Italian Drama at Paris. while well arranged lights and shades are necessary to produce a fine effect in painting, an admirer of Shakspeare is justified in maintaining by analogy, that the pathos and dignity of his poetical scenes are uninjured by their juxta position with comic dialogues: "Each gives to each a double charm, But to return to Rosmunda, which by the way was Alfieri's favourite production, although it is generally considered inferior to his other pieces. Many persons who had never read the Italian author, but who were in some degree familiar with English history, attended the Salle Favart, fully expecting to see the enraged Queen of Henry II. give full scope to her jealousy on the beautiful Rosamond Clifford. It is, however, the daughter of a King of Lombardy who is so called: she has been compelled to marry Alboin, who had murdered her father; she has excited an officer named Amalchide to dispatch him, and in recompense has given him her hand, and the crown of Lombardy. Alboin has left a daughter by his first wife; she is named Romilda, and Rosmunda discovers that her husband Amalchide has fixed his affections on her, while she is devoted to Ildovaldo. Rosmunda wishes to have her step-daughter assassinated, and being unable to accomplish that cruel purpose, she at last dispatches her with her own hand. Ildovaldo and Amalchide, like most rivals, are in full effervescence; and to render the con flict of their passions more intricate, Amalchide is indebted to Ildovaldo for having saved his life in battle. When the lovely object of their strife is lost to them both, by the vindictive Queen's violence, Ildovaldo kills himself in despair; while Amalchide utters threats of direful vengeance, to which the Queen replies, by pointing to her victim. According to the chroniclers of Lombardy, the Queen had given her husband a poisonous draught; but Amalchide having discovered the fatal quality of the liquor, when he had swallowed only half, he compelled his wife to finish it, and thus deprived her of the satisfaction of surviving him. The part of Amalchide was performed by Paladini; that of Ildovaldo by Colomberti; Rosmunda was represented by Signora Internari, and Romilda by Signora Belloni. [July, They are classed among the leading performers of their country, and their respective parts were executed with considerable dignity and propriety. Their well-accentuated pronunciation, their grave delivery, and the bold language of the piece, formed a striking contrast with the insipid jingling of the libretti usually produced at this theatre. If the performances do not fence, we must bear in mind the great present any striking feature of exceldisadvantage under which the Italian drama labours: every person of talent is drawn to the Opera by the exclusive patronage which that species of representation enjoys. Madame Pasta is an illustration of this case; she has clearly shewn on many occasions, that if her fine voice had not placed her on an eminence as a cantatrice, she would have shone as an actress. Zucchelli and Pelligrini are also as interesting by their acting, as by their singing; and we may fairly presume that the appearance of a few stars would produce results to the Italian drama, similar to Kemble, Lekain and Talma, has efthose which the genius of Garrick and fected on the London and Paris boards. La Casa Désabitata was well adapted to remove the ennui occasioned by the tragedy. The narrative is founded on the ingenuity of a steward, who, wishing to enjoy the use of a house which the proprietor is desirous of selling, plays the part of a ghost to deter purchasers. A poor poet passes the night there, and with a pistol convicts the ghost of substantiality. This piece is very lively, and abounds with sallies of wit; from its reception it will no doubt be again represented. Taddei, who performed the part of the poet, was full of humour, and kept the house in a continued roar of laughter by his ludicrous pantomime. It is related that rin in 1824, before the Queen of Sardiwhen this piece was performed at Tunia, a gentleman was sent to desire the pistols might not be fired. The order stituting a sword, the poet used an unwas complied with; but instead of subloaded pistol, and the ghost fell wounded notwithstanding! The manager was not so ready as the mountebank, who, having no fire arms, announced that the battles in his booth would be fought with swords and staves, instead of muskets, for fear of alarming the ladies. 1830.] Salisbury Cathedral.