6.2.
mvp-aristotle-comment-15
6.3
SOME PARTS ATTAIN THEIR END BY VERSE ALONE, AND OTHERS HAVE THE ASSISTANCE OF MUSIC.
IT seems impoffible for any thing to be more clearly expressed than this; for Ariftotle, contrary to his general custom, has been particularly careful in defining the precise meaning of the two words he uses, μέτρον and μέλος ; and he also expressly says, they are employed separately. Yet notwithstanding this, many critics are decidedly of opinion, that the Greek tragedies were fung throughout, and the distinction between the dialogue and the choral odes, was exactly the fame with that between the recitative and the airs in the Italian opera; and, in support of this opinion, they draw many arguments from the accounts given by ancient writers on the manner of performing the Greek tragedy. Being not very well acquainted with the technical language of the music of my own country, I cannot be supposed to be a critic in that of Greece. Under this disadvantage, it is with diffidence I attempt to reconcile this positive declaration of Ariftotle, with those passages in other writers, which appear to contradict it, and which the reader will find in Metaftafio's ESTRATTO DELLA POETICA. The
The ancient theatres (2) were of such a vast extent, besides being open at the top, that it was impoffible for the human voice to fill them in its natural pitch; in consequence of which, it was absolutely necessary to employ artificial means to encrease its force, and the dramatic [R] mask was invented, which, in some measure, acted as a speaking trumpet: but as this must destroy all natural modulation of the voice, it was found necessary to supply this defect by an [s] artificial notation of found, and to render this more distinct and loud, it was very probably attended by fome flight inftrumental accompaniment, but folely for the purpose of encreasing and regulating the found of the voice, and not to produce any musical effect; and this was equally applicable to the [T] quick repartee of the dialogue, as to the longer monologue. It must be observed, that Ariftotle does not fimply say, that tragedy EM- PLOYS music and verse separately, but that it ATTAINS ITS END by [Q] See Note VII. chap. XIII. [R] The mask had fomething very fingular. The immenfe aperture of the mouth was ' so contrived as to augment the found of the voice; it was in effect a real speaking trumpet, (porte voix) necessary to fill the wide extent of the place, as well as the brazen vases which ▲ were placed in the intervals of the theatre.' BRUMOY. [s] For a curious obfervation of Dr. Francklin on this practice of the ancients, fee note I. [T] ' If, as Ariftotle seems plainly to say, fome part of the Greek tragedy was spoken like ⚫ our tragic declamation, without any musical accompaniment, it was, most probably, that part of the dialogue which is in every tragedy easily diftinguished from the rest, by its being ' carried on in a fort of quick repartee of verse to verse.' TWINING, note 46, page 245- Whether the monologues, or long speeches, the μακραὶ ῥήσεις, as Plato calls them, were ' performed in the fame way as the rest of the dialogue, or, as has been imagined, were ' diftinguished by being more measured, or musical, is a point not easily cleared up.' IBID. page 247. them
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. them separately, in their respective parts; using the word περαίνεσθαι, which he has just before applied to the accomplishment of its final purpose, the refinement of the paffions. Therefore, in those parts, where verse only is used, though tragedy might be compelled, from fome incidental cause, to employ accompaniment, he does not confider it as effential to the performance and effect, as he does in those parts where the end of tragedy is attained by music [u]. What Metaftafio says on this subject, is well worth our attention. He is very fanguine in the notion, that the whole composition of the ancient tragedy was musical, following the opinion of his countryman Castelvetro, which he quotes. His reasoning on this subject is founded on the idea, that all recitation must adopt some kind of tune different from the common cadence of speech. A voice,' he says, to be • heard by a number of people to whom it is addressed, must be fo exceffively altered from its natural system, that it must necessarily be regulated differently, according to the different orders of its new proportions, (that is, I suppose, according to the extent it is necessary, from the fize of the place, or the number of the auditors, to give it,) * otherwise it will form a wild, dissonant, and ridiculous scream; this new regulation must be music, and this music is so necessary to whoever speaks in public, that if it is not supplied by art, nature herself suggests it. There is no orator that does not fing; no cryer, no public vender of any merchandize, that is not conftrained, for the purpose ' of making himself heard, either to adopt, or form, according to his own caprice, some kind of tune. Even those actors who pretend to [υ] Διὰ μέλος. X recite C
