IC7 



MORVEAU, GUYTON DE. 



MOSCHOPULUS, MANUEL. 



358 



dramatic piece which was favourably received, he abandoned the legal 

 profession without having been called to the bar. 



Morton thenceforward devoted himself entirely to play-writing, and 

 became one of the most successful of modern dramatists. 80 great 

 was liis reputation and the confidence of managers in his power of 

 pka.-iugau audience, that when his comedy of ' Town and Country ' 

 was to be brought out in 1807, Mr. Harris, the lessee of Covent-Garden 

 Theatre, gave him 1000Z. for the play before the parts were written 

 out for rehearsal, taking on himself all risk of failure. Out of, four- 

 teen or fifteen comedies, comic-operas, and farces, five or six still 

 continue to be stock-pieces. 



The following is a list of his plays, perhaps incomplete as to two 

 or three of the later productions : ' Columbus,' 1792 ; ' Children in 

 the Wood,' 1793; 'Zorinski,' 1795; 'Way to pet Married,' 1796; 

 ' Cure for the Heart Ache,' 1797 ; ' Speed the Plough,' 1793 ; 'Secrets 

 worth Knowing,' 1798; 'The Blind Girl,' 1801 ; 'School of Reform,' 

 1805; 'Town and Country,' 1807; 'Koland for an Oliver,' 1819; 

 'School for Grown Children,' 1826; ' Invincibles,' 1828. 



Morton was a respectable man, of rtgular and orderly habits. His 

 conversation was sprightly, and abounded in anecdote. He was fond 

 of cricket playing and wag a constant attendant at the cricket-grounds, 

 where he enjoyed his favourite exercise. He died March 28, 1838, in 

 his seventy-fourth year, leaving a widow, three sons, and a daughter. 



To those who are acquainted with Morton's plays only by reading 

 them, his uniform and great success will probably be matter of sur- 

 prise ; to those who are engaged in dramatic writing, it must be no 

 less a matter for investigation. Morton has no claim to the reputation 

 of a great dramati.it. He is deficient in the higher qualities of the 

 art. He gives no true representations of character either in its broad 

 and strong markings or in iU nicer discriminations; he shows nothing 

 of the real operation of motives, nothing of the genuine workings of 

 feeling ; his serious and his comic characters are alike artificial and 

 exaggerated; they are strictly and peculiarly stage-characters, and 

 anything resembliug them in real life will rarely if ever be met with. 

 But he has remarkable dramatic tact : he foresees distinctly what may 

 be effected in the performance, and the situations as well as the 

 characters are admirably contrived for displaying an actor's skill, 

 abounding as they do in sudden transitions of feeling and bursts of 

 passion, overflowings of excessive liveliness, or exhibitions of strange 

 peculiarities, such indeed as have never been witnessed, but which, 

 when well performed, are exceedingly amusing. His dialogue has DO 

 wit and little genuine humour, but it never languid or heavy; and the 

 very speeches which when read produce a smile of contempt or a 

 of incredulous divgust, afforded to Lewis, Munden, Quick, 

 Fawcett, Kmery, John Kemble, and Edmund Kcan, the medium by 

 which they wire enabled to exhibit the triumphs of the actor's art. 



MORVEAU, GUYTON DE. [GCYTON DE MOKVBAU.] 



MOKYSON, or MORISON, FYNES, was a native of Lincolnshire, 

 and born in 1566. He matriculated as a student at Cambridge in 

 1580, and received his degree of M.A. in 1587; after which he set out 

 on a course of travel, in part on foot over a large portion of the 

 European Continent. His travels extended over a period of ten years, 

 and on his return, in 1598, he went to Ireland as secretary to Mountjoy, 

 the lord deputy of that country. Hi* account of hi journejiugs was 

 not published till some three years after his death, when it appeared 

 iu the form of a large folio volume of 900 pages, entitled ' Itinerary, 

 containing his Ten Years' Travel through the dominions of Germany, 

 I'ohinerliuid, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Italy, 

 Turkey, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland, in 3 parts,' London, 

 1017. This work was first written in Latin, and then translated by 

 himself into English. It contains some minute and interesting details 

 of Continental and English manners of that time, but as a whole the 

 work is very formal and wearisome. 'A History of Ireland, from 

 the year 1599 to 1603, with a short Narration of the State of that 

 Kingdom from 1169; to which is added a Description of Ireland,' 

 was published at Dublin in 1735 in 2 vols. 8vo, and is commonly 

 described as a distinct work ; but it is merely a reprint of the second 

 part of the ' Itinerary,' which is there described as containing " the 

 rebellion of Hugh, earl of Tyrone, and the appeasing thereof. " Liko 

 the first part of the ' Iticerary ' it is written in the form of a journal, 

 and it includes an account of the country, as well as of the rise and 

 suppression of the insurrection ; altogether it is an important source 

 of information respecting the state of Ireland at the close of the 16th 

 and beginning of the 17th centuries. Fyneg Morison died about 1614. 

