If the Italians have a Genius for Musick 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. Would one think
it was possible (at a Time when an Author lived that
was able to write the ‘Phaedra’ and ‘Hippolitus’)
[9] for a People to be so stupidly fond of the Italian
Opera, as scarce to give a Third Days Hearing to that
admirable Tragedy? Musick is certainly 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 humane Nature: I must confess I would allow
it no better Quarter than ‘Plato’ has done,
who banishes it out of his Common-wealth.
At present, our Notions of Musick are so very uncertain,
that we do not know what it is we like, only, in general,
we are transported with any thing that is not English:
so if it be of a foreign Growth, let it be Italian,
French, or High-Dutch, it is the same thing. In
short, our English Musick 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;
and tho’ 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 Musick, which I shall lay down only in a
problematical Manner to be considered by those who
are Masters in the Art.
C.
[Footnote 1: ‘Arsinoe’ was produced
at Drury Lane in 1705, with Mrs. Tofts in the chief
character, and her Italian rival, Margarita de l’Epine,
singing Italian songs before and after the Opera.
The drama was an Italian opera translated into English,
and set to new music by Thomas Clayton, formerly band
master to William III. No. 20 of the Spectator
and other numbers from time to time advertised ’The
Passion of Sappho, and Feast of Alexander: Set
to Musick by Mr. Thomas Clayton, as it is performed
at his house in ‘York Buildings.’
It was the same Clayton who set to music Addison’s
unsuccessful opera of ‘Rosamond’, written
as an experiment in substituting homegrown literature
for the fashionable nonsense illustrated by Italian
music. Thomas Clayton’s music to ‘Rosamond’
was described as ‘a jargon of sounds.’
‘Camilla’, composed by Marco Antonio Buononcini,
and said to contain beautiful music, was produced
at Sir John Vanbrugh’s Haymarket opera in 1705,
and sung half in English, half in Italian; Mrs. Tofts
singing the part of the Amazonian heroine in English,
and Valentini that of the hero in Italian.]
[Footnote 2: that]
[Footnote 3: very day]
[Footnote 4: that]
[Footnote 5: which they]
[Footnote 6: that]
[Footnote 7: It was fifty years after this that
Churchill wrote of Mossop in the ‘Rosciad,’
