™ t 
1796.) 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
“SIR, ‘ 
1G ons that you have begun to 
- accommodate your readers with 
mufical critiques, on a new plan; and not 
doubting bui the improved ftyle in which 
they are executed, will attract your mu- 
fical readers, and excite their attention 
to any obtervations which you fhall think 
proper to offer to their _perufal, on the 
{cience of harmony or its profeffors; I 
here tran{mit to you fome remarks on the 
life, genius, and character, of the late 
Pi ATBEe,, 
Dr. Thomas Auguftine Arne was born 
May 28, 1710, and was the fon of Mr, 
Thoms Arne, 
fireet, Covent-garden, the perfon fup- 
poled to be depicted by Mr. Addifon, in 
his well-known charaéter of the Politician, 
mn Wow155 and 16e, of the Tatler. Mr. 
‘Thomas Arne defigned his fon for the 
law, and put him, at an early period of 
life, to the ftudy of that profefiion ; but 
the. volatile temper and elegant caft of 
genius, which foon began to develope 
themfelves in the young ftudent, were 
ili fitted to the dry application neceffary 
to legal proficiency and advancement; 
-and he quitted the {cience feleéted for 
him by his father, and chofe one more 
congenial to his tafte and difpofition. 
His new courfe of ftudy commenced 
privately. He procured himfelf a violin, 
and, unaided by any tutor, made, in a 
fhort time, fo confiderable a progrefs on 
that inftrument, that he was qualified to 
acquit himfelf in a band: and nothing 
could exceed the furprize of his father, 
when, being one amongft the andience 
at a refpectable concert, he difcovered 
his fon flourifhing in the orcheftra as one 
of the principal performers. Coke on 
Littelton did not fo eafily yield to Handel 
and Corelli in the father’s judgment as 
in the fon’s, and he was at firft much ir- 
ritated at a circumftance which feemed 
to counteract the golden views he had 
entertained for him; but the young mu- 
fician devifed fuch fatisfaétory arguments 
for his conduét, that his father at length 
confented to his relinquifhing the ftudy 
of the law, and the harmony of the or- 
cheftra fuperceded the diffonance of the 
courts. 
Mr. Arne now placed himfelf under 
the tuition of Mr. Feftin, an excéllent 
performer on the violin, and attended to 
his chofen profeffion with fuch affiduaus 
-application, that he foon rivalled the 
abilities of his mafter. The peculiar 
upholfterer, in King- 
' Life of Dr. Arne. 70% 
ftyle of his-execution, which indicated 
his tranfcendent tafte and genius, re- 
commended him to the notice and favour 
of Farinelli, Sencfino, Geminiani, and 
the other great Italian muiicians of that 
time ; and through their friendfhip he 
obtained the freedom of the King’s 
Theatre, where, by a conftant attend- 
ance, and an acutenefs of obfervation, 
he added to his own rich and prolific. 
conception, all the elegancies and beauties 
for which the mufic of Italy is diftin- 
guifhed. The firft regular engagement 
into which our young mufical genius en- 
tered as a public performer, was that of 
leader of the band at the theatre royal 
Drury-lane.. In this fituation he was 
diftinguifhed for feveral years.-and the 
exceilence of his performance would 
have procured a long life to his name, 
even had he never exerted his rare ta- 
lents as a compofer. 
At the age or eighteen, Mr. Arne com- 
pofed the opera of Rofamond, which, 
though a charming production, had not 
its merited fuccefs; but he was too con- 
fident of the powers with which nature 
and ftudy had furmfhed him, to bein any 
degree difcouraged, and he foon after 
fet to mufic the mafque of Alfred, at the 
inftance of the then Prince of Wales, his 
prefent Majefty’s father, which was re- 
prefented on the 1ft of Auguft, 1740, in 
the gardens of Clifden, in commemo- 
ration of the acceffion of George the 
Firft, and in honour of the birth- 
day of the Princefs of Brunfwick; 
at which performance the prince and 
princefs of Wales, with their whole 
court, were prefent. This cempofition 
did its author contiderable credit, but it 
was his next production which fixed the 
bafis of his profetfional fame. The mufig 
of the mafque of Comus is as inimitable 
as the poetry, and will ferve to unite the 
names of Milton and Arne fo long as 
harmony is cultivated. To thefe pieces 
fuccecded the opera of Eliza, the opera 
of Artaxerxes, the mafque of Britannia, 
the oratorio of the Death of Abel, Judith, 
ant’ Beauty and Virtue; the mufical eng 
te tainment of ‘Thomas and Sally, the 
Prince of the Fairies, the fongs in Ag 
You Like It, the Merchant ot Venice, 
the Arcadian Nuptials, King Arthur, 
the Guardian Outwitted, and the Rofe, 
befides a fet of harpfichord. concertos, 
innumerable cantatas, fongs, catches, 
and glees, and the two great productions 
with which he clofed his ingenious la- 
bours, Caractacus and Elfrida. 
The degree of Doétor of Mufic was 
4U 2. : conferred 