 i I KLKS, IGNATZ, a celebrated composer and pianist, born 

 at Prague, Bohemia, in the year 1794. His father was an eminent 

 merchant of that city, and he himself was destined, and at first educated, 

 for the samu profession. But his precocious genius and propensity for 

 music induced his family to yield to a bent which could not be resisted; 

 and his father resolved to give him the best musical instruction the 

 country could afford. After having acquired the rudiments of the 

 art he was placed at eight years old under Dionysius Weber, director 

 of the Conservatory of Prague, then, as now, one of the greatest music- 

 scliooli in Europe; and there he laid the foundation of that deep aud 

 solid learning by which he is characterised as an artist At eleven 

 years old he was the first pianoforte plaj er in Prague. At the same 

 time he made many essays in composition, and produced ambitious 

 works, which however were never given to the public. He was fourteen 



when he first went to Vienna, which then presented a constellation of 

 musical greatness. Haydn was still above the horizon, and Beethoven 

 was in his zenith. The young aspirant was kindly received by these 

 illustrious men; and by their counsels placed himself under Albrechts- 

 berger, Beethoven's former teacher, and the most renowned theorist 

 of his day. By indefatigable study and application his progress was 

 rapid. He became the great attraction of the principal concerts of 

 Vienna, aud soon divided with Hummel the honour of being reputed 

 the greatest pianoforte performer in Germany; while his compositions 

 for that instrument began to take the high place they still hold among 

 the classical music of the age. 



After making the tour of Germany, Holland, and France, Mosclieles 

 came to England in 1820; and what was intended as a mere visit 

 became a fixed residence of more than a quarter of a century. His 

 arrival was heralded by a brilliant reputation ; and he at once made 

 an impression on the public which has not been equalled by any of 

 his successor?. In his bauds the pianoforte appeared almost a new 

 iustrument ; ho had developed its powers in a manner of which few 

 persons iu this country had at that period any conception. The 

 pianoforte music of Beethoven, with its great masses of harmony and 

 endless variety of effects, rivalling the grandeur and richness of a 

 great orchestra, was 03 yet little known in England. Moscheles, by 

 his performance of the sonatas and concertos of that great master, aud 

 of his own compositions belonging to the same school, excited astonish- 

 ment and delight whenevc-r he appeared in public. Through his 

 achievements the pianoforte not only became, in this and other coun- 

 tries, a more and more fashionable instrument, but assumed increasing 

 importance in the estimation of musicians. Its successful cultivation 

 became an' object of the highest ambition ; and a host of pianists 

 sprang up, who contended throughout Europe for the palm of victory. 

 As types of this class it is sufficient to mention the names of Thalberg 

 and Liszt, who (the. first especially) have carried the mechanism of 

 execution to a height which Moscheles certainly did not reach ; and 

 the consequence was, that Moscheles was at length eclipsed in the 

 eyes of the multitude, by a race of more wonderful performer?, in 

 the same manner as he had eclipsed those who had gone before him. 

 But there was this great difference between him and his successors. 

 He, while, by his surprising execution, he enlarged the powers and 

 capacities of the pianoforte, remained a firm adherent of the great 

 classical school of music, and he constantly proved his adherence by 

 the pure style both of his compositions and performances. Those 

 who succeeded him carried pianoforte-playing beyond him; but in 

 music they fell far short of him. His influence has been salutary, 

 theirs has been injurious; his has been permanent, theirs transitory. 



During his long residence in London, and while he added many 

 masterly and well-known compositions to our permanent stouk of 

 classical music, Moscheles was probably the most successful teacher 

 we have ever possessed. His lessons were looked on as indispensable 

 by every student of the piano, amateur or professional, who wished to 

 acquira a real mastery of the instrument ; and his industry, conse- 

 quently, was persevering -and indefatigable almost beyond example. 

 At length, when he was beginning to feel the fatigues of so laborious 

 a life, he was offered the situation of professor in the Conservatory of 

 Leipzig, aud accepted the post. He left England accordingly iu 1846, 

 having immediately before his departure conducted, jointly with 

 Mendelssohn, the great Birmingham musical festival of thut year. 

 He has continued ever since to reside at Leipzig, discharging his quiet 

 but important duties ; and such has been his influence on the prosperity 

 of the Conservatory, that the number of students since 1846 has 

 gradually trebled. Having obtained comparative leisure for 'the exer- 

 cise of his genius, he has produced many compositions in a greater 

 variety of styles than formerly, including several German songs, and 

 other pieces of vocal music. 



MOSCHEKOSCH, JOHANN MICHAEL, a German writer of the 

 17th century, generally known under the pseudonym of PHILANDER 

 VON SITTEWALD, was born on the 5th of March 1600 at Willstadt, a 

 small town in Hanau-Lichtenberg, where his father was preacher. 

 Respecting his life few particulars of any interest are known, for all 

 may be comprised in the statement that, after studying at Strasbourg, he 

 filled successively a variety of appointments, until iu 1656 he was mada 

 president of the Consistory at Hauau ; and that he died, April 4, 1669, at 

 Worms, while upon a journey to visit his son at Frankfurt-on-the-Main. 



As a writer, Moscherosch obtained much popularity iu his time by 

 his ' Wiinderliche uud wahrhafte Gesichte Philanders von Sittewald,' 

 in 2 vols., 1650, a collection of satirical pieces in the form of visions, 

 a species of fiction greatly iu vogue at that period as the vehicle of 

 satire and allegory. He may in fact be termed the German Quevedo, 

 his ' Gesichte ' being to a certain extent a paraphrase of the Spaniard's 

 'Suenos,' with adaptations to the manners and foibles of his own 

 countrymen. Notwithstanding too that his style falls short of the 

 concise terseness and energy which mark his original, he may be con- 

 sidered one of the best German prose-writers of the 17th century, 

 gilted with grent humour, and displaying not only considerable 

 knowledge of the world, but also great force of satire and ridicule , 

 both serious and comic. 



MOSCHOPU'LUS, MANUEL. Several treatises on grammar, 

 attributed to a Greek writer of this name, are extant ; but there is 

 some difficulty iu saying who he was and when he lived. The opinion 



