MUSIC OP THE TWO MINSTRELS. 5 



critics* have disrespectfully called him, the squaller, both of 

 ancient Greece and modern Italy, must be allowed, if power 

 and shrillness be the criterions of excellence, to carry it hollow 

 over our native serenader. 



Be it noticed, however, by the way, that neither foreigner 

 nor native are vocal, but, in reality instrumental per- 

 formers. Thus considered, the grasshopper is as a shepherd 

 with his Pandean reeds, or pipe and tabor, and the tree- 

 hopper, by all accounts, as a deafening bagpiper his shrilly 

 clamour audible, it is said, at a mile's distance. 



As for being " happier than the happiest king," the poet 

 might have chosen, we imagine, a happier expression to ex- 

 press the supreme felicity of his monarch of the trees, sup- 

 posing, that is, the amount of happiness comprised within the 

 golden circlet of a crown to be no bigger than philosophers, 

 and poets also, have usually considered it. 



Royalty is not, however, what it was ; and now that, in 

 company with Belle-Dame butterflies, t a king or queen can 

 nutter in the mountain breezes, or take flights of pleasure 

 across the seas, they need not (at least for lack of liberty) 

 envy the verdant reign of a roving grasshopper. And yet we 

 know not ; for as majesty casts off its gilded fetters of state, 

 the impertinent " million " would cast off, in proportion, its 



* Dr. Shaw, &c. 



t Belle Dame, Painted Lady Butterfly (Cynthia Cardui). A butterfly of 

 range most widely extended ; frequently also crossing seas. 



B 2 



