could not fucceed. I never heard of fo much as an attempt to explain fyftematically the harmony of any modern language, and until fome fuch attempt has been brought to fuccefs, all endeavours to explain the harmony of the ancient languages must fail, for want of an exemplar, by which every circumftance may be illuftrated. It is my purpose not to attempt furmounting difficulties which have been infuperable to my betters, but to avoid them by taking another road. The ancients have left us, interfperfed in their writings, large and accurate information concerning the general harmony of human fpeech. I imagine that an attentive view of this information will enable us to acquire a clear infight into the particular harmony of our native tongue; that this again will contribute to afcertain and perfect our ideas of the general harmony of human fpeech, and when clear notions are acquired of both thefe, it will not be difficult to understand whatever has been accurately written concerning the harmony of any other language.'

From the fecond to the tenth fection inclusive, he treats of the Efficients of Harmony in Human Speech; of Accent, Quantity, and Emphafis ;-of English Accents, of English Vowel Sounds, of English Quantity;-Dr. Fofter's Obfervations on English Profody examined; his Account of the particular Nature of the Acute Accent*;-of the Effects of Accent and Emphafis upon Quantity in English Pronunciation;-of the Efficients of English poetical Harmony, of Scottish Pronunciation;-of the Accentuation of English Heroic Verfe;-of the Metre of English Heroic Verfe;-of the Pause and Cefure in English Heroic Verfe, of Monofyllables, Examples of fome general and particular Results from the different Efficients of Englifh pretical Harmony ;-of the Origin and Progrefs of English Verfification. In the eleventh fection we find fome juft obfervations on the comparative merits of Rhyme and Blank Verse; the twelfth treats of the Harmony of the Greek and Latin Languages; and the laft contains obfervations on the Connexion of Poetry with Mufic.

Little as we know, fays the Author, concerning Grecian mufic, we are well affured of one effential point in which it differed from oors, and that is its intimate connexion with poetry. With the Greeks mufic and verse were almost infeparable: with the moderns they feem to have fcarcely any neceffary connexion. Among the former all improvements of mufic feem to have tended, or at least to have been meant to heighten the expreffion of poetry among the latter every improvement of mufic has fet it more at variance with the fifter art, the laboured harmonies of the laft age, and the whimsical melodies and extravagant graces of the prefent equally contribute to that effect." In our churches," fays the excellent Tartini in his treatife on mufic (I use the tranflation of his commentator the author of Principles and Power of Harmony)" the miferere mei Deus, is performed, and on the ftage heroes and heroines go to death with

See Review, vol. xxviii. p. 308.

the

the very fineft mufical graces. It is well that cuftom and habit do not give room for reflexion: however very little reflexion is fufficient to turn all the pleasure that can be received from the most perfect performance into the direct contrary.-Mufic alone, and separated from any other confideration whatever, is become our only aim and intention." And as the learned commentator himself observes: "As things go on at prefent, any notes will ferve for any words: thefe are fo frittered away that they seem rather the ghosts of mangled words lingering and flicking to the tongue like the ghofts of wicked men, which, as Plato fays, are frequently feen hovering about their tombs."

The laws of ancient poetry, and the nature of modern music are, for the purpose at leaft of our prefent inquiry, fufficiently known. It has been the object of the foregoing pages to explain the nature and laws of modern poetry, which had hitherto lain in an unaccountable perplexity. Without entering then into any difquifition of thofe obfcure points concerning ancient mufic, which have remained yet unintelligible to the moft learned and moft fedulous inquirers, let us juft examine how far the knowledge of ancient poetry, of modern poetry, and of modern mufic, may lead to elucidate any connexion naturally fubfifting between verse and mufic.

