is commemorated yearly by all musicians: Laudate Ceciliam," &c. It is set for three voices, and is dated 1683. That this was only a prelude, and not the principal performance of that year, is ascertained by "the Musical Entertainment" of the same composer, already mentioned. In like manner we shall find ALEXANDER'S FEAST preceded by an anthem; and it appears from a manuscript title to a printed copy of Purcell's TE DEUM and JUBILATE, in the library of ChristChurch in Oxford, that this celebrated composition, which was adapted. for voices and instruments, was made for St. Cecilia's day, 1694 which occasion, as in former years, an Ode was afterwards sung, set to musick probably by the same composer.-I have only to add, that the ingenious writer who has ascertained the true date and occasion of Purcell's TE DEUM, observes to me, that in his younger days the lovers of harmony used not only to celebrate this festival in the country, as well as in London, but even the octave of the day; as a double testimony of reverence for the saint and the most perfect concord in musick.

on

Scarcely had our author delivered his Virgil to the publick, when he was solicited by the Stewards

9 Communicated by Dr. Burney.

Purcell's TE DEUM and JUBILATE have been erroneously thought to have been originally composed for the Annual Feast of the Sons of the Clergy.

of St. Cecilia's feast to furnish them with a second Ode on the same subject: a request which gave rise to the finest composition of this kind in the English language; of which he thus speaks in a letter written to his son early in Sept. 1697: ---"In the mean time I am writing a song for St. Cecilia's feast; who, you know, is the patroness of musick. This is troublesome, and no way beneficial; but I could not deny the Stewards, who came in a body to my house to desire that kindness, one of them being Mr. Bridgeman," whose parents are your mother's friends."

Concerning the occasion and manner of writing this unrivalled Ode, the following story has been. told, on the authority of the late Mr. Richard Berenger:

"Mr. St. John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke, happening to pay a morning visit to Dryden, whom he always respected, found him in an unusual agitation of spirits, even to a trembling. On enquiring the cause, I have been up all night, re

In 1697, eight Stewards officiated; viz. Hugh Colvill, Esq. Captain Thomas Newnattı, Orlando Bridegman, Esq. Theophilus Buller, Esq. Leonard Wessell, Esq. Paris Slaughter, Esq. Jeremiah Clarke, Gent. and Francis Le Riche, Gent. Mr. Bridgeman was grandson to Lord Keeper Bridgeman. The names of all these gentlemen, except Mr. Newnam and the musical composers, are found among the Subscribers to the Translation of Virgil.

3 For many years Gentleman of the Horse and first Equerry to his present Majesty. He died Sept. 9, 1782.

VOL. 1.

plied the old bard: my musical friends made me promise to write them an Ode for their feast of St. Cecilia: I have been so struck with the subject which occurred to me, that I could not leave it till I had COMPLETED it; here it is, FINISHED at one sitting." And immediately he shewed him THIS ode, which places the British lyrick poetry above that of any other nation." This anecdote was communicated to Dr. Warton by Mr. Berenger, whose informer was Mr. Gilbert West, who derived the account from Mr. Pope, to whom it is said to have been imparted by Lord Bolingbroke; and it cannot be denied that this is a very fair genealogy but after it has been carefully examined, we shall find, that, like many traditional tales, it is not to be implicitly relied upon; for our author's own words, already quoted," I am writing a song," &c. manifestly denote a composition produced by study and meditation, and growing up under the writer's hands; and a letter written by Dryden to the younger Mr. Graham, which I have not been able to recover, proves incontestably, that this admirable

4 Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, vol. ii. p. 20. 5. Dr. Birch's words arc-" He observes in an original letter of his, that he was almost a fortnight in composing and correcting it:" he adds, that this information was "communicated by the very learned and ingenious Richard Graham, Jun. Esq." I hoped to have found a · copy of this letter among Dr. Birch's papers in the Mu seum; but I have examined them for that purpose in vain. Of the fortnight here spoken of, we surely may al low some days to the original composition.

performance, instead of being struck off at once, and completed at one sitting, was the work of almost a fortnight. The words, "I have been up all night," and "my musical friends made me promise to write them an Ode," all denote hurry; and the original relater of the anecdote evidently supposed that it was composed on the spur of the occasion, recently before it was wanted; whereas we find from Dryden's own account, that an application on the subject had been made to him, and he had actually begun to write, near three months before St. Cecilia's day. It may perhaps be true, that Mr. St. John, happening to call on Dryden, found him just after the general scheme of his Ode first presented itself to his mind, and he had rudely sketched out the mere outlines of it: but the other circumstances appear to be adscititious. It may be doubted too, whether Dryden received forty pounds for writing it, as Derrick relates on the authority of Mr. Moyle; for the author expressly says, that the undertaking "was no way beneficial." This, however, is not decisive; for that sum may have been a-subsequent donation.

It is a singular circumstance, that the name of the composer by whom this admirable Ode was

6 Derrick's words are, "Mr. Walter Moyle, who wrote the Essays, used to say, that it was composed for the Cecilian Concert, and that our author for the use of it received 401." Mr. Moyle died in 1721 ; Derrick therefore could not himself have conversed with him, being then not born. In Moyle's works I find nothing on this subject.

originally set to musick, has hitherto been unascertained. Purcell, who had gained new laurels by the musick of Dryden's KING ARTHUR, as well as several other operas, though he had been more than once employed by the Stewards of this festival, in 1683, 1692, and probably 1694, would perhaps have been the composer on this occasion' also, but to the great regret of his country he died two years before, November 21, 1695; when he was honoured by an Elegy written by our author,

Sir John Hawkins tells us in his HISTORY OF MuSICK, that there is a tradition, that "Dryden wrote his ALEXANDER'S FEAST with a view to its being set by Purcell, but that Purcell declined the task, as thinking it beyond the powers of musick to express sentiments so superlatively energetick as that ode abounds with."-This tradition the Knight very gravely refutes, by observing that "Purcell composed the TE DEUM, and did not scruple to set to musick some of the sublimest passages in the Psalms, the prophecy of Isaiah, and other parts of the Holy Scripture." He omits, however, to state a reason of some little import, why neither Dryden could have intended his Ode for Purcell, nor this composer could have set it to musisk ;-that he had been dead nearly two years before it was written.

& Purcell died November 21, 1695, and it has been supposed that the following inscription on a tablet to his memory in Westminster-Abbey was written by Dryden: