1775
Jan 11
[Mary Delany to Anne Viney, 11 January 1775]
I heard a sweet new instrument called the celestinet, the improvement, if not the
invention f Mr. Mason the poet. His gentlest muse is not more harmonious and pathetick. I know your
sister will long, as well as yourself, to have it described, but that is past
my skill. I can give you a sketch, but
not a finished piece. The shape is that
of a short [91] harpsichord, with the same sort of keys, and played on
only with the right hand in the same manner; and at the same time you draw with
your left hand a bow like the bow of a fiddle, that runs in a groove under the
keys, and by proper management presses on the wires and brings out a delicate,
exquisite sound, something between the finest notes of a fiddle and the
glasses. It is not above 2 feet long and
1 foot and a half in the broadest part, where the keys are, which are placed on
the top of the instrument in this manner [sketch on the page]. It is set on a table, and is best accompanied
with a pianoforte or harpsicord [sic]. Mr. Mason plays charmingly, with great
expression. I must own tho’ that Handel’s majestic musick
is too deeply implanted on my soul to suffer me to delight (in general) in
modern flimsy Italian music. This being
a curious invention I could not help giving you a detail of it, and perhaps
have tired you.[1]
AT THE
THEATRE ROYAL
In DRURY-LANE,
To-morrow, Wednesday, March 22, 1775,
Will be PERFORMED
L’Allegro il
Penseroso.
WITH TWO OF THE
CORONATION ANTHEMS, viz.
‘Let thy Hand be Strengthen’d’ and ‘The King shall rejoice.’
End of the FIRST PART
A CONCERTO on the VIOLONCELLO
By Mr. PAXTON.
End of the SECOND PART
A CONCERTO on the HAUTBOY
By Mr. VINCENT.
After the FIRST ANTHEM,
A CONCERTO on the VIOLIN
By Mr. BARTHELEMON.
F Tickets to be had, and Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr. JOHNSTON, at the Stage-Door of the Theatre, at HALF a GUINEA each.
Pit 5s. First Gallery 3s. 6d. Second Gallery 2s.
The Doors will be opened at FIVE o’Clock.
To begin exactly at HALF past SIX. Vivant Rex & Regina.[2]
AT THE
THEATRE ROYAL
In DRURY-LANE,
On Wednesday next, March 29, 1775,
{To-morrow, Wednesday, March 29, 1775,}
Will be PERFORMED
The Fall of Egypt.
An ORATORIO.
Written by the late Dr. HAWKSWORTH,
{Written by the late Dr. HAWKESWORTH.}
And Composed by Mr. STANLEY.
{And Set to Music by Mr. STANLEY.}
End of the FIRST PART
A CONCERTO on the ORGAN
By Mr. STANLEY.
End of the SECOND PART
A CONCERTO on the VIOLIN
By Mr. BARTHELEMON.
C Tickets to be had, and Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr. JOHNSTON, at the Stage-Door of the Theatre, at HALF a GUINEA each.
Pit 5s. First Gallery 3s. 6d. Second Gallery 2s.
The Doors will be opened at HALF after FIVE o’Clock.
To begin exactly at HALF past SIX. Vivant Rex & Regina.[3]
Richard Brinsley
Sheridan to Thomas Linley [3 May–21 June] 1775 Dear Sir, Before I
attempt to offer my sincere Sentiments on the subject of your last, I must
premise that you must not take ill my giving them with the greatest Freedom,
on an Affair which must certainly either establish or undo your Comfort and
Welfare for the rest of your Life, and which also involves the entire
Prosperity of so large a Part of your Family. — I shall venture to speak more
freely because I am convinced that I am better acquainted with the Scene of
Life into which you propose to enter, than you are yourself: A Scene which I
had always an Instinctive Abhorrence of, and which I am now more than ever
convinced is, for its extent, the greatest Nursery of Vice and Misery on the
Face of the Earth. — I am aware that you are prepared for my Prejudices
on this Subject; and that you will probably misconceive part of my motives
in wishing you to cherish the same. However, tho’ I
still think myself bound to urge my Opinion with Frankness, I request no
other Effect from it to arise in your mind than that you will but for a
little while suspend your Resolution — it is a subject which you
cannot weigh too minutely — nor consider too often — and this too should be
done when a little cool’d from the first Effects
which a sanguine Imagination may have received from an apparently flattering
Prospect, and above all it should be done when free from the immediate
Influence of one of the most artful and selfish Men that ever imposed on
Merit or Honesty. — Mr. G. {Garrick} I should suppose cannot at present have trepann’d you into any absolute Promise — (or it would
have been useless to have mentioned a word of the matter to me — for as to
the Question of what you should ask, I am entirely unfit to decide —
because upon my Honour and Soul I look on your
Children as surely and utterly ruined by the scheme — to which no Price
can be adequate) — Or if He has — as you have not yet even proposed your
Terms — nothing binding can have pass’d — so that
surely a Fortnight’s or a Month’s Reflection on the matter cannot injure
either Party, or materially affect your Plan if it shall then appear to you
in the same Light as at Present. — If Mr. G. pretends that his Engagements
are such as make a speedy Answer from you necessary, that He cannot keep the
Proposal open, that He must immediately look elsewhere if He does not close
with you — if, I say, He should urge this — He will utter what He knows to be
insidious and false: — There is no period of his Season in which He would not
eagerly catch at such an Engagement. He is conscious that it has long been an
Object with him — He has look’d with the longing of
a Baud on the Promise of Genius in your Family, and finds his Theatre never
more in want of it than at Present — and He is at present particularly
stimulated by the Reputation of what Maria promises to be, in whom He hopes
to forestall at least another Mrs. S. {Sheridan} — It may be said that this
may be his Idea, and yet the Proposal turn out no less advantageous to you. —
Now putting every other consideration out of the Question — I would stake my
Life on it that even in point of Pecuniary Advantage you and your
Family, will be Losers by changing the Turn of your Profession. — But as I
cannot think this the most important Consideration, it may be waived for the
present — and give me leave to endeavour to Justify
those apprehensions I have express’d with regard to
the Happiness, and what ought to be esteem’d
the Wellfare of your Chi[l]dren, particularly your Daughters. I know that it is a
Thread-bare Topick to declaim against the Hazard of
the Scenes to Won[der at?] the Indecency of the
Profession, the Contagion of Example etc. etc. but you say that you believe
it to be the general Opinion that there is no difference between a public Singer
and an Actress. — Here I own I have very different Sentiments. In the Judgement of every one of Sense and Delicacy there is a
material Difference made between the two Situations. The Daughter of a
Musician, having Talents to benefit her Father in the same Profession, treads
only in the Path in which she was born. Her appe[a]rance in Public is natural and not unexpected, it argues
no Choice, no Passion for becoming a Spectacle, no low Vanity of being
the unblushing Object of a Licentious gaping Croud
— if she be in herself good, modest, and well bred — there is her
Character — and the Part she may always appear in: in her Performance there
is nothing address’d to the grosser Passions, nor
anything to inflame or corrupt her own Feelings. — In the other Situation every thing is reversed: it is her evident Inclination
and Passion to obtrude herself into a conspicuous Scene of all that’s indelicate,
immodest, immoral: In her former Sphere she is accountable to no one, She
is evidently the Pupil of, and under the Wings of her Parent; in the Latter
She is the Creature of a mercenary Manager, The Servant of the Town, and a licens’d Mark for Libertinism: — She leaves a situation
comparatively private, where her abilities only distinguish her, to
become a Topick for illiberal News-Paper Criticism
and Scandal, and to enter the list of envious Contention with a set of practised Harlots on one side, and profligate Scoundrels
on the other. — Whatever the Promise of her Abilities may be — the event is
precarious — it is a Profession of all others without any standard of true
Taste — The Theatre is at present deserted by all the Higher Ranks of People
— The Mob are the Rulers in it, and as to eminence and Fame —
Miss Catley is greater than Mrs. Barry,
and a good Columbine equal to either. — As to the real modesty of an
Actress every Body looks on it as a Farce — and the Reputation of it is
rather an Injury, and I think very justly, for it certainly does not belong
to the Profession. There is a strong connexion
between the Countenance of every Virtue and the Reality — if the Resolution
to face an Audience is an assumed Character, does not at once deprive
a woman of all the out-works of Virtue — Bashfulness and Reserve,
it is certain that a very little Practice does radically relieve her from two
Qu[a]lities so evidently calculated to embarrass
her Performance. — What is the modesty of any Women whose trade it is
eternally to represent all the different modifications of Love before a mix’d Assembly of Rakes, Whores, Lords and Blackguards in
Succession! — to play the Coquet, the Wanton, to retail loose innuendos in
Comedy, or glow with warm Descriptions in Tragedy; and in both to be haul’d about, squeez’d and kiss’d by beastly pimping Actors! — what
is to be the Fate of a Girl of seventeen in such a situation? — what of a Girl of Polly’s particular Attractions? — The
Protection, the Advice of Parents may preserve their Child while she is their’s — but Clarinda, Monimia{,} Calista are not subject to
such vulgar Rules — everything round them is unchaste — their Studies are
Lessons of Vice and Passion. — Like Wretches who work in unwhol[e]some
Mines, Their senses are corrupted in the opperation
of their Trade. — it would be endless to enumerate all that suggests itself
on this subject — it would be needless to add the circumstance of a Girl’s
making a Shew of herself in Breeches ( — and I suppose Mr. G. would bring out
Polly in the Country-Girl — ) however even this is little worse than the rest
— the Point is that the event has always justified what Reas[o]n
must foresee — under such circumstances — all Actresses whose eminence has
made their Characters worth being enquired into, from Mrs. Oldfield down to
Mrs. Barry, have been uniformly found to be Ladies of easy Virtue, to say no
worse, it is true that now and then we hear of some unwieldy Heroine, who
having no other way to distinguish herself, has affected the singula[ri]ty of Chastity —
however even their Virtue — except in cases of eminent Ugliness — has been
usually reported as very problematical: — At present there are not three at
both Theatres who labour under the least suspicion
of such a Quality. The only one at Covent-Garden in that predicament is a
Miss Brown — and even here we must not credit the News-Papers —
however without being very unusually pretty she has the satisfaction of
knowing that she has a constant Retinue of humble-Servants ogling her from
the Boxes — who, if they fail in their Designs on her Person, have already
nearly secured the consolation of having destroy’d
her Character. The Cause of
this Stigma on the Profession is obvious — No Gentleman of Character and
Fortune ever yet took a Wife from behind the Scenes of a Theatre — if in the
Annals of the Stage there were but ten instances of Female eminence, meeting
the reward of a virtuous Union with some independent Man of Honour, it would be some excuse for the Infatuation which
has plunged so many well-disposed Girls into this Abyss of profligate misery.
But their situation precludes every Hope of such a thing — they soon become
conscious of it, and while their occupation is a daily alarm to all the
Passions and romantic Folly which lead Women into Error, they are by that
occupation shut out from any chance of inspiring a Virtuous Attachment in
Others. — You will say that Polly is to be in a different Light — is to have
a Particular Countenance, Protection etc. This is what Mr. G. has promised to
hundreds — and as for any Restriction that may be made before her Appearanc[e] against her being forced into any particular
Line of acting — They are all mere words, and nothing more. The Reputation
and Progress of a young Actress once engaged is entirely in the Power of a
Manager — and if she refuses to comply with his Choice or re[c]ommendation in her Business She may as well throw up the
Profession at once. — and G. has damn’d
and sunk numbers whom he had first cajoled, and fo[u]nd afterwards not servilely manageable. As to the
delusive Nonsense that captivates Girls Imaginations, and begets a Passion
for the Stage — no Deception wears sooner off. Nine out of Ten of the
Profession that I have conversed with (and those too of some eminence) have
bitterly regretted the Hour they first thought of the Stage — they have all
in their turns felt the wretched servility of their State: and those who do
not acknowledge this are actuated by no other Principle, than the envy of
Prostitutes who delight in seducing others to the Level of their own Infamy.
— When I imagine to myself your Daughter Polly familiarized to what I know
she must be in such a course of Life — I declare solemnly that the most
immediate consequence that I can foresee (and probably by no means the worst)
will be her being wrought to a marriage with some such Fellow as Brereton (who
will be her Jaffier and Castalio
thro’ the winter) and then — not to speak of her own Positive Ruin — the
visionary Idea of her assisting her Family is at an end at once. Her Sister Maria
— (so young brought to what she will think the grandest Scene in Life!)
will doubtless at a proper age find equal Charms in some artful Damon —
and your only acquisition will be such Relations as it will be a disgrace to
be connected with. — I must repeat it again that it is above a Million to one
that this will be the event — in proportion to their Abilities the Temptation
encreases. They are shut from your Inspection or
Intuition — every hour of their Business teems with Opportunities to favour the views of any artful Fellow-Labourer
of that artful Crew. — Mrs. Linley may constantly attend their musical
Rehearsals, their Play-Rehearsals, Farce-Rehearsal, Dancing-Rehearsal — their
Dressing Room— Green-Room — Scene — Stage — yet all the Precaution or
Penetration on Earth is feeble in superin[ten]ding
those whose Trade — Practise and Duty is — mask’d Levity — Simulation — and confidence. Sensibility
and modesty are so unal[l]ied
to this infernal Trade that those who possess them are only so much the less
a match for the native Deceit and immorality of its abandoned Professors. —
Sure the slightest Deductions of one’s own Reason (tho’
inexperienced) must convince us that the Life of an Actress is in no material
respect similar to that of a Singer in your Daughters Situation — They are
just as Opposite as the Public Rooms at Bath to the Public Stews in London —
both I grant are public — but the one for decent and elegant
Entertainment — the other for Riot and immodest Craft. — And this applies to
both cases — yet can you say in the eye of the world there is no Difference.
To disprove this I will confidently urge the instance of your Daughter Betsey.
She — being in the Profession her Sister is in now — married a Man from whom
she could derive no consequence either thro’ Birth,
Fortune or Connections, yet I will venture to assert that she now stands in
the Estimation and Respect of the World, far above what any Man of fifty
Times my advantages could have raised her to — had He taken her from behind
the Scenes of Drury-Lane Playhouse — let her merit there have been
ever so great. — Nor will Polly — once she has set foot on those Boards, —
ever see again the Respect which she may command at Present. — But the
Estimation of the World is a secondary consideration — I lay not the smallest
stress on it in this Case — It is the impending — the more than probable Ruin
and Shame that I dread may imbitter those Days of
your Life which should be Peace, that makes me impatient at the Idea of this
Step, and warm in my wishes to prevent it. — You must not take ill any
expressions I make use of in delivering my Opinion on this Subject. Sincerely
interested for the welfare of all your Children, I have the same Feelings for
the Honour of your Daughters as of my
own Sisters — their present situation — or any public situation — is not without
Hazard — but I look on that Hazard to be so infinitely encreased
in the other Line — that Honour is scarcely
probable — and at all events Insult is licens’d
against Resentment. — And so rooted are my apprehensions — and so hurt I am
sure I should be if verified — that I most solemnly Protest that if I had at
this Instant an independent Fortune, and Polly’s necessity for going
on the Stage was want of Fortune, I would gladly give her any Portion
of it whatever to prevent Her — and if she was my own Sister — upon my soul
and honour I had rather see her dead. If you
imagine that my earnest Prejudice on this Point is in the least assisted by
any selfish Pride that so near Relations should not be in a Profession which
I think so ill of — you will do me the greatest Injustice — I own that in my
Opinion the Change — even in Point of Credit, as in every other particular, —
will be for the worse — but this is a paltry consideration — and to one
circumstanced as I am it would be the grossest absurdity to waste a Thought
on it — if any motive of Pride or Vanity operated on me in resolving that
Betsy should sing no more{.} They were founded on very different Principles
than merely objecting to the thing itself — for if she were my sister I would
give her the same advice that has been given to me. But when I speak of a Stage
Life as utterly different, I put the Dignity of either Profession entirely
out of the Question — and you will believe that my keen repugnance to the Idea
of your engaging with G — —can proceed from no nonsensical Pride — when I
inform you that my Father is certainly to be on Convent-Garden
Stage next-winter — and I am glad that He is to be — but God forbid his Daughters
should be there! What I have
hitherto said is against your scheme in general — but I own I am more astonish’d at your representing
it in the light you do even on the Point of Interest and worldly Benefit to
your Family. — But the same insinuating, artful Trickster, who has won you
from those just Prejudices which I know you once entertained against the
Stage-Life for your children, has also, as may be proved, blinded you as to
your Profit in the Change. — To talk of Mr. G—[’s] selfishness — Cunning —
Avarice — and Insincerity is literally to advance a Position which
no one that has ever had any Dealings with him will attempt to controvert. It
is proverbial that no one ever yet made a treaty with him that they had not
the worst of, and that they did not soon repent of. — His Wealth and unrivall’d merit in his Profession have placed him in a Point
of Respect, which his Art and Finesse have supported him in notwithstanding
the most notorious ill-Qualities — and in other Respects very moderate Parts.
— His Professions to me and his [Con]duct in his
interposition relative to our marriage was a scene of interested overstrain’d Craft — that could not have imposed on a
Child. Why He should on a sudden become the Quintessence of Honour and Generosity in a treaty with you (as you
intimate He is) who never in his Life shew’d a
Particle of either to any other human Creature beside, is in my opinion an
instance of miraculous reformation that requires some
thing more than Profession to deserve Credit. — But from what I
understand of his Proposals I think He may be acquitted of this Inconsistency
— as to me there appears plainly in them the same interested overreaching
Cunning for which he has so long been eminent. — You
have told him (you say) in confidence what the Income is of
your Present Profession — and He thinks it will answer greatly to you in
Point of Interest to be with him. — If you weigh your present Profits at
Bath — with what He would give you and your Family
to be with him — I doubt not but the latter would be greatly superiour. — But what is to be the Sacrifice? — you alter
the whole Tenour of your Life — you embark in a
scene altogether new — partly precarious — you become the Servants of a
manager — and Servants by Custom to the Public, you fix your Family in a Line
