revenge, nor no ill luck stirring, 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'ft a dagger in me; I fhall never fee my gold again; fourscore ducats at a fitting, fourscore ducats! Tub. There came divers of Anthonio's creditors in my company to Venice, that swear he cannot chuse 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. 1. 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, Revive, or raife, my people's voice has waken'd, My foul is up in arms, ready to charge To victory; their fhouts and clamours rend To break these chains. Off, off, ye ftains of royalty! Can beat and flutter in my cage, when I Mourning Bride, a&t 3. fc. 2. If the emotions be unequal in force, the stronger after a conflict will extinguish the weaker. Thus the loss 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 fettles in joy, and the lofs is forgot. The foregoing obfervations will be found of great use in the fine arts. Many practical rules are derived from them, which fhall afterward be mentioned; but for instant gratification in part, the reader will accept the following specimen, 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 music: for all mufic 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 least tincture of it *. Thirdly, in vocal music, 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 mufic to raise emotions fimilar to what are raised by sentiments 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 alfo unpleasant by difcordance. These premiffes make it easy to determine what fort of poetical compofitions are fitted for mufic. 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 oppofite; and fuch emotions forc'd into union produce always an unpleafant mixture. Mufic 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 defcription of any disagreeable object, fuch as that of Polyphemus in the third book of the Eneid, or that of Sin in the second 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 addi- tional tional reason against affociating it with difagreeable paffions. The external signs of such 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 mufically, for mufic must be pleasant, or it is not music. On the other hand, mufic 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 fame tone; and hence our tafte for airs expreffive of mirth and jollity. Sympathetic joy affociates finely with chearful mufic; and fympathetic pain not lefs finely with mufic that is tender and melancholy. All the different emotions of love, viz. tenderness, concern, anxiety, pain of abfence, hope, fear, accord delightfully with mufic: 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 Desdemona 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 music. Where the fame perfon is both the actor and the finger, as in an opera, there is a feparate reafon |
