officer) upon the weekly "combination," and, if they can, agree it. Perhaps this is part of the plan,-truly it is of a piece with the rest of it. upon It is wise, it is politic, it is graceful in us to cherish a national school of Church Music; since a nation which aims at or assumes greatness, should sedulously promote within itself every variety of intellectual activity, and especially exertion in that department of art wherein it has learned to excel. The facility with which the works of art, and especially of music, are brought into this country is an advantage, but not without a possibly attendant evil. If this foreign supply is to supersede our national and natural aliment, dearly will it be purchased. Let us receive from our neighbours their contributions as aids, but never as substitutes; and the more we receive from other countries, the greater need have we of our own produce. A people trained and accustomed to look abroad for intellectual succour, and to whom the expectation of foreign aid is always present, will become mentally debased and enslaved. It may boast of its wealth and proudly shake its purse, but it will be vulgar and feeble. Like an individual, it will only command respect in proportion as it is self-relying. Nor can we appreciate the products of foreign genius with out the requisite cultivation. Unless we understand their peculiar excellencies, unless we have the ability to analyze and dissect them, and to know why they are what they are, our admiration is little better than that of a savage or a clown. Abandon or discourage the study of any art, and the descent to vulgarity is speedy and certain. Besides, the works of all nations have a national stamp; they spring from races born in different climes, of different habits, laws, tastes, temperament, not only of different religious creeds, but different religious feelings and outward forms of devotion: cach is to the other foreign. One of the great beauties of our Service is the fitness and correspondence of all its parts. "The Bible and the Prayer-Book read as one,”—their language is of the same age, and the same venerable character is impressed on our best Cathedral music. Even all our best writers of modern times endeavour to preserve it. "Let us have new "Church music," says Dr. Crotch, "but no new style; no "thing which recommends itself for its novelty, or reminds "us of what we hear at the parade, the concert-room, or the "theatre*." Hence the folly of introducing scraps of modern Masses, with all their gaudy attire and showy equipage, into Cathedrals. They have no agreement with, or relation to, the building or its purpose; they are of the earth-earthy, and to the earth they chain the hearer. His thoughts wander to their birth-place, the Opera-house; and music, instead of being a help to devotion, becomes its hindrance. Much more might be said on this subject, but our limits warn us to conclude. We have endeavoured to show, as far as these would allow, what Cathedral Music was, what it is, and what it must be (if such a state can be said to be one of real existence), unless some timely remedy be applied. Be it remembered that no experimental legislation is necessary, no leap in the dark; we have simply to restore the foundations, and to obey the injunctions; to follow out the practice of our forefathers, a practice of which experience has proved the inestimable value, and which the highest authorities in the Church have through succeeding generations combined to cxtol. ARTICLE II. 1. Marlowe's Dramatic Works. London, 1818. 2. CALDERON: Teatro Escogido. Por Dox EUGENIO DE ОCHOA. Paris, 1838. 3. FAUST: eine Tragödie, von GöTRE. Leipsig, 1843. poem of modern times, Throughout Europe it The grave thinker, the THE 'Faust' of Göthe is the greatest and one of the greatest of any time. is studied, translated and criticised. flippant feuilletoniste, the idle dilletante, every one, grave or * Lectures on Music,' p. 83. gay, reads, has read, or will read it. It lies before all,-an eternal fascination, an eternal problem: it has charms for all tastes, food for all minds: it has melody and mystery, wit and wisdom, doubt and reverence, magic and buffoonery, pathos and irony; there is not a chord of the poet's lyre unstrung, not a fibre of the reader's heart that does not vibrate. Students earnestly wrestling with doubt, eager to solve the riddle of life, feel their pulses beat as they contemplate the reflection of their struggles imaged in that poem; Fausts themselves, they know the picture to be terribly real. Not they alone are fascinated, but all men. Heine says there is not a billiard-marker in all Germany that has not puzzled himself with a solution of Faust. This is truc: go where you will, you cannot find a reader ignorant of Faust,' or one not fascinated by it. Whence this strange and unexampled popularity? It is a great poem, you will answer, full of beauty, wit and wisdom. True; but these qualities do not secure universal popularity. The other works of Göthe possess them in an equal degree, but these works have not a tithe of the popularity of Faust; they are read by the cultivated, admired by the many, carped at by a few; but they are not European, they are not universal. Faust fascinates