from which there is no retreating, and your Daughters — the Servants of another
— are exposed in the Vortex of Temptation and contagious Vice. — The Balance
here in point of Advantage should certainly be considerable — yet I will not
hesitate to affirm that it would not exceed what you might make in your own
Profession, without half the risk, provided, as in this Case, you resolve to
change your Scene and give up Bath at Once. If you had conducted oratorios
last spring in Town on your own account — you might have clear’d £1000 or £1200. — Maria’s Reputation is spreading
amazingly — whatever you did get by Betsy — and what more you might
have got had you come sooner to Town or had I not robb’d
you of her — you may get and if you rely only on yourself, certainly will
get by Maria. — You have yourself deserved Reputation — it is no little
credit to have bred and taught the acknow[ledg]’d best English Singer
that has been — you have a right to the Attention of the Public in
introducing another — and surely if such a Man as Arnold was encouraged in
attempting oratorios on his own account, no one can expect that you will
again share with others the fruits of any other excellent Singer you may
Produce — especially when you have so little obligation to any of them. Polly
is certainly at present considered here as the best Oratorio Singer
there now is, and tho’ her Sister Maria may come to
surpass her in some things — She will always be respectable and in the first
Line. — From this Prospect I will not allow that it admits of Doubt but that
you may, if you will Quit Bath, establish the Best, and most probably the
only Oratorio in London. — Bach will undertake it no more — and I think it
would be madness for you to join Stanley. — This would be respectable,
independent, and highly beneficial. — You would be no Man’s Servant — your
Family would still be your own — and No Change, Jealousies, or Caprice could
distress you. In the other Case — You succeed Mr. Dibdin
— in a Post of no great Eminence, however dignified by
Restrictions — which would not signify a Pin if once you were on ill Terms
with the Manager. The Labour and Servility of the
Employment of such sort as would be most irksome to you — new Proposals would
be made you — which you must consent to — (Dibdin
leaves G — for having broke every promise to him) —
Polly would be an Actress — probably successful — possibly not
— Maria Actress, Singer, etc. and poor Tam hedg’d
in to answer the temporary Purpose of a singing Boy — or Chorus in a Sphere
which He would soon grow out of, and be fit for nothing else there, nor
anywhere else. — Here every advantage of their Abilities to you in their
present Profession is cut off. — By the Time Polly or Maria have warbled
Ballads a couple of winters on Drury-Lane no Person would give sixpence to
hear them in Particular, in Oratorios. — Stage Singers necessarily and
speedily grow out of Estimation with the Politer Ranks — tho’
they may for a while continue the Miss Brent. of
the Galleries — therefore once on the Stage look for no Particular attraction
or advantage in them for Oratorios. On the subject of Oratorios — you say
that Mr. G. has engaged to join you in them with Stanley or if S. refuses
— that He will himself be concerned in them with you. This Bounty
in my opinion amounts just to this. — That if you are willing to ford this
musical Pactolus He (Mr. G.) will undertake to hang a Mill-Stone round
your Neck, or if the Mill-Stone won’t hang you shall dive for the Golden Sand
yourself and He will share it with you. — What Attraction Mr. G’s Name would
have to bring People to an oratorio I can’t conceive — and Stanley can never
be anything but a dead weight on such a scheme. G.’s Generosity to the Latter
this Winter — was no greater than that of the Musicians. The Latter gave up
their Pay first and G’s munificence limp’d after.
Polly’s Talents for the Stage you say are undoubted — I grant it — yet is her
Success precarious — Her constitution may not be Robust enough to carry her
thro’ the Practice of tragedy Parts — and I should hope she would never
acquire assurance enough to be perfectly easy in Comedy — but still Mr. G. promises
that you shall always be at Liberty to withdraw — provided you do not engage
in any other Theatre. This I think the most insidious and iniquitous
Clause that He could shackle his Generosity with. When once you have exposed
and made cheap your Daughters on the Stage He very well knows that there
must lie their future Profession — Unsuccessful there or retiring from
thence upon whatever discontent — they never could regain the Respect or
eminence of their former Situation when the Town had already heard them down
to the one shilling Mob — in Operas and Farces — what Price would ever after
be set upon their Performance in Con[c]erts or
Oratorios! — yet the Restriction is that they sha’n’t be received on any other Theatre and
consequently they are upon his own Terms to continue fix’d
on his! — This is Honour and Generosity with a
Vengeance! — You say — you are convinced that Mr. G. studies your
advantage and will act honourably in the Affair.
