صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

A Cancerto for the Organ, with accompaniments for a full band, composed by William Crotch, Mus. Doc. Professor of Music, Oxford. No. 2. Birchall, price 6s.

Dr. Crotch in this concerto has evinced powers of composition as well as of execution in the highest degree masterly. It opens with a movement at once animated and majestic, the subject which is started at the commencement is pursued and sustained both by the organ and the band in a most powerful and impressive manner; the tutti passages in the third page are introduced with an unusually striking effect. The opening of the andante is well calculated to display the richest parts of the organ; the subject, in itself interesting, is most pleasingly as well as ingeniously varied, after the manner of some of Handel's exquisite andantes. In his fugue Dr. Crotch has called forth all the grandeur of the organ: the point led off is admirable, and is sustained throughout with consummate skill: the interest of the hearer is not suffered to flag for an instant, but on the contrary is increased to the end. We are confident that we speak the sentiments of all lovers of good music when we return Dr. Crotch our hearty thanks for the production of this most masterly concerto. By some persons we know it has been objected that he has not made sufficient use of the lighter parts of the organ; we on the contrary think Dr. Crotch entitled to no small degree of commendation for having so powerfully spported the Handelian stile of concerto playing, a style so eminently calculated to display the grandeur and sublimity of the instrument. In Dr. Crotch's compositions, as well as in his playing, we trace the most correct and classical ideas of the nature and character of the organ, which he has never degraded in order to tickle the ears of the multitude.

"See the Chariot at hand here of Love,"

A favourite Glee, sung by Mrs. Vaughan, Messers Harrison Goss and Bartleman, at the Vocal Concerts, composed by William Horsley, Mus. Bac. Oxon. Birchall, price 28.

Seldom have we been more delighted with a glee than with that before us. It first appeared in a collection which was published some time before the commencement of the Cabinet; it is now printed separately, and we willingly avail ourselves of this opportunity to pay Mr. Horsley that tribute of praise which he so justly merits. His former productions had established his character as a glee writer, but none of them have contained such powerful claims to general popularity as the present. It combines the richness of the old, with the lightness and ease of the new school, it possesses a degree of finished excellence which cannot fail to charm the multitude, while it must satisfy the most fastidious hearers.

A Concerto for the German Flute or Oboe, in which is introduced the favourite air of Queen Mary's Lamentation, with accompaniments for two Violins, two French horns, tenor and bass, composed by William Fish, and performed by him at the Anacreontic and Subscription Concerts, Chapel Field House, Norwich. Broderip and Wilkinson, price 58. We see nothing in this concerto but what is very common, and, to say the truth, scarcely worth publication. Mr. Fish may have received such applause from a Norwich audience as to induce him

to print his concerto, but we must fairly assure him, that it will not bear transplanting to the metropolis.

"Maria's Adieu,"

As sung by Mr. Vaughan, with the greatest applause, adapted from Professor Carlisle's translation of the original Arabic, and set to music, with an accompaniment for the harp or piano forte, by William Fish. Broderip and Wilkinson, price 18. 6d.

Maria's Adieu, like another of Mr. Fish's ballads which we noticed two months ago, is certainly not destitute of merit. We have only again to recommend Mr. Fish to be a little more sparing in his embellishments: his vulgar cadence at the close of the song shews a lamentable want of taste, and his half Italian, half English directions to the singer are really quite ludicrous. These faults excepted, we think the ballad entitled to commendation.

Andante and Waltz for the Piano forte, composed and dedicated to Miss G. Thelluson, by T. Haigh. Birchall; price 1s.

This Waltz is written in a familiar and pleasing stile; it will afford juvenile performers a good five minutes amusement.

Monthly Minstrelsy, Nos. IV. and V. written and composed by T. D. Worgan, price 18. each.

We are afraid that the character which we should give of these numbers, would not induce any of our readers to purchase them,— in plain truth we think the musical part of them very dear at a shilling.

"How tenderly I Love her,"

A Ballad written, by J. Lewes, Esq. Liverpool, composed by Dr. John Clarke, of Cambridge. Birchall, price 1s.

Dr. Clarke has here exhibited that elegance of expression which so frequently distinguishes his productions. He has given the sentiment of the words with peculiar propriety and effect, and has arranged his melody with great judgment.

"Gentle Lyre."

Recitative and Air, sung with the greatest applause by Mr. Harrison at the Vocal Concerts, and by Mr. Nield, at Bath, composed by W. Horsley. Mus. Bac. Oxon.-Birchall, price 2s. 6d.

This composition consists of three movements. The introductory recitative, which is opened by an elegant symphony, is well conceived, and leads with effect into a bold and animated air, the subject of which is well kept up, and assisted by a powerful accompaniment. The chief fault of this movement is, that the accompaniment is too prominent, some of the vocal passages are rather Insipid, and depend entirely upon the instruments for effect; it contrasts, however, well with the concluding cantabile. Although we do not rank this song among Mr. Horsley's happiest productions, yet it bears clear and evident marks of a cultivated and correct fancy.

(Notices of musical publications will be thankfully received, and in aerted in this department of our work.)

THE DRAMA.

ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE.- -Shakspeare.

HISTORY OF THE INTRODUCTION OF FEMALE PER FORMERS ON THE STAGE.

BY EDMOND MALONE, ESQ.

