tremely defective, and often very barbarous. However, knowing the genius of the people, the humour of their language, and the prejudiced ears he had to deal with, he did not pretend to extirpate the French music and plant the Italian in its stead, but only to cultivate and civilise it with innumerable graces and modulations which he borrowed from the Italian. By this means the French music is now perfect in its kind, and when you say it is not so good as the Italian, you only mean that it does not please you so well; for there is scarce a Frenchman who would not wonder to hear you give the Italian such a preference.1 In England the triumph of Italian over English music was at first more complete. The competition between the playhouses was so severe that each tried to outdo the other in the importation of variety. After The Tempest and A Midsummer-Night's Dream had been emasculated, and even Measure for Measure had been fitted with "musical entertainments," the managers of the new Haymarket Theatre introduced Camilla to English audiences under the most absurd conditions. 2 The first Italian performer that made any distinguished figure in it [says Cibber] was Valentini, a truly sensible singer of that time, but of a throat too weak to sustain those melodious warblings for which the fairer sex have since idolised his successors. However, this defect was so well supplied by his action that his hearers bore with the absurdity of his singing his first part of Turnus in Camilla all in Italian, while every other character was sung and recited to him in English. This I have mentioned to show not only our Tramontane taste, but that the crowded audiences which followed it to Drury Lane might be another occasion of their growing thinner in Lincoln's Inn Fields.3 4 It was a long time before English taste, accustomed to Purcell's style of Opera, which passed immediately from prose to singing, could reconcile itself to recitative; but at last Valentini, Nicolini, and the English singer, Mrs. Tofts, won a complete victory for Italian Opera, and for some time the players of regular comedy seemed to be in danger of altogether losing their livelihood. The expense 1 Spectator, No. 29. 2 Genest's History, vol. ii. p. 221. 3 An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740), p. 262. Spectator, No. 29. a of Opera, the quarrels between the singers, and the difficulty of varying the musical entertainment, produced a certain reaction in favour of the theatres, and the rage for opera was further counteracted by the political excitement over Sacheverel's trial and by the success of Cato. It was, however, indispensable to secure the advantage thus gained by constant efforts after novelty, and perhaps its novelty was the main cause of the favour shown to Gay's What d'Ye Call It? which was acted with fair success at Drury Lane on the 23rd of February 1715. This play the poet called Tragi-comi-pastoral-farce"; it had a tragic plot, but comic imagery, and relied largely for its effect on parodies of tragic dramas well known to the spectators, such as The Distrest Mother, Cato, Venice Preserved, and Jane Shore. But the taste of the audience was also indulged with the addition of music: many airs were intermixed with the action, and among them the charming ballad, "'Twas when the Seas were Roaring." A less successful experiment was made by Gay on the public taste in 1717, when, with the assistance of Pope and Arbuthnot, he produced at Drury Lane Three Hours after Marriage, a grossly personal satire on Dr. Woodward, one of the distinguished natural philosophers of the day. This dramatic outrage met with the unqualified condemnation it deserved: it is indeed surprising to find that the performance was tolerated for seven nights. Having, by this varied experience, taken the measure of his audience, Gay in 1728 embarked upon a new and audacious enterprise. Swift had suggested to him years before to write a Newgate Pastoral, with thieves and pickpockets for interlocutors.1 Gay judiciously rejected this idea as it was presented to him, but, with rare tact, resolved to make use of it in an operatic form, that is to say, by a revival of the old English form of Opera in which prose dialogue is often mixed with a succession of songs or ballads. Possessing a knowledge of music to an extent uncommon among the poets of his day, he blended the comic dialogues of his Newgate dramatis 1 Spence's Anecdotes, p. 159. persona with lyrical passages set to well-known tunes. His literary friends were very doubtful whether his play would succeed. Swift did