This conviction I own is unaccountable to me — you did not once think so
highly of him — as to his Countenance, Protection etc. to Polly — that
is all of course and I dare say might be the case. However that would be but
of a short Date. — G. has to my certain knowledge, this Winter endeavour’d
to dispose of his share of the Patent. — He waits but for his Price — and
would certainly be glad to put it up to sale as well supported as He could —
this would be help’d by an Engagement with you
including Polly and Maria — (bound to leave it for no other Theatre! — an obligation unprecedented!) — I am much mistaken
if Coleman will not then be your Manager — or be it who it may — all
Mr. G.’s services end of course, and the new Manager may have other Favourites, and as for the clause of your right to
continue seven or fourteen years — that I again repeat, were
not the Manager entirely content, would be impossible with Credit or Comfort. In short it
is my sincere opinion that Mr. G. went to Bath on Purpose to draw you into
some agreement with him — that He thinks Maria principally will be a Treasure
to him — and that his whole Plan is insidious, and selfish, and his
Professions insincere. — If you determine to leave Bath — I think you may in
point of Profit only succeed infinitely better by having no connection with
the Stage — and in Point of Credit and Happiness that you would soon find the
latter your bane: and above all I hold in my own mind the most ominous
Conviction that you will see the Day which, for your Daughter’s sake, will
make you curse the Deceiver who first drew you into that Scene of Life. — In
what I have said here relative to G — I protest solemnly I am not influenc’d by the least Personal Enmity — He has on the
contrary lately spoke rather well of me and I make no doubt would have no
objection to be on any Terms with me — Connection with Theatres are always
fluctuating and I think it just as probable that I may bring out a Piece, at
Drury-Lane some time Hence as at Convent-Garden. And in that Case it might
certainly be serviceable to me — to have so strong a Party at the House as
you might prove. — But so far from my being Witness, or in the least concern’d in any agreement of that kind you may make with
him, or so far from acquiring any interest myself by it with him — that I
declare to God I should ever after regard him with the utmost Detestation —
nor ever view him or think of him but with the most rooted and veng[e]ful Enmity — as a Man
who had by Craft and mercenary Deceit deprived me of the Satisfaction of
seeing Relations whom I loved in the probable Road to Comfort and happiness,
and had instead made their Welfare and Peace subservient to his own Vanity
and insatiable Avarice. — There is
only one argument more which I shall make use of — tho’
[…?][4] |
When I was at Paris, in the year 1775, I had the honour of being known to Lord Stormont, the English ambassador at the French court, at which I had moreover the honour of being introduced, through the favour of his lordship. Whilst there, I had two court suits made, by a fashionable tailor, one for the summer and one for the winter; and was afforded, on my return, an opportunity of comparing the splendour of the court of Versailles with that of St. James’s, the inferiority of which was sufficiently manifest.
My father had the honour, for several years, to make his bow at St. James’s, at the drawing-room, on the 4th of June, the birth-day of our late Sovereign. I, too, had the honour of being introduced, when I made my appearance in my fine French suit.
On the day of my first introduction, being near his Majesty as he walked round the circle, conversing with the company, a remark which his Majesty made, whilst the music was performing, made a lasting impression on my memory. [346]
This occurred during a sudden storm of wind, thunder, and lightning. The trumpets were sounding; and at the moment a tremendously loud clap of thunder burst, as it were, right over the palace, which seemed to appal [sic] many present; when the King, addressing himself to Lord Pembroke, exclaimed, “How sublime! What an accompaniment! How this would have delighted Handel!”
TWO COURT DRESSES.—Having been introduced to Lord Stormont, who was ambassador, when I was first at Paris, I had two court suits made—a winter and a summer one. At my return to England, my father, who always attended the drawing-room on the King’s and Queen’s birthdays, took me with him there, having by me my necessary entrée, seasonable court-dresses. The first year, on June the 4th, I exhibited my summer suit, keeping close to his Majesty, as he walked round the circle, speaking to those who had been introduced to him. Previous to a very heavy shower of rain, there was a terrible storm of thunder and lightning, whilst the ode was playing. I was very near the King at the time, and I heard him say, “Tremendous! awful! what a divine accompaniment? How it would have delighted Handel!”[5]
[W.L. “An Essay on MUSICAL TIME”]
It ought to be observed, that the rules for writing music, as before laid down, are not strictly adhered to. Pieces in minuet time are often marked 6/8, and are written with three quavers in a bar, which are to be played no faster than crotchets in a common minuet; and when semi quavers occur, they are to be divided into three pairs, as in a minuet. The song in the Messiah, O thou that tellest glad tidings, is so written. Again, the same piece shall be sometimes written with 3 crotchets in a bar, and marked 3/4; at other times with 3 quavers in a bar, and marked 3/8; the quavers in the latter case are to be made as long as the crotchets in the former.[6]
[W.D. criticizes mistakes in the essay:]
...The song, O thou that tellest glad tidings, is not written with three quavers only in a bar, but with six, as marked at the beginning 6/8.[7]
[W.L. replies defending his essay:]
