If the biography of Handel be as elaborate as his transcendent merits demand, and the limits of the work would admit, that of Haydn is not less so. Every body knows that he was the son of a poor cartwright in an Austrian village. Having when a child displayed a penchant for music, he was sent to a chapel at Vienna, and placed in the choir at the early age of eight. For nearly thirty years, during which his studies were intense, he struggled with poverty. The profits of his various labors of organist, violinist, and teacher, were barely sufficient for his decent maintenance.' At length he found a patron in the Baron of Furnberg, his reputation spread, his pecuniary circumstances became improved; and when fifty-eight years of age he, for the first time, visited England.

;

His fame had preceded him; and he was so well received by all persons of distinction, especially by the royal family, that three years afterwards, he was induced to repeat his visit when the university of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of Doctor in Music. Soon afterwards, he was invited by the Prince of Wales to conduct a concert given by the Duke of York, at which the King, Queen, and all the royal family were present, and at which, partial as his Majesty was known to be to the music of Handel, only the compositions of Haydn were performed. After the concert, the Queen presented the composer to the King, and endeavored to persuade him to remain in England; of which gracious suggestion, his amor patriæ, and gratitude to Prince Nicholas, would not permit him to profit.

Haydn, during his two visitations to London, (which were about eighteen months each,) composed Orfeo, a serious opera; thirteen orchestral symphonies; a choral piece, entitled The Tempest; ten sonatas; six quartetts; twelve ballads; and a great number of minuets and marches, besides arranging and writing accompaniments for above a hundred and fifty Scotch melodies. On his return to Vienna, he composed his oratorio of Creation. During his absence, Count Harrach erected, at Rohrau, a monument to his memory. Soon afterwards, he was elected a member of almost all the academic establishments in Europe: an honor crowned by the presentation of a medal by the French Institute, and another by the society of Les Enfans d'Apollon, accompanied with a letter signed by near a hundred and fifty of the members of the Conservatoire, inviting him to make Paris his future residence. The Russian ambassador at Vienna offered him, on the part of the Phil harmonic Society of Saint Petersburg, a gold medal; and Admiral Nelson, on visiting Vienna, paid him the compliment of exchanging his watch for Haydn's pen. In 1804, the surviving son of Mozart gave a concert in celebration of his entering upon his 73d year; and, in 1808, a musical society, consisting of the first professors and amateurs in Vienna, performed his Creation to an audience of more than 1500 persons. Haydn, then 77, and who had

not

not been out of his house for two years, attended the concert, seated in a superb arm-chair, surrounded by the Prince of Trant mannsorf, the Prince of Lobkowitz, the foreign ambassadors, and many other distinguished personages. The sensibility of the aged musician was so moved at the magnitude of the honor paid to his genius, that, just before the oratorio commenced, he rose from his seat, exclaiming "Never have I experienced the like of this! Would I might die in this happy moment;" and, during the performance of the first act, his cheeks were repeatedly suffused with tears. When, at the conclusion of that act, he left the concertroom, he, as it were, extended his arms over the assembly, in expression of his thanks and blessing. It was his last adieu. Ten weeks afterwards, he expired, in perfect ease and calmness. His departing breath was as the dying sound of a lyre.'

There is something in this collection appertaining to all the sons and daughters of song, from Apollo's first worshipper to his latest votary, from Saint Cecilia down to Bolingbroke's Clara and Miss Clara Fisher. By the way, this name reminds us of an anecdote, which, as it relates to a popular song, and shews the reverses to which youth, beauty, and accomplishments are subject, we cannot refuse transcribing.

