the men with a famous Highland charging tune; and actually upon the retreat and complete rout of the French, changed it to another, equally celebrated in Scotland, upon the retreat of, and victory over, an enemy. His next hand neighbour guarded him so well that he escaped unhurt. This was the spirit of the “last minstrel," who infused courage among his countrymen, by possessing it in so animated a degree, and in so venerable a character. To conclude

The man that hath no music in himself,

Nor is moved by concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motives of his spirit are black as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus :
Let no such man be trusted.

SHAKSPEARE.

Music, of all arts, gives the most universal pleasure, and pleases longest and oftenest. Infants are charmed with the melody of sounds; old age is animated by enlivening notes. Arcadian shepherds drew pleasures from their reeds; the solitude of Achilles was cheered by his lyre; the English peasant rejoices in his pipe and tabor; and the mellow sounds of the flute delight and solace many an idle hour. We have already

alluded to its influence on animals of the brute cre

ation:

For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,

Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
(Which is the hot condition of their blood);

If they perchance but hear a trumpet sound,

Or any air of music touch their ears,

You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze,
By the sweet power of music.

The sole object of the lives of the Italians is music. They know indeed but two occupations; music and making love. Now love in that country being reduced to a very simple affair-having no wit in it, as in France, nor sentiment in it, as in England, the great resource of the inhabitants is music. It is, indeed, the weapon, if we may so term it, which is handled by both men and women to acquire and keep their conquests. A Neapolitan or Roman lover cannot more highly oblige his mistress than by procuring her a new air made at Bologna, Florence, or Venice. every thing is estimated according to the difficulties conquered, airs that come a greater distance are valued in proportion; and those made at London, Berlin, or Petersburg, are more highly esteemed. The sums of money spent in this way passes belief. the lady, whenever she has a mind "to split a heart with tenderness," her invaluable and only resources are her harpsichord and her voice.

But as

And, as to

Is it not certain, that the general character of the music of Italy is tender and voluptuous? Is it not certain that the people of that country are the loosest and most enervated of Europe? And has not Shakspeare, who, if we mistake not, was pher as ever lived-has he not after the last lines quoted:

as great a philososaid, immediately

Therefore the poet

Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods !
Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage,

But music, for the time, doth change his nature.

Of song-singing, however, it may be said, it is the inseparable companion of good drinking, and the harmony of the table is incomplete without this accompaniment. We shall conclude this article with the following chanson à boire, or drinking ballad, the first of any merit in our language, and which appeared in the year 1551.*

I cannot eat but little meat,
My stomach is not good;
But sure, I think, that I can drink
With him that wears a hood.
Though I go bare, take ye no care,
I nothing am a colde;

I stuffe my skin so full within,
Of jolly goode ale and olde.

CHORUS.

Backe and side go bare, go bare,

Both foot and hand go colde,

But belly, God send thee goode ale enoughe
Whether it be new or olde.

I love no rost, but a nut browne toste,

And a crab laid in the fire;

A little bread shall do my stead,

Muche bread I noght desire.

No frost, no snow, no winde, I trowe,

Can hurt me if I wolde;

* From Warton's History of English Poetry, Vol. iii.

I am so wrapt and thorougely lapt
Of jolly goode ale and olde
Backe and side, &c.

And Tib, my wife, that as her life
Loveth well goode ale to seeke;
Full oft drinks shee, till ye may see
The teares run down her cheeke;
Then doth she trowle me to the howle,
Even as a mault wome sholde;

And saith "sweet heart, I took my part
Of this jolly goode ale and olde."

Backe and side, &c:

Now let them drinke till they nod and winke,

Even as goode fellows shoulde do ;
They shall not misse to have the blisse

Goode ale doth bring men to.

And all goode soules, that have scoured bowles,
Or have them lustily trolde,

God save the lives of them and their wives,
Whether they be young or olde.

Backe and side, go bare, go bare,

Both foote and hand go colde;

But belly, God send thee goode ale enoughe,
Whether it be new or olde.

The fine satirical moral couched under these verses is sufficiently visible to require comment. Among the million how many go thinly covered and barefooted, from sacrificing too freely to the "rosy god," who might otherwise support both "backe, side, and belly," and keep the whole, inside and outside, in respectable and "good sailing trim." There is a time

to rejoice and a time to be sad, says Solomon; also,

66

a season for all things under the sun;" and happy is the man, and those around him, looking up to him for consolation and Christian example, who can nick the time so well in devoting a leisure hour to the society of his chosen friends, that it may not interfere with his business, his health, or his family comforts, and without diminishing in any other respect the harmless hilarity, the enjoyment of which he might have anticipated during his hours of labour, to lighten the burden of toil.