her hand as if to strike him, telling him that she was not accustomed to play be fore men. The Ambassador, who had resided chiefly in France, knew how to flatter, and excused himself, not particularly on the custom of that country, but that he was drawn thither by the melody that had so ravished his senses he had forgot all he owed to ceremony and etiquette; but he was willing to endure any punishment her Majesty might be pleased to inflict on his presumption. Elizabeth sat down on a cushion, and Melvil knelt beside her, but the Queen gave him a cushion with her own royal hands to place under his knee. She then inquired which

played the best, the Queen of Scots or herself? Melvil declared that he found himself compelled to give the preference to Queen Elizabeth's playing. Melvil was a true courtier, and perhaps was only compelled by the presence of Elizabeth: for Brantome, in enumerating the accomplishments of Mary Stuart, declares that she not only touched the lute with unrivalled skill, but that she had also talents at composition. A manuscript, however, is preserved of the Virginal Book of Queen Elizabeth; of which Dr. Burney, and other writers on music declare, that if her Majesty was able to perform several of the difficult pieces of music it contains, she must have been a very excellent player indeed. Dr. Burney even goes so far as to say, that it would be hardly possible to find a master in Europe who could play them well after a full month's practice.

Elizabeth was also a performer on the violin, and on an instrument called the poliphaut, an instrument not unlike the lute, but strung with wire.

The chapel establishments of Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, continued much the same. Camden says, that the Romish religion remained a full month and more after the death of Queen Mary, in the same state as before: and certain it is that Elizabeth, who began her reign November 17th, 1558, had a solemn service performed for her sister Mary at Westminster, December 5th, and another December 20th, for the Emperor Charles V.; and these, as well as her own coronation, were celebrated after the Romish manner.

We find in Neale's History of the Puritans, that the service of Elizabeth's chapel was not only sung to organs, but on other instruments, such as cornets, sackbuts, &c. especially on festivals. Under this Queen the Church of England, in 1560, might be regarded as brought to perfection. Music was still retained in divine service, and the most excellent voices, both of men and children, that could be procured, were

pressed into the Queen's service for her chapel. Elizabeth, when she first met her parliament, requested them to consider religion without heat or partiality; never using the terms papist or heretic in the way of reproach: that they would avoid on one hand the extremes of idolatry and superstition, and contempt and irreligion || on the other. But this wise Princess relinquished no prerogative which had been exercised by her ancestors; she issued placards for impressing boys into her service as singers, and paid the greatest attention to cathedral service.

Luther, who had first shaken the papal throne in the time of her father, was both a judge and a lover of music: the old melodies to the Evangelical hymns were all composed by Lutherans; they are elaborate and florid, like the Latin mass. The metrical Psalmody had its origin in Germany.

Calvin was a gloomy and rigid reformer; and the only music he allowed his disciples was a monotonous and unmeaning psalmody, without even the constituent parts of mere melody. The inhabitants of Iceland, who, in spite of their rigorous climate, once glowed with the most ardent love for poetry and music, were forbidden to practice the latter in their worship, by the more freezing religion of Calvin.

When Sir Joseph Banks visited this island in 1773, he brought home a very ancient musical instrument, of a narrow and long form, which used to be played on with a bow It was called by the natives the long spiel; it has four strings of copper, one of which is used as a drone. Pieces of wood are placed at different distances upon the finger-board to serve as frets.

Several of the Psalms were translated and versified during the reign of Heury VIII. by Sir Thomas Wyatt, and printed in 1549. The Earl of Surrey wrote a sonnet in their praise, and translated others himself, but both these and the translation by Wyatt are lost.

Sternhold, who versified only fifty-one of the Psalms, died in 1549. Hopkins, a clergyman and schoolmaster in Suffolk, versified fifty-eight; Whittingham five, among which is the 119th; Norton twentyseven; Wisdome one; the 7th and 25th

149

have the initials of W. K. and the 106th those of T. C.

Archbishop Parker, during his exile, translated the Psalms into English verse. He adhered to the Lutheran manner of setting them; they were never published. But the most ample and complete edition of the Psalms, in parts, which appeared in England during the sixteenth century, was that imprinted at London, by T. Est, 1594; the former publications contained only forty tunes, but this furnished one to every Psalm.

We are told by Menestrier that psalms and hymns were the opera songs of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; and Varillas assures us, that the airs applied to the French version of the Psalms were those of the best songs of those times. The Psalms are, in general, now sung in a very wretched manner, and banish from the mind those devout aspirations they are meant to impart. This is particularly exemplified in those parish churches where there is no organ.

Roger Ascham, in a letter from Augsburg, dated 14th of May, 1551, says, “Three or four thousand singing at a time in a church in this city is but a trifle." And in Bishop Jewel's letter to Peter Martyr, he says "Sometimes at Paul's Cross, there will be six thousand people singing together."

In Scotland psalmody was practised very early by the reformers; and about the year 1555, one Elizabeth Adamson, a follower of Knox, died singing metrical psalms.

The Puritans of England, who, in the reign of Elizabeth, devoted our cathedral service to destruction, assigned the absolute necessity of that simple kind of music which might be understood by the whole congregation. But all who read the scriptures will find singing men and singing women retained for divine service: and singing necessarily implies a being skilled in music. Now, in many conventicles, and even parish churches in the country, each line of a Psalm is pronounced by the parish clerk before it is sung by the congregation: this is sufficient to shew that the words are injured and disguised by the monotonous manner of general psalm-singing.

(To be continued.)

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