The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-19 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

gave Mrs. Wood to the musical world. Cathe-
rine Hayes is a native of Ireland ; Mrs.
Bland had an Italian Jewess (Romanzini) for
her mother ; and Storace and Sapio were also
Italians by descent ; and we could add other
names to the list. Miss Stephens, Incledon,
and Henry Phillips, however, are all English
by family.

It was a happy thought of Mr. Bell to exa-
mine the English dramatists with a special
reference to the merit of their songs. Yet,
some may ask, why make a distinction between
the dramatists and operatic writers like Gay,
Dibdin, and others ? Many persons will be
apt to interpret " dramatists" in its conven-
tional meaning, and will feel some disappoint-
ment at not finding in this volume songs (like
those of Gay) associated with charming music
and brilliant performers. To such objections
it can be fairly answered that the work is
essentially literary and poetical, addressed to
readers, not vocalists.

Commencing with Udall, the writer of the
first regular English comedy, Mr. Bell con-
cludes with Sheridan. The very first song
selected by Mr. Bell is really a most curious
one. It is called "The Work-Girls' Song,"
and is taken from the play of Ralph Roister
Doister, whose author (Udall) lived 1505-1556.
It is sung by three sewing-girls, and has a
singular air of mirthful clatter and royster
ing

THE WORK-GIRLS' BONG.

Pipe, merry Annot;
Trills, Trilla, Trillarie.
Work, Tibet ; work, Annot; work, Margarie ;
Sew, Tibet ; knit, Annot ; spin, Margerie ;
Let us see who will win the victory.

Pipe, merry Annot ;
Trills, Trills, Trillarie.
What, Tibet ! what, Annot! what, Margarie !
Ye sleep, but we do not, that shall we try ;
Your fingers be numb, our work will not lie.

Pipe, merry Annot ;
Trills, Trills, Trillarie.
Now Tibet, now Annot, now Margarie ;
Now whippet apace for the maystrie :
But it will not be, our month is so dry.

Pipe, merry Annot ;
Trilla, Trills, Trillarie.
When, Tibet ? when, Annot ? when, Margarie ?
I will not,—l can not—no more can I ;
Then give we all over, and there let it lie !
Those verses are thoroughly hearty and po-
pular in their character, and have a joyous re-
sonance in them that seizes the ear and gives
titillating pleasure. John Heywood's " Wel-
come is the best dish " has a fine, cheery, old
English spirit about it, but, as a lyrical piece,
it wants variety for its great length.
- -

Lyly then follows in Mr. Bell's selection,
commencing with the exquisite " Cupid and
Campaspe," known already by " Percy's Re-
liques," and well meriting original music for
such airy, joyous inspiration. It is with
difficulty we refrain from extracting it, but
we prefer to take a less known song of Lyly's,
from his Galathea. Surely " Cupid Bound"
has something very pleasing :-
0 yes, 0 yes, if any maid
Whom leering Cupid has betrayed
To powers of spite, to eyes of scorn,
And would in madness now see torn
The boy in pieces, let her come
Hither, and lay on him her doom.

O yes, 0 yes, has any lost
A heart which many a sigh hath cost?
If any cozened of a tear
Which as a pearl disdain does wear?
Here stands the thief ; let her but come
Hither, and lay on him her doom.
Is any one undone by fire,
And turned to ashes by desire ?
Did ever any lady weep,
Being cheated of her golden sleep
Stolen by sick thoughts ?—the pirate's found,
And in her tears he shall be drowned.

Read his indictment, let him hear
What he's to trust to. Boy, give ear!

Samuel Daniel is then drawn on for his
poem called " Opinion,' which we can hardly
regard as a " song." His mind was too medi-
tative and not fiery enough for a song-writer.
Coleridge was fond of quoting Daniel's pro-
found thought--

" Unless shore himself he (loth exalt himself
How mean s thing is man!"
A song from Han* Beer-Pot, by Dabridge•
court Belchier (circa 1621), thus commences :-

785

Walking in a shady grove,
Near silver streams fair gliding,
Where ti ees in ranks did grace the banks,
And nymphs had their abiding ;
Here as I strayed I saw a maid,
A beauteous lovely creature,
With angel's face, and goddess grace,
Of such exceeding feature.

