transcribed t схіводная large quotations, immediately following thefe, which the Au- Treating of children, our monk, or rather his tranflator, fays, that they are fette to lernynge, and compelled to take lernynge and chaftyfynge. They are plyaunt of body, able and lyghte to moevynge, wytty to lerne carolles, and wythoute befyneffe, &c.' and they love an apple more than golde, &c.'-De Puella, he faith, A mayde, chylde, and a damofel is called Puella, as it were clene and pure as the black of the eye. Men byhove to take hede of maydens, for they ben hote and moyfte of complexyon, and tendre, fmale, plyaunt, and fayr of difpofycyon of body.-Treating De Viro, he faith that a man hath that name of myghte and vertue, and ftrengthe, for in myghte and in ftrengthe a man paffyth a woman.' In his account of his courting, wedding and behaviour to his bride, we meet with only this paffage in which mufic is mentioned. He fpeakyth to her pleyfauntly and byholdeth her cheer in the face with pleyfynge, and glad chere, and wyth a fharp eye, and affentyth to her at lafteand makyth revels, and feeftes, and spoufayles, and gevyth many good geftes to frendes and giftes, and comfortyth and gladdith his giftes with fonges and pypes, and other mynftralfye of mufyke: and afterwarde he bringeth her to the pryvitees of his chambre, &c.' 6 The Author at length returns to his fubject, where we willingly attend him; efpecially as he treats the mufical antiquarian with what may be deemed fome choice morfels. We mean his accounts of the contents of two collections of ancient mufical tracts to which he has had access. The firft is defigned by the title of the Cotton Manufcript, the original of which was, according to the Author's expreffion, rendered ufelefs,' by the fire which happened in Afhburnham house, where it was depofited. Before this event, however, a copy of it had been procured at the expence of the late Dr. Pepufch. From a note at the conclufion of the first tract contained in it, the whole collection is faid to have been compleated in the year 1326. In the fecond of thefe tracts, the writer of it in giving rules for extempore defcant, cautions the finger againft the ufe of difcords; and as he is perfectly filent concerning their preparation and refolution, without which they are intolerable, our prefent Author thinks that the ufe of difcords in musical compofition was then unknown. Nevertheless the anonymous author of the third tract, treating of defcant, and speaking of concords, fays, that altho' i the ditone and femiditone' (the major and minor third) are not reckoned among the perfect concords, yet that among the best organifts in fome countries, as in England, in the country called Weftcontre, they are used as fuch.-Many good organists and makers of hymns and antiphons put difcords in the room of concords, without any rule or confideration, except that the difcord of a tone or fecond be taken before a perfect concord.'' Here, fays our Hiftorian, it is to be observed, that for the first time we meet with the mention of difcords;'-he ought to have added, in compofition, or mufic in parts: for furely difcords have been mentioned by almoft every writer on the science. The next collection is intitled the manufcript of Waltham Holy Cross, and was principally written by John Wylde, who calls himself precentor of the monaftery at that place, and is supposed to have flourished about the year 1400. Our Author gives a regular epitome of this manufcript, which contains in general an illuftration of the principal mufical precepts of Boetius, Macrobius, and Guido; and obferves, that though these two collections feem to contain all of mufic that can be supposed to have been known at the time of writing them; they make but a very inconfiderable part of those which appear to have been written in that period which occurred between the time of Guido and the invention of printing.'-'It is not to be wondered at,' he adds, that the greater number of these authors were monks; for not only their profeffion obliged them to the practice of mufic, but their fequeftered manner of life gave them leifure and opportunities of studying it to great advantage.' Here our Hiftorian ise, by a feemingly invincible propenfity, to give us the ftate of monkery in detail, during the three centuries preceding the reformation. He not only exhibits the various titles and functions of all the members of the monaftic order, from the abbot and prior, to the Coquinarius, Gardinarius, and Portarius; but he enumerates the officesthe Lavatorium, where the clothes of the monks were wafhed, and where alfo at a conduit they washed their hands;' -the Kitchen, with larder and pantry adjoining ;'-the flables, under the care and management of the tallarius, or master of the horse, and provendarius, &c.' Nay he defcends to a claffification or rather review of the monkish cavalry; confifting of manni, geldings for the faddle of the larger T 2 fize ; again led astray fize; runcini, runts, small nags; fummarii, fumpter horses; Before and after thefe diicuffions, the Author takes great Among other curiofities in this way, the Author gives us a wonderful canon confifting of only 17 notes, from Kircher, which may be fung,' fays the latter, by four or five voices more than 2000 ways.' Kircher mentions another short compofition, which may be diftributed into 128 choirs, and fung by 2,200,000 voices, nay by an infinite number;'beating the harpers in the Revelations hollow, whofe concert he