1799.] Extracts from the Port Folio of a Man of Letters. like many others give dignity to the scaffold by that fortitude, which so well becomes fuffering innocence, and is still more fitting for the foldier, who has so often looked death in the face. The COUNT REZZONICO. THE Count Gastone della Torre Rezzonico was born in Parma, about the year 1740. He was a nobleman by birth, and was also fortunate in having a learned father, very well known in the republic of letters for his Life of Pliny the elder. He was early initiated into science and polite literature, and fo confiderable were his attainments, that in his earliest youth he deserved the honourable appointment of tellow of the poetical academy in Rome, known under the name of Arcadia. The reigning duke of Parma having erected in his metropolis an academy of fine arts, Count Rezzonico was appointed its president; but, by some mysterious viciffitudes, which it would be imprudent to mention in the present times, he was utterly difgraced at court, and his royal highness deprived him not only of the place of president of the academy, but even of that of hereditary chamberlain. He was 'therefore obliged to leave Parma. He first undertook long tours through Europe, especially in France and England, during which he became completely mafter of both languages; and at his return W 387 to Italy, he fixed his refidence in Rome, though he often made long excursions to Naples and Florence. Availing himself of his ample leifure, he wrote several works in profe and poetry. Though his works in profe are so trifling as not to deserve peculiar mention, yet from his poetical works he deferves to be placed among the best Italian poets of his age. He was distinguished by liveliness of imagery, propriety of diction, exactness of epithet, and by a nobleness of expreffion acquired by deep study of the Greek and Latin classics. His verfification, however, was something harsh, and the meaning of some phrases obfcure. This respectable nobleman died last year in Rome, about fifty-five years of age. He was highly efteemed by the Italian nobility, and men of letters, for the elegance of his manners and the eloquence of his conversation. The qualities were however, in the opinion of fome, obscured by an immoderate self love, and an irrational predilection for his own works. It is also reported in the Italian papers that a new disturbance of mind accelerated bis dissolution; but no notice is taken of the particulars of this event. A complete collection of his poetical works in two volumes was printed in Parma by the celebrated Bodoni, with the motto Extracts from the Port Folio of a Man of Letters. HEN CERVANTES wrote Don Quixote, he could hardly flatter himself, that the decisions of Sancho, while governor of his island, would become precedents for other judges. Yet we find a French case so exactly similar both in circumstances and in terms to one of these, that it is not easy to suppose, that the French judge had not Governor Sancho's determination in his eye, though he might probably not cite the Baratarian reports. The following is a literal tranflation of the cafe from VOUGLANS, O12 the Criminal Law of France, (page 498) Paris, 1757. "A judge having condemned a perfon accused of a rape to pay the accufer a certain fum of money, in name of damages, immediately authorised the man to take back from the woman the money he had given her; which he being unable to do on account of the vigorous refistance of the female, the judge ordered the latter to refund the damages, upon this ground, that if she had been anxious to defend her person, it was more in her power to do so than to defend her money." SHAKESPEARE, in his witty detail, in "As you like it," of the different degrees of giving the affront, seems to have had in his eye an Italian treatise on Duelling, by MUTIUS, printed at Venice in 1560, of the chapters of which the following are the titles" Of the Lie immaterial-Of the Lie special-Of the Lie general-Of the Lie bypothetical-Of the Lie direct. Whether Mr. SHERIDAN borrowed his idea in the " Critic," of the degrees of puffing from Shakespeare or Mutius, I do not pretend to determine. Duelling feems formerly to have been more systematical than it is at present, Paris de Puteo, a Neapolitan advocate of the sixteenth century, confined his practice entirely to this branch of the law, and and was confulted upon cases of honour, referred to him from all parts of Europe. Legal conveyancing feems at all times, and in all countries to have been unneceffarily redundant in style. The oldest conveyance upon Record describes the premises with almost as much tautology as if it had been drawn in the temple. I al lude to the conveyance of the cave of Machpelah, from the fons of Heth to Abrabam, Genefis, 23.