1831.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



91 



gence, a colourist only. Mengs and Bar- 

 ry speak of him as absolutely knowing 

 nothing of the matter; " but had either 

 of them," says Northcote, " been equal 

 to him in this respect, it would have 

 been their highest merit." 



Among other matters not very closely 

 connected with Titian in these volumes, 

 is Northcote's discussion on- the encour- 

 agement of art in England and Italy. 

 It was interest alone that was the cause 

 of their rise in Italy, and not a love of 

 the arts in that people more than in 

 any other country. And could the fine 

 arts in England, by any contrivance, be 

 brought to aid the power of the govern- 

 ment as much as the rotten boroughs, 

 we should see them patronized to such 

 a degree as would quickly cause them 

 to mount to the highest heaven of in- 

 vention. It is surprising, Northcote 

 adds with a degree of justice which 

 nobody who knows anything about the 

 matter will deny 



It is surprising how partial every nation, ex- 

 cept our own, is to their artists; a Dutchman 

 will prefer the high finish of his Alieris and Ge- 

 rard Dow, his Ostade and Berghem ; the Fleming 

 will celebrate his Rubens and Vandyke, Teniers 

 and Rembrandt; the Frenchman will boast of 

 Iris Le Brim, Le Sneur, Bourdon, and dispute the 

 merit of his Poussin even with Raphael ; while 

 the Italian looks on them all with contempt. And 

 even in Italy, every province contends for the pre- 

 cedence of its own school against that of all 

 others, whilst the Englishman is pleased with 

 every thing that is not the production of Eng- 

 land. 



Musical Memoirs, by W. T. Parke. 

 2 vols. \2rno. Parke, the younger, (he 

 had an elder brother of some celebrity 

 for the same instrument) was forty years 

 principal oboe player at Covent Garden, 

 and in his very childhood connected with 

 the stag 2 as a soprano singer. Music is 

 of course all the world to him, and he 

 sees nothing in it but singers, players, 

 and their patrons. Endless as memoirs 

 of the stage have been of late, the gene- 

 ral purveyor and publisher of these mat- 

 ters detected an opening for another set 

 the musical folks had not perhaps had 

 their share of distinction, and the soft 

 " persuaders" of the bibliopolist tempted 

 Mr. Parke to supply the deficiency. His 

 Memoirs are more strictly annals, and 

 contain, for the most part, little beyond 

 the successions of popular vocal and in- 



of Sheridan, Foote, Hook, Colman, and 

 Kemble's best and worst. 



The first piece, in which Parke him- 

 self assisted, was Garrick's "Christmas 

 Tale," in 1775. The hero vows, recita- 

 tively 



By my shield and my sword ; 

 By the chaplet which circles my brow; 

 By a Knight's sacred word, 

 Whatever you ask, 

 How dreadful the task, 

 To perform before Heaven I vow. 



" What do you think of that ?" ex- 

 claimed Garrick, in ecstacies, at the re- 

 hearsal, to all about him. " What do 

 you think of it, Cross ?" " Why, I 

 think," replies Cross, " it is the best 

 singing affidavit I ever heard." Gar- 

 rick looked blue, and never smiled again 

 upon Cross, who was apt, as Touchstone 

 has it, not to be aware of his own wit 

 till he broke his shins against it. 



Your foreigners blunder out facts now 

 and then. Salomon, the violin-player, 

 taught the late king, when Prince of 

 Wales. " Well, Mr. Salomon," in- 

 quired the royal pupil one day, " how 

 do I get on ?" " Pleash your High- 

 ness," said Salomon, brimful of syco- 

 phancy, " der are tre stages of music ; 

 first, der is pick out, read notes, count 

 time, &c., not play at all. Second, der 

 is plav, but play very bad out of time, 

 out of tune noting at all. Now, your 

 highness has just got into de second 

 stage." 



Parke himself was in the prince's ser- 

 vice, as well as his brother. At the 

 settling of the prince's debts, the bro- 

 ther's demand, amounting to 500., was 

 discharged, with a deduction of ten per 

 cent., to which all demands were sub- 

 jected ; but Parke himself withheld his 

 claim, thinking it, as he himself states, 

 more delicate, and that the ruling mo- 

 tive of course he should ultimately lose 

 nothing by his superfine delicacy. But 

 creditors have notoriously the longest 

 memories, and Parke the prince pos- 

 sibly never heard of his " dutiful mark 

 of respect" never received any mark 

 of his favour, princely or royal that is, 

 he never got paid ; " but in spite of this 

 neglect, he felt no diminution," he says, 

 " of his warm attachment, and at his 

 death shed tears, as sincere as those of 

 any of his cotemporaries." When will 

 there be an end of this sort of fudge ? - 



strumental performers from the days of it has long ceased to dupe any body. 

 Tiavi^i'o ^mv.-.oTOrtT.at-;! ,). f fko, Giardini, it seems, was not admitted 



of Cumberland's table. 



Handel's commemoration down to the 

 current season, besprinkled, sometimes 

 profusely, with the floating puns and 

 repartees, that fill the atmosphere of 

 the green-room, and have been repeated 

 over and over again till we are thorough- 

 ly weary of them. The least Mr. Parke 

 could have done, or his patron have di- 

 rected, was to read the books of his pre- 

 decessors, and spared us the rechaufiees 



to the Duke 



No,- 



It was reserved for His Royal Highness, George, 

 Prince of Wales, through his liberality and con- 

 descension to burst the barrier which had kept 

 the arts at a chilling distance ; and through its 

 hitherto impervious portal, to admit some talented 

 men to the high distinction of sitting at his royal 

 table. 

 N 2 