There is one moft obvious circumftance common to the mechanifm of poetry and mufic, which they have also in common with dancing, with the fmith's hammers of Pythagoras, and with the clafhing of fwords and fhields of the Idæi dactyli; and that is cadence. Modern mufic has like modern poetry only two different cadences. By these the time is regularly divided, and they are generally known by the names of common and triple time. Now nothing is more certain, as Tartini's learned commentator obferves, than that the giving of accented notes to accented fyllables ought to be an inviolable rule in vocal mufic. But it is remarkable, that the only two cadences which our poetry knows, correfpond exactly with the only two cadences or divifions of time used in mufic, the common and the triple. Thefe have, in their fimpleft ftate, the former two, the other three equal notes in a bar, and the accent always on the firft note of the bar. All the various fubdivifions of time used by modern muficians are fubordinate to these primary divifions. Take then these two mufical cadences in their fimpleft form, the triple bar containing three equal notes, and the common bar two, and by the help of the unaccented notes which frequently precede the first complete bar of a ftrain, the mufical accentuation may correspond exactly with the poetical. Now thefe circumstances actually meet in most of our old popular ballads; and the very learned and judicious author of Principles and Power of Harmony fcruples not to prefer those fimple and defpifed compofitions to the generality of the moft laboured pieces of the most admired modern mafters.

It is farther obfervable in our popular ballads (I hardly need fcruple referring to thefe, after the teftimony borne in their favour by Tartini, and his learned commentator) that as the common meafure moft naturally accommodates itself to common time, and the triple measure to triple time, fo an exactly equal divifion of both times will, in general, and for a continuance, accord better with the

poetical

1

poetical measures than any unequal divifion, however preferable this may be on particular occafions and for variety. But the triple mea fure, though fometimes fet to common time with due regard to the accentuation, will yet by no means fall into its movements with the fame eafe and fimplicity; and when common measure is fet to triple time with due regard to the accentuation, in which cafe the mufical bar will confift of two notes, one juft double in quantity to the other, it matters not whether the long note be placed in the accented or unaccented part of the bar, but is only requifite that the accented note be affigned to the accented fyllable. I affert this on the authority of the practice of our beft muficians, and of my own obfervation, as far as it goes, that the beft ears are not offended with it. Hence then it is evident, were there no other proof, that our triple measure is not, as it is commonly called, anapeftic, and that our common measure, even in its fimplest form, accented regularly on alternate fyllables, is not iambic : for if the triple measure were anapestic it would not accord with triple time, but would require common time with alternately two short notes, and a long note equal in quantity to the two fhort ones; and if the common measure were iambic it would accommodate itself moft readily to triple time with alternately a fhort note, and a long note double in quantity to the short one; the contrary of both which is notorioufly fact.

• Having then ascertained the grand bond of union between poetry and mufic, which is cadence, we may easily discover many inferior circumstances of their connexion; and in this connexion we may find an explanation of fome feeming paradoxes in verfification, otherwise inexplicable.

Modern mufic and modern poetry agree in that neither will admit the intermixture of the two cadences: the even and the triple foot can no more appear in the fame verfe than common and triple time in the same musical ftrain. It is common indeed in mufic to introduce three equal notes in the time of two equal notes; but then they never form more than a divifion of the cadence; half the common bar at most and one-third of the triple. An anomalous intermixture of diffyllabic and triffyllabic feet is also common in our old minftrel fongs, and diffyllabic feet are sometimes introduced in modern poems on ludicrous fubjects in triple measure, and without materially hurting the harmony. To account for this we must recur to the analogy between the mufical and poetical cadences. Two equal notes will alone mark the common cadence: but melt them together fo as to form one holding note, as the musicians term it, and no particular cadence, or mufical time will be characterized; for this holding note may equally well be analyfed into three equal notes, and become a triple bar, as remain a common bar by its compofition of two equal notes. But if inftead of melting the notes together you divide one of them, the cadence is ftill marked with as much certainty as when they remained two equal notes. Three equal notes again will mark the triple cadence. Form a holding note of all three, and you destroy all distinguishing character of cadence, just as in the former cafe: but if you form two of them only into a holding note, the cadence is ftill characterized almost as ftrongly as when all were diftinct. But if inftead of melting two of the three notes into one,

you

you divide one of them into two, you then enter upon a much more complex divifion of the cadence: a divifion ftill fimple enough in mufic, because musical notes unconnected with language, are fimple founds; but too complex for poetry, because most poetical notes are complex founds, formed of all thofe elementary founds of which fyllables are compofed. Here then appears the reafon why verses of the even cadence readily admit the addition of a fyllable, but will never spare a fyllable; and why, on the contrary, verfes of the triple cadence will readily fpare a fyllable, but will not fo well admit an extraordinary one.'