-" And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees which were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure to Abraham." Among the privileges exclusively enjoy ed by the nobility of this country, there is one, which probably many of themselves may be ignorant of. By the Charta Forefta, chap. x. every archbishop, bishop, earl, or Baron, going to the king at his command, may, in paffing through the royal forest, 'take one beast or two, at fight of the keeper, if he be present, or in his abfence upon blowing a horn, to shew that they do not do it by flealth. The following proclamation of her majesty Queen Ann, is copied from the London Gazette, from March 7 to 12, 1712. " It being her majesty's royal intention to touch publicly, for the evil, on Tuefday, the 17th of this instant March, and so to continue for some time; it is her majesty's command, that tickets be delivered the day before, at Whitehall; and that all perfons bring a certificate, signed by the minister and church-wardens of their respective parishes, that they never received the royal touch." Pigeons are in Perfia a fubject of game krws. To be entitled to the privilege of killing a wild pigeon, it is neceffary to be a Muffelman; and we learn from TAVERNIER, that Chriftians have frequent ly become Mahometans, to entitle them to this qualification of killing game. The quantity of corn destroyed by pigeons is amazing. HARTLIB, in his Legacy of Husbandry," calculates that there were in his time 26,000 pigeonhouses in England; and, allowing 500 pair to each house, and four bushels yearly to be confumed or destroyed by each pair, it makes the whole the corn loft to be no less than thirteen millions of bushels annually. It is, however, but just to say, that it has been found, that pigeons, like most other animals, perfecuted for real or supposed mischief, are at the fame time of use, as they confume the feeds of weeds, ar l also the infects which are most injurious to the farmer. His present majesty's reign has been diftinguished by the repeal of a variety of penal laws, which were a disgrace to the nation. By 12 Geo. III. c. 71 the enormoufly severe statutes against foreftalling and ingrossing are repealed; so that these acts now remain only miidemeanors at common law. - The statute of Elizabeth against cottages is repealed by 15 Geo. III. c. 32. -The acts against gypsies are repealed by 23 Geo. III. c. 51, fo that these people are now only punishable as vagrants. The very exceptionable process against persons standing mute, on an arraignment of felony, is done away by 12 Geo. III. c. 20, which enacts that the person so standing mute, or not answering directly to the charge, shall be convicted, and the same judgment and execution be awarded, as on conviction or confeffion. - Laftly, fome of the most rigorous penal acts against Papists are abrogated by 18 Geo. III. c. 60. The laws of this, and indeed all chriftian countries, against Jews, were formerly dreadfully fevere. By an act of parliament of Edward the first, every Jew above seven years of age was obliged to wear a mark of two cables joined, upon their upper garment: they were declared to be the king's flaves; the good chriftians were allowed to take only half their fubstance, and lastly no chriftian was permitted to lie in their houses. But notwithstanding these severities a Jew was thereby permitted to purchase a house and curtilage; which an enlightened parliament of the eighteenth century would not permit. By another statute of the fame king, if any butcher fold flesh bought of a Jew, he was for the first offence to be heavily amerced; for the fecond to be fet in the pillory'; for the third to be imprisoned; and for the fourth to be banished from the town where the offence was committed. A rich Jew not ransoming himself, king John ordered, for seven days fucceffively, one of his teeth to be pulled out; upon which he at last fubmitted to pay the king 10,000 marks of filver.-Stow's Chronicle, p. 168. By an ordinance of king John likewife a Jew could not affign a debt due to him by a chriftian, which 1799.] Review of New Musical Publications. his fucceffor Henry the third took advantage of, by felling licences for fuch a difpenfation. Petyt. M.S. vol. vii. p. 261, 263. HOWELL in his Londinopolis relates a circumstance which happened to a Jew in the reign of Henry III. He had by accident fallen into a privy on his fabbath, and would not fuffer any one to take him out, though rather a necessary work. The Earl of Gloucefter not only fuffered him to continue in this filthy situation his own Sabbath (Saturday), but would not permit any perfon to take him out on the Sunday, being the fabbath of the Chriftians: the Jew, by this cruel joke, was suffocated. Some centuries afterwards, when more humanity might have been expected, SIR EDWARD COKE mentions a great number of Jews, who were permitted by the master of a ship to take a walk on the fea shore while the tide was coming in, which he represented to ebb, and by this horrid deceit, were furrounded by the sea, and drowned. The only reflection which the lord chief justice of England made upon this is, Thus perished these infidel Jews." By the Speculum Suevicum, " If a Chriftian man had a connexion with a Jewess, or a Jew with a Christian woman, the parties so offending were to be laid upon one another and both burnt to death. A fimilar punishment was inflicted in France for the fame offence; "because," says an author, a worthy pupil of these ignorant ages, " to defile one's felf with a Jew, is equal to the crime of beftiality." A law of Venice, made in the year 3443, was comparatively mild :-" If a Jew lie with a common prostitute who happens to be a Christian, he shall fuffer an imprisonment of fix months." In France, in the reign of Louis IX. when Jews gave evidence against Chriftians, they were obliged to swear by God's 389 ten names, with a string of terrible imprecations if they swore falsely.