sitions, are not only tame and languid, but contemptibly puerife. I speak not here of the musical dramas of Metastasio, which have pretensions far above these; but of that vast number of pieces so barren of sentiment and imagery which are continually manufactured for the opera. How gross soever. are the faults which the poet may commit, they are varnished over by the art of the musician. Nay, he is often necessita ted to vitiate his language and deform his style, in order to humour the taste of a favourite cantatrice. For this reason, in proportion as the music of Italy prospers, her poetry declines, and the greatness of the former may be said to be built on the ruins of the latter. "Whether poetry and music flourish best together, or whether they arrive at their highest perfection when cultivated exclusively of each other, is a question of some nicety. Modern Greece affords some countenance to the former opinion, while modern Italy furnishes many plausible arguments in support of the latter. "Since the days of Tasso, but a few of the bards of Italy have inherited any portion of the fire of their great predecessors, and at the present day her breed of original poets appears to be completely extinct. But Italy is to day the land of enchanting music. This may be ascribed in some measure to the harmonious structure of the Italian language, of which Metastasio said, 'e musica stessa.' It is unquestionably the most musical of all the dialects of modern Europe, and even where the mind is unable to annex any determinate and precise signification to its terms, still it delights the ear with its melodious accents, and, like the sighs of the breeze or the warbling of birds, awakens feelings analogous to those inspired by the charms of nature. Its full and sonorons terminations give it a great advantage over the French language when adapted to the musical accompaniments. The voice, in length ening out the mute vowels of the latter, produce a barbarous dissonance compared with those round and harmonious closes in which the Italian language is so rich. "The lyrical draina of France, in elegance and regularity of structure, and refinement "This practice is finally ridiculed in Madame de Staël's Corinne. Vos musiciens fameux disposent en entier de vos poëtes; l'un lui dé clare qu'il ne peut pas chanter s'il n'a dans sou ariette le mot felicità; le tenor demande la tomba; et le troisième chanteur ne peut faire des roulades que sur le mot calene. Il faut que le pauvre polte arrange ces goûts divers comme il le peut avec la situation dramatique.' “Est il e 'tonnant que d'après ces dispositions universelles, on n'ait en Italie qu'un mauvais opera avec de belle musique; cela doit arriver quand on est passionné pour l'une, et qu'on se Soucie peu de l'autre, Voltaire a dit que la musique chez les Italiens avant tué la tragadie et il a dit vrai. Cours de Literature, par J. F. La Harper' of diction, surpasses that of Italy. A profound knowledge of the principles of the dramatic art, and the unrivalled beauty of their ballet, have enabled the French artists to embellish their opera with all that Apollo and the Graces could bestow. Yet with all these dazzling allurements, it wearies and exhausts the attention of the spectator," while the Opera Seria of Italy recreates and delights him. "My ears also greatly deceive me, if the musical artists of the former would endure a comparison with those of the latter. An Italian, in witnessing the deafening applauses of a French audience, which were, however, not sufficiently loud to drown the voice of the actress upon the stage, exclaimed 'gli Francesi hanno le orecchie di corno.' Those who have had their ears wounded by the screaming of Madame Branchu, in the character of Armide, and have seen Rinaldo roused from his voluptuous dream by the stentorian voice of Derivis, accompanied with all the cymbals, trumpets and kettledrums of the orchestra, must have regretted that any thing so offensive should mar the beauty of a performance, which in some measure vindicates, with regard to the French opera, the justness of these beautiful lines of Voltaire, "Il faut se rendre a ce palais magique, The author witnessed at Trieste the performance of the opera of Jason and Medea. His description of it is in his happiest manner, and as we wish him to appear to the best advantage, we present it to our readers. "The Grand Opera of Paris, althongh somewhat caricatured in the following description of Rousseau, is even at the present day not wholly free from some of those faults which exposed it to the ridicule of that unsparing satirist, On voit les actrices, presque en convulsion, arracher avec violence ces Glapissimens de leurs poumons les poings fermés, contre la poitrine, la tète en arriere le visage enflammé, les vaisseaux gonflés, l'estomac pantelant; on ne sait lequel est le plus disagreablement affecté, de l'œil ou de l'oreille, leurs efforts font autant souffrir ceux que les regardent, que leurs chants, ceux que les écoutent ;-concevez que cette manière de chanter est employée pour exprimer ce que Quinault a jamais dit de plus galant et de plus tendre. Imaginez les Muses, les Grâces, les Amours, Venus même s'exprimant avec cette delicatesse et jugez de l'effet!