to his Sonatas, he tells us that he "faithfully
endeavoured at a just imitation of the most famed Italian masters." An
able critic has also remarked, that he thinks he can perceive the
obligations which Purcell had to Carissimi in his recitative, and to
Lulli both in recitative and melody; and also that it appears that he
was fond of Stradella's _manner_, though he seems never to have pillaged
his passages. Many of our readers are doubtless aware, that Purcell's
opera of _King Arthur_ has been lately revived at Drury-Lane, where it
has had a considerable _run_. The public prints have been loud in its
praise; and this work has been styled "the perfect model of the lyric
drama of England." The intervention of spoken dialogue, by many in their
innocence hitherto supposed to be a defect in the construction of a
musical drama, is strangely metamorphosed into a beauty in _King
Arthur_. In short, from some of these _critiques_, _King Arthur_ would
appear to be the only perfect drama or opera which the world has ever
seen. To show the real value of these criticisms, we may mention the
fact, that in an elaborate article of a journal now before us, in which
many of the pieces of this opera are enumerated and highly commended,
the writer has curiously enough passed by in silence two airs, of which
Dr Burney observes that they contain not a single passage which the best
composers of his time, if it presented itself to their imagination,
would reject; and on one of which he also remarks, that it is "one of
the few airs that time has not the power to injure; it is of all ages
and all countries." There is doubtless much in Purcell, which, though
quaint and antiquated, the musician may nevertheless admire; but
excellence of this kind is necessarily lost upon a general audience.
Melody in his day was rude and unpolished; for there were no singers to
execute, even if the composer had the ability to conceive. Thus
Percell's melody, though often original and expressive, is nevertheless
more often rude and ungraceful. In the words of a recent writer on this
subject, "We are often surprised to find elegance and coarseness,
symmetry and clumsiness, mixed in a way that would be unaccountable, did
we not consider that, in all the arts, the taste is a faculty which is
slowly formed, even in the most highly gifted minds." We suspect that
the pageant saved _King Arthur_; the scenic illusions by which
contending armies were brought upon an extended