-" May the Lord (faid the clerk of the court), fend you both the ague and fever, if you swear falsely; may he destroy you in his wrath; you, your family, and all your substance: may your enemies seize on your poffeffions, and abuse your wives; may the sword of death, may fear and trouble haunt you every where; may the earth swallow you up like Dathan and Abiram; may all the trefpaffes of your fathers, and all the curies contained in the law of Mofes, fall on your head."-To all which these miserable objects of the public execration, answered three times, " fo be it." GEMELLI, who was at the fiege of Buda, in 1686, says, that the Jews, found in that town, were immediately fold by the imperial army as flaves. SIR THOMAS SMITH alfo obferves, that in his time they were corffidered as flaves in all parts of Europe. "Commonwealth of England," p. 123. HENRY VIII. tenacious as he was, expreffly gave up the title of King of France, by his own mouth, at the celebrated meeting between him and FRANCIS I. near Ardres; " il commença à parler, je Henri roi, il vouloit dire de France et d'Angleterre; mais il laissa le titre, et dit au roi, je ne le mettrai point, puisque vous etes ici; car, je mentirai, et dit, je Henri, roi d'Angleterre." Montfaucon's Antiq. de la Monarchie Francaise, tom. iv. p. 197. In BRADY's history there is a particular account of the pay of Edward the third's army, in the twentieth year of his reign. The Black Prince's pay was 20 thillings per day: the sum total for which an army and fleet of 31,294 men was to be paid and fubfifted for fixteen months, is 12,7201. 2s. 9d.; a fum which would not last a modern fleet and army of the same strength five days. REVIEW OF NEW MUSICAL PUBLICATIONS. AN Effay on musical Harmony, according to the Nature of that Science, and the Principles of the greatest musical Authors, by Augustus Frederick Chriftopher Kollman, Organist of bis Majesty's German Chapel, St. James's. Dale. This scientific and elaborate work, the price of which we do not find in the title-page, is, we understand to be comprized in two folio volumes. The firit we now have before us, and shall enter as largely into the merits of the undertaking as the space to which the plan of our magazine confines us will allow. This ingenious and industrious musician, after laying down the scale both in its natural and improved state, explains the modern diatonic, the chromatic, and the enharmonic systems; which, according to his own juft reasoning in his masterly introductior, duction, should have an early attention in every didactic work; because, "the study of music, as of the other sciences, should commence with the elements: which may be confidered, either physically, according to their generation and duration, or mathematically, according to their menfuration or formation into intervals. He then proceeds to explain the intervals both fimple and compound, and enters minutely into all their properties, connections, and bearings; adding general rules concerning their employment, both in harmony and melody, in the course of which be introduces many just and sensible remarks on harmonic combination. Treating of chords in general, he confiders them directly and inversely, as employed by fufpenfion, anticipation, and tranfition; and in his remarks on accidental chords, makes a judicious distinction between the systems of Rameau, Marpurg, and Kirnberger. These parts of his general fubject occupy the first seven chapters of his work; the eighth chapter treats of the fignatures of chords in thorough bass, in which the author is particularly explanatory, and perfpicuous; and developes, to the fatisfaction of the student, whatever in this stage of his advancement it becomes necessary for him to know. In the fucceeding chapter he leads the reader to the confideration of cadences, perfect, imperfect, interrupted and uninterrupted; and treats this department of his subject with that fulness and that address which evince him to be thoroughly master of the task he has undertaken, and qualified to impart that ample information which the English tyro has long wanted. In a word, this treatife, while it smooths the road to proficiency, reflects much honour on the talents and professional learning of Mr. Kollman. A work which so copiously embraces its fubject; and the first volume of which comprizes one hundred and twenty eight pages, neceffarily comprehends too many interesting particulars for us to proceed any further in our remarks at prefent; but, in justice to the author and the musical public, we shall refume them in our following numbers. The new Hours of Love, a Collection' of Canzocontaining Morning, Noon, Evening, nets; and Night. Particu Particularly adapted for Jor Harp Piano-Forte, with Accompaniment for the Violin, or German Flute. Composed by Mr. Hook, Op. 91. 