| Citation |
SCAGG.768.033
17-24 Jun 1768:23 (11/502)
Speculations of Jeoffry Wagstaffe, Esqr. From the Dublin
Mercury.
My cousin Bickerstaffe, in his lucubrations, has compared
persons of both sexes with respect in their conversation, to
the different instruments of musick. He has carried on the
comparison in his usual strain of pleasantry and good
humour, and at the conclusion of his paper, has matched the
male and female instruments together in such a manner, as to
make them sound an unison. For want of couples being tuned
properly in this manner, we often find vast discords in
life; for instance, where a kit is matched with a drone, a
virginal with a trumpet, or a passing-bell with a kettle-
drum. But as this point has been very fully discussed by my
ingenious kinsman, I shall refer my readers to his
lucubrations for further satisfaction.
I shall, however, consider this subject in another light,
and try if it be not possible to find out an analogy between
the different species of writers and musical instruments.
First then, as epick poetry is allowed to be the highest
effort of human genius; to contain a greater compass, and to
have more stops in it than any other kind, I look upon it to
be an organ; so the learned criticks say, that all the arts
and sciences may be found in the Iliad and Odyssey, or at
least may be deduced from them. Homer, therefore may be
called the vocal frame, of which the divine Cecilia was
inventress; and the Aeneid, and Paradise Lost, were so made
from that great original. We have had also epick poets of a
less size, who may be called chamber-organs, whose works
have neither the compass nor strength of the other three;
such as Telemachus, Tasso, and Ariosto. As for most of the
other pretenders in this way, I look upon them as barrel-
organs.
The next instrument in point of compass and variety to the
organ, is the harpsichord. I shall therefore consider
Tragick poets of the first class as such; and those of an
inferior kind as spinnets. Shakespeare, indeed, can scarse
be confined to any instrument, for at some notes he reaches
all the strength, compass, and variety of the organ; and at
others, falls down to the drone of the bagpipe. Dryden,
Davenant, and Otway, in their rhiming tragedies, resemble
bell-harps, by their constant jingling in the same tones.
A fiddle is the proper emblem of a Comic poet; as this
instrument has no medium, and either gives us the greatest
pleasure or the highest disgust. Free-writers are kits,
which may just answer the end for a country dance, but have
scarce any musick in them.
Pastoral writers resemble flutes, which are very soft but
much confined; they often hurt the lungs of the players, and
for that reason I suppose this kind of poetry is now grown
into disuse.
A flageolet is one who scribbles love sonnets, rural odes,
and madrigals, and is often exceeding sweet. Such as Walle,
Lansdowne, and some others.
We may compare Historians, who describe battles, sieges
and slaughter, to drums, trumpets, and other martial
instruments, which raise in the mind an ardour for famous
exploits. Some of them, too, such at Livy, Tacitus, and a
few others, have the fulness of the organ, the sweetness of
the harpsichord, and the vivacity of the fiddle. But the
generality of the writers of memoirs, of the histories of
their own times, and of their own lives, are in reality but
bagpipes, and seldom send forth any sounds but from their
drones. The tribe of ignorant novel writers, with which
these Kingdoms swarm, are all Jews-harps. These, in
reality, are no instruments of musick.
The bass-viol is but a heavy instrument, of no great
variety of compass, and is not unlike many of our moral
writers. As for satirists, they were formerly musical
instruments, such as Horace, Juvenal, Swift, and some
others; but our late poets rather resemble the marrow-bone
and cleaver, or the filing of a saw. They are grating to
the ear, but give no musick.
The lyrick poets formerly were like an instrument quite
unknown to us; but ours now-a-days are mere harps in the
hands of old blind harpers.
I could mention many other kinds of writers who bear a
resemblance to musical instruments; but these I shall leave
to the imagination of my reader.
|