Q U I 



It has been faid that Quinault's appreiiticefhip to poetry 

 was ferved under Triitan I'Hermile, by being hin domeftic. 

 The leffons of Triftan were probably of lome ufe to him, as 

 that author had had long experience in theatrical matters ; 

 but Quinault owed ilill more to nature : as before he was 

 twenty years old, he had diilinguiftied lumfelf by feveral 

 pieces for the llage, which had confidcrable fuccefs : and 

 before he was thirty, he produced fixteen dramas, fome of 

 which were well received by the pit ; but not all equally. 

 It is fuppofed that lome of thefe early pieces prejudiced 

 Boileau againlt Quinault early in his career. There was 

 neither regularity in the plan, nor force in the flyle : ro- 

 mantic lovers and common-place gallantry, in fcenes which 

 required a nervous pencil and vigorous colourmg. Thele 

 were defefts not likely to efcape the lafti of the French 

 Juvenal. He covered the young poet with ridicule ; re- 

 proached him with the aifettedly foft and languifliing dia- 

 logue of his lovers, by whom even / hate you was faid ten- 

 derly. 



Quinault, born with great fenfibility, was fo woimded 

 by his feverity, that he applied to the magiftratcs, not only 

 to lilence Boileau, but oblige him to remove his name from 

 his fatires ; but the attempt was vain. His enemy infulted 

 him Itill more cruelly by an epigram on the fubjecl. 



" Peace ! peace ! my friend — 



If from the public thou'dlt avoid difgrace, 



From thy own works, not mine, thy name efface." 



It was not till after Quinault was inhfted by Lulli to 

 write for the opera, that he filenced all his enemies, except 

 Boileau and his party, who envied him his fuccefs. The 

 French nation knew no better niufic that that of Lulli, and 

 thought it divine. Quinault's was thought of fecoudary 

 merit, till after his deceafe ; and then, in proportion as the 

 glory of Lulli faded, that oi Quinault increafed. Voltaire, 

 in the lirtt editiOH of his " Siecle de Louis Quitorze," in 

 1749, feems to have been the firft who fpoke out on the 

 fubjf ft ; not forry, perhaps, to lower Boileau a little in the 

 eves of the public. He there fays, that " Quinault was 

 celebrated for his beautiful lyric poetry, and for the gentle- 

 nefs with which he oppofed the unjuit fatires of Boileau. 

 His poetry was greatly fuperior to the mufic of Lulh. It 

 will always be read ; and Lulli, except in a few of his re- 

 citatives, can no longer be fiipported. However, it was 

 long believed that Quinault entirely owed his favour to 

 Lulli. Time appreciates all things." 



After this, his writings began to be examined and felt ; 

 and of late years, his name is never mentioned by his coun- 

 trymen without eloge. His operas, though admirable to 

 read, are ill calculated for modern mufic ; and are obliged 

 to be new written, ere they can be new fet, even in France. 

 Marmontel, who had modernized feveral of them for Pic- 

 cini to fet in 1788, gave M. Laborde a diflertation on the 

 dramatic writings of Quinault for mufic ; which is publifiied 

 ' in the fourth volume of his " EfTai fur la Mufique." 



He begins by aflerting that Quinault was the creator of 

 the French opera upon the molt beautiful idea that could 

 be conceived ; an idea which he had reahzed with a fuperi- 

 ority of talent, which no writer has fince approached. 



His defign was to form an exhibition, compofed of the 

 prodigies of all the arts ; to unite on the fame llage all that 

 can iatereft the mind, the imagination, and the fenfes. 

 And this illufive theatre Voltaire has admirably defcribed : 



" II faut fe rendre a palais magique," &c. 



" Hafle to the magic palace, where abound 



The joys fublijne of verfe, of dance, and found ; 



Q U 1 



where bright illufion fafcinates the fight, 

 And firen-notes the inchanted ear delight ; 

 Where all the platlic powers of art are (hewn, 

 And joys unnumber'd are combin'd in one." 



For this purpofe a fpeeies of tragedy is neceffary, that 

 fhall be fufficiently touching to move, but not fo aultere as 

 to refufe the enchantments of the arts that are neceflary to 

 embellifli it. Hiftorical tragedy, in its majellic and gloomy 

 fimplicity, cannot be fung with any degree of probability, 

 nor mixed with fcllivals and dances, or be rendered fuf- 

 ceptiblc of that variety, magnificence, fhow, and decora- 

 tion, where the painter and the macliinift. ought to exhibit 

 their enchantments. 



In Italy, where genuine tragedy has no theatre appro- 

 priated to its ufe, a people panionate for mufic have per- 

 mitted Regulus, Themiilocles, Alexander, and even Cato 

 himfelf, to utter their fpeeches in fong ; but a people, whofe 

 tafte ought to be more fevere, and more delicate, as to pro- 

 bability, having for comparifon the fchool of Corneille and 

 Racine, would have been very unwilling to fubltitute the 

 recitative of Lulli to the declamation of Baron. Melody 

 itfelf is a fabulous and magical language ; and in a theatre 

 " where all is prodigy, it feems confiftent that the manner 

 of fpeaking fiiould be that of enchantment as well as the 

 reft. We arc then in a new world ; it is nature enchanted, 

 and vifibly animated by a crowd of intelligences, whofe 

 wills are laws. Mufic there plays a marvellous part ; mufic 

 there conftitutes the probability of the marvellous ; but in 

 a reprefentation where all palies for natural, according to 

 truth and hiflory, by what means can we be prepared to 

 hear Auguftus, Cornelia, Agrippina, or Brutus fing \" 

 Might it not be rephed, " By the fame means as the French 

 are reconciled to thefe fame exalted charaAers converfing in 

 rhyme." When once it is fettled that all the charafters con- 

 verfe in a mufical language, no other ii expefted, and the 

 audience is foon reconciled to it. But all this is to prove 

 that the French alone are right, and Italy and all the reft of 

 the world wrong as to the mufical drama. The reft of 

 Europe is tired and aftiamed of flying gods and goddefles, 

 and have long fince furrendered mythological wonders both 

 in poetry and mufic to their children. But all people are 

 thought barbarians, who do not implicitly adopt the talle 

 and fafhions of France. 



But to return to Quinault, whom all the wits of the time 

 tried to write down. Ignorant of mufic and its powers, 

 they thought Lulli always right, and the poor, modeft, un- 

 pretending Quinault always wrong. Pofterity has long 

 difcovered the converfe of this fuppofition to be the 

 truth. Quinault's great miftake and misfortune, fays La 

 Harpe, was the calling his pieces tragedies, and not 

 operas. He would not then have been regarded as a 

 rival of Racine, or have offended claflical hearers or readers 

 with the little refemblance thefe compofitions had to 

 Greek and Roman dramas, or to the genuine tragedies of 

 the moderns. ■ 



QUINCE Tree, in Gardening, the common name of a 

 tree of the apple kind. See Pyrus Cydonia. 



Quince, in the Materia Medico. The fruit of the quince 

 is aitringent and ftomachic ; and its expreffed juice, in fmail 

 quantities, as a fpoonful or tvTO, is of conCderable fervice 

 in naufeae, vomitings, nidorous eruttations, and fome kinds 

 of alvine fluxes. This juice was formerly ordered in the 

 Lond. Pharm. to be made into a fyrup, called " fyrupus 

 cydoniarum," or fyrup of quinces, prepared by digefting 

 three pints of the depuratedjuice with a drachm of cinnamon, 

 half a drachm of ginger, and half a drachmof cloves, on warm 



afhes. 