Among the ballad-singers in chief repute during the early part of the last century, there existed a young creature, now known to the world by no other name than that of Clara, who attracted much attention by the sweetness and the pathos of her tones. She was the original singer of Black-eyed Susan, and one or two songs which were afterwards introduced in the Beggar's Opera. But her recommendation to particular notice was the circumstance of her having, for many years, been the object of Lord Bolingbroke's assiduous attention and enthusiastic affection. The poor girl strayed for some time, during which his Lordship could not find her; and it was after that interval, that, having learnt where she was, he addressed to her the tender lines, beginning,

"Dear, thoughtless Clara, to my verse attend,
Believe, for once, the lover and the friend."

And concluding thus:

"To virtue thus, and to thyself, restor❜d,
By all admir'd, by one alone ador'd;
Be to thy faithful Harry kind and true,

And live for him, who more than died for you."

'A series of subsequent calamities totally destroyed Clara's vocal powers; and she afterwards subsisted by the sale of oranges, at the Court of Requests.'

Among the many royal amateurs whose taste and attainments are noticed, his late Majesty holds a conspicuous place. George the Third ranked high as a lover and patron of music. Early in life he evinced a strong predilection for its innocent and intellectual

intellectual gratification, availed himself, of Handel's instructions on the harpsichord, and practised and listened to the best compositions, till he formed his taste, and imbibed such correct notions of the principles of the art, as to be qualified to compose. Among the many pleasing offsprings of his Majesty's imagination, is the melody applied to the song" In love, should we meet a fond pair," in the opera of Love in a Village, which is both original and interesting, and manifests an easy and elegant conception. Throughout a long reign, this sovereign continued to cultivate his musical taste and judgment, and acquired as accurate and nice a discrimination in regard of some of the greatest composers, and the respective compositions of each, as compared with themselves, as could be boasted by the first masters of his time. A stronger proof of these facts the compiler of this work could not receive, than that afforded him by the observations of his friend the late Sir William Parsons, on the subject of his Majesty's critical knowledge of the beauties of our best ecclesiastical composers.'

The origin of oratorios is thus related

What is called the cantata spirituale, or oratorio, is generally believed to have been indebted for its origin to San Filippo Neri, a priest, who, about the middle of the sixteenth century, was accustomed, after the sermons, to assemble such of his congregation as had musical voices, in the oratory of his chapel, for the purpose of singing various pieces of devotional and other sacred music. Régularly composed oratorios were not, however, in use till nearly a century afterwards. These, at their commencement, consistedof a mixture of dramatic and narrative parts, in which neither change of place nor unity of time were observed. They consisted of monologues, dialogues, duetts, trios, and recitatives of four voices. The subject of one of them was the Conversation of Christ with the Samaritan Woman; of another, the Prodigal Son received into his Father's House; of a third, Tobias with the Angel, his Father, and Wife; and of a fourth, the Angel Gabriel with the Virgin Mary.'

There are several laughable anecdotes scattered through this collection: the following will serve as a specimen :

Droy, a Genevan mechanic, once constructed a clock, which was capable of the following surprising movements:-There were seen on it a Negro, a dog, and a shepherd: when the clock struck, the shepherd played six tunes on his flute; and the dog, as if delighted with the music, jumped up and fawned upon him. This musical machine was exhibited to the King of Spain, who was greatly struck with its wonderful powers. "The playful gentleness of my dog," said Droy, " is his least merit; if your Majesty will be pleased to touch one of the apples which are in the shepherd's basket, you will admire his fidelity." The King took an apple, and the dog, in a musical tone, barked so loud, that the King's dog in the room began also to bark. At this, the attendant courtiers, not doubting that the whole was a musical witchcraft, REV. SEPT. 1825.

F

imme

immediately left the room, crossing themselves as they hurried

out.

With respect to the general merits of the work, save a little carelessness in correcting the press, and a few unimportant repetitions, it has been produced with considerable taste. Its portraits and embellishments are occasionally well executed; and, altogether, it is a book, with the perusal of which no person can fail being amused.

ART. X. 1. Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States, and the Antilles, in the Years 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824. With original Instructions for the perfect Preservation of Birds, &c. for Cabinets of Natural History. By Charles Waterton, Esq. 4to. pp. 326. 17. 11s. 6d. Boards. London. Mawman. 1825.

