• This song, written on the death of Captain Digby, has been given by Mr. Malone in his Life of Dryden, on account, he says, of its "not having been preserved in Dryden's works, and being found entire only in a scarce Miscellany, viz., Covent Garden Drollery." I must, however, observe, that the Song is printed entire in New CourtSongs and Poems, by R. V. Gent. 8vo. 1672, p. 78. In this collection the second line runs thus: "In vain I have loved you, and find no relief.” The sixth, "A fate which in pity," &c. The twelfth, "My fate from your sight," &c. An answer from Armida, as she is called, follows the Song in this collection; but it is not worth citing. The ridiculous parody on this Song in the REHEARSAL is too well known to require copying here. But the following ludicrous stanza, which I have seen in MS. and which is a coeval parody on Dryden's Song to Armida, deserves to be cited : "Or if the king please that I may, at his charge, Just under your window be brought in a barge; Nay, 'twill be enough, as I died a brave fighter, If but to your window I come in a lighter; Or, rather than faile to shew my love fuller, I would be content to arrive in a sculler; But if me these favours my fate hath deny'd, I hope to come floating up with a spring tyde." Armida is said to have been the beautiful Frances Stuart, wife of Charles, Duke of Richmond. Captain Digby was killed at sea in the engagement between the English and Dutch fleet, off Southwold Bay, in 1672. TODD. Sweet the pleasure, Sweet is pleasure after pain.] "I know not how, but martial men are given to love; I think it is, but as they are given to wine; for perils commonly ask to be paid with pleasure."-Bacon. Jous WARTON. Ver. 66. Snidas, tom. ii. p. 713, mentions the Orthian style in music, in which Timotheus is said to have played to Alexander; and one Antigenides inflamed this prince still more by striking into what were called Harmatian measures. See Plutarch de Fortunâ Alexand. II. Orat, and Suidas in the word aquarios, a strain usually played in the theatres when Hector was dragged at the chariot wheels, up' aquaros. Q. Curtius, lib. v. 67, gives a minute description of the burning the palace at Persepolis, when Alexander was attended by Thais. But it does not appear in the accurate Arrian, lib. iii. cap. 18, that Thais had any share in this transaction. Arrian, but more so Aristobulus, endeavoured to exculpate Alexander from the charge of frequent ebriety; but from a fragment of Menander, preserved in the curious repository of anecdotes, Athenæus, lib. x. p. 434, tv xokazi, he plainly mentions the drunkenness of Alexander as proverbial. Dr. J. WARTON. And, while he heaven and earth defied, He sung Darius great and good, By too severe a fate, Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, And welt'ring in his blood; With downcast looks the joyless victor sate, The various turns of chance below; And, now and then, a sigh he stole; And tears began to flow. CHORUS. Revolving in his alter'd soul The various turns of chance below; And, now and then, a sigh he stole ; And tears began to flow. V. The mighty master smiled, to see Softly sweet, in Lydian measures, War, he sung, is toil and trouble; Never ending, still beginning, Fighting still, and still destroying: If the world be worth thy winning, Think, oh think it worth enjoying: Lovely Thais sits beside thee, Take the good the gods provide thee. The many rend the skies with loud applause; So Love was crown'd, but Music won the cause. The prince, unable to conceal his pain, Gazed on the fair Who caused his care, And sigh'd and look'd, sigh'd and look'd, Sigh'd and look'd, and sigh'd again: 95 100 105 110 At length, with love and wine at once oppress'd, The vanquish'd victor sunk upon her breast. 115 Ver. 73. The mention of this pathetic air reminds me of a story of the celebrated Lully, who having been one day accused of never setting any thing to music, but the languid verses of Quinault, was immediately animated with the reproach, and as it were, seized with a kind of enthusiasm; he ran instantly to his harpsichord, and striking a few chords, sung in recitative these four lines in the Iphigenia of Racine, which are full of the strongest imagery, and are therefore much more difficult to express in music, than verses of more sentiment: "Un prêtre environné d'une fonle cruelle, One of the company has often declared, that they all thought themselves present at this dreadful spectacle, and that the notes, with which Lully accompanied these words, erected the hair of their heads with horror. Dr. J. WARTON. Ver. 114. with love and wine at once oppress'd] Alexander, however inclined to hard drinking, as indeed were the Greeks, yet multiplied his debauches of this kind after he conquered Persia, in which country the character of a drunkard was reckoned honourable, as may be seen in Plutarch's Sympos. lib. i. Dr. J. WARTON. And when rebellious they are grown, Make us eternal truths receive, CREATOR Spirit, by whose aid The world's foundations first were laid, Come, and thy sacred unction bring To sanctify us, while we sing. Plenteous of grace, descend from high, Rich in thy sevenfold energy! Thou strength of his Almighty hand, Б 10 15 Ver. 180. If Dryden had never written any thing but this Ode, his name would have been immortal, as would that of Gray, if he had never written any thing but his Bard. It is difficult to find new terms to express our admiration of the variety, richness, and melody of its numbers; the force, beauty, and distinctness of its images; the succession of so many different passions and feelings; and the matchless perspicuity of its diction. The scene opens, in the first stanza, in an awful and august manner. The amours of Jupiter are described in a majestic manner in the second, with allusions to Alexander's being flattered with the idea of his being the son of Jupiter and a god. But the sweet musician alters his tone in the third stanza to the praises of Bacchus, and the effects of wine; which inspiring the king with a kind of momentary frenzy and pride, Timotheus suddenly changes his hand, and in an air exquisitely pathetic, particularly the repetition of the words fullen, fallen, &c., sets before our eyes the fall and death of Darius, without a friend to attend him in his last moments. But the artist, knowing how nearly allied pity was to love, reminds the hero of the presence of his beautiful Thais, and describes minutely the effects of his passion for her. He does not, however, suffer him long to loiter in the lap of pleasure, but instantly rouses him with deeper and louder notes, till he, staring around, Eumenidum demens videt agmina, with their eyes full of indignation, and their hair crowded with hissing serpents, followed by a band of Grecian ghosts, who demand vengeance from their leader, tossing on high the torches they held in their hands, and pointing to the Persian temples and palaces, urging him to destroy them with fire. Such is the unexampled combina tion of poetical beauties, of almost every sort, in which this justly admired Ode abounds. No particle of it can be wished away, but the epigrammatic turn of the four concluding lines. Dr. J. WARTON THE SECULAR MASQUE. Enter JANUS. JANUS. CHRONOS, Chronos, mend thy pace, Behold, behold, the goal in sight, Spread thy fans, and wing thy flight. Enter CHRONOS, with a scythe in his hand, and a globe on his back, which he sets down at his entrance. CHRONOS. Weary, weary of my weight, Let me, let me drop my freight, And leave the world behind. I could not bear, Another year, The load of human-kind. Enter Moxus laughing. |