quotes on this occafion ;- And I heard the voice of harpers harp ing ing with their harps, and they fung as it were a new fong, &c. And no man could learn that fong, but the one hundred and fortyfour thousand which were redeemed from the earth,' chap. xiv. Among the examples of this fpecies of compofition-where mufic is bound in chains, and turned topfy turvy-the Author prefents us with fome hitherto inedited canons of Dr. Bull, and of Bird, taken from manufcripts to which he had accefs. After giving a fugue of the latter, transcribed from Marley's Introduction, of two parts in one, per Arfin & Thefin, with the point reverted,' the Author, in fober fadnefs, quotes Butler [Principles of Mufic] as lavish in his commendations of it, and as pointing out, and unfolding its excellencies in the following terms; which will give the Reader fome idea of this kind of harmonical legerdemain. • The fifth and last observation is, that all forts of fugues (reports and reverts of the fame, and of divers points in the fame, and divers canons, and in the fame and divers parts) are fometimes moft elegantly intermeddled, as in that inimitable leflon of Mr. Bird's, containing two parts in one upon a plain-fong, wherein the first part beginneth with a point, and then reverteth it note for note in a fourth or eleventh; and the fecond part first reverteth the point in the fourth as the first did, and then reporteth it in the unifon; before the end whereof, the first part having refted three minims after his revert, fingeth a fecond point, and reverteth it in the eighth; and the second first reverteth the point in a fourth, and then reporteth it in a fourth laftly, the first fingeth a third point, and reverteth it in a fifth, and then reporteth in an unifon, and so closeth it with fome annexed notes; and the fecond first reverteth it in a fifth, and then reporteth it in an unison, and fo clofeth it with a fecond revert; where, to make up the full harmony, unto thefe three parts is added a fourth, which very mufically toucheth ftill upon the points reported and reverted.' Now every word of this is Arabic to me!' quoth my uncle Toby. We beg the Reader's pardon for this flipbut the following paffage in Triftram Shandy's life and opinions fuddenly bounced into our heads, and produced this apoftrophe. There is, in fact, a marvellous fimilitude between the mafter butler's account of the mufical fears of mafter Bird, with his various reportings, revertings, and clofings, of first and fecond points-and Shandy's defcription of the allegorical vaultings and fummerfets of Gymnaft and capt. Trippet, given as famples of polemical divinity. Here at least is the paffage, fomewhat abridged. Then fuddenly-he fetched a gambol upon one foot, and turning to the left hand, failed not to carry his body perfectly round, juft into his former pofition.-Then with a marvel T3 lous t/ ous ftrength and agility, turning towards the right hand, he fetched another frifking gambol as before-and so turned and whirled himself about three times; at the fourth reverfing his body, and overturning it upside down, and forefide back.-Then Trippet-incontinently turned heels over head in the air-and made above a hundred frisks, turns, and demi-pommadas *.' This can't be fighting! faid my uncle Toby,' on hearing Yorick read this paffage. Certes, this cannot be mufic!exclaimed our brother, Martinus Scriblerus, when we read to him the foregoing quotation, given us by our Hiftorian. It is mufic, or is fo called, however, though the ears have generally little concern with it; and it is of a fpecies which finds great favour in the eyes of our Hiftorian. No two men, the Reader must know, can well differ more in their tastes and mufical opinions, than the Author and our ancient affociate aforefaid; who abominates this pedantry of points, first reported, and then reverted, to be, underfood only by looking at the fcore: and yet, notwithstanding his Grecian ideas, he is by no means an enemy to the temperate use of that modern invention, harmony; when it lays no improper reftraints on the genius and fancy of the compofer. He reJifhes in the highest degree the quartettos, quintettos, periodical overtures, &c. of Haydn, Vanhall, Stamitz, &c.-in fhort, what our Author calls the trash daily obtruded on the world.'-Had we intrufted the critique of this work to our brother Martin, the intemperate mortal would abfolutely have made dog's meat of our Hiftorian; and would not even have given him credit for the antiquarian fragments and other curiofities which his work really contains. We have hitherto taken care, however, to fteer a middle courfe between them; as we fhall continue to do in the remaining part of this criticifm. * Vol. iv. chap. 28. pag. 100. edit. of 1775. B. ART. IX. Sermons, by Hugh Blair, D. D. One of the Ministers of the High Church, and Profeffor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University, of Edinburgh. 8vo. 6s. bound. Cadell. 1777. HOUGH there is, perhaps, no fpecies of composition which remains fo far below its juft degree of perfection as Sermons; and though, in general, they excite no great share of the public attention;-yet the difcourfes before us cannot fail of being favourably received by readers of very different characters. The man of taste and the polite Scholar, will be pleafed with them, as elegant compofitions; and the man of the world will approve the Preacher's judicious obfervations upon human life; but above all, thofe who read in order to |