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Show ( I 32 ) cata:llrophe of the action; befides the advantage he has in ufing an • univcrfal language, which can be read in an infiant of time. Thus where a great number of figures are all feen together, fupporting or contrafiing each other, and contributing to explain or aggrandize the principal effeCt , we view a piCture with agreeable furprife, and contemplate it with unceafing admiration. In the reprefentation of the facrifice of Jephtha's Daughter, a print done from a painting of Ant. Coypel, at one glance of the eye we read all the interefiing paffages of the lafi act of a well-written tragedy; {o much poetry is there condenfed into a moment of time. B. Will you now oblige me with an account of the relation!hip between Poetry, and her other fifier, Mufic? P. In the poetry of our language I don't think we are to look for any thing analogous to the notes of the gamut: for, except perhaps in a few exclamations or interrogations, we are at liberty to raife or fink our voice an oCtave or two at pleafure, without altering the fenfe of the words. Hence, if either poetry or profe be read in melodious tones of voice, as is done in recitative, or in chaunting, it mufi depend on the fpeaker, not on the writer: for though words may be feleCted which are lefs harfh than others, that is, which have fewer fudden fiops or abrupt confonants amongfi the vowels, or with fewer fibilant letters, yet this does not confiitute melody, which confifis of agreeable fucce:fiions of notes referable to the gamut; or harmony, which confiHs of agreeable combinations of them. If the Chinefe language has many words of fimilar articulation, which yet figni fy different ideas, when fpoken in a higher or lower mufical note, as fame travellers affirm, it mufi be capable of much finer effeCt, in ref peel: to the audible part of poetry, than any language we are acquainted with. . 'I here is however another affinity, in which poetry and rriu:fic more nearly refemble each other than has generally been underfiood,. and that is in, their meafure or time. There are but two kinds, ( I 33 J of time acknowledged in modern mufic, which are called trip!t time, and common time. The former of thefe is divided by bars,. each bar containing three crotchets, or a proportional number of their fubdivifions into quavers and femiquavers. This kind of time is analogous to the meafure of our heroic or iambic verfe. Thus the two following couplets are each of them divided into five bars of triple tzme, each bar confifiing of two crotchets and two quavers; nor can they be divided into bars analogous to common tzme without the bars interfering with fome of the crotchets, fo as to divide them. _] Soft-warbling beaks I in each bright blof I fom move, 4 And vo l cal rofebuds thrill I the inchanted grove. I In thefe lines there is a quaver and a crotchet alternately in every bar, except in the laft, in vvhich the z'n make two femiquavers; the e is fuppofed by Grammarians to be cut off, which any one's ear will readily determine not to be true. ~ Life buds or breathes ~ from Indus to I the poles, 4 And the I vafi furface kind lles, as it rolls. I In thefe Jines there is a quaver and a crotchet alternately in the firfi bar; a quaver, two crotchets, and a quaver, make the fccond bar. In the third bar there is a quaver, a crotchet, and a refi after the crotchet, that is after the word po!t:s, and two quavers begin the next line. The fourth bar confifis of quavers and crotchets alternately. In the laft bar there is a quaver, and a rdl: after it, viz. after the word kindles; and then two quavers and a crotchet. You will clearly perceive the truth of this, if you prick the mufical charaCters above mentioned under the verfes. The common time of mu!icians is divided into bars, each of '\vhich. contains four crotchets,. or a proportional number of their fubdivifion into quavers and femiquavers. This kind of mufical time is. analogous to the daety le verfes of our language, the moil: popular |