recite verfe without music, are obliged to invent one which they call • declamation: music, indeed, but very imperfect, since it is only regu- • lated by the uncertain judgement of the reciter's ear. This natural ، proof, which is as clear as it is true, joined to an infinite number of others which confirm it, discovers the error of those critics who have pofitively decided, that no part of the ancient drama was sung except the chorus.' ESTRATTO DELLA POETICA, page 52. Now after all, this only proves, or rather corroborates the truth of my conjecture, that, as when the voice is carried to an extent beyond its natural pitch, it will necessarily adopt some unnatural tone; so it is highly probable that recitation in the ancient theatres, whose size required an extraordinary extent of voice, and its consequence, an unnatural tone, might have that tone regulated by some instrumental accompaniment, which though so perfectly distinct from those parts, such as the choral odes, where mufic was employed, in the fullest sense of the word, as completely to justify the opposition in which they are placed to each other by Aristotle, might yet occafion those passages in the ancient writers, that are quoted. by Metaftafio in support of his hypothefis [x]. [x] The strongest argument of Metastasio is drawn from a passage of Ariftotle himself, Problem, Sect. xix. 49. where he describes the different kinds of music adapted to the actors, and the chorus. All the others are drawn from Roman writers, except one from Lucian de Saltatione, which is evidently intended to shew the absurdity of the musical accompaniment, in his time, which was, most probably, different from that of the Athenian stage in the time of Ariftotle; for while the blames this unnatural accompaniment, he expressly says, that the AN- CIENT POETS regulated the other decorations of the theatre as well as the mere words, a proof that the practice was changed; and Metastasio himself allows he is complaining of the effeminate music of the actors of his own time; therefore it not only invalidates the evidence of the Roman writers, but tends to overturn the general system of Metastafio, as to the merit of the musical drama.. The
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. The real motive of Metastasio's attachment to this hypothesis, it is sufficiently obvious, arose from his partiality to the opera, in which he was a most excellent writer, and which he wishes to shew was a lineal, and legitimate offspring, of the Greek tragedy, as most probably it was. The Roman theatre having turned the neceffary means of modulating the voice, in so large and open a room, into a real musical accompaniment, which the Italian theatre retained as an ornament after it ceased to be abfolutely requifite. But the fize of the modern theatre (v) is by no means such as to require any unnatural elevation of the voice. And as to the necessity of every person speaking in a tone, who addresses a public assembly, it certainly is not founded on fact. A member of parliament, who was to address the house of commons, or even his constituents, in any thing like a tone, or tune, would not be heard a moment. Indeed the substitution of modulated, for empassioned accent, or, in other words, the laying any emphafis of any kind, but what the sense, or rather the expreffion of the sense requires, is a certain unerring proof that the speaker is delivering what he has before committed to memory. I have heard many good preachers; but I never heard one who did not, in the course of a fermon, lay the [z] emphasis often on places contrary to the sense. I have heard (Y) I mean the theatres of this country, used for the representation of the regular drama. The theatres of Italy, especially those at Naples, Turin, and Milan, may require modulated recitation to fill them with propriety. [z] By emphasis here, I mean the distinction of words in a fentence, and not of fyllables in a word, which, I think, both Dr. Beattie and Mr. Nares have erroneoufly confounded with accent. For a further attempt to illustrate this subject, the reader is referred to note II. chap. xx. as
as many bad speakers in parliament; but I never heard one who was speaking on the subject in debate without premeditation, that ever placed the emphafis contrary to the sense he meant to convey; and in common conversation the emphasis was never yet laid improperly. As to the tone used by the venders of merchandize, we allow a kind of fong to the cryers of oysters and mackrel; but an auctioneer, who attempted to adopt one, would certainly be laughed at. And fince the days of Garrick [A], all unnatural declamation has been entirely banished from our theatres. The probability and excellence of the musical drama is also defended by Metastasio on another principle, with which, as a general rule, I perfectly agree, viz. That an imitator, who does not undertake to pro- • duce the exact truth, but only to give as great a likeness as possible to the • material that he employs, has perfectly fulfilled his promise, and attain- ' ed his end, when he has given it every thing of which his materials are 'capable-and that it is from ignorance of this nature of imitation, that' arises the contemptuous judgement of those, who treat the musical • drama as improbable, and absurd, because the actors die with a fong in ' their mouth; as if from its first origin, language measured and modu- •lated, was not the appropriated and indispensible material of every kind • of poetical imitation.' ESTRATTO DELLA POETICA, page 87, 88. [A] However much the public may be obliged to Mr. Garrick for this and other improvements of dramatic representation, we must lament his alteration of Drury-lane Theatre, which, from being the best calculated of any I was ever in to convey found, since the deepening of the front boxes, and first gallery, is so faulty in that respect, as almost to want the afsistance of the ancient mask. This defect is now radically removed by the pulling down the old theatre and I hope it will not exist in the magnificent one which is erecting on its fite. Now