-A ces beaux sons aussi justes qu'ils sont doux se marient tres dignement ceux de l'orchestre. Figurez vous un charivari sans fin d'instruments sans melodie; un ronron trainant et perpetuel de basse; chose la plus lugubre, la plus assommante que J'aie entendue de ma vie, et qui Je n'ai jamais pu supporter une demiheure sans gagner un violent mal de tête.' 1818. Rambles in Italy. "The sounds of the orchestra no sooner struck my cars, than I recognized the exquiThe site execution of the German artists. opera, entitled Gli pretendenti delusi, opened with a charming duet between the Prima donna, and the Tenore. The Primo Buffo was the first in Italy, and sang the arias In with inimitable grace and humour. Italy, it is the fashion to be inattentive to the recitative parts of the opera, but when the orchestra pauses, and the actor comes forward to the front of the stage, and announces to the audience by his looks, that he is going to sing the aria, a general silence immediately follows. A similar pause in conversation takes place at the commencement of the ballet, which, as may readily be conceived, has powerful attractions for a people upon whom the spells of beauty and the enchanting power of graceful motion act with an irresistible fascination. "The subject of the ballet was taken from the story of Jason and Medea. The addition of any novel attractions to a tale, familiar to every school-boy, would at first seem to involve difficulties almost invincible. But the resources of art are unlimited, and the history of the chief of the Argonauts and his spouse, although a hacknied tale, and although degraded from the dignity of the epopee and the drama to a pantomime, appeared with a renovated lustre that instantaneously seized upon the attention of The poetry of Euripides the specta or. does not operate upon the fancy and the heart with a sway more irresistible, than that succession of magical illusions which compose this ballet, and by which the artist reaches through the senses the finer, organs and nobler passions of the soul. Terpsichore, on this occasion, showed herself the rival of Melpomene, or rather the latter, abdicating her dignity, and borrowing the enchanting graces of her sister muse, appeared with no less additional loveliness than Juno, when she shone with all those ineffa ble attractions conferred upon her person by the possession of the zone of Venus. Looks often dart the contagious fire of poetry more than the most forcible and brilliant composition of words; and the music which unites its ravishing spells to the irresistible enchantments of grace, and heightens the expression of eloquent and living attitudes, is a natural language, in its effect analagous to those passionate and sentimen tal tones in the human voice, which constitute the chart of declamation. The impassioned character of Medea was beautifully portrayed; the ballerina who personated it, gave to it all the effect of which it was susceptible. The discovery of her husband's passion for the daughter of Creon, and its effect upon her mind, were happily conceived and forcibly expressed by this female artist; while the music of the orchestra painted to the ear the furious agitation of the agonized and distracted mind of Medea. 331 "Thy numbers jealousy to nought were fixed, Of differing themes the veering strain was mixed, "The struggles of maternal tenderness in "The art of pantomime is carried to a high degree of excellence among a people of a lively and ardent imagination. It is so natural for such a people to employ the language of gesture to express their feelings; and a mode of communication to which men at first were led, by a necessity imposed upon them by the limited stores of language, in the earlier stages of its formation, has been continued from choice, and cultivated as an embellishment. "The highest degree of perfection attainable in this art, may be looked for among the Italians, who appear to possess, beyond any other people, that muscular flexibility of countenance, by means of which it suddenly and spontaneously reflects the emotions of the heart. The causes which render the human countenance so sensitive and delicate an organ of intellectual commu.:ror of what passes within the mind, are not cation, and which make it so faithful a mirmore to be ascribed to a particular physical conformation, than to the prevalence of taste and mental elegance, arising out of a particular state of society. "Independent of that forcible and impassioned style of gesture, by which nature has characterized the Italian nation, the classic forms of antiquity which they have contin ually before their eyes, naturally fashion them to a standard of grace; and, indeed, omitting the consideration of a cultivated of the beau ideal would lead them insensibly taste, the continual presence of these models Rambles in Italy. to acquire a habit of expressing their thoughts and sentiments in the most poetical attitudes. Thus the French and Italian ballets frequently recal to the fancy the fine forms of painting and statuary, which acquire additional interest when heightened by every varying expression, and the fugitive and evanescent charms of the living model. Even the ideal fictions of the muse, when clothed with shape and colour, and exhibited in a visible form to the spectator, produce a more pleasing effect than when presented directly to the mind without the intervention of the senses: the creative power of the imagination being slightly, if at all exerted, while it receives passively its impressions through the organs of external perception." The favourite species of music with the Italians is precisely what might be supposed agreeable to their soft and voluptuous character; a music addressed to the heart-the passions we should rather say-and calculated to melt the soul by its delicious sweetness and melody. The senses are taken captive-the imagination roves in a labyrinth of song and luxury and every nobler sentiment and feeling dissolves before the influence of a science that was intended to act as the ally of virtue. From the Opera we gladly turn our attention to the dramatic writers of Italy. The author has given an interesting sketch of the three principal modern literati who have devoted their talents to dramatic composition. We regret that we have only room for the portrait of Alfieri, which we do not hesitate to say is drawn with great vigour and felicity, and deserves to be mentioned as a