The mistake of three quavers for six, is what the context shews to be a slip of the pen. Nor does it affect what is said of the manner in which the song O thou that tellest glad tidings is written, viz. with the usual signature of jigg-time at the head of the staff, though the song be in minuet-time; and with semi-quavers, which are yet to be made as long, and played just as quavers are in a common minuet.[8]
[The Dowager-Countess Gower
to Mary Delany, 10 October 1775]
I soppose [sic] you’ve seen L—d Chomondeley’s
epigram, Mr. Garrick’s petition to Mr. Stanley, and ye Pheiades.[9]
[16 Oct. 1775. The day passed among the Austin Nuns of the English Convent in Paris] Another Nun pleased me very much. She has been a Beauty about London since my Time, & is now eminently handsome: She has likewise seen a great deal of the World, has travelled & has read; She has many Books in her Room on [121] various Subjects, & talks of studying Latin in good earnest. She played on the Church Organ for my Entertainment, & went over Handel’s Water Musick with great Dexterity.[10]
Richard Brinsley
Sheridan to Thomas Linley Sunday, 31 December 1775 Dear Sir, I was always
one of the slowest letter-writers in the world, though I have had more excuses
than usual for my delay in this instance. The principal matter of business,
on which I was to have written to you, related to our embryo negotiation with
Garrick, of which I will now give you an account. Since you
left town, Mrs. Ewart has been so ill, as to
continue near three weeks at the point of death. This, of course, has
prevented Mr. E. from seeing any body on business, or from accompanying me to
Garrick’s. However, about ten days ago, I talked the matter over with him by
myself, and the result was, appointing Thursday evening last to meet him, and
to bring Ewart, which I did accordingly. On the
whole of our conversation that evening, I began (for the first time) to think
him really serious in the business. He still, however, kept the
reserve of giving the refusal to Colman, though at the same time he did not
hesitate to assert his confidence that Colman would decline it. I was
determined to push him on this point, (as it was really farcical for us to
treat with him under such an evasion,) and at last he promised to put the
question to Colman, and to give me a decisive answer by the ensuing Sunday
(to-day).— Accordingly, within this hour, I have
received a note from him, which (as I meant to show it my father) I here
transcribe for you. ‘Mr. Garrick
presents his compliments to Mr. Sheridan, and as he is obliged to go into the
country for three days, he should be glad to see him upon his return to town,
either on Wednesday about 6 or 7 o’ clock, or whenever he pleases. The party
has no objection to the whole, but chooses no partner but Mr. G. — Not a word
of this yet. Mr. G. sent a messenger on purpose. He would call upon Mr. S. but he
is confined at home. Your name is upon our list.’ This decisive
answer may be taken two ways. However, as Mr. G. informed Mr. Ewart and me, that he had no authority or pretensions to
treat for the whole, it appears to me that Mr. Garrick’s meaning in
this note is, that Mr. Colman declines the purchase of Mr.
Garrick’s share, which is the point in debate, and the only part at
present to be sold. I shall, therefore, wait on G. at the time mentioned, and
if I understand him right, we shall certainly without delay appoint two men
of business and the law to meet on the matter, and come to a conclusion
without further delay. According to his demand, the whole is valued
at £70,000. He appears very shy of letting his books be looked into, as the
test of the profits on this sum, but says it must be, in its nature, a
purchase on speculation. However, he has promised me a rough estimate, of his
own, of the entire receipts for the last seven years. But, after all, it
must certainly be a purchase on speculation, without money’s worth
being made out. One point he solemnly avers, which is, that he will
never part with it under the price above-mentioned. This is all
I can say on the subject till Wednesday, though I can’t help adding, that I
think we might safely give five thousand pounds more on this purchase
than richer people. The whole valued at £70,000, the annual interest is
£3,500; while this is cleared, the proprietors are safe, — but
I think it must be infernal management indeed that does not double it. I suppose
Mr. Stanley has written to you relative to your oratorio orchestra. The
demand, I reckon, will be diminished one third, and the appearance remain
very handsome, which, if the other affair takes place, you will find your
account in; and, if you discontinue your partnership with Stanley at Drury
Lane, the orchestra may revert to whichever wants it, on the other’s paying
his proportion for the use of it this year. This is Mr. Garrick’s idea, and,
as he says, might in that case be settled by arbitration. You have
heard of our losing Miss Brown; however, we have missed her so little in The Duenna, that the managers have not tried to regain her,
which I believe they might have done. I have had some books of the music
these many days to send you down. I wanted to put Tom’s name in the new
music, and begged Mrs. L. to ask you, and let me have a line on her arrival,
for which purpose I kept back the index of the songs. If you or he have no objection, pray, let me know. — I’ll send the music
to-morrow. I am
finishing a two act comedy for Covent-Garden, which will be in rehearsal in a
week. We have given The Duenna a respite this Christmas, but nothing else at
present brings money. We have every place in the house taken for the three
next nights, and shall, at least, play it fifty nights, with only the
Friday’s intermission. My best love
and the compliments of the season to all your fire-side. Your
grandson is a very magnificent fellow. Yours ever
sincerely, R. B. Sheridan.[11] |
On the Death of Mr. HANDELL.
In
the Midst of the Performance of his Lent Oratorio (1759) of the Messiah, Nature
exhausted, he dropt his Head upon the Keys of the
Organ he was playing upon, and with Difficulty was raised up again. He recovers his Spirits, and goes on managing
the Performance ill the Whole was finished.
He was carried Home, and died.