2. A Historical and Descriptive Narrative of Twenty Years' Residence in South America; containing Travels in Arauco, Chile, Peru, and Colombia; with an Account of the Revolution, its Rise, Progress, and Results. By W. B. Stevenson, formerly Private Secretary to the President and Captain-General of Quito, and late Secretary to the Vice-Admiral of Chile, his Excellency the Right Honourable Lord Cochrane, &c. &c. 3 Vols. 8vo. 21. 2s. Boards. Hurst, Robinson, and Co. 1825. WE E have been led to couple these two works under the same head, more from the similarity of their titles than from any resemblance either in the pursuits of the authors or the contents of their volumes. South America was the common theatre of their wanderings' and residence: but, on that vast continent, the researches of the one traveller were confined to the shores of the Atlantic, while the other traversed all the maritime provinces on the Pacific Ocean. The former writer iş merely an adventurous naturalist, full of an eccentric mixture of enthusiasm, sentiment, and lively humor: the latter is a shrewd observer of men and manners, who resided for twenty years in the now emancipated colonies of Spain, studied the character of the people and the various productions and resources of their country, watched the dawn of their independence, and mingled in the busy vicissitudes of their revolutionary struggles. Yet, much as these works differ in the importance and the divisions of their subjects, there is a community of interest in them. The extraordinary events of the last years have attracted eager attention to the whole of the southern continent of the New World; and our curiosity is equally alive to all the peculiarities of nature and society, which the intelligent observer can glean from any of its interesting regions. We shall analyze successively the amount and qua

*9

lity

lity of the information which the travellers before us have thus respectively been enabled to add to our general stores.

The first of these writers, Mr. Waterton, who is a gentleman of fortune residing at Walton Hall, near Sheffield, appears to have had no other object in his travels than the indulgence of a restless but laudable spirit of inquiry into natural history. He is quite the knight-errant of the science, and goes in quest of adventures with the gallant spirit of a preux chevalier. To this end we find him plunging into the dark forests of Guiana, riding a tilt upon the back of an alligator, engaging in mortal combat with the Boa-constrictor and the venomous Coulacanara, and exposing his great toe - pendant from the extremity of a hammock-to be "tapped" by the blood-sucking vampire. As he is his own chronicler, he revels in the story of his hair-breadth 'scapes and perilous encounters: he enumerates, with becoming pride, the quantity and value of his accumulated spoils; and, in devoting them all to science, the goddess of his idolatry, he emulates the fervor with which a true knight might deposit his hard-earned trophies at the feet of his mistress. He is, moreover, as imaginative and quaint in his humor as a worthy of the olden timeand something more fond of a classical quotation. His book itself rivals a black-letter chronicle in its dimensions; and his "lively prolixity" has expanded into an imposing and goodly quarto, a narrative which might have contented the languid readers of these days in the humbler form of a hot-pressed

octavo.

In sober truth, however, Mr. Waterton's quarto will be found to offer much amusement, and some instruction, for the student of natural history. His work contains the relation of four different journies, occupied almost exclusively with scientific researches. In the first, in the year 1812, setting out from the coast of Demerara, he explored the wilds of that colony, and of the neighbouring settlement of Essequibo. By following the course of the rivers, he penetrated through about 500 miles of the most tangled forests in the world, as far as the frontier-posts of the back country of Portuguese Guiana. In this arduous enterprize his only direct object, besides the general excitement of the adventure, seems to have been to collect a quantity of the famous Wourali poison, in which the Indian hunters of these wilds are accustomed to dip their arrows. Mr. Waterton succeeded in obtaining from the natives a considerable store of this deadly vegetable composition; and his account of its preparation, and of its effects in several experiments, is highly curious. We may remark, as an interesting proof of the prevalence of the same customs among

F 2

the