acquainted with the age, and all that was peculiar and poetic in the Venetians, who might be said to be always engirt by the ideal. With what truth, again, is depicted the character, altogether original, of Alvise, the gondolier, whose love for Venice and his gondola is so impassioned, that, on every occasion of national rejoicing, he deemed himself bound in duty to swallow an ample quantity of wine, and who would often go and wipe the dust off the bronze horses of St. Mark. Every day he visited three ships that were with Arrego Dandolo at the siege of Constantinople; and he would go out to meet vessels returning to Venice, that he might be the first to learn what spoils they brought from the East, as additions to its glory and majesty. What truth is there also in the impassioned dialogues between Isnardo and Eleonisa on various occasions, and on that of the contest which occurs on the very spot where rose the pulpit of Fra Giovanni! The judicial combat which follows, so characteristic of the middle ages, is very vividly described, and contains much novelty of incident.

In answer to the frequent, and we cannot help saying, ignorant cry, that the Italian language is declining, we could refer to not a few new publications, the language of which is inimitably rich and powerful. To restrict our remarks, however, to the Romance of Colleoni, it is well worthy of observation that, notwithstanding the difference of style, and forms appropriate to the time, the phraseology is remarkable for its correctness and elegance.

In conclusion, we will further observe that we are disposed to think that his Romance will stand forth the most original, the most national, historical romance that Italy has produced in the present age. Isnardo is not a romance to be read for mere amusement; it is worthy of being studied especially by the people of Italy. We can pay no higher eulogium to Colleoni.

HISTORY OF THE OPERA.

Wesen und Geschichte der Oper. Ein Handbuch für alle Freunde der Tonkunst. (Nature and History of the Opera.) By G. W. Fink. 8vo. Leipsic, 1838.

At a moment like the present, when the Italian Opera in this country has been crowned with such unprecedented success, the result not more of its own merits than of the illustrious patronage*

* Having alluded to the marked favour which Her Majesty has shown to the Italian Opera, we may, perhaps, be permitted to give public expression to the regret so very generally felt, that, among the many noble personages by whom Her Majesty is surrounded, there should not be found one friend to warn our Gracious Sovereign that there are few things more calculated to diminish that just popularity which she enjoys among her subjects, than the exhibition of any undue

with which it has been honoured, we should scarcely be doing justice to the readers of the Foreign Monthly Review, if we did not find an opportunity to make them acquainted with a volume devoted to the history of this happy combination of dramatic and musical art, which proceeds from the pen of so competent a judge and so agreeable a writer as the author of the work whose title we have just transcribed.

Dr. Fink, who, as many of our readers may be aware, has been for many years the editor of the Leipzig Allegemeine Musikalische Zeitung, the best musical journal published in Germany, perhaps in the world, is not only a thorough musician, but, like our own Burney, a scholar, and a ripe one. He is, moreover, endued with that rational spirit of inquiry which prompts him not to repeat, as a matter of course, the oft-told tales of former writers; or to receive, as established facts, all those accounts which may have the sanction of some well-known names for their first promulgators; while, on the other hand, he is not anxious to reject such statements when consistent with reason and probability, for the mere purpose of setting up in their stead some newfangled theory of his own. His search is, indeed, a search after Truth; though he may, by the way, overturn some of the idols which have been erroneously erected in her place, and direct some awkward thrusts at their mistaken worshippers, it is obvious, that in so doing, he is actuated by a sense of duty, and not by a spirit

of malice.

