his cantatas, fully confirms the following teftimony to the extraordinary merit of this compofer, and the reflections which

As for melody, were a collection to be formed of the most elegant and ftriking paffages of the best compofers of the last century, which are ftill, and ever must remain, pleafing, in the fame manner as the beauties of our best poets and moral writers have been felected, the works of Cefti would fupply a very confiderable number. Indeed, fuch a collection would leave but little to fubfequent compofers who have been the most celebrated for originality and invention. It might check modern vanity, and ftop difputation concerning unjuft claims; individuals would have their proper ftation allotted them; and juftice would be done to thofe gifted mortals whose inspirations have been adopted by the moft judicious and accomplished musicians of fucceeding times. But fuch a compilation, with whatever integrity it may be made, and however juit the defign, might have an invidious appearance, and inftead of being regarded as the only true and intelligible hiftory of musical invention, might feem the work of a partizan, undertaken with the infidious view of injuring the reputation of pofterior artists.'

But we haften forward to an article that will intereft, at once, the musician, the poet, and the painter; for these characters, it feems, were all united in SALVATOR ROSA:

Among the mufical manufcripts' (fays our hiftorian) purchased at Rome in 1770, one that ranks the highest in my own favour, was the mufic-book of SALVATOR ROSA, the painter, in which are con tained, not only airs and cantatas fet by Cariffimi, Cefti, Luigi, Cavalli, Legrenzi, Capelline, Pafqualini, and Bandini, of which the words of feveral are by Salvator Rofa; but eight entire cantatas written, fet, and tranfcribed by this celebrated painter himself. The book was purchased of his great grand-daughter, who inhabited the house in which her ancestor lived and died. The hand-writing was afcertained by collation with his letters and satires, of which the originals are till preferved by his defcendants. The hiftorians of Italian poetry, though they often mention Salvator as a fatirist, seem never to have heard of his lyric productions; and as this book is not only curious for the Mufic it contains, but the poetry, I fhall prefent my readers with a particular account of its contents, which, being chiefly cantatas, belong to this chapter.'

With refpect to Salvator's compofition, which will, without doubt, be the principal object of the reader's curiofity, though we have nothing to oppofe to Dr. B.'s commendation of it, as

not only admirable for a dilettante, but, in point of melody, fuperior to that of moft of the mafters of his time,' yet we were fomewhat furprifed to find in it little or no analogy to the ftyle of his painting, or his poetry. We fee none of the "dafhings” of the "lavage Rofa:" nothing of that bold and original

* "Or favage Rofa daff'd, or learned Pouffin drew."

Thomfon's Caft. of Ind.

wildnefs

wildness of conception, which marks his genius in the fifter arts. In his music, he is, comparatively speaking, "a fellow of no mark or likelihood." This is by no means the cafe with the poetry of his cantatas; from which Dr. B. has gratified the lovers of Italian literature with two fpecimens, hitherto, we prefume, never publifhed. In the first, which defcribes an incantation, there feems to be a great deal of that fort of imagination which might be expected from Salvator Rofa. The other, which is of confiderable length, and of which Dr. B. has given a pleasant and fpirited tranflation, is, as he fays, a gloomy, grumbling history of this painter and poet-mufician's life, in which the comic exaggeration is not unpleafant; but it is rather a fatire on the times in which he lived, than a lyric compofition.' Indeed, we can scarcely conceive any poetry more thoroughly unfit for mufic. The following lines may ferve to give the reader a tolerable idea of the whole poem: (p. 161.) "Per me folo fi vede fordo il ciel, Scuro il Sol, fecca la Terra,

Ov' io di pace ho fede

Colà porta il gran

diavolo la

*

S'io fo'l Bucato piove
S' io metto il piè nel mare
Il mar s' adira.

Se andaffe à l'Indie nove,

guerra

Non vale il mio tefton più d'una lira."
• Is heaven deaf to me alone?

Barren the earth, and dark the fun?
And where to peace there feems no bar,
Shall devils wage eternal war?

If I ftep forth to fee a friend

The clouds a deluge inftant fend,

And ship I have never been on board

But winds and waves have furious roar'd.

