What Poets Think of MusicAuthor(s): George R. PoultonSource: The American Art Journal (1866-1867), Vol. 6, No. 16 (Feb. 9, 1867), pp. 246-247Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25306793 .

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246 ' AivERICAN ART JOURN AL. phael's original design for this composition, as we have it engraved by Marc Antonio, is finer than the fresco, in which there are maniy altelia tions which cannot be considlered as imiiprove

ments. Under Philosophy he has placed the School of

Athens. It represents a grand hall or portico. in which a flight of steps separates the toreground ftom the background. Conspicuous, aud above the 'rest, are the eldler intelleclual philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates: Plato characteristical ly pointing upwards to heaven; Aristotlepointing to the earth; Socrates impressively discoursing to the listeners near hum.

Then, on a lower plan, we have the Sciences and Arts, represented by Pythagoras an(d Archi

medes; Zoroaster, and Ptolemy the geographer; while alone, as if avoiding and avoided, by all, sits Diocenes the Cynic. Raphael has represented the art of paintingr by the figure ot. his master Perugino, and has introduced a portrait of. him self humbly lollowing him. The group of Archi

medes (whose head is a portrait of Bramante, the architect) surroundled b his scholars, who are attentively watchingl him as he draws a geometri cal flgure, is one of the finest tlhings which Ra. phael ever conceived; and the whole composition has in its regularity and grandeur a variety and dramatic vivacity which relieve it from allformal ity. This picture contains also not less than fifty figures.

Law, or Jurisprudence, from the particular con struction of the wall on which the subject is painted, is represented with less completeness, and is broken up into divisions. Prudence, For titude, and Temperance, are above; below, on one side, is Pope Gregory delivering the ecclesi astical law; and on the other, Justinian. promul gating his famouus code of civil lawv. The wbole decoration of' this chamber forms a grand allegory of the domain ot humaan intellect, shadowed forth in creations of surpassing beauty andl dig,nity.

The description here giren is necessarily brief and imperfect. We advise our renders to consuit the engravings of these frescoes, and with the above explanation they will probably be intelligi ble; at all events, the wonderfully prolific genius of the painter will be appreciated, in the number of the personages introduced and the appropriate characters of each.

To be Continued.

WHAT POETS THINK OF MUSIC.

BY GEORGE R. POULTON.

The Poets or all ages seem to have been richly endowed with love andappreclation of music, and peculiar susceptibility to "sweet sounds."

Many of them have crowded their works sith beautiful allusions to music, and descriptions-of its power and influence. In nearly everypoetic vision of the brightness and surpassing happiness of a Future, music takes a prominent part-as also in every scheme of domestic enj oymen't and deligght. All concur in allowving Its inDluence as a softener in care and sorrolv, dud powertlil zest--given in seasons of joy. Every beautithil and refining, in fluence is in harmony with it, and the great human lheart joyfully responds to its witchery. It is not strange, then, that Poets should celebrate its praise or sing its triumphs; -for they, of all men, are best fitted to reel the fall measure of its great neas or power. Shakspeare was particularly

fond of music, as is evidenced by its frequent mention in, his works. How beautiful the follow

ing extracts:

"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank I

Here wiU we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears!l soft stillness, aud the night, Becomle the touches of sweet harmony!'" * * * X, .,, * .

"For do but note a wild and wanton herd I Or race or youthful or unlhandled colts, Fetching mad bounds, bellowincg and neighing

'loud,, Which is th.hot condition ot their blood;

If they but hear, pei chance, a trumpet sound, Or any air of music touch their ears, You shall perceive themu make a mutual stand, Their savag,e eyes turned to a modest gaze By the sweet power of music !"

,Milton, in n Penscrosa says:

"Let the pealing organ blow To tbe fuill voiced choir below, In service high and anthems clear; As may with sweetness through mine ear Dissolve me into ecstasies. And bring all heaven 'before mine eyes I"

Also in one of his sonnets:

"The bright seraphims in buirning, row, Their loud uplilted angel trumpets blow; And the cherubic host, in thousand choirs, Touch the immortal harps otfgolden wires;

With those just spirits that wear victorious palms,

Hymns devout and holy psalms Singing everlastingly."