The work concludes with a genteel apology, which, if it fhews that the Author's opinion of its importance, be fomewhat too high, difcovers at the fame time a becoming modefty and liberality of fentiment.

L.

ART. XVI. Remarks upon the Garianonum of the Romans: The Site and Remains fixed and defcribed. By John Ives, Efq; F. R. S. and F. S. A. 8vo. 3 s. 6 d. Hooper. 1774..

MR

R. Ives begins his remarks on the venerable ruin upon which he treats, by obferving that- There are few remains of Roman buildings in Britain, fo confiderable for its [their] prefervation, and yet fo little noticed by writers, as the ancient Garianonum.-Thofe who mention it, do it flightly; and most of them difpute its fituation.-Whilft Richborough is celebrated by a Battely, this rival station, equal in antiquity, and fuperior in remains, has met with no hiftorian :-the prefent curfory attempt will therefore be more excufable.'

Camden places the Roman Garianonum at Burgh-Castle, in Suffolk; while Sir Henry Spelman, in his Icenia, endeavours to fix it at Caifter, near Yarmouth, in Norfolk. After a due confideration of what has been alleged on both fides, Mr. Ives agrees with Camden in placing Garianonum at BURGHCASTLE, on the south side of the mouth of the river Yare ;a fituation which, he thinks, entirely obviates the objections of. the learned Spelman, as well as of Bifhop Gibfon, in his annotations upon Camden, and proves it to have been extremely commodious, and admirably adapted, for thofe very purposes for which they are difpleafed with it for the protection of that fhore which thefe troops were ftationed to defend, for their military exercises, and fudden excurfions.-Upon a ftream whofe largenefs and rapidity must have made it formidable to paffing armies; upon a fhore particularly expofed to the depredations of lawlefs pirates; and upon the principal entrance of a country poffeffed by a brave and hardy people; Garianonum must have been a station of the greatest importance to the Romans.It gave them weight and confequence in

See Review, vol. L. p. 318.

6

the

the eyes of the Britons, who were deftitute of every idea of mural fortifications ;-it established their influence, extended their territories, and afforded them a fecure retreat, and an impregnable defence, against the warlike Iceni, who frequently rofe in arms against the invaders of their native foil.-In each of thefe views did the politic Romans confider their newerected camp; in every refpect it answered their defigns, and in every particular correfponded with their wishes.-From hence they commanded the ftuary of the Yare, the German Ocean, [which he fuppofes, from anchors, &c. being found there, might at that time flow up to the walls] and the interior country; and from hence they derived a power and consequence fufficient to awe, and capable of intimidating, any military attempt the Britons could form against them.'--He afcribes the erection of this station to the famous Roman general Publius Oftorius Scapula, who firft brought the Iceni under their fubjection,

After having thus fixed the fite of the chief station, our Author is willing to allow Caifter, on the oppofite shore, to have been one likewise, though of an inferior nature only. He fupposes it to have been one of those smaller camps, which were frequently dependent on the greater ftations under the denomination of fummer camps; agreeably to the notion advanced by Mr. Whitaker in his Hiftory of Manchester; and for this purpose Caifter seems to have been at a very proper diftance, and in a convenient fituation to ferve as an appendage to Ga

rianonum.

The few specimens we have given of this little work, are fufficient to thew that the Author writes in a more lively and animated ftyle than is usually met with among profeffed antiquaries.

MONTHLY

D.

CATALOGUE, 1774.

For OCTOBER,

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 17. The Sentimental Exhibition; or Portraits and Sketches of the Times. 12mo. 2s. 6d. Lowndes. 1774.

HIS writer, though far from being original, makes fome good obfervations on life and manners, and is one of the most tolerable Imitators, for fometimes he affects the imitation, of Sterne. The following section will fufficiently characterise the book:

I own I am no friend to Cicifbeifm. Whatever romantic flights the spirit of chivalry may formerly have taken, and after all the pretty tales that are told us of Arcadian fimplicity, and Platonic love, I cannot but think all fuch refinements are as inconfiftent with the natural emotions of the human heart, as they are irreconcilable with all the observations we make on human practice. In short, we are compounded of flesh and blood, and nature has not only endued

us