Eurydice the woods, Eurydice the floods, Eurydice the rocks, and hollow mountains rung. 115 VII. Music the fiercest grief can charm, Music can soften pain to ease, And make despair and madness please: And antedate the bliss above. This the divine Cecilia found, And to her Maker's praise confin'd the sound. Th' immortal pow'rs incline their ear, And Angels lean from heav'n to hear. Hers lift the soul to heav'n.' 1 The Ode as here printed was first published in the edition of Pope's Works issued in 1717. It reappears in the edition of 1736, with the statement that it was written in 1708. In 1730 it was re-cast by the poet that it might be set to music, and it is inserted in its new form in a pamphlet entitled "Quæstiones unâ cum Carminibus, in Magnis Comitiis Cantabrigiæ celebratis, 1730," with the following heading : "An Ode composed for the Public Commencement at Cambridge: on Monday, July the 6th, 1730. At the Musick Act. The words by Alexander Pope, Esq. The Musick by Maurice Green, Doctor in Musick." VOL. IV. -POETRY. 120 125 130 It will be seen that a new stanza is inserted after Stanza ii., but that otherwise the Ode is considerably shortened, and thereby improved. It cannot, however, even in its amended form, be considered as one of Pope's happiest performances. He himself told Spence that he was not pleased with it, as compared with Dryden's Ode on the same subject, and indeed neither the theme nor the mode of poetical expression was suited to his genius. The intellectual element always overbalances the emotional in his poetry his lyrical style is wanting in movement and spontaneity. As for his subject, we learn from Sir John Hawkins that, though he de D D ferred to the taste of his friends, Lord Burlington and Dr. Arbuthnot, and recognized their high appreciation of the genius of Handel, he was himself insensible to the power of Music. The consequence is that, while there is something elevated in the opening of the Ode, which is in the more didactic vein, of which he was a master, the general effect is cold and uninspiring. Dryden treats the subject historically, and so keeps it always within touch of human action and passion; Pope on the other hand, by illustrating it with merely mythological examples, removes it from the sphere of human interest, and gives it an air of unreality. The Ode as prepared for music is as follows: AN ODE. I. DESCEND, ye Nine ! descend and sing; Let the warbling lute complain: Hark! the numbers, soft and clear, Till by degrees, remote and small, The strains decay, And melt away, In a dying, dying fall. By the streams that ever flow, He sung, and Hell consented TWO CHORUSES TO THE TRAGEDY OF “BRUTUS." CHORUS OF ATHENIANS. STROPHE I. YE shades, where sacred truth is sought; In vain your guiltless laurels stood War, horrid war, your thoughtful walks invades, ANTISTROPHE I. Oh heav'n born sisters! source of art! 1 Altered from Shakespear by the Duke of Buckingham, at whose desire these two Choruses were composed to supply as many wanting in his play. They were set many years afterwards by the famous Bononcini, and performed at Buckingham-house. -POPE. Two plays of the Duke of Buckingham, called "Julius Cæsar and "Brutus," altered from Shakespeare's "Julius Cæsar," were published in 1722, after the Duke's death. They were designed on a classical model, with musical choruses to be sung between the acts. 10 2 The propriety of these lines arises from hence, that Brutus, one of the heroes of this play, was of the old Academy; and Cassius, the other, was an Epicurean; but, this had not been enough to justify the poet's choice, had not Plato's system of Divinity, and Epicurus's system of Morals, been the most rational amongst the various sects of Greek philosophy.-WARBURTON. I cannot be persuaded that Pope thought of Brutus and Cassius as being followers of different sects of philosophy.-WARTON. To what new clime, what distant sky, Say, will ye bless the bleak Atlantic shore? STROPHE II. When Athens sinks by fates unjust, Shall cease to blush with strangers' gore, 'Till some new Tyrant lifts his purple hand, 15 20 ANTISTROPHE II. Ye Gods! what justice rules the ball? Oh curs'd effects of civil hate, In ev'ry age, in ev'ry state! Still, when the lust of tyrant power succeeds, 25 30 CHORUS OF YOUTHS AND VIRGINS. SEMICHORus. ОH Tyrant Love! hast thou possest The prudent, learn'd, and virtuous breast? And Arts but soften us to feel thy flame. Loye, soft intruder, enters here, But ent'ring learns to be sincere. 5. Marcus with blushes owns he loves, Why, Virtue, dost thou blame desire," 10 Oh source of ev'ry social tie, United wish, and mutual joy! What various joys on one attend, As son, as father, brother, husband, friend? While thousand grateful thoughts arise; In allusion to that famous conceit of Guarini, 25 30 |