splendid but just eulogium on one in whose productions the fire of genius was fanned by the wings of freedom. "But the dramatic poet whom the Italians regard with a veneration bordering upon idolatry, is Alfieri. The powerful allurements of Metastasio's poetry, appears to have won for him the privilege of fixing the laws of dramatic composition. He assimilated the genius of tragedy to the softness and languor of pastoral poetry, nor is it difficult to conceive how a people softened by indolence and pleasure, should be inclined to prefer brilliancy of imagination and voluptuousness of sentiment, to depth of feeling and energy of thought. How great then, is the merit of Alfieri, who combated successfully these enchantments, and infused into tragedy her ancient spirit. Since his time the theatre in Italy has been a great school of virtue and moral wisdom. Melpomene no longer appears with her majestic forehead bound with chaplets of flowers and with the voice and smiles of a Siren. Alfieri divested her of these meretricious SEPT. charms, restored to her the solemn step, the elevated look, the lofty accent, and clothed her with the flowing majesty of her antique costume. appear to have seized the justest concep- "This castle hath a pleasant seat: the air By his lov'd mansionary, that the heaven's breath Where they most breed and haunt, I have ob The air is delicate. emotions which Shakspeare is most success "Although terror and sublimity are the ful in raising, yet as images of horror, when the mind dwells on them too long become painful, the scene from time is shifted, and the gloom of the imagination occasionally relieved by a succession of gay and exhilirating impressions. He knew every secret avenue to the heart, which he alternately pierces with the most poignant anguish, melts with compassion, or convulses with laughter. But the strain of Alfieri is un varied. All his dramas are modelled after the same pattern. When you have read his conspiracy of the Pazzi, and his Philip the Second, you appear to have exhausted all the treasures of his fancy. The love of liberty with which some of his pieces are so strongly marked, and which is the predominant sentiment throughout most of them, have acquired for him a great reputation among a people who know nothing of liberty but its false and splendid visions, which are of ten not more happily suited to the purposes of the dramatic poet, than they are repugnant to the sober realities of life. Nevertheless, with all his defects, he has erected, on a durable basis, a monument over which unceasing honours are destined to accumu late, and the name of Alfieri, when his works shall be better understood abroad, will share with Shakspeare, Racine and Schiller, that universal admiration which the consent of ages and the voice of experience confirms. "The change which the moral and political principles of his tragedies, have effected in the modes of feeling and thinking throughout Italy, has evidently created a spirit which its present government must be fearful of provoking. They discountenance, as far as they can with policy, the representation of those pieces in which the principles of liberty are forcibly inculcated. His dramas, however, produce their most powerful impression in the closet, as there are few de claimers in Italy capable of conceiving the depth of his sentiments, or of reciting his verses so as to mark the beauties of his forcible and sententious style. Yet he has invigorated the sentiments of the Italian people, and infused into them a portion of their ancient spirit. The bold and fearless manner in which they quote his verses, as applicable to themselves and their present situation, authorize me to believe, that Alfieri has helped to sow the seeds of that restlessness which they discover under the yoke of their present governments, and the sources of which must be extinguished before Italy can enjoy a lasting repose. They feel and act as if nothing was wanting but a resolute chief to lead them to the possession of that liberty which is the object of their sighs. "Gia in alto stan gli ignudi ferri; accenna, "No poet, since the time of Lucan, has worshipped with truer devotion at the shrine of liberty, or painted its effects on the heart with more genuine enthusiasm than Alfieri. If his strains shall not kindle a flame to consume the structures of despotism, they will, however, keep alive the sacred flame on the altar of his country." At Trieste the author saw the Emperor Francis, who at that period was making *"Congiura de' Pazzi. a tour through his recovered dominions of Italy and Dalmatia. by the public functionaries, and escorted "He was met at a distance from the city through the corso or principal street, along the sides of which the military were drawn The martial music of the German up. regiments, which is so noble, and the incessant firing from the fort and harbour, gave no small degree of solemnity to this event. A thousand white handkerchiefs waved by the fair hands of ladies, streamed from the windows under which he passed, and the multitude shouted vira nostro sorrano. The front of the exchange, which terminates the corso, was decorated with a large transparent painting representing the mixed population of Trieste, with wreaths and presents in their hands, which they offered as a testimony of their gratitude and loyalty to the emperor. Between the imperial residence and the theatre, a beautiful tri umphal arch was constructed, bearing this inscription, "Carri patria patri adventum "Francis witnessed all these expressions of zeal to his house, with the air of a man whose ruling passion was not that of empire and command. He returned the vivas of the populace by a quick and awkward inclination of his head, and a mechanical movement of his hand to his hat. As I saw him descend from his carriage, his