-On the Invention of Letters. SALISBURY CATHEDRAL. THE HE accompanying plate represents an altar-screen for Salisbury Cathedral, designed by Mr. Buckler. We have been favoured with the engraving by that constant patron of art and server of our national antiquities, Sir R. C. Hoare, Bart. pre In consequence of the distance of the altar from the choir, which in the alterations effected by Wyatt, was removed to the extremity of the Lady chapel; the communion service is now read at a temporary altar placed within the centre arch at the eastern end of the choir (vide May Mag. p. 406). This arrangement naturally points to the necessity of erecting an altar-screen on, or adjacent to, the site of the original one, and which, if executed, it is desirable should still admit of a view of the Lady chapel from the choir of the Cathedral, to accomplish which was the object of the removal of the original one. Mr. Britton, though an eulogist of the alterations, suggests an introduction of this kind, and few who have seen the cathedral in its present state can avoid arriving at a similar conclusion. Mr. Buckler's design is formed with the view of concealing as little of the architecture at the eastern end of the church as possible. It is composed of a low screen of stone, with simple but appropriate ornaments in the general style of the cathedral. It will be observed, that whilst it is sufficiently high to form an appropriate background to the altar, it does not obscure the vaulting and pillars of the matchless Lady chapel. A partial view thus obtained will add to the effect of this beautiful portion of the building, and by separating it from the rest of the church, it will be brought to a conformity with the ancient cathedral arrangement. The screen is also judiciously contrived to fill up the intercolumniations without concealing the bases or any part of the shafts of the pillars of the three fine arches which separate the choir from the Lady chapel. The design appears to have been taken from a row of niches in the central division of the west front, immediately above the principal entrance. The embattled finish is however not in strict accordance with the architecture of the cathedral; battlements never being met with in buildings of a period so early, • Salisbury Cathedral, p. 80. GENT. MAG. July, 1880. 9 except in cases of additions to the original design: those which finish the western front being evidently the work of a period subsequent to the erection of the main building. With this exception, we award our approval of the design, and add our wish that so obvious an improvement may be speedily carried into effect. Mr. URBAN, Grimsby, June 24. Galileo admirandarum omnium inventionum humanarum signaculum, is an honour for which many ancient nations have contended; and the Hebrews, the Indians, the Chinese, the Syrians, the Persians, the Egyptians, and others, have each preferred an anxious claim to the immortality which so useful an invention could not fail to convey. Yet even the people who have ascribed to themselves this most invaluable discovery, are not agreed in the name of the individual whose learning and industry revealed to mankind the important disclosure; and able advocates have been found to support the claims of some of the most exalted characters in the patriarchal, Jewish, and heathen world. Artabanus and Eupolemus attribute it to Moses; Plato and Cæsar to Cadmus; Diodorus to the Syrians; Philo to Abraham; and St. Cyprian to Saturn or Noah. Sanchoniatho to Thoth; Iamblichus to the same individual, under the name of Trismegistus; Bar Hebræus to Enoch; Josephus7 to the posterity of Seth, and Aben Washih8 to Adam. Amidst these conflicting opinions, the truth must lie somewhere, and I will endeayour to find it. I may be unsuccessful, but I shall fail in very good company. In this investigation I begin with Moses, who, I presume, was not the inventor of letters, though his knowledge of them is absolutely certain; and proceed in the inquiry by regular gradations up to the fountain head from whence they appear to spring. The tables containing the Moral 1 Apud Euseb. de Proep. Evan.1.9, c.26. 2 L. 39, c. 24. 3 Lib. 5. 4 Euseb. ut supra, l. 1, c. 10. 5 De Myst. in notâ. 6 Vid. Wait. Orient. Ant. p. 182. 7 Ant. Jud. 1. 1, c. 3. Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphics explained. 10. On the Invention of Letters. Law were delivered before Moses wrote the Pentateuch, and if some knowledge of letters had not existed previously to that period, the legislator would scarcely have been able to understand what was there written, except by immediate inspiration; and he expresses nothing of that surprise and pleasure which would certainly have been elicited if those tables had contained the first alphabetical writing he had seen. But the circumstance is related with much elegance as an ordinary transaction in this respect. The Tables were delivered into the hands of Moses for the express use of the people of Israel, in a manner which intimates that Letters were not unknown to them. The general knowledge and use of letters amongst the Hebrews, is not derived, however, merely from implication, but is plainly and explicitly declared. They are directed by God himself to teach the written Law to their children; and to write it themselves on the gates and posts of their houses. Now from the slow progress