from Michael Festing, an eminent performer on that instrument, the future composer may be said to have been a self-taught musician. At length, an unforeseen and rather curious incident had the effect of gradually reconciling the father to his son's inconvenient predilections. "His father," continues Dr. Burney, "accidentally calling at a gentleman's house in the neighbourhood upon business, found him engaged with company, but sending in his name, he was invited upstairs, where there was a large company and a concert, in which, to his great astonishment, he caught his son in the very act of playing first fiddle. Finding him more admired for his musical talents than knowledge in the law, he was soon prevailed upon to forgive his unruly passion, and to let him try to turn it to some account. No sooner was the young musician able to practise aloud in his father's house, than he bewitched the whole family. On discovering that his sister was not only fond of music, but had a very sweet-toned and touching voice, he gave her such instructions as soon enabled her to sing for Lampe, in his opera of Amelia.'"' This sister, the future Mrs. Cibber, was, it may mentioned, her brother's junior by about seven years; her first appearance on the stage taking place in 1736, when she performed the character of Zara in Aaron Hill's tragedy of that name. Young Arne was himself only eighteen when he produced his opera of 'Rosamond' upon the stage.

'Burney's 'Hist. of Music,' vol. iv. p. 656.

be

Altogether, this eminent man is computed not only to have either composed or set for the stage as many as thirty musical entertainments, but for many years his numerous songs, cantatas, catches, and glees delighted, while they improved, the public taste. "The melody of Arne at this time,” observes Dr. Burney, "forms an era in English music. It was so easy, natural, and agreeable to the whole kingdom, that it had an effect upon our national taste, and, till a more modern Italian style was introduced in pasticcio English Operas, it was the standard of all perfection at our theatres and public gardens." He may or may not have been correctly accredited with any share in the composition of 'God save the King;' but at all events he was the composer of 'Rule Britannia,' than which, since the time of Tyrtæus, no national melody has perhaps ever elicited such rapturous outbursts of popular enthusiasm. It was first, we believe, introduced to the public in Mallet's altered Masque of Alfred,' in 1740.

About the year 1736, this successful composer married Miss Cecilia Young, daughter of Anthony Young, organist of St. Catherine Cree Church, in Leadenhall Street. She was a pupil of Francesco Geminiani, and was considered the best English female singer of her time.

On the 6th of July, 1759, the University of Oxford evinced their appreciation of Arne's genius,

1 'Hist. of Music,' vol. iv. p. 659.

by conferring on him the degree of Doctor of Music.

Dr. Arne having been what is currently called a man of pleasure, we are the less surprised to find his affairs, as in the cases of too many men of pleasure and vivacious genius combined, in a constant state of embarrassment. Next to music, his ruling passion seems to have been the libertine pursuit of women. Neither do his manners, any more than his morals, appear to have been improved either by his Eton education or by the society which he frequented. According to Dr. Burney, he had kept indifferent company too long to be able "to comport himself properly at the Opera House, in the first circle of taste and fashion; he could speak to 'the girls in the garden' very well, but, whether through bashfulness or want of use, he had but little to say to good company."

1

Dr. Arne died of a spasmodic disorder of the lungs on the 5th of March, 1778, in his sixty-eighth year. Neglectful as he had unhappily been of his religious duties, religion nevertheless mercifully afforded him peace at the last. Finding himself on his death-bed, and a prey to remorse, he sent for a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, in which persuasion he had been educated; received at his hands the spiritual consolation of which he stood in need, and having chanted, it is said, a Hallelujah, almost with his last

1 'Hist. of Music,' vol. iv. p. 486.

breath, expired contrite and devout. His remains rest, where lie interred so many other erring but brilliant sons of the Drama or the Orchestra, either in the vaults or churchyard of St. Paul's, Covent Garden.

Dr. Arne's widow survived him many years; dying, it is said, in or about 1795, no fewer than sixty-five years after her first and brilliant appearance on the boards of a London theatre.

VOL. I.

Р

RICHARD EARL TEMPLE, K.G.

THE brilliant political success achieved by the House of Grenville in the last century has been set forth in graphic words by Lord Macaulay in one of his admirable Essays. "Within the space of fifty years,” he writes, "three First Lords of the Treasury, three Secretaries of State, two Keepers of the Privy Seal, and four First Lords of the Admiralty, were appointed from among the sons and grandsons of the Countess Temple." Of these notable persons, the most considerable, in point of antecedence of birth, wealth, and political influence, may be said to have been Richard Earl Temple, the predecessor of the Marquises and Dukes of Buckingham, and the subject of this biographical sketch.

At the time that the future Earl Temple was simply Richard Grenville and an Eton scholar, the then princely Lord of Stow was Richard Viscount Cobham, his maternal uncle, to whom we have already had occasion to advert as having been

1 On Sir William Temple.