373 



MUCIUS. 



MUDGE, WILLIAM, LL.D., P.R.S. 



374 



wards, at the Acade"mie Royale at Paris, it was so little understood 

 on the stage and in the orchestra that Carat, the celebrated singer, 

 exclaimed, " Don Juan a paru incognito & 1' opera ! " It did not find 

 its way to our Anglo-Italian stage till the year 1817, " when it was 

 performed in a manner that surpassed all former representations. 

 The production of ' Don Giovanni ' at tlie King's Theatre, which put 

 ten thousand pounds into the lessee's pocket, and forms an era in our 

 musical history, was so strenuously opposed by an Italian cabal, that 

 but for the courage and perseverance of the director of that season it 

 would have been put aside, even after all the expense of getting up 

 and trouble of rehearsing had been incurred." The comic opera, 

 'Cosi fan tutte,' wa-i composed in 1790; 'Die ZauberBote' ('The 

 Magic Flute'), in 1791, for M. Schickaneder, the proprietor of a 

 theatre in the suburbs of Vienna, who himself wrote the almost 

 incom preheusible libretto : and ' La Clemenza di Tito ' (abridged from 

 Metastasio's beautiful drama) in the samo year, for the coronation of 

 Leopold II. 



Had Mozart's life been extended but a few years longer, he would 

 have repeated his visit to this country. When the spirited and liberal 

 Salomon engaged Haydn to write symphonies for his concerts, and to 

 repair to London in order to superintend their first performance, it 

 was settled that Mozart should succeed his illustrious friend the fol- 

 lowing year, an agreement which death alone prevented from being 

 carried into effect. Of Mozart's tymphoniee, quintets, quartets, 

 gouatas, &c. of his masses, motets, detached vocal pieces, and many 

 other works we cannot afford space for even a bare lint. His 

 additional accompaniments to ' The Messiah,' which exhibit such 

 knowledge of effect, so refined a taste, so congenial a spirit, and withal 

 such re.-pect for a composer whom he considered the greatest that had 

 ever lived, were written for the Baron von Swidten in 1788. 



The last, and, taken as a whole, the most sublime work of Mozart, 

 his ' Requiem,' was written on his death-bed ; and having been left in 

 rather an unfinished state in regard to minor details, his pupil, 

 Sussmayer, filled up some of the accompaniments. This led, a few 

 years ago, to a dispute concerning its authorship, an indiscreet friend 

 of the latter having claimed as biissmayer's composition the best parts 

 of the Mass. The assertions by which the claim was supported, and 

 the arguments in its favour, proved unavailing against the convincing 

 evidence afforded by the work itself, and the controversy can never 

 be successfully renewed. A story too that an anonymous mysterious 

 stranger commissioned Mozart to compose the ' Kequieui,' raised many 

 idle conjectures, tome of them of the most grossly superstitious kind. 

 The matter however has since been satisfactorily explained. 



In bestowing on Mozart so abundant a share of genius, and such 

 exquisite sensibility, Nature seems to have thought that she had been 

 sufficiently bountiful. Physical strength the denied him : small in 

 stature, tlight in construction, and feeble in constitution, he was not 

 calculated to reach even the middle period of life. His health gradually 

 declined, though his imagination continued in full vigour to the last; 

 and au attack of fever, prevalent at the time ill Vienna, hastened his 

 dissolution, which took place on the 5th of December, ll'J'l. He left 

 a widow and two sons, one of whom adopted his father's profession ; 

 the other entered the employment of the Austrian government, at 

 Milan. Madame Mozart, at the expiration of many years, married 

 Baron von Ninaen. 



" It has been said of Mozart, that his knowledge was bounded by 

 his art ; and that, detached from this, he was little better than a 

 nonentity. That his thoughts were almost wholly bent on music wa< 

 not a matter of choice, but of necessity. Had not his ill-remunerated 

 labours occupied nearly all his time, his means would have been still 

 more limited than they were, for a salary of less than a hundred 

 pounds from the imperial court was all the permanent income he had 

 to depend on. But bis acquirements were far greater than is generally 

 supposed, in proof of which we have the best authority for saying 

 that once, at a court masquerade given at Vienna, Mozart appeared as 

 a physician, and wrote prescriptions iu Latin, French, Italian, and 

 German, iu which not only an acquaintance with the several languages 

 was shown, but great discernment of character and considerable wit. 

 Assuming this (communicated to us by the late Mr. Attwood, his pupil 

 and companion on the occasion) to be true, he could not have been 

 a very iguoiant man, nor always a dull one, out of his profession. 

 But still stronger evidence in favour of his understanding may be 

 derived from his works. That he who, iu his operas, adapted his 

 music with such felicity to the different persons of the drama who 

 represented the passions so accurately who coloured so faithfully 

 whose music is so expressive that without the aid of words it is almost 

 sufficient to render the scene intelligible that such a man should not 

 have been endowed with a high order of intellect is hard to be believed ; 

 but that his understanding should have been below mediocrity is 

 incredible." 



MUClUa [JUSTINIAN.] 



MUCIUS SC/EVOLA. [Sc'JsvoLA.] 