which this species of knowledge made amongst other peoples and nations, it can scarcely be admitted that Moses was the first inventor of letters, because we have direct evidence to prove that the Israelites perfectly understood their nature and application almost immediately after the tables were delivered; and their rapid advances in this art would otherwise be highly improbable, and almost rise to an impossibility. The miraculous intervention of the Deity in this case cannot be admitted, because the writings of Moses do not contain the most obscure hint to sanction such an hypothesis; and if the legislator and the people had been divinely instructed in the use of letters, it must follow that an endowment so extraordinary and beneficial would have merited a peculiar specification, equally with the gift of tongues conferred on the Apostles of Jesus Christ. But the Hebrew language had arrived at a degree of perfection which has never been exceeded; and Moses actually quotes a passage from an existing written record, called "the book of the wars of the Lord."10 If Moses were the inventor of letters, we should be at a loss to account for the high degree of learning and ci 9 Deut. c. vi. v. 9. [July, vilization which the Egyptians undoubtedly possessed, although it was strongly impregnated with superstition, as from this source he derived his early instruction;12 and it is doubtful whether all this extensive wisdom and knowledge, in which they surpassed every nation in the world,13 could have been communicated and acquired in that abridged period of human existence, but by the aid of letters. "The very old Egyptians used to write on linen things which they designed should last long; and those characters continue to this day, as we are assured by those who have examined the mummies with attention. Is it unnatural to imagine that Moses, who was learned in all the arts of Egypt, wrote after this manner on linen?"14 And does it not hence follow that writing was one of the arts of Egypt, before the time of Moses? The inscription left on a column by the Phoenicians, whom Joshua drove out of Canaan, 15 must prove that they were acquainted with certain intelligible characters to express their ideas, which had been reduced to such a distinct and regular form, as to be understood in after ages.1 16 And this consideration makes it clear that letters were not a new invention in the time of Joshua. For though it be affirmed that the knowledge of writing was revealed to Moses in its utmost perfection, yet it will scarcely be urged that these nations, miserably sunk in idolatry, could so soon have reaped the benefit of that revelation. The intercourse between the Phoenicians and the Hebrews had hitherto been so limited, that the manners and customs of the one were little known to the 1830.] other wagbandons the Invention of Letters. ; it does not therefore appear probable that the art of expressing ideas by visible characters, at all times difficult of attainment, could have been so rapidly communicated as to be understood and practised by this people, in about half a century of war and public commotion. But the Phoenicians had cultivated this knowledge before the Israelites appeared on the borders of their land, which imparted a degree of refinement superior to the barbarous nations around them, and hence they were the most polished people in the land of Canaan. The terror naturally arising from the intelligence that the neighbouring states were invaded by a powerful and victorious race; and that the vanquished inhabitants were gradually abandoning their possessions, and flying to other countries for safety, would not be favourable to a new and abstruse study; for their chief solicitude, under the immediate impression of this dread, would be, to provide for their own security, which would appear somewhat doubtful, as the general foe approached the limits of their own territories. It is however said, that Moses could not be acquainted with the art of writing when he built an altar for a memorial, and called it Jehovah-Nissi;17 although it will scarcely be urged that the erection of an uninscribed altar or pillar, in commemoration of any remarkable event, implies an ignorance of letters, because the concurrent evidence of antiquity assures us that the contrary is true, It was the general custom of those ages to perpetuate the memory of any important transaction by an obelisk or pillar; and the pillar of Absalom 18 was uninscribed, as were many of the triumphal monuments of polished Greece and Rome; and there were few inscribed tombs in England from the Norman Conquest to the reign of Edward III. May it not be supposed that this altar was erected by Moses to mark the precise spot of ground on which the Amalekites were defeated; and that the particulars of the transaction were noted down by him in the record the he doubtless kept of the circumstances which attended their deliverance from Egyptian slavery? This conjecture is abundantly strengthened, if not confirmed, by the 17 Confus. of Tongues, p. 28. Exod. c. xvii. v. 15. 