Yet over begg'ry to prevail

Should I to India ever fail,

And coming back 'fcape rocks and killing,

In purfe I should not have a fhilling.'

In another of his cantatas, fet by Cefli, he fays, "that he has had more misfortunes than there are stars in the firmament, and that he has lived fix luftres (thirty years) without the enjoy ment of one happy day." Salvator,' fays Dr. B. was either the moft miferable, or the moft discontented of men.' Perhaps

As the author is not very poetical in telling us that it rains whenever he bucks, that is, washes his linen, he has not been clofely followed in the tranflation. It is curious, however, that bucato fhould be fo nearly English as to imply that kind of wathing at a river with lye, which is called bucking, and which gave the name to the basket in which Falftaff was carried to Datchet-mead.'

the alternative is not neceffary. He was, probably, one of thofe humourifts who grumble for their amusement.

But the most voluminous and moft original composer of cantatas,' fays our mufical hiftorian, that has ever exifted, in any country to which my enquiries have reached, feems to have been ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI. Indeed this mafter's genius was truly creative; and I find part of his property among the stolen goods of all the best compofers of the first forty or fifty years of the prefent century."

His fertility was fo great, as it appears from an original MS, in Dr. B.'s poffeffion, containing 35 cantatas, which are all dated, that he frequently produced one every day for feveral days together, and that the whole number was composed between the month of October 1704, and March 1705.”

Of these fragments, and of Dr. B.'s obfervations on them, we fhall only fay, that, in our opinion, that mufical reader to whom they afford no gratification, must be equally deftitute of intelligence in the art, and curiofity concerning its progrefs. But, as Dr. B. well remarks, modern refinements in melody have rendered our ears faftidious and unjuft to the fimplicity of the last age, however elegant its garb.'

In order to receive any confiderable degree of pleasure from thefe, and the other fpecimens, of which we have spoken la highly, it is certainly neceffary to recollect their dates; to hear them, if we may ufe fuch a phrafe, with a comparative and hiftorical ear.

We cannot but join with the author, when he laments, at the conclufion of the chapter,

That a fpecies of compofition fo admirably calculated for concerts as the cantata, fhould now be fo feldom cultivated; as it contains a little drama entire, having a beginning, a middle, and an end, in which the charms of poetry are united with those of Music, and the mind is amufed while the ear is gratified. Opera fcenes, or fingle fongs, now fupply the place of cantatas in all private concerts; but, befides the lofs which thefe fuftain when taken out of their niche, as they were originally calculated for a numerous orchestra, they can feldom be completely accompanied by a small band.'

CHAP. V. contains an Account of Attempts at Dramatic Mufic in England, previous to the Establishment of the Italian Opera, In thele, as in the modern mufical dramas of our Englifo theatre, the chief part of the dialogue was spoken, and recrrative, or mufical declamation, which feems to be the true criterion and characteristic of Italian operas, but feldom ufed, unlets merely to introduce fume particular airs and chorufes: as in the modern Cumus, the air," On ev'ry hill, in ev'ry dale," is preceded by the short recitative "How gentle was my Damon's air." Some very judicious reflections here occur, in vindication of the power of Mufic, against Cibber, and other prejudiced or unqualified objectors, who deny to Mufic all meaning but what it derives from

words i

words; conftantly oppofing fenfe to found. The following remark contains, in few words, a full and unanfwerable reply to every thing of this kind, that has been, or can be, faid:

Without a voice and poetry, an excellent air, played by an inftrument, has its merit; it is not nonfenfe to mufical ears, like a mere fpeaking voice which only articulates nonfenfe.--At an opera, modulated found is the chief language, it is animated by articulation, figure, and gefture; but ftill the principal ingredient of our pleasure there is found.'

We must juft obferve an inaccuracy of conftruction which has here efcaped the author's notice, and is not corrected in the Errata. Page 191, line 14, for not being,' we must read, 'was not.' As the reft of the period now ftands, the participle, being, is a peg on which nothing hangs.

The Sixth Chapter, which is by much the longest in the whole work, brings us to the eftablishment of the Italian opera in this country, and to the arrival of HANDEL. At this important and interefting period, we fhall refume the volume in our next article.

MONTHLY

CATALOGUE,

For DECEMBER, 1789.

