For arm'd to chafe the bounding roe they came, Shrill through the woods refound the fhriek of fear. As loft in earnest care of future need, ; Plunge headlong in the tide to quench their fire, His eager dog, ere burfts the flashing roar, Fierce for their prey springs headlong from the fhore, The poet then proceeds to defcribe the amorous wiles and contests of individuals, particularly of Leonardo and Ephyre; in which a different picture is exhibited from that of Milton when he describes Adam accompanying Eve to the bower, to which -he led her nothing loth: the fair Ephyre affecting to fly from the embraces of her lover, fleet as Atalante, or like another Daphne from Apollo, till, taking to covert, the artful wanton received him wifhfully into her arms reclining on a bed of rofes. Should the modeft reader think these pictures too highly coloured, they are to be told that the couples thus lovingly paired were next morning all lawfully married. For fo Venus enjoined; an odd injunction (no offence to Mr. Mickle) for the Cyprian goddefs. But it is to be obferved that Camoens Venus is not like the bawdy ftrumpet celebrated by the writers of antiquity; being a good chriftian-like honeft match-maker: fo that her votaries appear to have been guilty of no other fault in this their matrimonial connection than that of beginning at the wrong end of the ceremony: a circumftance about which it may behove.many modeft people to be filent. But we must here take leave of Mr. Mickle's excellent verfion of the Lufiad of Camoens; a verfion that does honour to the abilities of the translator, while it makes to the poetical library of an English reader, a moft valuable addition, which every lover of poetry must be folicitous to poffefs. ART. III. A General History of Mufic, from the earliest Ages to the prefent Period. To which is prefixed, A Differtation on the Music of the Ancients. By Charles Burney, Muf. D. F. R. S. Vol. I. 4to. 11. 11s. 6d. Robinson. It is an ancient and just remark, that the liberal arts are defpifed by none but those who are ignorant of them. Unluckily for mufic and its admirers in this country, fo many have been the men of wit and genius among us, who have had no taste or knowledge of this divine art, that both mufic and its profeffors have long held an inferior rank in the circle of the sciences. Swift, Pope, Addison and many other of our literati affected to despise and turn them into ridicule, even though the two latter have written odes on Cecilia's day, in direct praise of those powers to whofe effects they were ftrangers. On this occafion, indeed, our author obferves, that they manifested the entire feparation of mufic and poetry; "fhewing the poffibility of writing well on what is neither felt nor understood."-With due deference, however, to this ingenious writer, we regard this as but a very bare poffibility, at the beft. We will neither call in queftion his affertion, refpecting the musical knowledge, or rather ignorance of thofe celebrated writers, or the good-writing of their mufical odes; but, we believe, they are the only authors in the world, if fuch they are, who have written well on a subject they neither felt nor understood. At least it is for a very different reason that the world hath been, for fome time past, impatient for the appearance of the prefent work. An historical treatise on a fubject, which Dr. Burney is acknowledged fo well to feel and understand, could not but promise a fund of entertainment to the curious and inquifitive. How far the expecta tions, raised on fo reasonable a foundation, may be answered by its publication, we prefume not to infinuate, though we cannot help 3 help reflecting on the obfervation of Tartini, refpecting the ancient history of music, that the doubts, difficulties and obfcurities, attending the fubject, fhould not be imputed to the writers on it but to the subject itself; to whofe very effence they are infeparable. For this and other reafons Dr. Burney very properly expreffes his diffidence of fuccefs, while he modeftly propofes his inducements to the undertaking. "There are, fays he, already more profound books on the fubject of ancient, as well as modern mufic, than have ever been read; it was time to try to treat it in fuch a manner as was likely to engage the attention of thofe that are unable, or unwilling, to read treatifes written, for the most part, by perfons who were more ambitious of appearing learned themselves, than of making others fo. Indeed, I have long fince found it neceffary to read with caution the fplendid affertions of writers concerning mufic, till I was convinced of their knowledge of the fubject; for I have frequently detected ancients as well as moderns, whose fame fets them almost above cenfure, of utter ignorance in this particular, while they have thought it neceffary to talk about it. Apuleius, Paufanias, and Athenæus, among the ançients, were certainly musicians; but it is not fo evident that Cicero, Horace, and others, who have interfperfed many paffages concerning mufic in their works, understood the fubject any more than our Addifon, Pope, and Swift. "If it be afked, fays Dr. Burney, why I entered on fo arduous a tafk, knowing the difadvantages 1 muft labour under, my answer is, that it was neither with a view to rival others, nor to expofe the defects of former attempts, but merely to fill up, as well as I was able, a chafm in English literature. I knew that a hiftory of Mufic was wanted by my countrymen, though I was utterly ignorant that any one elfe had undertaken to fupply it; and, to confefs the truth, I did, at first, imagine, though I have been long convinced of my mistake, that, with many years practice and experience in mufical matters, fome reading, and the poffeffion of a great number of books on the subject, I fhould have been able to compile fuch a history as was wanted, at my leisure hours, without great labour or expence. "But, after I had embarked, the further I failed, the greater feemed my distance from the port: doubts of my own abilities, and refpect for the public, abated my confidence; my ideas of what would be required at my hands were enlarged beyond my powers of fulfilling them, especially in the narrow limits of two volumes, and in the little time I had allowed myself, which was made ftill lefs by fickness. "A work like this, in which it is neceffary to give authorities for