rian rule. Only with his sixteenth opera did
Verdi win the supremacy when there were no longer any living
competitors; and "Rigoletto" (1851), "Il Trovatore," and "La
Traviata" (1853) must be called the best, as they are the last of the
Italian opera school. "I Vespri Siciliani" (1855) and "Simon
Boccanegra" (1857) were not so successful as "Un Ballo in Maschera"
(1859); and none of them, any more than "La Forza del Destino" (1862)
or "Don Carlos" (1867), added anything to the fame of the composer of
"Il Trovatore."

Only now begins the interest which the student of musical history
finds in Verdi's life. Hitherto he had proved a good man, struggling
with adversity and poverty, a successful composer ambitious to succeed
to the vacant throne of Italian opera. But the keen insight into
dramatic necessity which had gradually developed and had given such
force to otherwise unimportant scenes in earlier operas, also showed
him the insufficiency of the means hitherto at the disposal of Italian
composers, and from time to time he had tried to learn the lessons
taught in the French Grand Opera School, but with poor success. Now a
longer interval seemed to promise a more careful, a more ambitious
work, and when "Aida" was produced at Cairo (1871), it was at once
acknowledged that a revolution had taken place in Verdi's mind and
method, which might produce still greater results. The influence of
Wagner and the music-drama is distinctly to be felt.

But Verdi was apparently not yet satisfied. For sixteen years the
successful composer maintained absolute silence in opera, when
whispers of a great music-drama roused the expectation of musical
Europe to an extraordinary pitch; nor were the highest expectations
disappointed when "Otello" was produced at Milan in 1887. The
surrender of Italian opera was complete, and Verdi took his right
place at the head of the vigorous new school which has arisen in
Italy, and which promises to regain for the "Land of Song" some of her
ancient preeminence in music. A comic opera by Verdi, "Falstaff," was
announced in 1892: it has well sustained his previous reputation.

DRAMATIC AND LYRIC ARTISTS

DAVID GARRICK

By SAMUEL ARCHER

(1716-1779)

This celebrated actor was the son of Peter Garrick, who had a
captain's commission in the army, but who generally resided at
Lichfield. He was born at Hereford, when his father was on a
recruiting party there, and was baptized in the Churc