We shall not follow Dr. Fink through the many pages of his work, in which he treats with great ability and pleasantness of that peculiar disposition of the human mind, that innate fondness for display, and that universal tendency to combine, in all great, civil, and religious ceremonies, the charms of music with the splendour of pageantry exhibited by every nation in the known world, and which is at once the germ from which the Opera has arisen, and the primary source of that delight which we derive from operatic representations. Neither will our space admit of our entering into an analysis of his correction of many of the errors which have crept into the earlier chapters of musical history, which have been too frequently encumbered with inquiries altogether uncalled for, such as the origin of Recitative, which, as Dr. Fink observes, has existed time out of mind; for to music of that character must the Iliad and Æneid have been sung, and he might have added the long heroic romances of the middle ages; or when the air, with the accompaniment of one or more instruments, was first introduced, which is clearly not an invention.

preference for foreigners; and that, if the royal patronage be so exclusively bestowed upon the Opera, and the singers of the Opera it will assuredly have the effect of raising an impression that there exists a want of national feeling in the Sovereign; and this impression once raised, will be sure to produce a sponding want of loyalty in the people.

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of recent times, but as old as singing itself, or the art of playing on an instrument.

We must, therefore, content ourselves with observing that Dr. Fink, insisting upon the principle that "Every new thing that is formed proceeds by degrees from that which previously existed, and unites itself at some point with that which is then existing," rejects the notion of ascribing the invention of Opera to any individual. It was, in fact, the child of circumstances. The mysteries and moralities of the middle ages, followed up as they had been by attempts at musical dramas, had prepared the way for it; until, at length, the endeavours of certain Florentine Dilettante to recover the music of ancient Greece, having ended in the production of "Euridice Tragedia per Musica," written by Ottavio Rinuccini, and set to music by Jacopo Peri, the work had the good fortune to be performed at the court of Florence, on the occasion of the marriage of Henry the Fourth of France, with Marie de Medicis, in 1600, when that chance which so frequently does more than merit to establish a reputation, or bring a new invention into notice, brought this new species of composition into vogue. Hearty was the welcome which it received on all sides; not heartier, perhaps, than it deserved; but more so than it would have been, but that it served in some measure to satisfy that craving after novelty, which was then so universally felt; the result of that great struggle for political and mental freedom then raging throughout Europe.

Bologna was the city in which Euridice, this tragedy (which was no tragedy) was next performed. This took place in 1601, and the authors, Rinuccini and Peri, were so delighted with the success of their undertaking, that in the same year they again united their talents, and produced another work of similar character, entitled Arianna, which was speedily published. Meanwhile, Giulio Caccini, the celebrated singer, who, after distinguishing himself as a composer, among other things of an Intermezzo, written by Count Bardi, entitled "Combattimento d'Apolline col Serpente," which he himself sang with great effect, had been, in the first instance, connected with Peri in composing the music of Euridice, felt anxious to maintain his reputation as a writer of this "nuova musica," and accordingly set to work and produced a musical arrangement of Il Rappimento di Cefalo, written by Chiabrera. This composition, which has never been printed, serves to show how invariably the fables of ancient Greece were fixed upon for the libretti of this new species of drama; partly, perhaps, from the fondness for the study of Grecian literature and antiquities which then so generally prevailed, and partly because the fancied necessity for composing in what was supposed to be the old Greek style naturally led to the opinion that there were no subjects so fitted for the purpose as the Hellenic Myths. Certain it is, at all events, that, be the cause

what it might, the pastoral and other fables of Greece remained for a long time the favourite themes for those peculiar musical dramas to which the name of Opera has since been attached.

It cannot be said, however, that there were, at first, many composers or writers who devoted themselves to this new and favourite branch of their art; yet that musicians were more abundant than poets is exemplified by the fact that several of Rinuccini's poems were set to music by different composers, for instance, by Girolamo Gracobbi, at Bologna, in 1610 and 1616. This city, be it remarked, remained constant in its attachment to such performances, especially after the year 1640, when the fondness for them began to diffuse itself more widely throughout Italy; before which time, however, speculators had arisen who sought to gratify the popular taste by exhibitions of these new dramas on temporary theatres erected in the streets and marketplaces, after the manner in which the earlier mysteries had been produced.

