360 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 289. 



them make it the rule of dispensing of their 

 favours. I heartily wish thee the continuance of 

 those good qualitys w'^'' have made thee the love 

 and honour of the Island, and the esteem of all 

 thy ffriends, and of them praying leave to be ad- 

 mitted one. 



Thy affect, and respectful, 



William Penn. 

 I leave the rest to Capt. Gretton, who favours 

 a close commerce between that and this province. 



AXEXANDEK POPE : AK ODE FOR MUSIC. 



It may be assumed that every edition of the 

 poetical works of Pope contains an Ode for music 

 on St. Cecilia's day. We have it in his own edi- 

 tions of 1717 and 1736, and in the editions of 

 Warburton in 1751, Ruffliead in 1769, and War- 

 ton in 1797. In the edition of 1736 it is said to 

 have been written for the year 1708. 



In 1730 this ode was revised, and adapted to 

 another occasion. In that state it contained no 

 allusion whatever to St. Cecilia. On the circum- 

 stances which led to its revision our information is 

 very defective, and the poem itself seems now to 

 have passed into oblivion. 



Warburton was not aware of its existence, and 

 the same may be said of Ruffhead. In 1778 sir 

 John Hawkins printed it as from a manuscript ; 

 and in 1782 Mr. John Nichols inserted it, on the 

 authority of sir John HawTcins, in his Select col- 

 lection of poems. Now, the worthy Mr, Nichols 

 was misled by the knight errant. He calls the 

 poem an Ode for St. Cecilia! s day — which is a 

 misnomer ; he says it first appeared in print in 

 the History of music — which is an error ; and he 

 divides it into seven stanzas — for which there is 

 no sufficient authority. 



When Warton edited Pope, whose genius and 

 writings had more or less occupied his attention 

 for forty years, he omitted the Ode for music as re- 

 vised in 1730, but adverted to it in his notes on 

 the Ode for music as written in 1708, evidently on 

 the authority of Mr. Nichols. His account of the 

 rejected poem is very imperfect. He gives the 

 additional stanza of ten lines, and says the poet 

 made another alteration in stanza iv. v. 51. He 

 then gives five lines of that stanza, in which only 

 one word is altered. Now, the fact is that fifty- 

 two lines are omitted, besides verbal amendments 

 and transpositions. There is only one stanza 

 which remains without alteration. 



As I have denied that the poem was first printed 

 in 1778, it becomes me to state when and where 

 it was first printed. Examine the pamphlet thus 

 entitled : 



" Qusestiones, una cum cai-minihus, in Magnis Comitiis 

 Cantabrigi/E celebratis 1730. Cantabrigiae. Impensis 

 Comelii Crownfleld, celeberrimas Academia typographi. 



Prostant apud J. Crownfield bibliopolam Londinensem. 

 1730. 8vo., pp. 32 + 4." 



The Latin pieces, prose and verse, end with 

 page 32. The Ode has a new series of pages, and 

 the publication of it seems to have been an after- 

 thought. A copy of this pamphlet is in my pos- 

 session, from which it is now reprinted verbatim. 



"An Ode compos' d for the publick Commencement, at Cam- 

 bridge : on Monday July the Gth, 1730. At the Mu$ick- 

 Act. The Words by Alexander Pope, Esq. The Music.'i 

 by Maurice Greene, Doctor in Musick. 



As Ode. 



" Descend ye Nine ! descend and sing ; 

 The breathing instruments inspire, 

 "Wake into voice each silent string, 



And sweep the sounding Ij-re ! 

 In a sadly-pleasing strain 

 Let the warbling lute complain : 

 In more lengthen'd notes and slow. 

 The deep, majestick, solemn organs blow. 

 Hark ! the numbers, soft, and clear. 

 Gently steal upon the ear ; 

 Now louder, they sound. 

 Till the roofs all around 

 The shrill ecchoes rebound : 

 Till, by degrees, remote and small. 

 The strains decay, 

 And melt away 

 In a dying, dying fall. 



II. 



" By Musick, minds an equal temper know. 

 Nor swell too high, nor sink too low. 

 If in the breast tumultuous joys arise, 

 Musick her soft assuasive voice applies ; 

 Or when the soul is sunk in cares 

 Exalts her with enlivening airs. 

 Warriors she fires by sprightly sounds ; 

 Pours balm into the lover's wounds : 

 Passions no more the soul engage, 

 Ev'n factions hear away their rage. 



III. 



" Amphion thus bade wild dissention cease, 

 And soften'd mortals leam'd the arts of peace. 

 Amphion taught contending kings, 

 From various discords to create 

 The Musick of a well-tun'd state, 

 Nor slack nor strain the tender strings ; 

 Those useful touches to impart 

 Tliat strike the subjects answ'ring heart ; 

 And the soft, silent harmony, that springs 

 From sacred union and consent of things. 



IV. 



" But when our country's cause provokes to arms> 

 How martial Musick every bosom warms ! 

 When the first vessel dar'd the seas. 

 The Thracian rais'd his strain, 

 And Argo saw her kindred trees 

 Descend from Pelion to the main, 

 Trartsported demi-gods stood round 

 And men grew heroes at the sound, 

 Enflam'd with glory's charms : 

 Each chief his sevenfold shield display'd. 

 And half unsheath'd the shining blade; 

 And seas, and rocks, and skies rebound 

 To arms, to arms, to arms ! 



