Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Volume I Part 10

"ELIZA ANN SHERIDAN."

In answer to these pressing demands, Mr. Linley, as appears by the following letter, signified his intention of being in town as soon as the music should be put in rehearsal. In the instructions here given by the poet to the musician, we may perceive that he somewhat apprehended, even in the tasteful hands of Mr. Linley, that predominance of harmony over melody, and of noise over both, which is so fatal to poetry and song, in their perilous alliance with an orchestra. Indeed, those elephants of old, that used to tread down the ranks they were brought to a.s.sist, were but a type of the havoc that is sometimes made both of melody and meaning by the overlaying aid of accompaniments.

"DEAR SIR,

"Mr. Harris wishes so much for us to get you to town, that I could not at first convince him that your proposal of not coming till the music was in rehearsal, was certainly the best, as you could stay but so short a time. The truth is, that what you mention of my getting a _master_ to teach the performers is the very point where the matter sticks, there being no such person as a master among them. Harris is sensible there ought to be such a person; however, at present, every body sings there according to their own ideas, or what chance instruction they can come at. We are, however, to follow your plan in the matter; but can at no rate relinquish the hopes of seeing you in eight or ten days from the date of this; when the music (by the specimen of expedition you have given me) will be advanced as far as you mention.

The parts are all writ out and doubled, &c. as we go on, as I have a.s.sistance from the theatre with me.

"My intention was, to have closed the first act with a song, but I find it is not thought so well. Hence I trust you with one of the inclosed papers; and, at the same time, you must excuse my impertinence in adding an idea of the cast I would wish the music to have; as I think I have heard you say you never heard Leoni, [Footnote: Leoni played Don Carlos.] and I cannot briefly explain to you the character and situation of the persons on the stage with him. The first (a dialogue between Quick and Mrs. Mattocks [Footnote: Isaac and Donna Louisa.]), I would wish to be a pert, sprightly air; for, though some of the words mayn't seem suited to it, I should mention that they are neither of them in earnest in what they say. Leoni takes it up seriously, and I want him to show himself advantageously in the six lines beginning 'Gentle maid.' I should tell you, that he sings nothing well but in a plaintive or pastoral style; and his voice is such as appears to me always to be hurt by much accompaniment. I have observed, too, that he never gets so much applause as when he makes a cadence. Therefore my idea is, that he should make a flourish at 'Shall I grieve thee?' and return to 'Gentle maid,' and so sing that part of the tune again. [Footnote: It will be perceived, by a reference to the music of the opera, that Mr. Linley followed these instructions implicitly and successfully.] After that, the two last lines, sung by the three, with the persons only varied, may get them off with as much spirit as possible. The second act ends with a _slow_ glee, therefore I should think the two last lines in question had better be brisk, especially as Quick and Mrs. Mattocks are concerned in it.

"The other is a song of Wilson's in the third act. I have written it to your tune, which you put some words to, beginning, 'Prithee, prithee, pretty man!' I think it will do vastly well for the words: Don Jerome sings them when he is in particular spirits; therefore the tune is not too light, though it might seem so by the last stanza--but he does not mean to be grave there, and I like particularly the returning to 'O the days when I was young!' We have mislaid the notes, but Tom remembers it.

If you don't like it for words, will you give us one? but it must go back to 'O the days,' and be _funny_. I have not done troubling you yet, but must wait till Monday."

A subsequent letter contains further particulars of their progress.

"DEAR SIR,

"Sunday evening next is fixed for our first musical rehearsal, and I was in great hopes we might have completed the score. The songs you have sent up of 'Banna's Banks,' and 'Deil take the wars,' I had made words for before they arrived, which answer excessively well; and this was my reason for wishing for the next in the same manner, as it saved so much time. They are to sing 'Wind, gentle evergreen,' just as you sing it (only with other words), and I wanted only such support from the instruments, or such joining in, as you should think would help to set off and a.s.sist the effort. I inclose the words I had made for 'Wind, gentle evergreen,' which will be sung, as a catch, by Mrs. Mattocks, Dubellamy, [Footnote: Don Antonio.] and Leoni. I don't mind the words not fitting the notes so well as the original ones. 'How merrily we live,' and 'Let's drink and let's sing,' are to be sung by a company of _friars_ over their wine. [Footnote: For these was afterwards subst.i.tuted Mr. Linley's lively glee, "This bottle's the sun of our table."] The words will be parodied, and the chief effect I expect from them must arise from their being _known_; for the joke will be much less for these jolly fathers to sing any thing new, than to give what the audience are used to annex the idea of jollity to. For the other things Betsey mentioned, I only wish to have them with such accompaniment as you would put to their _present_ words, and I shall have got words to my liking for them by the time they reach me.