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. Now though, as I have already faid, I perfectly allow the truth of this as a general principle; yet the last part of the quotation, taken in its strictest sense, is not true; neither does it follow, because in imitations made by the fine arts the material should appear, that every material is proper for every kind of imitation, or that some materials may not be fo inadequate, or so oppofite to the imitation of the object intended, as to be entirely incapable of producing any interest. For though difficulty overcome may, in some cafes, inhance the merit of imitation, as 'fculp- • ture in marble is more valuable than in wax, on account of the greater • difficulty of the execution (B);' yet no difficulty furmounted can ever compenfate for any radical inadequacy in the material to effect its proposed end. A statue of Glycon will excite the admiration of cultivated taste, even when well copied by the easiest process; but Atlas hewn into a statue, would only awake the wonder of the multitude. Even Metastafio could fee the force of this distinction when it favored an hypothefis of his own. For arguing against the ancient chorus, he blames the absurdity of a number of persons agreeing together in the same sentiments at once, and bursting forth in a general declaration of them. (Estratto, page 236.) Forgetting that this may also be solved, by saying these combined voices are only the means of imitation, and that there is no more real abfurdity in a [c] speech being accompanied by vocal than by instrumental performers. And again, in his note on this line of the epistle to the Pifos, Quæ canerent agerentque peruncti fæcibus ora.' [B] Estratto, page 344. [c] Many of the choral odes in the Greek tragedies are in the fingular number, as spoken by one person. As in the Edipus Tyrannus, v. 1105, beginning Είπερ ἐγὼ μάντις ἐιμί where
where he is defending against Sanadon the continued music of the Greek drama, he observes, that if the contrary were allowed, there would be found in the Greek tragedy, that disgustful medly [D] of speaking and ، ، finging, which is now hardly tolerated in the [E] comic opera, as being an extravagant deformity, invented by the mirth of scurrilous licentiousness, to excite the laugh of the vulgar.' In regard to the first instance, Metastafio, aware that what he urges against the fudden coincidence of sentiment and expreffion, in the perfons of the Greek chorus, might be urged with equal force against the chorus of the Italian opera, tries to qualify it by saying, it is natural for the stage to avail itself of the pleasure of a chorus, in a facrifice, or a triumph, where the people may be supposed to fing premeditated words, or, in a popular commotion, where they may naturally agree, on a fudden, in their thoughts and expression, as in calling for justice, vengeance, pity, war, or peace. Unluckily in this cafe the theory and the practice of Metastafio are at variance; for there is hardly a concluding chorus among his operas, that is not, to the full, as unlike the sudden coincidence of popular opinion, as the most moral ode of Sophocles. And as to the people's finging a premeditated chorus, what becomes then of the material of imitation? (F) From that instant, musical language ceases to be [D] See Mr. Twining's note 46, page 245, for a complete answer to the notion of this mixture being incompatible with the dignity of the Grecian tragic muse. [E] Metastasio does not mean the Italian comic opera which is accompanied throughout and is their regular comedy, but the French opera comique (which words he uses,) and which mode of compofition, copied from the French, has driven the scenes of Shakespear from our disgraced theatre, to found their fame on the inferior, though generous efforts of a fifter art. [F] There is a curious instance of this fort in LOVE IN A VILLAGE, when Justice Woodcock fings a fong, as a fong to his daughter's lover. There is an absurdity the reverse of this, though of
