The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-21
Ola GRANDE: DUCHES8E.o

Sir John Brute, worthy knight well known
TO the play-goers OF the GarrlcK period,
when VGnOrugh's Provoked WJe stlll kept pos
session OF the stage, had an easy and convenient
standard whereby TO judge speciu ems OF lyrical
art. Il would not give a dg for a song that IS
not full Of sin and impudeuce." So said good
Sir John, applyng hls standard approyingly to
a ditty which had just been sung by his friend
Lord Bake, and which wound up with the
burden, IN peace | jog on to the degil.n This
was the original song Of the piece, and 1t will
be found III the collected edition of Vanbrugh'5
works; but some acute critic seems after wards
10 have discovered that il scarcely came up to
the high eLcomium which had been passed upon
it. Lord Rake indeed bravCd all edlCts, divine
and human, when he sang,
When my heads iull of wine
UeI flow with design,
Seems good in my eyes, ,
Aud religion ne'er dares 10 disturb me.
But though his vauuts were slntul enough in
all conscience, they could scarcely be termed
inpudent in that popular sense OF the adjective
according to which 1t is a euphennlsm tor dis
syllable OF dlsTepu,able origin. Accordingly, in
later editions OF the Provoked Wlte we find, III
lieu OF the old proiaue lay, another song so
grossly Indecent that, were II new production,
it could scarcely be printed nowaoays without
risk Of a visit from the representatives of the
Society for the Suppression OF Vice. The fac's
We have just recorded furnish o powerful
answer to the often asserted theory that cutl-
Clsm Is without practical effect on literature.
The lyrics OF Lord Rake were found wanting
when weighed IN the balance proposed in the
poeucs OF Sir John, and were altered ac-
cUrdinPly.
There have been times when the knights
clearly expressed canon threatened to become
Cbsolete. The verses that were sung at VauX-
halltoward the end of the last century, aud
which, though OF unmistakably Southern
growth, recorded in quasi.Scottish dialect the
loves AMI squabbles of Jockie and JEANNE,
were saucy at best, but never impudent Some
thing similar may be aid OF the vast quantity
reign OF George Nv, and afforded ample oppOr-
tunties for the display of a certain archness
proper to some OF the best female vocaliSts OF
the period. Nay, at the present day, the re-
strctions laid by prudent mammas on the poetry
sung by young ladies at the piano are so
severe that love- save when II takes perfectly
harmless domestic tone, is REGARDED with
ayowed dsfavor by publishers of music, eogui-
Zant Of the powers by which their market Is
ruled. The little lyrical coquetres which
would have been quite according TO order forty
years since, would now be deemed far too de.
monstralVe. Nevertheless If we have any
doubt that the principle OF lyrical excellence
laid down by Sir John Brute is widely NAM
tanned even now, we have only to cast cur eyes
TO those places OF puolic recreation where tastes
OF ali kinds are gralihed under the one compre-
hensiVe category OF taste for music. When our
fathers lourlshed, songs were inaeed chanted
at late hour at the coal-hCles and cider-Cellars
of the time-moTe beastly than anything that
would be tolerated at the present day; out then
il was understood that these were intended
habits, and OF the mob OF gEeenhorns who waste
their hours and health in ''seemg life" To this
generation in particular belongs that mass of
sin ard Impudence nightly yelled forth at the
music halls, in the presence OF persons OF bo n
sexes, Including women not necessarily belong
ing to au abandoned class. To this generation
in particular belong the vocal LiZZies, M nnies,
and Nelies, who seem TO claim familiarity
with their hearers, aud allow their portraits,
radiant with immOdesty, to be placarled against
the walls. To this generation in particular
belongs the race OF quasi-male-temale acrobats,
who by an occasional accident crafty that
latent feeling OF cruelty which is SO often the
ConcOmtant of licentlousness To this genera
tion in particular belongs the exalted patronage
osteutatlously bestowed on such work as nj.
Ofenbach's operate extravaganza, La Grdnds
DuCheSse de GerO's'ein.
There is no doubt that at the bottom Of the
importance attached to the works OF this now
celebrated composer lies a strong taste for what
may be mildly called the improper among the
higher classes OF the English society. When Al.
Ofenbach was first emerging from obscurity on
the strength of the small and slight works which
he composed for the newly opened BOuaes Par-
slens, The whisper went abroad that in the
Champs Elysees an odd bat extremely pretty ht-
tie theater had sprung up, at which pieces were
performed most delightful TO see and hear, but
scarcely decorous enough for the English taste
The same pieces were trnsterred 70 London, and