"My immediate wish at present is to give the performers their parts in the music (which they expect on Sunday night), and for any a.s.sistance the orchestra can give to help the effect of the glees, &c., that may be judged of and added at a rehearsal, or, as you say, on inquiring how they have been done; though I don't think it follows that what Dr.

Arne's method is must be the best. If it were possible for Sat.u.r.day and Sunday's post to bring us what we asked for in our last letters, and what I now enclose, we should still go through it on Sunday, and the performers should have their parts complete by Monday night. We have had our rehearsal of the speaking part, and are to have another on Sat.u.r.day.

I want Dr. Harrington's catch, but, as the sense must be the same, I am at a loss how to put other words. Can't the under part ('A smoky house, &c.') be sung by one person and the other two change? The situation is-- Quick and Dubellamy, two lovers, carrying away Father Paul (Reinold) in great raptures, to marry them:--the Friar has before warned them of the ills of a married life, and they break out into this. The catch is particularly calculated for a stage effect; but I don't like to take another person's words, and I don't see how I can put others, keeping the same idea ('of seven squalling brats, &c.') in which the whole affair lies. However, I shall be glad of the notes, with Reynold's part, if it is possible, as I mentioned. [Footnote: This idea was afterwards relinquished.]

"I have literally and really not had time to write the words of any thing more first and then send them to you, and this obliges me to use this apparently awkward way....

"My father was astonishingly well received on Sat.u.r.day night in Cato: I think it will not be many days before we are reconciled.

"The inclosed are the words for 'Wind, gentle evergreen;' a pa.s.sionate song for Mattocks, [Footnote: The words of this song, in composing which the directions here given were exactly followed, are to be found in scarce any of the editions of the Duenna. They are as follows:--

Sharp is the woe that wounds the jealous mind, When treachery two fond hearts would rend; But oh! how keener far the pang to find That traitor in our bosom friend.]

and another for Miss Brown, [Footnote: "Adieu, thou dreary pile."] which solicit to be clothed with melody by you, and are all I want. Mattocks's I could wish to be a broken, pa.s.sionate affair, and the first two lines may be recitative, or what you please, uncommon. Miss Brown sings hers in a joyful mood: we want her to show in it as much execution as she is capable of, which is pretty well; and, for variety, we want Mr.

Simpson's hautboy to cut a figure, with replying pa.s.sages, &c., in the way of Fisher's '_M' ami, il bel idol mio_,' to abet which I have lugged in 'Echo,' who is always allowed to play her part. I have not a moment more. Yours ever sincerely."

The next and last extract I shall give at present is from a letter, dated Nov. 2, 1775, about three weeks before the first representation of the opera.

"Our music is now all finished and rehearsing, but we are greatly impatient to see _you_. We hold your coming to be _necessary_ beyond conception. You say you are at our service after Tuesday next; then 'I conjure you by that you do possess,' in which I include all the powers that preside over harmony, to come next Thursday night (this day se'nnight), and we will fix a rehearsal for Friday morning. From what I see of their rehearsing at present, I am become still more anxious to see you.

"We have received all your songs, and are vastly pleased with them. You misunderstood me as to the hautboy song; I had not the least intention to fix on '_Bel idol mio_,' However, I think it is particularly well adapted, and, I doubt not, will have a great effect...."

An allusion which occurs in these letters to the prospect of a reconciliation with his father gives me an opportunity of mentioning a circ.u.mstance, connected with their difference, for the knowledge of which I am indebted to one of the persons most interested in remembering it, and which, as a proof of the natural tendency of Sheridan's heart to let all its sensibilities flow in the right channel, ought not to be forgotten. During the run of one of his pieces, having received information from an old family servant that his father (who still refused to have any intercourse with him) meant to attend, with his daughters, at the representation of the piece, Sheridan took up his station by one of the side scenes, opposite to the box where they sat, and there continued, un.o.bserved, to look at them during the greater part of the night. On his return home, he was so affected by the various recollections that came upon him, that he burst into tears, and, being questioned as to the cause of his agitation by Mrs. Sheridan, to whom it was new to see him returning thus saddened from the scene of his triumph, he owned how deeply it had gone to his heart "to think that _there_ sat his father and his sisters before him, and yet that he alone was not permitted to go near them or speak to them."

