ed by Scottish sympathy and minstrelsy.

Receiving a good classical education, the young Gaeetano had three
careers open before him: the bar, to which the will of his father
inclined; architecture, indicated by his talent for drawing; and music,
to which he was powerfully impelled by his own inclinations. His
father sent him, at the age of seventeen, to Bologna to benefit by the
instruction of Padre Mattel, who had also been Rossini's master. The
young man showed no disposition for the heights of musical science as
demanded by religious composition, and, much to his father's disgust,
avowed his determination to write dramatic music. Paternal anger, for
the elder Donizetti seems to have had a strain of Scotch obstinacy and
austerity, made the youth enlist as a soldier, thinking to find time for
musical work in the leisure of barrack-life. His first opera, "Enrico
di Borgogna," was so highly admired by the Venetian manager, to whom, it
was offered, that he induced friends of his to release young Donizetti
from his military servitude. He now pursued musical composition with a
facility and industry which astonished even the Italians, familiar with
feats of improvisation. In ten years twenty-eight operas were produced.
Such names as "Olivo e Pasquale," "La Convenienze Teatrali," "Il
Borgomaestro di Saardam," "Gianni di Calais," "L'Esule di Roma," "Il
Castello di Kenilworth," "Imelda di Lambertazzi," have no musical
significance, except as belonging to a catalogue of forgotten titles.
Donizetti was so poorly paid that need drove him to rapid composition,
which could not wait for the true afflatus.

It was not till 1831 that the evidence of a strong individuality was
given, for hitherto he had shown little more than a slavish imitation
of Rossini. "Anna Bolena" was produced at Milan and gained him great
credit, and even now, though it is rarely sung even in Italy, it is
much respected as a work of art as well as of promise. It was first
interpreted by Pasta and Rubini, and Lablache won his earliest London
triumph in it. "Marino Faliero" was composed for Paris in 1835, and
"L'Elisir d'Amore," one of the most graceful and pleasing of Donizetti's
works, for Milan in 1832. "Lucia di Lammermoor," based on Walter Scott's
novel, was given to the public in 1835, and has remained the most
popular of the composer's operas. _Edgardo_ was written for the great
French tenor, Duprez, _Lucia_ for Persiani.

Donizetti's kindness of heart wa