In the Iliad of Homer, we read of

"Feastsenhanced by music's sprightly sound." Of I sweet music and the charm of song a_ And that "general songs the sprightly revels

end.

And 'both 'the Illiad and' Odyssey of this auithor abound in beautiful allusious to music. Tasso sings to Leonora:

---I am bult like The unvalued lyre, vhicb all chance fingers strike, Learned or unlearned, and wlich in various tones Now mildly murmurs, and now hlarshly moans 1" Again, in Jerusalem Delivered, he says: "When now the Orient opened to the sun Its shining, gates, the mingled1 voice prof'ound

Of trumpet, tamboun, horn, and cymbalon, Cheered to the march the stirring troops around; Not halX so grate1hl is the thundler's soundl On the hot doe.days, to the world forlorn, Presaging fresWmess to the tlhirsty ground, As to these warlike tribes the music drawn From marshal tribes that treat of battles to be

born "

Dante speaks of "The sweet strain ot psalmody,, '_

And of " $A strain of Dulcet symphony,"^

Also of the music of Lhe spheres-of which Milton says:

In thleir motion harmony divine So-smooth her, charming tones, that Godl's own

ear Listens delighted!I" And Chaucer, of the same, sings quaintly as fol lows:

"4And aflter thlat the melodie herd he That cometh of thilke speris thryis three That wells of musique ben and meloidie. In this world here, and cause of harmonie "

Pindar, Anacreon, and Euripedes, are filled with miusical metaphors, comparisons, and de-l scriptions. Virgil also discources loving,ly of mu sic, and seems to havei been greatly enamored by its efihct& Catullus sings often of its powver, And

with unsurpassed elegatce and originality, Tlie Roiman Poet, Lucretits, is enthusiastic about music; and in Ovid we have many fancifril coni ceits concerning it.

Cowper says: Hark! how it floats uipon the dewy air f

Oh, whltat a dying, dying close, was there ! 'Tis harmony from yon sequestered bower,

Sweet harmony, that soothes the midnight hourl'" And Holton:

"Now the winged people of the' sky shall sing My clheerrlM anthems to the gladsome Spring I" While Croly mualkes a Grecian maiden stray among the hills, imagining many thinosv "Then tell her Lyre the vision; nor bad tve

A sound, or rosy color of the clouds, Or infant star, but 1iu her solemu songs It lived again I"

Coleridge says of the notes of the Skylark: . " -Such

The uinobtrusive song ot' happiness Unearthly mninstrelsy; only heard When the soul seeks to hear-wheni all Is hush'df And the heart listens !"' And, once more, Sbakspeare: "That strain ag,ain; it lhad a dyiffg lall;

Oh I it caine o'er my ear like the sweet south, That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealiug, and givingg odor I" In Pope's works, we find many a thought upbi

music, In his Ode to St. Ceeefia we read the following:

"Music the fiercest grief can clharm, And Fate's severest rage (isarm; Music can soften pain to ease, And make despair and madness please, Our joys below it can improve, And antedate the bliss above I"

Campbell's Julia sang to Theodoric:

Those trains before him of luxuriant-thought, Which only music's beav n-born art can lbring To sweep across the mind with angels' wingi, I'

Campbell's Constance, too, was musical:

"Hei fingers witcl'd .the chords they passedF along,

Anld the lips seem'd to kiss -the soul and song "

Wordsworth, in ane of his smaller poems, says:

"The music in my lheart I bon, Long after it was heard no more."

Moore exclaims, addressing himself to music, "Wiy should Peeling ever speak,

When thou canst breathe her goul so well ?"

In Scott, we read of the minstrels that: "They sound the pipe, they strike the string, They dance, they revel, ai,d they sing."

His poems abound with tfne passages relating to music, and we learn a great deal of the trouba. dours and song-singers of his time ftom them,

Never was a more beautiful and affecting por trayal of the creeping, on of the infirmities of age, than the one at the beginning, of the Lay of the Last Minstrel-where the Poet shows uis the poor old Harp dr, Introdutked to tthdf statly DcD-li ess at his own request, and endeavoring to tune the loved instrument "Ia king once loved to hear," while his trenmbling hand refuses to do his bidding, and his ear to reeognise the chords once so familiar to it. Alter much gentle encourage

ment, he succeeds in accomplishing tbe.tuning of his harps, and then wishes to sing, but fears that his memory will not sufflce to recall the "long f'rgotten melody."