IT is well known, that in the time of Shakspeare, and for many years afterwards, female characters were represented solely by boys, or young men. Nashe, in a pamphlet published in 1592, speaking in defence of the English stage, boasts that the players of his time

66

were not as the players beyond sea, a sort of squinting bawdie comedians, that have whores and common curtizans to play women's parts.' What Nashe considered as an high eulogy on his country, Prynne has made one of his principal charges against the English stage; having employed several pages in his bulky volume, and quoted many hundred authorities, to prove "that those playes wherein any men act women's parts in woman's apparell must needs be sinful, yea, abominable unto christians.† The grand basis of his argument is a text in scripture; Deuteronomy xxii. 5; "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: A precept which Sir Richard Baker has justly remarked is no part of the moral law, and ought not to be understood literally. "Where," says Sir Richard, "finds he this precept? even in the same place where he finds also that we must not wear cloaths of linsey-woolsey; and seeing we lawfully now wear cloaths of linsey-woolsey, why may it not be as lawful for men to put on women's garments? " +

*Pierce Penniless his supglication of the devil. 4to 1592. + Histriomastix, 4to. 1633. p. 179.

[ocr errors]

Theatrum triumphans, 8vo. 1670. p. 16. Martin Luther's comment on this text is as follows: Hic non prohibetur quin ad vitan. dum periculum, aut ludendum joco, vel ad fallendum hostes mulier

It may perhaps be supposed, that Prynne, having thus vehemently inveighed against men's representing female characters on the stage, would not have been averse to the introduction of women in the scene; but sinful as this zealot thought it in men to assume the garments of the other sex, he considered it as not less abominable in women to tread the stage in their own proper dress: For he informs us "that some Frenchwomen, or monsters rather, in Michaelmas term, 1627, attempted to act a French play at the play-house, in Blackfriers," which he represents as "an impudent, shameful, unwomanish, graceless, if not more than whorish attempt." *

Soon after the period he speaks of, a regular French theatre was established in London, where without doubt women acted. They had long before appeared on the Italian as well as the French stage. When Coryate was at Venice, (July 1608) he tells us he was at one of their play-houses, and saw a comedy acted. "The house, he adds, is very beggarly and base, in comparison of our stately playhouses in England; neither can their actors

possit gerere arma viri, et vir uti veste muliebri; sed ut serio et usitato habitu talia non fiant, ut decora utrique sexui servetur dig. nitas." And the learned Jesuit, Dorin, concurs with him: Dissi. mulatio vestis potest interdum sine peccato fieri, vel ad represen. tandam comice tragiceve personam, vel ad affugiendum periculum, vel in casu simili." Ibid. p. 19.

* He there calls it only an attempt, but in a former page (215) he says "they have now their female players in Italy, and other foreign parts, as they had such French women actors in a play not long since personated in Blackfrier's playhouse, to which there was great resort." In the margin he adds- "in Michaelmas, 1629." His account is confirmed by Sir Henry Herbert's Office-book.

Prynne, in conformity to the absurd notions which have been stated in the text, inserted in his index these words: "Women actors notorious whores: " by which he so highly offended the king and queen, that he was tried in the star-chamber, and sentenced to be imprisoned for life, fined £5000, expelled Lincoln's Inn, disbarred, and disqualified to practise the law, degraded of his degree in the university, to be set on the pillory, his ears cut off, and his book burnt by the common hangman, "which rigorous sentence," says Whitelocke, was as rigorously executed."

In page 708 of Prynne's book is the following note, the insertion of which probably incensed their majesties, who often performed in the court-masques, not less than what has been already mentioned: "It is infamous in this author's judgment [Dion Cassius] for emperors or persons of quality to dance upon a stage, or act a play." VOL. II.

G

compare with us for apparell, shewes and musicke. Here I observed certaine things that I never saw before; for I saw women act, a thing that I never saw before, though I have heard that it hath been sometimes used in London; and they performed it with as good a grace, action, gesture, and whatsoever convenient for a player, as ever I saw any masculine actor."

The practice of men's performing the parts of women in the scene is of the highest antiquity. On the Grecian, stage no woman certainly ever acted. From Plutarch's life of Phocion, we learn, that in his time (about three hundred and eighteen years before the christian æra) the perforinance of a tragedy at Athens was interrupted for some time by one of the actors, who was to personate a queen, refusing to come on the stage, because he had not a suitable mask and dress, and a train of attendants richly habited; and Demosthenes, in one of his orations, mentions Theodorus and Aristodemus as having often represented the Antigone of Sophocles. This fact is also ascertained by an actor preserved by Aulus Gellius. A very celebrated actor, whose name was Polus, was appointed to perform the part of Electra, in Sophocles's play; who in the progress of the drama appears with an urn in her hands, containing as she supposes, the ashes of Orestes. The actor having been some time before deprived by death of a beloved son, to indulge his grief, as it should seem, procured the urn. which contained the ashes of his child, to be brought from his tomb; which affected him so much, that when he appeared with it on the scene, he embraced it with unfeigned sorrow, and burst into tears.

That on the Roman stage also, female parts were represented by men in tragedy, is ascertained by one of Cicero's letters to Atticus, in which he speaks of Antipho, who perforined the part of Andromache; and by a passage in Horace, who informs us, that Fusius Pho cæus being to perform the part of Ilione, the wife of Polymnestor, in a tragedy written either by Accius or Pacuvius, and being in the course of the play to be awakened out of sleep by the cries of the shade of Po

* Coryate's Crudities, 4to. 1611. p. 247. I have found no ground for this writer's assertion, that female performers had appeared on the English stage before he wrote.

Epistol. ad Atticum, Lib. IV. c. xv.

« السابقةمتابعة »