4s. Lavenu. Mr. Hook, in this his ninety first work, has difplayed a warmth and floridity of fancy, which argue him to be amply qualified to renero his Hours of Love. The former production under this title procured this ingenious and voluminous composer so much credit that we do not wonder at his being at length tempted to write a counterpart. We have perused the present publication with uncommon pleasure. Many of the ideas are strikingly novel; and, indeed, a most pleasing chain of melody runs through each of the four canzonets, while the accompaniments are every where calculated to heighten and enrich the general effect. "Why busy Boys," a Sonnet, composed by William Linley, and fung at the Dilletante Concerts, by Master Elliot. Is. 6d. J. Page. This agreeable little sonnet opens with a recitative; after which it proceeds in the manner of a ballad, repeating the fame melody to three fucceffive verses. The recitative is expressively conceived, and the air is natural, eafy, and novel. The unexpected, yet well-prepared, modulation into the third minor of the original key, is at once uncommon and parti cularly happy. The Bird Symphony, as performed on the Flagelet by Mr. Ling, in Harlequin Highlander, or Sawney Bean's Cave. Composed and arranged for the Piano-Forte, by Mr. Sanderson. IS. Riley. The Bird Symphony is an ingenious imitation of the various notes and melo dies of the feathered tribe. Mr. Sanderson has, with great judgment, avoided all modulation; and has introduced the several birds in that order which best contrafts and sets off their various warblings. We have heard this symphony in the band, and could not but receive much pleasure from the natural and sweetly-varied effect of its imitative passages. Three Canzonets for one and two Voices, with an Accompaniment for the Piano-Forte, bumbly dedicated to Lady Bromley, by John James Ashley. 5s. Skillern. Mr. Ashley has displayed some talent, and a respectable degree of science in these canzonets. The first, the words of which are taken from the old ballad, "Why heaves my fond bosom," beautifully set by the late Dr. Howard, presents a smooth and easy succeffion of ideas, and blends the two voices, for which it is composed, with address and effect. The second canzonet is for a tingle voice. The melody is pleasing, and the accompaniment well imagined. The third is also for a fingle voice; is agreeable in its air, and bears the stamp of fancy and judgment. $799.] Correct List of New Publications. " Elvers Hob" is among the most agreeable of Mr. Calcott's vocal productions. It comprizes four movements; the first of which is in. 2-4ths moderato, the second in 2-4ths larghetto, the third in 6-8ths allegretto, and the fourth in 2-4ths moderato. The effect is pleasingly varied by the folo parts which the author has judiciously introduced; and the different movements succeed each other with a striking relief. The Union, or mutual Harmony, written by W. The melody of the "Union," though not remarkable for its originality, is smooth and easy, and presents the ear with a natural and connected fucceffion of paflages. The bass, we are obliged to fay, is not always the best that might have been adopted; yet, it is no where offensive to the ear, except in the first bar of the last stave in the first page. General Kofciusko's grand March, compofed and arranged (with Variations) for the pianoforte, by Mozart. Is. Rolfe. This pleasant and animating march, by the addition of variations, is converted into an agreeable and improving exercise for the piano-forte. Indeed they are all 391 so well conceived, in point of liveliness, fimoothly, but Mr. Linley has not always paid fufficient attention to the accent; and the bass might, in a few places, have been more scientifically chosen; as, for instance, in the third bar of the last stave of the first page. Pfalmody improved; containing upwards of feventy portions of the Pfalms of David, and thirteen Hymns for particular occafions; the Mufic felected, adapted, and composed by William Gresham, Organist of Dunstable. 6s. Preston. This collection of church and chapel mufic, besides the compiled compositions, contains adapted interludes, and a new Te Deum, Jubilate Deo, Cantate Domino, and Deus Misereatur, composed by the editor, who professes so to have confstructed them, as to express in his music "the accent, and fyllabic quantities of the words." We have attentively perused the whole, and find the selections made with tolerable taste and judgment; but do not discover any thing striking or novel in Mr. Gresham's compofition; nor does he appear to have attained any new and improved mode of expreffing " the accent and fyllabic quantities." The book, however, contains fixty-four quarto pages, and presents the reader with a collection, decent in the aggregate, and which may be found a convenient acquifition to country choirists. A CORRECT LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. The following is offered to the Public as a complete List of all Publications within the Month.-Authors and Publishers, who defire an early Notice of their Works, are intreated to transmit copies of the same. |