But to proceed in 1608, the celebrated Claudo Monteverde, of Cremona, was called upon to set to music Rinuccini's poem "Orfeo," for the court of Vicenzo Gonzaga, of Mantua. Monteverde, who was not a man to follow implicitly in the footsteps of his predecessors, sought to produce greater musical effects than any former composers would have ventured to attempt. The lute alone, according to the then existing rules of art, was to be used in the accompaniment of solos; he, on the other hand, while he observed this rule in some cases, accompanied many other important solo parts by two or three instruments-harpsichords, basse di gamba, as his taste directed. In the succeeding year, on the occasion of the marriage of Francis Gonzaga, Monteverde set to music Rinuccini's Arianna, for the court of Mantua; and such was the favour with which this work was received, that he was induced to visit most of the principal cities of Italy, for the purpose of superintending its public performance.

Monteverde, shortly after this, became Chapel Master at the cathedral of St. Mark's, at Venice, and it was for this city, which had long possessed a theatre, that the majority of his subsequent Operas were composed: viz. Proserpina Rapita, written by Strozzi, composed 1630; Adone, by Vendramini, in 1639; Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria, by Giac. Badoaro, in 1641; and Incoronazione di Poppea, by Bufenello, in 1642; all of them, with this exception, being taken, as of old, from the Grecian mythology.

Theatres and composers now rose up on every side, and we may judge of the rapid strides in popular favour made by this novel species of entertainment, from the fact that it has been ascertained that, between the years 1637 and 1700, no fewer than 357 musical entertainments were produced; and in Bologna alone, between the years 1601 and 1700, upwards of seventy most of

these have disappeared, and with them the reputations, if they ever had any, of their authors. The golden age of the Italian Opera appears to have been when Carissimi, at Rome, and Scarlatti, at Naples, shone as the two great stars in the musical firmament.

But we shall not pursue any further our analysis of Dr. Fink's volume. We have accomplished all that we desired in calling the attention of our readers to it, and we think that we must have satisfied the most scrupulous as to the agreeable and instructive character of the present work, which forms an admirable companion to the very pleasant "History of the Musical Drama," by our own countryman, Mr. Hogarth, and which demands this favourable notice at our hands, not more from the spirit of nationality which we advocate, than from its own intrinsic merits.

PLAUTUS.

M. A. Plauti Aulularia. Ad Fidem Codicum qui in Bibliotheca Musei Britannici exstant aliorumque nonnullorum recensuit, Notisque et Glossario locuplete instruxit, Jacobus Hildyard, A.M., Coll. Christi apud Cantab. Socius. 8vo. Camb. 1839.

M. Attii Plauti Comoediae. Recensuit Frid. Hen. Bothe. 8vo. Lips. 1834. 2 vols.

M. Accii Plauti Comoediae quæ supersunt. Ad Meliorum Codicum fidem recensuit, versus ordinavit, difficiliora interpretatus est, Carolus Herm. Weise. 8vo. Quedlinburg et Lips. 1838. 2 vols.

We have placed the work of our countryman at the head of our list of new editions of this most elegant and agreeable of Latin writers, not only because it is most recent in date, but because it deserves that position by its own unpretending merits. In an article like the present, we have scarcely room to enter into a critical examination of the merits of each edition we can only state our opinion, which we shall do honestly and candidly. Mr. Hildyard's edition of the Aulularia, though printed separately, is the forerunner of a series of the best plays, if not of the collective works, of the Roman Comedian. On a former occasion, he had given an edition of the Menæchmei, which was then intended as a specimen of the mode in which he purposed to publish the rest; but circumstances had induced him to get it out rather hurriedly, and, after its publication, he felt that he had paid too much deference to the German editors, and came to the praiseworthy resolution of undergoing the labour of collating the numerous and excellent manuscripts of Plautus which are preserved in England, most of them untouched, and of using the new materials thus obtained for the establishment of a better text. With three preserved at Vienna, Mr. Hildyard has used no less than eighteen manuscripts. Since this period, the impression of the Menæchmei having been entirely exhausted, its editor, we under