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. be the language of the characters, the deception is expressly disavowed, and the performer may as well, as Bottom advises the lion, 'come forward and fay, "I am no such thing, I am a man as other men are." And ' there indeed let him name his name, and tell them plainly, he is Snug ' the joiner.' What was the effect of the musical accompaniment on the ancient theatre, whether continued throughout the whole piece, or only used in parts of it, we can now hardly judge, as we scarcely know what it was. On the modern stage it feems to weaken the force of the interest, as I think no artificial modulation can ever equal the empaffioned notes of nature uttered by a good actor. In general, the pleasure we derive from the mufic, is rather our object in the Italian opera than the intereft of the scene. It appears, I confefs, to me, that blending music with empaffioned language [G], tends strongly to weaken the energy of both, and the only way to give each their full effect is to follow the precept of Ariftotle, and keep them ' diftinct in their respective parts [H].' of exactly the fame tendency, in Tancred and Sigismunda, where the letter from Tancred, which Sigifmunda reads, is in profe. In both these cafes the material of imitation is avowed. It is exactly as if the dialogue only of the Iliad, or the Paradife Loft, were in verse, and the connective parts, like the marginal directions of the drama, were in prose. If all the other characters of Love in a Village occafionally express their sentiments in musical airs, Justice Woodcock should not be an exception. If Tancred speaks in verse, he should not write in profe. [G] It must be remembered I am not speaking of lyric poetry, but confine my observations entirely to dramatic effect. [H] Aristotle, in his first chapter, make the diftinguishing character between the regular drama and the nomi and dithyrambic poetry, to confist in this circumstance, of the one species ufing music and poetry together throughout the piece, and the other in separate places. Thofe
Those writers who have particularly confidered the powers of mufic, its merit as an imitative art, and its influence over the passions [1], have been of opinion, that its principal force does not confist so much in exciting our feelings by imitation, as in the power it possesses of caufing fuch a temper of mind, as is fit to receive the impreffions intended to be made by the poet. If this is the cafe, the chorus [K] being an essential part of the ancient tragedy, could not poffibly have been disposed better than it was by the custom of the Grecian theatre, where the leading character of the group, or the Coryphæus, was confidered as one of the characters of the drama, and took a part in the action; while the whole body together were employed as a kind of musical ornament between the intervals of the action, keeping up, and heightening the force of the impreffion arifing from the incidents, by moral and pathetic reflections on their consequences, delivered in beautiful verse, and accompanied by mufic calculated to awaken congenial sensations in the mind. M. Leffing observes, [L] (Dramaturgie, vol. i. page 44,) that ' as the ' orchestre in our theatres, in fome degree, holds the fame place with ' the chorus of the ancients, the lovers of the drama have long wished, ' that the music which precedes the performance, and that which is ، played between the acts, should agree with the nature of the piece.' And he tells us, an attempt of this fort was made by a M. Scheibe, on the tragedies of Polyeucte, and Mithridate, and executed on several dif- [1] Particularly Mr. Harris, Dr. Beattie, and Mr. Twining. [K] See note IV. chap. XII. [L] Mr. Twining makes the fame observation. The performers,' he says, 'in the orchestra • of a modern theatre, are little, I believe, aware that they occupy the place, and may confider ' themselves as the lineal defcendants of the ancient chorus.' NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION, Part ii. Sect. xxi. page 103. ferent
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. ferent theatres in the year 1736. The fame attempt, he says, was also made by M. Agricola, at Berlin, on the tragedy of Semiramis, and with complete success. I fear this experiment would hardly succeed on our theatre. It is, sometimes, very difficult for the lover of the drama to prevail on his neighbours, to suppress their conversation in the most interesting scenes of a tragedy; and I believe no musical power, lefs than that of Orpheus, could charm an English audience from the pleasure of talking between the acts. We fee, every day, the same persons, who, in the country, would pay half a guinea, and travel twenty miles in the dark, to fit in raptures, real or affected, at a concert, performed by a band, in every respect inferior to those which fill our theatrical orchestres, appear perfectly inattentive to the music at the play-houses, and who would think a person out of his senses, who should request their attention to any piece of mufie that should be performed between the acts of a play. Only one attempt, that I know of, (I cannot say of this kind, fince its tendency was directly oppofite,) has been made here, to introduce any thing, during the intervals of the representation, at all allusive to the incidents of the piece. This was in the tragedy of Zara, where, in the intervals, a humourous dialogue was to be sung by Mr. Beard and Mrs. Clive, commenting on, and ridiculing the incidents and sentiments of the preceding act. Of the success of this curious attempt, or whether the dialogue was ever performed, I am ignorant; but it is generally printed with the tragedy. Y NOTE