" Amid te strings his fin.ers strayed, ;And~one uncertain wvarbling mlade, Aiid oft he shookt his hoary head,"

Till the spirit of the " olden time " seemed tia

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AMERICAN ART JOURNAL 247

lighten up his soul, and endow him with new life when he "swvept the souuding, chords along," and sung for us that glorlous strain of romance and fancy.

Burns tells us of the Cotter and his family, that "They.chant their artless notes in simple guise,

They tune their hearts, by far the noblest ainm"

And again, after recording thelsongs they sing: "Compared with these, Ttalian trills are tame, The tick-led ears no heartfelt raptures raise; :Nae unison hac they wvith our Creator's praise."

Rowe, oze oY the old Writers, says: E Even rage itselF is clheer'd' with music;

It wakes; a glad remembrance o! our youth, Calls back past- joys, and warms us into trans

port." And Congreve:

"Music hath, charms to soothe the savage breast, To soften rocks, and rend the kuotted oak."

One of Byron's characters * "---Hears, alasl no music of the spheres, ,But an unhaUowed, earthly sound of fiddling."

Pollok tells of one, who " Touched his harp, and nations heard, en

tranc'd." The ald Beadsmorn in St. Agnes' Eve, is

"Flattered to tears by musi c 's golden tongue."

And Madeline-was so possessed with visions of ,oliness. that

"The music, yearning like a God in pain, She scarcely heard !"

Verily, Keats had a vivid perception of the power of sweet sounds I

Mrs. Hemans says: "Full mauy a strain, borne far on glory's blast, ShallHeavieiwhen once its haughty music's past, -No moruto emory than a ree's- taint sigh."

Barry Cromwell think3 " Mouths xvere made for sininga,"

And that "Sweet music bath a smart,

And a balm fo every h eart."

Miss Landon says,.

"Life is filled with nMusic " but, alas I it was sad music to her I

And Montgomery's heart o'erflowed "s With murmuringr music aud dulcet harmony.?'

From the first era, then-from the time ot Ju

bal, who " I Taught the Lyre's responsive string,

Beneath the rapture of his touch to sing, " 'down to our own, music has been recogniz6d by the greal souls or earth, aud the divinity of hiu

man nature has in It seen a strong helpmiate in

the evanigelization of millionis. Poets have sung Its praises, and the universe farnishes the theme. Long as nlature exists, will music thirill the hearts and souls of men,. and through all eternity will .sound the sogngs of anels and perfect spirits.

God himselb'safnction t1ie'divinity of music; 'and It is ever near us, ia the roar of the cataract and the carol of the sing,ing bird-the deep tone or the oceau, and'the ground base of creation, and the' basis of its harmany-while fingers immortal touch the chords of the viewless winds, and play airs supernal in beauty and sweetness. God simile when man appreciates his good gilts, and improvesthem aright, 'and thus improving, ap proaches more nearly to the throne of his grace..

May not music, with all its glorious beauty and purity, be one greatmedia between the Almighty

gnd his croture -.

LITERARY MATTERS.

MYSTERIES OF THE PEOPLE, OR TEHE STORY OF A PLEBEIAN FAMILY FOR 2000 YEARS. 'By EUGENE SuES Translated by MARY L. BOOTH. PUb lished by Clark.

This is the tfrst of a series of eiglht volumes O1 historical fiction by the sensational French novel writer, Eugene Sue, and c3ntains Tlie Drag;oon's Helmet," "The Golden Sickle," "The Brass Bell, 'and "The Iron Collar." At this lato day it is hardly necessary to review the literary capa

bilities of Euogene Sue; to Frenchmen his works have always proved attractive-bornaoft the peo ple, he has always written for and to the people,

and this, his last work, will tend greatly to im

prove his popularity. So outspolken is it in its democratic principles and so bitterly is it op posed to the doctrines of the reig;ning govern

ment, that its publication in France has been sup

pressed, and the book, until recently, unknown, when a costly and elegant edlition has been issued at Brussels by Lacroix, Verboecklihoven & Co. From this edition the translation by Miss Booth has been made, aud produced in this country.

