1797+] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
es anfwer of your correfpondent X. 
to my laft, on the merits of Dr. 
ARNE, I am very forry to find to be 
characterized by fo high: a degree of per- 
tinacity. In reply to the plagiarifms of 
which that author was guilty, and which 
T have already noticed, your correfpond- 
ent oppofes a firing of affertions wholly 
unfupported by facts; and ‘‘¢be paj/- 
fages,’ fays he, “ are as unlike as any two 
that could have been named.’ As the beft 
anfwer to this ftrange affertion, I havean- 
nexed the paflages in queftion; and with 
all his affectation of mufical acumen, I 
defy him to render them, in the leaft de- 
gret, diflimilar ; unlefs, indeed, that he 
diftort them by an accent unnatural to 
the compofition, and contrary to genuine 
talte : : 
gn ee ee er 
nance 
Now Phebus finketh in the wef.. 
On a fair comparifon of the above, it 
will immediately appear to your intelli- 
gent readers, not only that the notes, 
but that the time, key, and accent alfo, are 
precifely the fame. I fhall, therefore, 
leave it to them to decide upon whom 
the imputation of ignorance falls. 
As ftandards of excellence, X refers 
us to the fongs in lyric harmony, ‘¢ Be- 
bold tbe Suveet flowers around,’ —** Come, 
Rofalind,” 8c. Thefe, however, are fo 
extremely deficient in tafte and expref- 
fion, that they bring to my mind what 
Dr. BURNEY fays of thofe which found 
their way into the opera: Dr. ARNE 
“‘ had kept bad company ; that is, had 
*« written for vulgar fingers and hearers 
** too long to be able to comport himfelf 
“ firft-circle of tafte and fafhion.. ‘ He 
** could fpeak to the girls in the Garden’ 
““ very well; but. whether through 
“( BASHFULNESS, or want of ule, he 
_ © had but little to fay to good company. 
“The common play-houfe and ballad 
<A paflages, which occurred in almoft. 
“every air in his opera, made the au- 
« dience wonder how they got there ;— 
‘¢ a tarnifhed Monmouth-ftreet fae of . 
«¢ clothes in the fide- boxes, would not 
« have furprifed them more,’’ 
Dr. Arne’s Mufical Merits, 
* properly at the opera-houfe, in the. 
425 
Were], fir, to direét the attention of 
your readers to mufic that will affeét the 
paffions, I would refer them to the ele- 
gant canzonets of HAaypN, “¢ My smother 
bis me bind my bai,’ —* Noa the dancing 
fun-beams play,” gc. and to other mafter- 
ly compofttions ; to the fongs of Sro- 
RACE, Viorrt, BERTONI, PAESIEL- 
Lo, and Mazzincui. The following 
are beautiful ly {weet : “Care donne che 
bremata,’—* As wrapt in Sleep f lay,’ — 
“6 Hope told a fratt ring tale,’ —“* Amante 
che nel CONE ere the Silver waters 
roam.’ '—The duo, * Tho" you think by this 
tower me,”’ poffefies the height of comic 
excellence. As examples of the bray ura, 
the following may fuffice: ‘“ Be mine, 
tender paffion,’’—'* Non te mer,’—-** Sp1- 
rit of my fainted fire.”’ »'Could it fail to _ 
excite furprife, after fuch an enumera= 
tion (without referring to HANDEL or, 
CORRELLI) to fee it afferted of Dr. 
ARNE’s Cone “ that its excellence 15 as 
confpicuors, and in as great a plenitude, as 
any perform: ince of tke fame fpecies and 
we, iat any age or country has pro-' 
duced ?” 
Not to prefer thofe enumerated above, 
to the vapid ballads of Dr. ARNE, is, I 
conceive, to be moft unhappily “ def- 
cient in tafte and judgement indeed 1” 
Having demonftratively proved the 
charge of plagiarifm againtt the Doétor 
in one inftance, I fhall now proceed to 
prove the fame, by quotation from the 
higheft mufical authority. Dr. Bur- 
NEY, whofe opinion would certainly not 
be the lefs favourable from his being in 
habits of private friendfhip with “Dr. 
ARNE, fpeaks in the following terms : 
‘* He had the merit of firft adapting 
“‘ many of the beit paffages of Italy, 
“¢ which all Europe HEU, to our own 
“< language, and of incorporating theng 
“ with bis own property.’ 
Again“ The seni melody of our 
ch country man, if analyfed, would per- 
‘‘ haps appear to be neither Italian nor 
‘“* Hnelifh, but an agreeable mixture of 
“« Italian, Englith, and Scots. Many of 
‘¢ his ballads, indeed, were profc{/éd, imi- 
‘© tations of the Scots’ ftyle; but in other 
“ fongs, he frequently dropped into it, 
‘6 perbaps without defign.”’ it often hap- 
pens, that men of common abilities, be- 
ing poffeffed of a good memory, are very 
fluent in converfation, and feldom at a 
lofs to keep up their thread of difcourfe ; 
but when this difcourfe is to be critically 
examined, we find in it nothing origi- 
nal, nothing that has fprung frow the 
operations of an original mind; it proves 
; te 