Her looks did so astonish me,
And set my heart a•quaking,
Like stag that gazed was I amazed,
And in a stranger taking.
Yet roused myself to see this elf,
And to a tree did hide me ;
Where I unseen beheld this queen
Awile, ere she espied me.
Her voice was sweet melodiously,
She sung in perfect measure ;
And thus she said with trickling tears,
" Alas, my joy, my treasure,
I'll be thy wife or lose my life,
There's no man else shall have me ;
If tiod so, I will say no,
Although a thousand crave me."
The song does not, however, end so pleasingly
as it begins, and it concludes without point.
We then come to Shakspeare and Ben Jonson,
and we feel that in this, as in other depart-

ments of poetry, Shakspeare was superior to
all men. Mr. Bell well remarks :

He shows an instinctive knowledge of the secret
of this kind of writing as of everything else. His songs
possess in perfection all the essential elements of gaiety
and tenderness, facility 3nd grace, idiomatic purity, melody
in the expression, variety, suddenness, and completeness.
In their airiness and sweetness, their spontaneity and full-
throated ease, they resemble the songs of birds. The
contrast with lien Janson is striking. Here we have a
great command of resources, and a visible air of preparation.
The lines are thoughtful, and occasionally rugged, and
must be read, even in the singing, with a certain degree of
emphasis and deliberation. They do not spr►ng at once to
the heart and the fancy.

The songs of those great poets are too well
known fur us to extract them.

The lyrics of Beaumont and Fletcher are
not much appreciated; and we surmise
that this volume of Mr. Bell will draw
more attention to them. The following verses
are assigned to them by the editor, though
sometimes ascribed to Fletcher :
THE LOVER'S LEGACY TO HIS CRUEL MISTRESS.

Go, happy heart! for thou shalt lie
Intomb'd in her for whom I die,
Example of her cruelty.

Tell her, if she chance to chide
Me for slowness, in her pride,
That it was for her I died.
If a tear escape her eye,
'Tie not for my memory,
But thy rites of obsequy.
The altar was my loving breast,
My heart the sacrificed beast,
And I was myself the priest.
Your body was the sacred shrine,
Your cruel mind the power divine,
Pleased with the hearts of men, not kine.
As au anacreontic piece, " The Invitation,"
by the same writer, is an admirable burst of
manly passion, and. worth fifty of Little's
mawkish and prurient pumilities. After Beau-
mont and Fletcher there is a lamentable fall-
ing off with the decline of the drama. Mr.
Bell recounts the change :

The dramatic songs of the age of Elizabeth and James I.
are distinguished as much by their delicacy and chastity
of feeling as by their vigour and beauty. The change that
took place under Charles 11. was sudden and complete.
With the Restoration, love disappears, and sensuousness
takes its place. Voluptuous, without taste or sentiment,
the songs of that period may be said to dissect in broad
daylight the life of the town, laying bare with revolting
shamelessness the tissues of its most secret vices. But, as
this species of morbid anatomy required some variation to
relieve its sameness, the song sometimes transported the
libertinism into the country, and, through the medium of a
sort of Covent•garden pastoral, exhibited the fashionable
delinquencies in a masquerade of fitrephons and Chlorises
no better than the Courtalle and loveits of the comedies.
The costume of innocence gave increased zest to the dis-
solute wit, and the audiences seem to have been delighted
with the representation of their own licentiousness is the
transparent disguise of verdant images, and the affectation
of rural simplicity. It helped them to a spurious ideal,
which rarely, however, lasted out to the end of the verse.
The subsequent decline of the drama is senaiby felt in the
degeneracy of its

We concur in the main with the foregoing
sentiments, but there are some points in them
open to criticism. Mr. Bell, in our opinion,
is not quite just to Sedley. It is very true
that the admiration for Sedley was once extra-
vagant, and his faults are now very obvious,
but still he often gave proofs of trae lyrical in-
spiration. Our earlier songwriters seldom
• polished their verses, and they cared much