On the 21st of November, 1775, The Duenna was performed at Covent Garden, and the following is the original cast of the characters, as given in the collection of Mr. Sheridan's Dramatic Works:--

Don Ferdinand _Mr. Mattocks_.

Isaac Mendoza _Mr. Quick_.

Don Jerome _Mr. Wilson_.

Don Antonio _Mr. Dubellamy_.

Father Paul _Mr. Watson_.

Lopez _Mr. Wewitzer_.

Don Carlos _Mr. Leoni_.

Francis _Mr. Fox_.

Lay Brother _Mr. Baker_.

Donna Louisa _Mrs. Mattocks_.

Donna Clara _Mrs. Cargill_. [Footnote: This is incorrect: it was Miss Brown that played Donna Clara for the first few nights.]

The Duenna _Mrs. Green_.

The run of this opera has, I believe, no parallel in the annals of the drama. Sixty-three nights was the career of the Beggar's Opera; but the Duenna was acted no less than seventy-five times during the season, the only intermissions being a few days at Christmas, and the Fridays in every week;--the latter on account of Leoni, who, being a Jew, could not act on those nights.

In order to counteract this great success of the rival house, Garrick found it necessary to bring forward all the weight of his own best characters; and even had recourse to the expedient of playing off the mother against the son, by reviving Mrs. Frances Sheridan's comedy of The Discovery, and acting the princ.i.p.al part in it himself. In allusion to the increased fatigue which this compet.i.tion with The Duenna brought upon Garrick, who was then entering on his sixtieth year, it was said, by an actor of the day, that "the old woman would be the death of the old man."

The Duenna is one of the very few operas in our language, which combine the merits of legitimate comedy with the attractions of poetry and song;--that divorce between sense and sound, to which Dr. Brown and others trace the cessation of the early miracles of music, being no where more remarkable than in the operas of the English stage. The "Sovereign of the willing soul" (as Gray calls Music) always loses by being made exclusive sovereign,--and the division of her empire with poetry and wit, as in the instance of The Duenna, doubles her real power.

The intrigue of this piece (which is mainly founded upon an incident borrowed from the "Country Wife" of Wycherley) is constructed and managed with considerable adroitness, having just material enough to be wound out into three acts, without being enc.u.mbered by too much intricacy, or weakened by too much extension. It does not appear, from the rough copy in my possession, that any material change was made in the plan of the work, as it proceeded. Carlos was originally meant to be a Jew, and is called "Cousin Moses" by Isaac, in the first sketch of the dialogue; but possibly from the consideration that this would apply too personally to Leoni, who was to perform the character, its designation was altered. The scene in the second act, where Carlos is introduced by Isaac to the Duenna, stood, in its original state, as follows:--

"_Isaac._ Moses, sweet coz, I thrive, I prosper.

"_Moses._ Where is your mistress?

"_Isaac._ There, you b.o.o.by, there she stands.

"_Moses._ Why she's d.a.m.n'd ugly.

"_Isaac._ Hush! (_stops his mouth_.)

"_Duenna._ What is your friend saying, Don?

"_Isaac._ Oh, Ma'am, he's expressing his raptures at such charms as he never saw before.

"_Moses._ Ay, such as I never saw before indeed. (_aside_.)

"_Duenna._ You are very obliging, gentlemen; but, I dare say, Sir, your friend is no stranger to the influence of beauty. I doubt not but he is a lover himself.

"_Moses._ Alas! Madam, there is now but one woman living, whom I have any love for, and truly, Ma'am, you resemble her wonderfully.

"_Duenna._ Well, Sir, I wish she may give you her hand as speedily as I shall mine to your friend.

"_Moses._ Me her hand!--O Lord, Ma'am--she is the last woman in the world I could think of marrying.

"_Duenna._ What then, Sir, are you comparing me to some wanton-- some courtezan?

"_Isaac._ Zounds! he durstn't.

"_Moses._ O not I, upon my soul.