.MCDUE, WILLIAM, LL.D., F.K.S., a major-general in the army, 

 the third in succession of the directors of the series of geodetical opera- 

 tions, which resulted in the Trigonometrical Survey of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, the production of the " Ordnance Maps " by its means, 

 and the measurement of the English Arc of the Meridian. The history 

 of family and hereditary talent, and the occupation of certain offices 



by a succession of gifted men, have frequently been illustrated in this 

 work. They are again forcibly recalled by the name now com- 

 memorated. The Rev. ZACHARY MUDOE, sometime master of the 

 Grammar School at Bideford, in Devonshire, and vicar of Abbots- 

 ham, afterwards a prebendary of Exeter and vicar of St. Andrews, 

 Plymouth, was the author of an ' Essay for a New Version of the 

 Psalms,' and of a much admired volume of sermons, published in 

 1727. He died April 3rd, 1769, and was eulogised by Dr. Johnson, 

 whose intimate friend he had been. THOMAS MUDGE, his second 

 son, born at Exeter in 1716, was apprenticed to the celebrated 

 watchmaker, George Graham, and became himself one of the most 

 eminent mechanists of his time : a select committee of the House of 

 Commons, assisted by a committee of men of science, philosophical 

 instrument-makers, and watchmakers, including Atwood, Ramsden, 

 Troughton, and De Luc, declared iu 1793, that it was "admitted on all 

 hands that Mr. Mudge was one of the first watchmakers which this 

 country has produced." In consequence of a report made by the 

 select committee, a reward of 30001. was granted by parliament for 

 his improvement iu the construction of chronometers. His decease took 

 place shortly after, in 1794. A full account of his invention, and of 

 the circumstances in the history of chronometry connected with it, 

 will be found in a work published by his son, Thomas Mudge the 

 Younger, entitled 'A Description, with Plates, of the Time-keeper 

 invented by Mr. Thomas Mudge,' &c., Lond., 1799, 4to. 



The fourth son of the vicar of St. Andrews was Dr. JOHN MDDGE, 

 F.R.S., for many years an eminent physician at Plymouth, who pub- 

 lished treatises on the inoculated small-pox, and on catarrhous 

 coughs. But he acquired a higher reputation in practical optics, 

 founded on a paper in the ' Philosophical Transactions,' vol. Ixvii., 

 " containing directions for making the best composition for the metals 

 of reflecting telescopes, together with a description of the process for 

 grinding, polishing, and giving the great speculum the true parabolic 

 form." For this paper, iu which an anticipation of Newton was 

 verified, the council of the Royal Society awarded him the Copley 

 Medal for the year 1777, on which occasion Sir John Pringle, M.D., 

 Bart. [PIUNQLE, JOHN], the president, delivered one of his celebrated 

 discourses. 



WILLIAM MUDOE, the subject of the present article, son of Dr. John 

 Mudge, was born at Plymouth in 1762, and having received his prin- 

 cipal education as a cadet in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, 

 was appointed to the Royal Artillery, in which corps he served abroad 

 for some time. After his return to England, the Trigonometrical 

 Survey of England and Wales, which had been commenced by General 

 Roy [HoY, WILLIAM], was placed by the recommendation of Dr. C. 

 Button [HuTTON, CHABLES], under the superintendence of Lieut. -Col. 

 Edward Williams, R.A., Lieut. Mudge, also on Dr. Button's recom- 

 mendation, being appointed his personal associate iu the work, and 

 being promoted shortly afterwards to the rank of Captain. The survey 

 which had suffered some interruption after the decease of the former 

 director, was actively resumed iu 1791. In the 'Philosophical 

 Transactions ' for 1795 and 1797, are two papers of great length, by 

 Lieut.-Col. Williams, Captain Mudge, and Mr. Isaac Dalby [DALEY, 

 ISAAC], giving an account of the Survey as carried ou from 1791 to 

 1796. Not long afterwards Captain Mudge succeeded to the office of 

 superintendent, and in 1793 he became u Fellow of the Royal Society. 

 In the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1800, ho continued the 

 account of the progress of the survey during the years 1797, 179S, 

 and 1799 ; and having attained the rank of Major, R.A., he gave in the 

 volume for 1S03, 'An Account of the Measurement of an Arc of the 

 Meridian, extending from Dunnose in the Isle of Wight .... to 

 Clifton, in Yorkshire . . . iu course of the operations carried on for the 

 Trigonometrical Survey of England, iu the years 1800, 1801, and 1802.' 

 Major Mudge, who united with energy of character, mathematical 

 talent and culture, and the valuable faculty of readily observing aud 

 appreciating the existence of corresponding qualities iu others, recog- 

 nising a kindred spirit in Lieutenant Colby, R.E. [COLBY, THOMAS], 

 conferred au inestimable benefit upon the uationul work which he 

 conducted, by securing his services as his chief personal assistaut. 

 In 1802, with Colby's assistance, he measured the base on King's 

 Sedgmoor; iu 1806, that ou Khuddlau Marsh; and during his super- 

 intendence a third base was measured by Colby on Belhelvie Links, 

 near Aberdeen, iu 1817. 



In 1799 had appeared, as a kind of demi-official publication, iu 

 4to, vol. L of an ' Account of the Survey from the commencement 

 in 1784, to the end of the year 17U6,' revised from the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions,' by Captain Mudge and Mr. Dalby. The second volume, 

 published in 1801, was edited by Captain Mudge alone, aud con- 

 tinued the account to the end of the year 1799 ; it was iu fact a 

 separate issue of the paper communicated to the Royal Society in 1SOO, 

 already noticed. The third volume, ' by Lieut.-CoL William Mudge, 

 of the Royal Artillery, F.R.S., and Capt. Thomas Colby, of the Koyal 

 Engineers,' published iu 1811, continues the account of the survey, ad 

 carried ou from 1800 to 1809. But a very small proportion however 

 of the whole body of observations was contained iu these volumes, 

 aud no further account of the survey was made public until long after 

 the decease of Mudge, when, iu 1842, his successor Colby published 

 all the observations made with Kamsdeu's zenith sector. The maps 

 however, known as thosj of tho Ordnance Survey, ou the scale of ou-j 



