 | The British Enchanters : or, No Magick like Love |  |
THE PREFACE.
Of all publick Spectacles, that, which should properly be called an Opera, is calculated to give the highest Delight. There is hardly any Art but what is required to furnish towards the Entertainment; and there is something or other to be provided that may touch every Sense, and please every Palate.
The Poet has a two-fold Task upon his Hands in the Dramatick, and the Lyrick: The Architect, the Painter, the Composer, the Actor, the Singer, the Dancer, &c. have each of them their several Employments in the Preparation, and in the Execution.
The same Materials indeed, in different Hands, will have different Success; all depends upon a skilful Mixture of the various Ingredients: A bad Artist will make but a meer Hodge-podge with the same Materials that one of a good Taste shall prepare an excellent Olio.
The Seasoning must be Sense; unless there is wherewithal to please the Understanding, the Eye and the Ear will soon grow tired.
The French Opera is perfect in the Decorations, the Dancing, and Magnificence; the Italian excels in the Musick and Voices; but the Drama falls short in both.
An English Stomach requires something solid and substantial, and will rise hungary from a Regale of nothing but Sweet-meats.
An Opera is a kind of Ambigu: The Table is finely illuminated, adorned with Flowers and Fruits, and every thing that the Season affords fragrant or delightful to the Eye or the Odour; but unless there is something too for the Appetite, 'tis odds but the Guests break up dissatisfied.
It is incumbent upon the Poet alone to provide for that, in the Choice of his Fable, the Conduct of his Plot, the Harmony of his Numbers, the Elevation of his Sentiments, and the Justness of his Characters. In this consists the Solid and the Substantial.
The Nature of this Entertainment requires the Plot to be formed upon some Story in which Enchanters and Magicians have a principal Part: In our modern Heroick Poems, they supply the Place of the Gods with the Ancients, and make a much more natural Appearance by being Mortals, with the Difference only of being endowed with supernatural Power.
The Characters should be great and illustrious; the
Figure the Actor makes upon the Stage, is one part of
The Dialogue, which in the French and Italian is set to Notes, and sung, I would have pronounced; if the Numbers are of themselves harmonious, there will be no need of Musick to set them off; a good Verse, well pronounced, is in it self musical; and Speech is certainly more natural for Discourse, than singing.
Can any thing be more preposterous than to behold Cato, Julius Cæsar, and Alexander the Great, strutting upon the Stage in the figure of Songsters, personated by Eunuchs?
The Singing, therefore, should be wholly applied to the Lyrical part of the Entertainment, which by being freed from a tiresome, unnatural Recitative, must certainly administer more reasonable Pleasure.
The several Parts of the Entertainment should be so suited to relieve one another, as to be tedious in none; and the Connexion should be such, that not one should be able to subsist without the other; like Embroidery, so fixt and wrought into the Substance, that no part of the Ornament could be removed, without tearing the Stuff.
To introduce Singing and Dancing, by Head and
Shoulders, no way relative to the Action, does not turn
a Play into an Opera; tho' that Title is now promiscuously
The richest Lace, ridiculously set on, will make but a Fool's Coat.
I will not take upon me to criticise what has appeared of this kind on the English Stage: We have several Poems under the Name of Dramatick Operas by the best Hands; but in my Opinion the Subjects for the most part have been improperly chosen; Mr. Addison's Rosamond, and Mr. Congreve's Semele, tho' excellent in their kind, are rather Masques, than Operas.
As I cannot help being concern'd for the Honour of my Country, even in the minutest things, I am for endeavouring to out-do our Neighbours in Performances of all Kinds.
Thus, if the Splendor of the French Opera, and the Harmony of the Italian, were so skilfully interwoven with the Charms of Poetry, upon a regular Dramatick Bottom, as to instruct, as well as delight, to improve the Mind, as well as ravish the Sense, there can be no doubt but such an Addition would entitle our English Opera to the Preference of all others. The third Part of the Encouragaement, of which we have been so liberal to Foreigners for a Consort of Musick only, mis-call'd an Opera, would more than effect it.