It is needless to say that the work possesses

all those elements of interest and dramatic power

for which its author is celebrated, in addition to

which there is a spice of the horrible running

through it which lends an absorbing, interest. One of the gravest errors in the book is the

spirit of profanity by which it is characterized;

placing the relgion of the Druids in contrast to

that of Christianity and giving the preference to the former, may perhaps meet the views of the

Parisian rabble, but in other countries, where the people are not so easily carried away by the

passing- sensation, it can but excite disgust and

condemnation.

A MAGICAL DUET ON THE GUITAR.

Bonnet, in his Histo'ie de la, Tustque, gives the following extraordinary account of a mathe mnatician, mechanician, and musician, named

Alix, who lived at Aix, in Provence, about the middle of the seventeenth century.. Alix, after many years' study and labor, succeeded in con structing an automaton figure, having the shape of a human skeleton, which by means ol a con cealed mechanism, played, or had the appear ance of playing, on the guitar. The artist, after havinio tuned in perfect unison two guitars, placec one of them in the hands of the skeleton, in the position proper for playing, and on a calm summer's evening, having thrown open the win dow of his apartment, he fixed the sk-eleton with the 1ruitax in its hands in a position where it coulc be seen from the end of the street. He then, taking, the other instrument, seated himself in an obscure corner of the room, and comiienced

playing, a piece of music, the passage or which were iaithfully repeated or echoed by the guitar hel(d by the skeleton, at the same time that the

miiovement of the wooden fin-ers, as if really exe cuting the music, completes the illusion, This strange musical teat drew crowds around the house of Alix, and created the greatest astonish

ment; but, alas I for the ill-fated artist, this sen timent was soon changed in the minds of' the ig

norant multitude into the most superstitious dread. A rumor arose -that Alix was a sorcerer, and in league with the devil. -He was, arrested by order of the Parliament of Provence, and sent before their criminal court La Qhambre de. la Tournelle, to be tried on the capital chargre of magic and witcheratl. In vain the ingenious and unfortunate artist soug,ht to convince his judges that. the only meaus used to give apparent vital

ity to the flngers ot the skeleton were wheeld, sprin"s, pulleys, aud other equally unwag,ical contrivances, and that the marvelous result pro duced was nothing more criminal than the sola tioa of a problem in-mechanics. His explaua tions and demonstrations wvere either not to be uniderstood. oi' Lailed of' colvincing his stupid and bigoted judg-es, and he was condemned as a sorcerer and magician. This iniquitous judg

ment was confirmed by the Parliament of Prov ence, whichl sentenced him to be burned alive in the principal square ot the city, togetlher with the equally innocent automaton figure, the supposed accomplice of' his magical practices. This infa

mous sentence was carried into execution in the year 16c4, to thle great satisfaction and ediflcation of allthe faithful and devout-inhAbitant- of Aix.

[ [For the America Art Journal.]

GOD IS GOOD!

Nottor him-oh not for him, Shall tears dim

My eyes to-day; Through his lite they all were shed, Now beside him sate and dead,

I can say

God is good I

There were days-crushing days, When we whlispered in amaze

"I Lord how longv 1"

Or In blin(din dumb despair, Shrunk from think-ing e'en in prayer,

Through such wrong, God was,good'i

There were days-weary days, That no rays

Oe hope illumed; When through blighting want and woe, It was harder still to know,

While so doomed God was good !

Death at last,-death at last, Wipes that Past

All away, And assured for him of rest, I can live unloved, unblest,

Anid now say- I

God is good !

On this brow-peacetul brow, Where but now

Anguish lay,. I can gaze with calm still eyes,

And though all-but my li{e dies, Still say

God is good I

Ah! my tears-wicked tears That for years

Ceased to flow, When at last he needs them not, Are ye come his race to blot

When ye know God Is good !

Let me press-wildly press One caress

On his head, Then forever go my way, Teaching lips and life to say,

He is dea;d, God is goods

Februay 2d.

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