revenge, nor no ill luck ftirring, but what lights o' my fhoulders; no fighs but o' my breathing, no tears but o' my fhedding.

Tub. Yes, other men have ill luck too; Anthonio, as I heard in Genoa

Shy. What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?

Tub. Hath an Argofie caft away, coming from Tripolis.

Shy. I thank God, I thank God; is it true? is it true?

Tub. I fpoke with fome of the failors that escaped the wreck.

Shy. I thank thee, good Tubal; good news, good news, ha, ha: where? in Genoa?

Tub. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night, fourfcore ducats.

Shy. Thou ftick'st a dagger in me; I fhall never fee my gold again; fourscore ducats at a fitting, fourfcore ducats!

Tub. There came divers of Anthonio's creditors in my company to Venice, that swear he cannot chufe but break.

Shy. I am glad of it, I'll plague him, I'll torture him; I am glad of it.

Tub. One of them fhew'd me a ring, that he had of your daughter for a monkey.

Shy, Out upon her! thou tortureft me, Tubal; it was my Turquoife; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor; I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkies. Tub. But Anthonio is certainly undone.

Shy. Nay, that's true, that's very true; go fee me an officer, befpeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I will. Go, go, Tubal, and

and meet me at our fynagogue; go, good Tubal; at our fynagogue, Tubal,

Merchant of Venice, act 3. fc. i.

In the fame manner, good news arriving to a man labouring under diftrefs, occafions a vibration in his mind from the one to the other:

Ofmyn. By Heav'n thou'ft rous'd me from my lethargy. The fpirit which was deaf to my own wrongs, And the loud cries of my dead father's blood, Deaf to revenge-nay, which refus'd to hear The piercing fighs and murmurs of my love Yet unenjoy'd; what not Almeria could Revive, or raise, my people's voice has waken'd, O my Antonio, I am all on fire,

My foul is up in arms, ready to charge

And bear amidst the foe with conqu❜ring troops.
I hear 'em call to lead 'em on to liberty,

To victory; their fhouts and clamours rend

My ears, and reach the heav'ns; where is the king?
Where is Alphonfo? ha! where! where indeed?
OI could tear and burft the ftrings of life,

To break these chains. Off, off, ye stains of royalty!
Off, flavery! O curfe, that I alone

Can beat and flutter in my cage, when I

Would foar, and stoop at victory beneath!

Mourning Bride, act 3. fc. 2.

If the emotions be unequal in force, the stronger after a conflict will extinguish the weaker. Thus the lofs of a house by fire, or of a fum of money by bankruptcy, will make no figure in oppofition to the birth of a long-expected fon, who is to in

herit an opulent fortune: after fome flight vibrations, the mind settles in joy, and the lofs is forgot.

The foregoing obfervations will be found of great ufe in the fine arts. Many practical rules are derived from them, which fhall afterward be mentioned; but for inftant gratification in part, the reader will accept the following fpecimen, being an application of thefe obfervations to mufic. It must be premifed, that no combination of founds but what is agreeable to the ear, is intitled to the name of mufic: for all music is refolvable into melody and harmony, which imply agreeableness in their very conception. Secondly, The agreeableness of vocal mufic differs from that of instrumental: the former being intended to accompany words, ought to be expreffive of the fentiment that is convey'd by the words; but the latter having no connection with words, may be agreeable without relation to any fentiment: harmony properly fo called, though delightful when in perfection, hath no relation to fentiment; and we often find melody without the leaft tincture of it *. Thirdly, in vocal mufic, the intimate connection of fenfe and found rejects

*It is beyond the power of mufic to raise a paffion or a fentiment but it is in the power of music to raise emotions fimilar to what are raised by fentiments expreffed in words pronounced with propriety and grace; and fuch mufic may juftly be termed fentimental.

diffimilar

diffimilar emotions, thofe efpecially that are oppofite: fimilar emotions produced by the fenfe and the found go naturally into union; and at the fame time are concordant or harmonious; but diffimilar emotions, forc'd into union by thefe causes intimately connected, obfcure each other, and are also unpleasant by difcordance.

op

These premiffes make it easy to determine what fort of poetical compofitions are fitted for music. In general, as mufic in all its various tones ought to be agreeable, it never can be concordant with any compofition in language expreffing a difagreeable paffion, or defcribing a difagreeable object for here the emotions raised by the fenfe and by the found, are not only diffimilar but pofite; and fuch emotions forc'd into union produce always an unpleasant mixture. Music accordingly is a very improper companion for fentiments of malice, cruelty, envy, peevishness, or of any other diffocial paffion; witness among a thoufand King John's fpeech in Shakespear foliciting Hubert to murder Prince Arthur, which even in the most overly view will appear incompatible with any fort of mufic. Mufic is a companion not lefs improper for the description of any difagreeable object, fuch as that of Polyphemus in the third book of the Eneid, or that of Sin in the fecond book of Paradife loft: the horror of the defcription and the pleasure of the mufic, would be highly difcordant.

With regard to vocal mufic there is an addiVOL. I. tional

I

tional reafon against affociating it with difagreeable paffions. The external figns of fuch paffions are painful; the looks and geftures to the eye, and the tone of pronunciation to the ear: fuch tones therefore can never be expreffed musically, for mufic must be pleasant, or it is not mufic.

On the other hand, music affociates finely with poems that tend to infpire pleafant emotions: mufic for example in a chearful tone, is perfectly concordant with every emotion in the same tone; and hence our tafte for airs expreffive of mirth and jollity. Sympathetic joy affociates finely with chearful mufic; and sympathetic pain not lefs finely with music that is tender and melancholy. All the different emotions of love, viz. tenderness, concern, anxiety, pain of absence, hope, fear, accord delightfully with music: and accordingly, a perfon in love, even when unkindly treated, is foothed by mufic; for the tenderness of love ftill prevailing, accords with a melancholy ftrain. This is finely exemplified by Shakespear in the fourth act of Othello, where Defdemona calls for a fong expreffive of her diftrefs. Wonderful is the delicacy of that writer's tafte, which fails him not even in the moft refined emotions of human nature. Melancholy mufic again is fuited to flight grief, which requires or admits confolation: but deep grief, which refufes all confolation, rejects for that reafon even melancholy mufic.

Where the fame perfon is both the actor and the finger, as in an opera, there is a separate

reafon