as
is not of an ambitious character. It consists mainly of songs, dances,
and "curtain tunes." In many cases half a dozen items are all that are
attached to one play, and many of the pieces are brief. Therefore that
formidable-looking list of what used to be called Purcell's "operas"
does not represent anything like the quantity of music we might suppose.
Purcell wrote only one opera--_Dido_. The word "opera" had not in his
day acquired a special meaning. Spectacular plays, with songs, duets,
choruses, dances, etc., were called entertainments or operas
indiscriminately. Until a few daring inquirers investigated, the world
supposed Purcell to have collaborated with the playwrights. In a few
later shows it is true that he did, but some of the plays were written
before he was born, some while he was a boy, and others--later ones--are
known to have been first given without the aid of his music. _The Indian
Emperour_ was first played in 1665; Purcell added music in 1692.
_Tyrannic Love_ was produced in 1668 or 1669; the music was added in
1694. _The Indian Queen_ was produced before _The Emperour_; the music
was done in the last year of Purcell's life. If the _Circe_ music is
indeed Purcell's, it cannot have been written until the author,
Davenant, had been in his grave seventeen years. If only the estimable
ladies and gentlemen whose passion for writing about Purcell has wrapped
the real man in a haze of fairy tales had taken the preliminary trouble
of learning a little of the literature and drama of Purcell's day! Nay,
had they only looked at the scores of Purcell's "operas"! Most of these
plays undoubtedly had some music from the beginning. It will be
remembered that during the Puritan, joyless reign of dunderheadedness
the playhouses were closed; but Cromwell, who loved music and gave State
concerts, licensed Davenant to give "entertainments"--plays in which
plot, acting, and everything else were neglected in favour of songs,
dances, and such spectacles as the genius and machinery of the stage
managers enabled them to devise. When the Puritan rule faded, the taste
for these shows still persisted. Dryden took full advantage of this
taste, and after 1668 threw songs wholesale into his plays. Further, it
would seem to have been the custom of theatre managers, when "reviving"
forgotten or half-forgotten plays, to put in new songs and dances and
gorgeous scenes, in the very spirit of Mr. Vincent Crummles, as the
extra attracti