not much like the idea. Pope, Arbuthnot, and Congreve feared that the public would not appreciate the jest. And indeed the fate of the play, when produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields on the 29th of January 1728, for some time hung in the balance. The spectators were puzzled what to think of the opening scenes, in which Mr. and Mrs. Peachum exhibit their disreputable characters; but when Polly Peachum-acted by Lavinia Fenton-sang O ponder well, be not severe, O save a wretched wife, For on the rope that hangs my dear the charming innocence and naïveté of her rendering took the house by storm; the triumph of the piece was complete; the play ran on the stage at Lincoln's Inn Fields. for the then unprecedented period of sixty-two nights, and emptied all the rival theatres. On such accidents of personality depends the fortune of plays! The Beggars' Opera has indeed but little intrinsic merit, either in respect of action, character, or dialogue; its success, as far as this was due to the author, came from Gay's admirable skill in adapting himself to the transient needs of the public taste. Two things, above all, were in his favour: one, the sentimental admiration of the mob for dashing highwaymen ; the other, the violence of party spirit in the more polite part of the audience. Those who loved the romance of the road sympathised with the tender relations existing between Macheath and Polly; the politicians, on the other hand, were delighted with the sly strokes at the Court and its favourite ministers, who were represented in the play as being no better than highwaymen. The members of Macheath's gang, indeed, pique themselves on their superior generosity :— JEMMY. The present time is ours, and nobody alive hath more. Why are the laws levelled at us? Are we more dishonest than the rest of mankind? What we win, gentlemen, is our own by the law of arms and the right of conquest. JACK. Where shall we find such another set of practical philosophers who, to a man, are above the fear of death? WAT. Sound men and true. ROBIN. Of tried courage and indefatigable industry. NED. Who is there here that would not die for his friend? HARRY. Who is there here that would betray him for his interest? MAT. Show me a gang of courtiers that can say as much.1 So too in the songs When you censure the age Be cautious and sage, Lest the courtiers offended should be: 'Tis so pat to all the tribe, Each cries, That was levelled at me 2 Walpole, above all, was generally recognised as the mark of the poet's satire, and everybody knew who was meant when Peachum spoke of "Robin of Bagshot, alias Gorgon, alias Bluff Bob, alias Carbuncle, alias Bob Booty.' His conjugal infidelity was allegorised in the bigamy of Macheath with Polly Peachum and Lucy Lockit. (5) When Gay very shortly afterwards attempted to repeat his success in a second play of the same kind called Polly, Walpole, who had left him, in spite of The Beggars' Opera, in possession of his place, probably thought that he himself had figured long enough as a robber, and got the Lord Chamberlain, the Duke of Grafton, to forbid the performance. Though the prohibition proved extremely advantageous to the poet, who gained about £3000 by subscription for his book, it was injurious to Walpole, whose intervention was, of course, represented by The Craftsman as that of an arbitrary tyrant; and when the Lord Chamberlain's action was followed by the introduction of an Excise Bill in 1733, and by the Licensing Act of 1737, the outcries of the Opposition Whigs against the Minister's encroachments 1 Beggars' Opera, Act ii. Sc. 1. 3 Ibid. Act i. Sc. 3. 2 Ibid. Act. ii. Sc. 2. on liberty at home, and against his feeble policy abroad, became incessant. Thomson, Pope, and Mallet all took the field on behalf of Liberty, which they professed to think in danger. The sentiments of the Opposition were embodied on the stage in Gustavus Vasa, a drama written by Henry Brooke, afterwards better known as the author of a novel called The Fool of Quality. He was an Irishman, born at Dublin about 1703, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he matriculated in 1720. His play was rehearsed in 1739, but was stopped by the Lord Chamberlain, though it was afterwards allowed to be acted in Dublin under the name of The Patriot. The Prologue shows the spirit by which it was animated : Britons, this night presents a State distrest, Though brave, yet vanquished, and though great, opprest. Then, greatly rising in his country's sight, Whose hearts scorned bondage for their hearts were free. |