MEDICAL.

Art. 15. A Vindication of the Opinions and Facts, contained in a Treatife of the Glandular Difeafe of Barbadoes, by James Hendy, M. D. Member of the Edinburgh Royal Medical Society; Phyfician, during the late War, to his Majefty's Naval Hospital at Barbadoes; Phyfician General to the Militia, and one of the Phyficians to the General Difpenfary of the liland. 8vo. pp. 155. 38. Kearsley. 1789.

DR

R. Hendy's Treatife on the Glandular Difeafe of Barbadoes, was reviewed in our 71ft vol. p. 92. We there estimated its merits; and, though in fome particulars, we differed from the author, we ftill approved his publication, and, accordingly, commended it. Since then, in vol. lxxv. p. 155*, we have had occafion to notice Dr. Rollo's Remarks on the fame Difeafe. Without equal opportunities of obferving the complaint, and indeed with very limited means of gaining information on the fubject, he undertook to controvert Dr. Hendy's obfervations. In this, he was not, as we thought, fuccefsful. Every man, however, has a right to form his own opinions; nor fhould we have blamed him for offering them to others, if we had not felt ourfelves called on to exprefs our difguft at his rude and frequently ill-grounded contradictions of Dr. Hendy.

Where the principal ground of difference between Dr. Hendy and his opponent is pointed out.

In the prefent pamphlet, Dr. Hendy ftands forward to vindicate his own opinions, and to anfwer the remarks of his opponent. To this end, he has stated his principal differences, not only with Dr. Rolie, but with others (ourfelves among the number), in feven questions; which he referred to every physician and furgeon in the island, and every apothecary refiding in the metropolis.' Their anfwers, of which the refult is given, feem uniformly to have been in his favour. -If two heads are better than one, what must be the effect of so many, all in conjunction? We will not, at prefent, attempt to dif pute their decifions.

Still, however, as many of the questions referred to them contain matters of opinion, and not of fact, their decifion does not preclude others from reafoning on the fubject. It bears, nevertheless, no inconfideraule weight. Having, from the frequent appearance of the difeafe in the island, peculiar advantages, they fhould poffefs peculiarly correct information.

Befide the teftimony of these gentlemen, Dr. Hendy endeavours to strengthen his fentiments by nine new cafes. Had he stopped here, or brought forward, with temper, fuch arguments as were fairly deducible from his experience, all would have been well. We should have liftened with pleasure to his opinions, and perhaps have been convinced by his reafoning. Unfortunately, this is not the cafe. Inftead of argument, we have abufe; and in the place of reasoning, we are forry to say it, fcurrility. But does the author imagine this to be the method of promoting knowlege; or even of impreffing us with a favourable idea of his judgment? If he does, he is much mistaken.

For our parts, we fear this difpute will not terminate here. Most probably, Dr. Rollo, to borrow our old friend Triftram's language, feeing his opponent in a rage, and being a lover of fuch kind of concord as arifes from two fuch inftruments being put in exact tune,will inftantly fcrew up his to the fame pitch;-and then the devil and all will break loofe-the piece will be played off like the fixth of Avifon Scarlatti-con furio-like mad. Grant us patience! - What has con furio,-con firepito, or any other hurly burly whatever to do with harmony?"—or with Science either? we may add,

We cannot take our leave of Dr. Hendy, without paying fome attention to the notice which he has bestowed on us. We differed. from him in attributing the remote caufe of the glandular difeafe rather to the impurities of the drinking water, than to any peculiar drynefs of the atmofphere. He has defended his pofition, certainly, in a very refpectable manner; and if his arguments have not converted us to his opinion, they nevertheless have had their effect, and will not allow us to be too tenacious of our own. He will recollect, indeed, that in offering our fentiments on this fubject, we ufed no tone of authority: we exprcited our doubts, and fubmitted them to those who were likely to affit in removing them. Among the number of thefe, we indifputably confider Dr. Hendy; and as he intends to examine the drinking water about town, and alfo in every part of the country,' we shall deter giving our opinion till the appearance of the fecond edition of his treatite: which is promifed, and will not, we hope, be long delayed. We fhall then be able to

form