INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. [ADDISON'S attention had been called to the Opera during his travels in Italy, and on returning to England, where it had recently been introduced in Italian, he was struck with the seeming absurdity of an audience listening, during a whole evening, to a piece written in a language which not fifty of them understood. To oppose it, he wrote an opera himself, taking his subject from the well-known story of "Rosamond's Bower," to which the recent donation of "Woodstock" to the Duke of Marlborough, as an acknowledgment of his services, "not to his own country and sovereign only, but to all Europe," gave a new interest. It was this circumstance also, which suggested the dedication to the Duchess of Marlborough, at which Johnson snarled with more than his usual harshness. The music, according to a report cited by Sir John Hawkins, in his "History of Music," was a "jargon of sounds." After two or three cold or unsuccessful representations, it was dropped. Addison then published it, one would almost suppose in self-justification. Among the marks of attention which it drew forth, was a copy of verses from a young Oxonian, Thomas Tickell, then unknown to fame, but whose name is now inseparably connected with Addison's. The reader will readily recall the humorous history of the Italian Opera in England, which appeared a few years afterwards in the 5th and 18th numbers of the Spectator. Of this piece Johnson says:-"The Opera of Rosamond, though it is seldom mentioned, is one of the first of Addison's compositions. The subject is well chosen, the fiction is pleasing, and the praise of Marlborough, for which the scene gives an opportunity, is, what perhaps every human excellence must be, the product of good luck, improved by genius. The thoughts are sometimes great, and sometimes tender; the versification is easy and gay. There is, doubtless, some advantage in the shortness of the lines, which there is little temptation to load with expletive epithets. The dialogue seems commonly better than the songs. The two comic characters of Sir Trusty and Grideline, though of no great value, are such as the poet intended. Sir Trusty's account of the death of Rosamond is, I think, too grossly absurd. The whole drama is airy and elegant; engag ing in its progress, and pleasing in its conclusion. If Addison had culti vated the lighter parts of poetry, he would probably have excelled." VOL. I.-10* |