18 2 Sam. c. xviii. v. 18. 11 context, where Moses informs us that It is the opinion of eminent writers, that there were records remaining of God's promises to the posterity of Abraham, in the time of Job; and they think that Bildad the Shuite referred to them in his address 22 to that patriarch during his affliction. 23 Bishop Tomline conjectures, that the Book of Job was written either by Job himself, or compiled from materials left by him.24 Now if it be true that Job was the same with Jobab king of Edom,25 as is the opinion of Alstedius,26 he was the son of Zeráh of Bozra, the grandson of Esau; and of course lived some ages before the time of Moses. And this conjecture, as to the time of Job, is rendered very probable, because his friend Eliphaz, who is represented as a venerable old man, is said by Moses to be the eldest son of Esau. 19 Exod. c. xvii. v. 14. 20 Deut. c. xxv. v. 17. 21 Confus. of Tongues, p. 28. 22 Job, c. viii. v. 8. 23 Bishop Patrick. 25 Gen. c. xxxvi. v. 83. 12 Anecdote of Rev. W. Douglas and Lord Nelson. [July, Hence, whether Job wrote this book himself, or left materials behind him. in a visible form, relating the principal events of his calamitous life, he must have been acquainted with the art of writing, otherwise his record would not have been intelligible to posterity; and all the theories of learned men on the origin of this book, do not contain the slightest hint that it was transmitted through the medium of oral tradition. Job, in the paroxysm of his anguish and complaint exclaims, “O, that my words were now written! O, that mine adversary had written a book!" 28 These exclamations can imply nothing less, than that writing was practised in the time of Job; for language will scarcely furnish a name for an art or science quite unknown; and this art is referred to by Job in a familiar manner, as if his friends were perfectly acquainted with it. It is very strongly presumed that this book was written by Moses before the Deliverance, because no allusion whatever is made to that miraculous event. Now if this book had been a subsequent composition of the great Lawgiver, and written during the period when the Israelites sojourned in the wilderness, some reference to, or illustration of the circumstances attending their protracted wanderings, would have been inevitable. And Gray, in his preface to Schulteus on this book, explicitly asserts that it was composed by Moses during his residence with Jethro in the land of Midian, from ancient records in the custody, most probably, of his father-in-law, to comfort his afflicted brethren during their captivity in Egypt. And this would be many years before the promulgation of the written law. GEO. OLIVer. motion of a fellow creature, wending his lonely way, slowly and sorrowfully, with parched tongue and wounded feet, that ever the eye of pity glanced upon. The name of a sailor sounded in the ear of this christian divine like the name of a friend, and after the strictest interrogatories he found the object before him to be faithful and honest in his report. This quickened a lambent flame of benevolent generosity in his heart, and, very unlike the Jew of old, "who passed by on the other side of the way," he ordered his servant to alight, and stepping out of his carriage, desired them both to enter, and he would drive. I saw their approach to the city; the gates of the palace soon closed on them, and a worthy defender of our shores was thus hospitably received but he had not been used to march, and for a time he sank under it; and even amidst all comfort, where the ever bountiful hand of Providence had conducted him, he would rather have been on the turbulent bosom of that ocean and with those comrades where his courageous heart was centered. I next saw him, Sir, ascend the steps of the portico of the Council House at Salisbury, and stand by the portly figure of his benefactor, who with his fine and sonorous voice had called "Bassett" from the immense crowd assembled to witness the ceremonial of presenting the city's freedom to the Hero of the Nile, in his progress, with a numerous retinue, to the Abbey of Fonthill. When introduced, the veteran was immediately recognized by Lord Nelson, as one of those daring and brave men who would either vanquish or die, and who was under his flag "when glory like a dazzling eagle stood" on the brow of the veteran, and when "Egypt's groans and cries"+ had aroused his country to effect her deliverance. After his introduction to his Lordship, he descended the steps of the portico again, and, mingling with the crowd, with a light heart exhibited "the King's picture in gold," a present from the Admiral to drink his Majesty's health. He was afterwards employed by his benefactor in the garden of his vicarage at Gillingham, Dorset. Yours, &c. ALPHA. |