countenance and person impressed me with the idea of a plain artless man, marked with none of the terrific or captivating traits of superior genius. None of those royal and martial graces which played around the person of Buonaparte, or of Louis the fourteenth. His equipage was plain, he wore a uniform of grey blue, and was decorated with the golden fleece, and the orders of St. Stephen, and Maria Theresa. His hat was three cornered, and ornamented with a bunch of heron's feathers. He was remarkably condescending and familiar with the persons who were presented to him. An American gentleman who had an interview of half an hour with him at Vienna, in which he spoke with much interest on the subject of American commerce, told me that at the end of the conversation, he thanked him, with an air of great cordiality and politeness, for the information he had so kindly communicated. He partook but little in the public amusements that had been got up for his entertainment. The provin cial noblesse and the merchants of Trieste, endeavouring with the faded remains of were candidates for his smiles; the former their courtly graces,' to withdraw his attention from the latter, whose immense riches obscured the boast of heraldry. At the public balls and conversazioni, the ladies both *"Tergestum was the ancient name of Trieste. noble and bourgeios, exerted all the power of their wit and charms to draw from him a compliment, or to ensnare some of the young officers in his train, the magic lustre of whose stars and military decorations played among crowds of beauty, and overpowered many a bright eye, and fascinated many an aspiring heart. These fêtes were concluded by a magnificent illumination, of which it is scarcely too bold an expression to say, that it restored daylight to the streets of Trieste. The masts and rigging of the ships anchored in the Adriatic, hung with innumerable lamps, looked like another hemisphere of constellations rising from the sea. "The mind on such occasions is prone to indulge in reflections on the instability of human greatness, and never did I feel more disposed to moralize on the eventful scenes of the great political drama, from the stupefaction and horror of whose bloody catastrophe mankind have scarcely yet recovered. To compare great things with small, I had witnessed at Paris similar honours paid to Napoleon when in the height of his prosperity, and I remembered him in the decline of his glory, in all the array of imperial pageantry, passing down the avenue of the Thuillieres, and entering the palace of the corps Legislatif, not like a fugitive, but like a triumphant conqueror, demanding of that body its assent to another conscription to rescue his laurels from disgrace. When I heard him impute the disasters of his army not to human foes, but to the hostility of the elements, there was an imposing grandeur in the peculiarity of his situation, which appeared to give the stamp of veracity to his assertion. He alone, of all the nation, seemed to stand erect at that desperate crisis, animating her to an other contest, transfusing into her his own inextinguishable love of glory, and uphold ing by the power of his genius the mighty fabric of empire, which was then tottering to its base, and ready to crush him with its ruins." In this last paragraph we recognise an honest feeling of admiration for great and lofty talents, environed with difficulties that feebler minds, possessed of all the apparent resources of Napoleon, would have sunk under, without an effort. The chief resource of that wonderful perso nage was in himself. In his rise great, but greater in his decline, and in his fall greatest, the mind of Napoleon always soared above the level of his fortunes:Unmoved, he beheld with equal indiffer ence the desertion of his allies, the malice of his foes, and had he fought like Washington, for liberty, who would not weep over the fall of so mighty a spirit? but he was a despot, and while we execrate the use which the allies have made of their success, we regret the fate of Napoleon only, because it has involved so many nations-but temporarily, we trust-in the gloom of a denser and more ignomi nious tyranny than his own. G. ART. 2. The Brownie of Bodsbeck; and other Tales. By JAMES HOGG, Author of "The Queen's Wake," "Pilgrims of the Sun," &c. &c. Wiley & Co. To most of our readers the name and 10 most of our readers the name and sume, sufficiently known. As a poet, his claims to applause are founded principally on the possession of an exuberant and felicitous imagination, and a command of verse that is not exceeded by any of his brother minstrels. His powers of description are considerable-occasionally he is sublime but his forte, we think, lies in the pathetic. He is uniformly chaste in sentiment and diction; intuitively he seems to shrink, with the virgin modesty of unsophisticated nature, from thoughts and expressions which irresistibly besiege the voluptuous genius of many of our modern poets, and he is eminently entitled to the praise of having drawn some of the finest and most glowing pictures that can be presented to the fancy, without mixing up in his descriptions a word or idea that can be construed into a breach of the pp. 280. New-York. most communicates to the imagination of his It is not our intention to enter at present into a more lengthened exposition of his qualities as a poet, though we hope shortly, to have both opportunity and lei sure to gratify our readers with a fuller analysis of Mr. Hogg's poetical talents. The production which now calls for our attention displays him in a new, and we think, very favorable point of view; the subject, taken from the persecution of the old Covenanters of Scotland, under James the second, is full of interest; the characters, more particularly that of the generous, open-hearted farmer, Walter |