To melt the Soul, [...see Deutsch, Handel, 817-18.][12]
“Epistle Dedicatory. To Henry Burgum, Esquire” [a slanderous attack against the author’s former and ungrateful patron Burgum.] [...] When erst in Vanity’s soft shackles bound, He banish’d solid Sense for empty Sound; When Science wond’ring at the feast he gave, Saw mighty Handel tremble in his grave; When Wisdom all concern’d reclin’d her head; When Taste astonish’d struck with terror fled; [7] When Discord high in alt commenc’d her scream, And Fancy scarce gave credit to the dream, I, all observant of the comic scene, To save his credit sacrific’d my spleen; Join’d with the senseless rout in idle roar, Extatic stood, clap’d hands and cry’d—ENCORE![13] |
[…] I may ask the Reason, why, out of so many Hundreds of Musicians as there are, and have been in the World, [and some of them also Mathematicians] why, I say, that no one had ever as yet before discovered the true or real Scale of Music, or its Foundation? as of which hereafter; but towards the Matter, as they thought it to be, or that it must be] was always an Acting in some Measure contrary, and that as not to be taken in a small Degree, contrary, I say, to the Nature of the Thing, viz. in tuning the Organ, Harpsichord, and Spinnet! Nay, the great Mr. Handel had his Organ, &c. so tuned!
[…]
but still, for the Sake as it were of such as that, it all along hitherto so happened, that Violence, as with Respect to natural Harmony, was in some Measure put [as thought for the better] to prey upon Nature in tuning the Organ, &c. And whenas or as when, what was done for the best, was with quite a contrary Drift thereto, the Whole being thereby for the worse affected, and that as not in a very small Degree, and yet the great Mr. Handel among the rest [as not discovering the Matter] had his Organ and Harpsichord so tuned.
[…]
Not that I greatly mind what we call an Anthem; but a Psalm, viz. with its Tune or Composition of Musick properly adapted (not such Composition as according to Mr. Handel’s Taste, of or for a Psalm-Tune) and so to be pitch’d, as that exactly to suit the Voices, and sung in three or four Parts by a Company of Singers as above—what a noble Thing it is![14]
Soon after this affair Miss C[atle]y was in high favour with a
junior student of Magdalen College Oxford.
Their acquaintance first began at an Oratorio where he had heard her
sing. Pleased with the sweet melody of
her enchanting voice she captivated his heart to so high a degree, that he
would have given all the world, had it been in his
possession, to have revelled in the delights of her
charms for one night only.[15]
[1] The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, ed. Lady Llanover, second series, 3 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1862), 2:90-91.
[2] Broadsheet: The Eighteenth Century (microfilm collection).
[3] Broadsheet in two versions: The Eighteenth Century microfilm collection; curly brackets indicate second version variations.
[4] http://www.e-enlightenment.com/item/sherriOU0030293a1c/; [oratorio section:] The Letters of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, ed. Cecil Price, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), 3:303-06.
[5] The Reminiscences of Henry Angelo, 2 vols. (New York and London: Benjamin Blom, 1904), 1:345-46; 2:286.
[6] The Gentleman’s Magazine 45 (1775): 467.
[7] The Gentleman’s Magazine 45 (1775): 554.
[8] The Gentleman’s Magazine 45 (1775): 635.
[9] The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, ed. Lady Llanover, second series, 3 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1862), 2:162.
[10] The French Journals of Mrs. Thrale and Doctor Johnson, ed. Moses Tyson and Henry Guppy (Manchester: The Manchester University Press, 1932), 120-21.
[11] http://www.e-enlightenment.com/item/sherriOU0010093a1c/; The Letters of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, ed. Cecil Price, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), 1:93–95.
[12] T. Webb (compiler), A New Select Collection of Epitaphs...together with One Thousand Epitaphs never before published, 2 vols. (London: S. Bladon, 1775), 1:326; repr. in Frobisher’s New Select Collection of Epitaphs (London: Nath[anie]l. Frobisher, [?1790]), 156.
[13] James Thistlethwaite, The Consultation. A Mock Heroic, In Four Cantos, 2nd enlarged edn (Bristol: [?], 1775), 6-7.
[14] John Harrison, A Description concerning such Mechanism as will afford a nice, or true Mensuration of Time…as also an Account of the Discovery of the Scale of Musick (London: the author, 1775), 18, 75n, 85n.
[15] A Brief Narrative of the Life of the Celebrated Miss C*tt**y; containing the Adventures of that Lady In Her Public Character of a Singer, and Private One of a Courtezan. In England, Ireland, &c. Also Some of the most remarkable Occurencies in the Hight Court of Gallantry, on the Stage, in the Public Gardens and in the Polite World, or Court-End of the Town. With Many Curious Anecdotes never before published (London: W. Bailey, [?1775]), 55.