In the Construction of the following Poem, the Author
We are reproached by Foreigners with such unnatural
Irregularities in our Dramatick Pieces, as are shocking
to all other Nations; even a Swiss has play'd the Critick
upon us, without considering they are as little approved
by the Judicious in our own. A Stranger who is ignorant
of the Language, and incapable of judging of the
Sentiments, condemns by the Eye, and concludes what
he hears to be as extravagant as what he sees: When
Oedipus breaks his Neck out of a Balcony, and Jocasta
appears in her Bed, murdering herself and her Children,
instead of moving Terror, or Compassion, such Spectacles
only fill the Spectator with Horror: No wonder if Strangers
are shock'd at such Sights, and conclude us a Nation
hardly yet civiliz'd, that can seem to delight in them.
To remove this Reproach, it is much to be wished our
Scenes were less bloody, and the Sword and Dagger more
out of Fashion. To make some amends for this Exclusion,
I would be less severe as to the Rigour of some other Laws
enacted by the Masters, tho' it is always adviseable to
It may happen that the Nature of certain Subjects proper for moving the Passions, may require a little more Latitude, and then, without Offence to the Criticks sure, there may be room for a saving in Equity from the Severity of the common Law of Parnassus, as well as of the Kings-bench. To sacrifice a principal Beauty, upon which the Success of the whole may depend, is being too strictly tied down; in such a Case, Summum jus, may be Summa injuria.
Corneille himself complains of finding his Genius often
cramped by his own Rules: “There is infinite Difference
(says he) between Speculation and Practice: Let
the severest Critick make the trial, he will be convinc'd
by his own Experience, that upon certain Occasions too
strict an Adherence to the Letter of the Law, shall
exclude a bright Opportunity of shining, or touching
the Passions. Where the Breach is of little moment,
or can be contrived to be as it were, imperceptible in
the Representation, a gentle Dispensation might be allowed.”
To those little Freedoms he attributes the
Success of his Cyd: But the rigid Legislators of the Academy
handled him so roughly for it, that he never durst
make the Venture again, nor none who have followed him.
Thus pinion'd, the French Muse must always flutter,
The Dialogue of their Tragedies is under the same Constraint as the Construction; not a Discourse, but an Oration; not Speaking, but Declaiming; not free, natural, and easy, as Conversation should be, but precise, set, formal Argumenting, Pro and Con, like Disputants in a School. In Writing, like Dress, is it not possible to be too exact, too starched, and too formal? Pleasing Negligence I have seen: Who ever saw pleasing Formality?
In a Word, all Extreams are to be avoided. To be a French Puritan in the Drama, or an English Latitudinarian, is taking different Paths to be both out of the Road. If the British Muse is too unruly, the French is too tame; one wants a Curb, the other a Spur.
By pleading for some little Relaxation from the utmost Severity of the Rules, where the Subject may seem to require it, I am not bespeaking any such Indulgence for the present Performance: Tho' the Ancients have left us no Pattern to follow of this Species of Tragedy, I perceive, upon Examination, that I have been attentive to their strictest Lessons.
The Unities are religiously observed: The Place is the
same, varied only into different Prospects by the Power
of Enchantment: All the Incidents fall naturally within
the very Time of Representation: The Plot is one principal
Rhyme, which I would by no means admit into the Dialogue of graver Tragedy, seems to me the most proper Style for Representations of this Heroick Romantick kind, and best adapted to accompany Musick. The solemn Language of a haughty Tyrant will by no means become a passionate Lover, and tender Sentiments require the softest Colouring.
The Theme must govern the Style; every Thought, every Character, every Subject of a different Nature, must speak a different Language. An humble Lover's gentle address to his Mistress would rumble strangely in the Miltonick Dialect; and the soft Harmony of Mr. Waller's Numbers would as ill become the Mouths of Lucifer and Belzebub. The Terrible, and the Tender, must be set to different Notes of Musick.
To conclude. This Dramatick Attempt was the first
Essay of a very infant Muse, rather as a Task at such
Hours as were free from other Exercises, than any way
meant for publick Entertainment: But Mr. Betterton
Had it been composed at a riper time of Life, the Faults might have been fewer: However, upon revising it now, at so great a Distance of Time, with a cooler Judgment than the first Conceptions of Youth will allow, I cannot absolutely say, Scripsisse pudet.
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