all Europe,-it is in the highest sense poetry for the million. Why? Because in it, as in a mirror, we see reflected the eternal problem of our intellectual existence, and the varied lineaments of our social existence. It is at once a problem and a picture;-the problem embracing questions of vital and universal importance; the picture representing all classes, all sentiments, all opinions found in ordinary society. The great problem of life is stated in all its nudity; the great picture of life is painted in all its variety. We are not aware that any writer has hitherto insisted on the second portion of the above explanation; yet this, as it seems to us, has been the more potent cause; this has made the philosophical poem popular. In no single work of modern times is there to be found such a prodigality as in Faust. Almost every aspect of human life is briefly but strikingly presented; almost every subject of human interest finds its expression in every possible variety of rhythm. This is indicated in the theatre-prologue-especially in these lines: "Die Masse könnt ihr nur durch Masse zwingen Let us rapidly indicate the variety. In the Vorspiel we have a poet, a manager and a merryandrew, who may be said to represent the whole question of dramatic art, in its reference to poets, managers and the public. The poet, with his vague yearnings and unworldly aspirings, is opposed by the hard practical sense of the manager, and rightly opposed; for if the poet would delight mankind, he must leave all vague yearnings, and descend from the clouds to walk on this earth. The manager however, in the sole consideration of receipts,' is not the best judge of what will bring them; he therefore is corrected by the unbiassed criticism of the merry-andrew, who looks only to amusement. Admirable is merry-andrew's reply to the poet's ambitious appeal to posterity: "Wer machte denn der Mitwelt Spass?" Göthe here slily laughs at those unhappy men, who, incapable of gaining admiration from the present, confidently anticipate that of the future. This Vorspiel is a masterly production, containing more and deeper thought than any prose essay we have seen upon the Drama, calmer wisdom, deeper insight, more perfect impartiality. Nowhere have we met with such excellent advice, nowhere such precision and concision: there is no consideration of importance omitted, there are no superfluous lines. Everything is thrown off with the utmost case and with perfect clearness; profound thoughts are not uttered with a profound air; there is no framing and glazing of each idea, no flourish of trumpets, bidding you admire. It is no exaggeration to say, that the calm, clear, impartial insight of this prologue displays the author's genius as distinctly as anything else in the work,-perhaps more distinctly. For it is in the treatment of these smaller matters that a great mind is best appreciated; a small mind always overdoes or underdoes such scenes, is either pompous or careless. Besides, in the heat of passion many an inferior mind becomes inspired; in the brood ing of meditation grand thoughts are, as it were, accidentally engendered. But in quiet scenes, when the mind is neither inflamed by passion nor moved by powerful thoughts, we may judge of it in its normal state. When the winds are furiously hurrying the waves, the shallowest river cannot be distinguished from the deepest; it is only when the winds are at rest and the waves are calm, that we can see the muddy bottom of the shallow stream, and learn how fathomless the deep. The Prologue in Heaven, succeeding that of the Theatre, has been singularly misunderstood in many quarters. It has been called a parody of the Book of Job, and greatly censured as a parody. It has been stigmatized as utterly irrelevant and irreverent, out of keeping with the rest of the poem and gratuitously blasphemous. Many translators have omitted it as 'unfit for publication.' Coleridge debated with himself "whether it became his moral character to render into En"glish, and so far certainly lend his countenance to, language, "much of which he thought vulgar, licentious and blasphe"mous*." This from a poet and critic! Not to perceive the meaning and character of this prologue is in our opinion greatly to misunderstand an essential element of the poem, viz. the legendary element. Madame de Staël says of the whole poem : “Il serait véritablement trop naïf de supposer qu'un tel homme ne sache pas toutes les fautes de goût qu'on peut reprocher à sa pièce; mais il est curieux de connaître les motifs qui l'ont déterminé à les y laisser, ou plutôt à les y mettre." Now no one will suppose that Göthe's intention in this prologue was blasphemous; what then was his intention? to us it appears clear enough. The wager between Mephistopheles and the Deity was part and parcel of the legend; Göthe therefore preserved it. To explain his treatment of this prologue, we must refer the reader to the character of popular legends, or more especially to the character of the Miracle-plays which were performed all over Europe during the middle ages. In these Miracleplays we meet with the coarsest buffoonery and the most startling blasphemy; things the most sacred are dragged *Table Talk, vol. ii. p. 118. |