every fact that is afferted, advances infinitely flower, with all the diligence that can be bestowed upon it, than one of mere imagination, or one confifting of recent circumftances, within the knowledge and memory of the writer. The difference in point of time and labour is as great as in building a house with scarce materials dug out of the earth, or produced in remote regions of the world, or with bricks made upon the fpot, and timber from a neighbouring wood; and I H 4 have have frequently spent more time in afcertaining a date, or feeking a fhort, and, in itself, a trivial paffage, than it would have required to fill many pages with conjecture and declamation. "However, after reading, or at least confulting, an almost innumerable quantity of old and scarce books on the fubject, of which the dulnefs and pedantry were almoft petrific, and among which, where I hoped to find the most information, I found but little, and where I expected but little, I was feldom difappointed; at length, wearied and disgufted at the small fuccefs of my researches, I thut my books, and began to examine myself as to my mufical principles; hoping that the good I had met with in the course of my reading was by this time digefted and incorporated in my own ideas; and that the many years I had fpent in practice, theory, and meditation, might entitle me to fome freedom of thought, unfhackled by the trammels of anthority." Such is our author's account of his motives for engaging, and his manner of proceeding, in the compofition of this elaborate work; of the contents of which we shall give our readers as copious an abstract as the nature of our own undertaking will admit. The prefixed differtation on the mufic of the ancients, is divided into ten fections under the following titles. "Sect. I. Of the Notation or Tablature of ancient Mufic, including its Scales, Intervals, Systems, and Diagrams. Se&t. II. Of the three Genera, Diatonic, Chromatic, and Enharmonic.-Sect. III. Of the Modes.-Se&t. IV. Of Mutations.-Sect. V. Of Melopeia. -Sect. VI. Of Rhythm.-Sect. VII. Of the practice of Melopeia, with Examples.-Se&t. VIII. Whether the Ancients had Counterpoint, or Mufic in Parts -Sect. IX. Of Dramatic Mufic.-Se&t. X. Of the Effects attributed to the Mufic of the Ancients.” We are the lefs tempted to enter into the particulars of many of thefe fections, from the perufal of the introductory chapter; in which we are told fo confiderable a part of what is here ad vanced is founded on conjecture.. "To fay the truth, fays Dr. Burney, the ftudy of ancient mufic is now become the bufinefs of an antiquary more than of a musician. But in every history of mufic extant, in other languages, the practice had been fo conftant for the author to make a difplay of what he knew, and what he did not know concerning ancient mufic, that it feemed abfolutely neceffary for me to fay fomething about it, if it were only to prove, that if I have not been more fuccefsful in my enquiries than my predeceffors, I have not been lefs diligent. And it appeared likewife neceffary, before I attempted a history of ancient Greek mufic, to endeavour to inveftigate its properties, or at least to tell the little I knew of it, and ingenuoufly to confefs my ignorance and doubts about the reft, "Indeed it was once my intention to begin my hiftory with the invention of the prefent musical scale and counterpoint; for What can we reafon, but from what we know? But it was impoffible to read a great number of books upon the fub ject, ject, without meeting with conjectures, and it was not easy to perufe thefe, without forming others of my own. If those which I have hazarded should throw any light upon the fubject, it will enable my readers to travel through the dark maze of inquiry with more facility, and confequently lefs difguft; and if I fail in my researches, and leave both the fubject and them where I found them, as the expectation which I encourage is but fmall, fo it is hoped will be their difappointment. For with refpect to all I have to fay, I must confels that the Spanish motto adopted by Francis le Vayer, is wholly applicable. De las cofas mas feguras Le mas Jegura es dudar *. "In wading through innumerable volumes, with promifing titles, and fubmitting to the drudgery of all fuch reading as was never read, I frequently found that thofe who were moft diffufe upon the fubject, knew leaft of the matter; and that technical jargon, and unintelligible pedantry fo loaded each page, that not an eligible thought could be found, in exploring thoufands of them. Indeed my researches were fometimes fo unfuccessful, that I feemed to refemble a wretch in the street, raking the kennels for an old rusty nail." It has happened, however, to fome of these wretched rakers that they have now and then picked up a filver-spoon or a locket of gold. As matters of curiofity, if not of much value, the reader will thus find many paffages interfperfed throughout this ingenious, and we may add learned, differtation. We shall pass over the technical part, as affording little entertainment, with obferving only that on the question, whether the ancients had counterpoint or mufic in parts, Dr. Burney enters particularly into the differences between the various writers on that controverted subject; concluding on the whole, that harmony, like ours, was never practifed by the ancients. On this head, however, he farther remarks" that the ftripping their music of counterpoint does not take from it the power of pleasing, or of producing great effects." In modern times, continues he, a Farinelli, a Gizzielli or a Cafarelli, had fung their airs wholly without accompaniment, they would perhaps, have been listened to but with ftill more pleafure; the clofes of great fingers, made wholly without accompaniment, being mere attended to than all the contrivance of complicated parts, in the course of the airs which they terminate. From the ninth section, on the subject of Dramatic Music, we fhall felect a few quotations. "Ariftotle tells us, in his Poetics, that mufic, μλoroa, is an effential part of tragedy; but how it became effential, this philofopher does not inform us. M. Dacier has endeavoured to fupply this omiffion, by fuggefting, that cuftom, and a natural paffion implanted in the Greeks for mufic, had incorporated it into their drama. Indeed The most certain of certain things, is doubtful. Ariftotle |