ples it may be useful to produce: I must, however, confess that when I see before me the mighty host of authorities I oppose, I can scarcely imagine my objections to be so solid as they seem. I will produce my first example from FORD, a very favorite composer in the early part of the 17th century. The words "Since first I saw thy face, &c." which contain a lover's pathetic expostulation with his fickle mistress, are set for four voices. In an older and very highly esteemed glee of WILBYE, five persons, including two sopranos, set off with the assertion that "Flora gave me fairest Flowers." And, in a favorite one of IRELAND, two women and two men are made to say, or rather to sing-" Return, return, my lovely Maid.” In WEBBE's glee of "You gave me your heart t'other day," the effect is really ludicrous, when each party in succession asserts"I've not lost it." But, as I have said, none, even of our greater masters, seem to have given this subject any attention. In the works of PURCELL inconsistencies of this sort abound. The following verses are set as a duet :

"Were I to choose the greatest bliss

"That e'er in love was known,
""T would be the highest of my wish
"T'enjoy your heart alone."

In the single song too of "See how the fading glories of the year,' after the lover has described all nature as yielding to the superior charms of his Mistress, a chorus follows with these words :

"But my pains rage

"The more near Paradise ;
"Penthea is to me

"A burning glass of ice."

Indeed in nearly half the duets in the Orpheus Britannicus, there will be found instances of similar inattention. TRAVERS too offends in the same way in his two popular duets of "Haste my Nannette,' and "I like a Bee." And JACKSON, though he has justly observed "that music and poetry must unite to raise passion and express sentiment," is not more free than others from the inconsistency of which I presume to complain. Of the twenty-four duets, contained in his

* It reminds me of the "Problems and Paradoxes," which the author of the "Miseries" has imagined, on the supposition of its requiring nine Taylors to make a Man. One of them is not foreign to our subject: "Only single songs could be sung for want of more than seventeen singers to make a duet."

two sets of canzonets, there are only two ("Deluding joys of gaudy art," and "The breeze of love still swells the sail") and I doubt whether these can be in strictness excepted, in which the words are not properly a monologue. The same may be said of the poetry of his elegies, though the music is invariably composed for three voices. HANDEL as a composer of oratorios and operas, which require of necessity regular Dramatis Personæ, could have no temptation to this practice. He, however, in his chamber duets as they are called, those well-known compositions with Italian words, has been as careless as the rest. But, perhaps, these are properly nothing more than a set of Solfeggi, intended for the exercise of the voice, in which (to use the words of Jackson) "the words are to be considered as a more various fa, la, la, la, imposing, by their sense, (or rather want of it) no restraint upon the fancy and choice of the composer." It will be received perhaps as a confirmation of this opinion, that one elaborate movement is wholly employed on the words "Oime TACETE.”

The late MR. TWINING, of Colchester was a man of very profound learning, and of great severity of judgment, as is abundantly proved in his translation of Aristotle's Poetic and the notes thereto subjoined. Yet I will not conceal that I have now before me two MS. Glees of his composition, set for four voices, the words of which are

as follow:

I.

Say, gentle nymphs that tread these mountains,

While sweetly you sit playing,

Saw you my Daphne straying

Along these crytal fountains.

If so you chance to meet her,

Kiss her, and kindly greet her;

Then these sweet garlands take her,

In flow'ry tracts along the mead,

In fresher mazes o'er the green,
Ye gentle spirits of the vale,

To whom the tears of love are dear,
From dying lilies waft a gale,

And sigh my sorrow in her ear.

Nor do I recollect, among our more modern composers of glees, any one but DR. CROTCH, (and his compositions in this way are so few, that he can hardly be instanced as an exception,) who has seemed at all aware of the necessity of any such restriction as that for which I contend. I have, however, the more confidence in the justness of my opinion, from a conversation I once held, now many years since, with the celebrated BAUMGARTEN. The subject of our discourse was CALCOTT's popular glee of "Blow, Warder, blow, &c." And as I can no way so well explain myself as by a sort of analysis, I will make this glee the subject of a detailed criticism, to which I am the more disposed, from the full recollection I still have of MR. BAUMGARTEN's observations on the subject.

It will hardly be disputed that a musician, before he sets words to music, should well consider their meaning, and particularly whether they are of that dramatic character which supposes several inter locutors. I will write out the words of the glee in question, and assign, to the persons I assume, such portions of the whole as I think belong to each of them respectively. I am aware, that verses of this sort will not always endure a very strict investigation into their meaning, and I fear that something of the kind will be found in those that follow. But before I begin my copy, I will say something of *the persons of the drama. They seem to be

1. The chorus, to which I attach the same sort of privilegesand office as belong to that of the ancient drama.

2. The Warder of the Castle,

3. The Lord of the Castle, and

4. The Red-cross Knight.

With respect to the chorus, a little further explanation may be necessary. The persons composing it may be supposed occasionally to divide, and each party forming a semi-chorus, or even individuals of it, (though with somewhat less propriety,) hold discourse together, and in this way be of much the same use as the first and second gentleman in the plays of SHAKESPEAR. But, it may be

objected, that in permitting a number of persons to speak, or rather to sing together, I am allowing the very thing against which it is my object to contend. That every speech is originally the conception of an individual cannot be disputed; but when the sentiment, command, or whatever it may be, contains nothing to confine it necessarily to the person of any particular speaker, the delivery of it may, and indeed must, if vocal music in parts is to exist, be allowed to a plurality of individuals, called the chorus. I will now endeavour to assign the persons of the glee.

1st. Semi-chorus.

Blow, Warder, blow thy sounding horn,
And thy banner wave on high,

For the Christians have fought in the Holy Land,
And have won the victory.

2d. Semi-chorus.

Loud the Warder blew his horn,

And the banner waved on high.

1st. Semi-chorus.

Let the mass be sung,

And the bells be rung,

And the feast eat merrily.

2d. Semi-chorus.

The Warder looked from his tower on high,

As far as he could see:

Warder.

I see a bold Knight, and by his red-cross,
He comes from the East country.

2d Semi-chorus.

Then loud the Warder blew his horn,
And called till he was hoarse :

Warder.

I see a bold Knight,

And on his shield bright
He beareth a flaming cross.

I must allow, that to make the glee finish properly in chorus, I have been obliged to alter a few words in the last eight lines.

If we now compare the words, as set by CALLCOTT, with the above distribution of the parts, it will be seen in how very few instances they correspond. In the glee an individual begins, "Blow, Warder, blow thy sounding horn;" for which a second person assigns a very inadequate reason: "for the Christians have fought;" till at length, joined by a third, they all declare in chorus the place and the