LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE; For AUGUST, 1818. A Pew and Improved Series. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ILLUSTRIOUS AND DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS. Pumber One Hundred and Thirteen. HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE. We have the peculiar satisfaction of || The Landgrave of Hesse Cassel accompapresenting our readers this month with a nied his daughter to this country, and most correct and pleasing likeness of her when he witnessed the enthusiasm by Royal Highness Augusta Wilhelmina Lou- which the royal pair was received, he isa, Duchess of Cambridge. declared it to be the proudest day of his life. This amiable and illustrious lady was born Princess of Hesse, on the 25th of July, 1797, at Rumpenheim, on the banks of the Maine, near Hannau; and in May, 1818, she was married in Germany to his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, fifth son of his Most Gracious Majesty George III. and of his illustrious consort Queen Charlotte. On Tuesday, the 27th of May, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived in London, amidst the general plaudits of an enraptured people: the bride of him who, when at the age of four-and-twenty was affirmed by his venerable and royal father, at that period, to have his first fault yet to commit, could not fail of being an interesting object; especially to the English people, for they have known, in several Succeeding years, that the conduct of the now quitted England to reassume his auDuke of Cambridge was still faultless. || thority. On Monday, the 2d of June, a re-marriage took place at the Queen's Palace. A temporary altar was fixed in her blue drawing-room, and the Duke and Duchess were again united in presence of her Majesty, the Prince Regent, the royal Dukes, and the Princesses their sisters. The ceremony was performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishop of London. A royal salute was, as usual, fired at this conclusion of the ceremony, and a splendid dinner, in honour of the nuptials, given by the Prince Regent. The power invested in his Royal Highness at Hanover, renders his presence requisite in that country, and, accompanied by his amiable and illustrious bride, he has Ge ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. A BRIEF HISTORY OF MUSIC, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE PRESENT TIME, SELECTED FROM THE BEST MUSIC OF THE BRITONS. AUTHORITIES. (Continued from page 5.) AMONGST the ancient Cambrians the greatest reverence was paid to their poetmusicians the bards, both in Pagan and Christian times. We have still some songs of very remote antiquity preserved in the Welsh language; though they have been since set to different tunes. The fluctuating favour of minstrelsy in England resembled that of France: but we may be assured that British harpers were famous long before the conquest, and the bounty of our first Norman sovereign to his hard, is recorded in Doomsday Book. Henry III., in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, gave forty shillings and a pipe of wine to Richard his harper, and another pipe of wine to Beatrice the harper's wife. All our ancient poems were sung to the harp on Sundays and other festivals. But in the legendary life of St. Christopher, we find mention made of the fiddle in the following old English lines : "Christofre hym served long; instance of fidelity; but it did not make hint spare his brethren of the tuneful art in Wales. The institution of the midsummer fair, at Chester, is traced up to the time of Edward the Confessor, when Leofric, Earl of Chester, among other grants to the Abbey of St. Werburg, in that city, established a fair on the festival of the Saint to whom it was dedicated, and in his honour ordained that the persons of whatever vagrants or vagabonds that should be assembled there at the time, should be safe, provided they were guilty of no new offence. During the reign of Edward II. such extensive privileges were granted to the minstrels, and so many dissolute persons assumed their character, that their conduct became a serious public grievance: and the King made a regulation that there should be none but four regularly appointed minstrels of honour, unless desired by the master of the house; and to the lower class of people that none should come un "The Kynge loved melodye of fithele and of less desired. songe." No instrument, however, was in such high esteem as the harp, whether this island was governed by British, Saxon, Danish, or Norman monarchs. The poor minstrels bore a very ill name; but they still had one friend who rescued their fame from the reproach attached to it; this was Walter Heming, who records of them the following incident, which redounds to their honour. Stowe, whose authority we have frequently quoted in our topographical notices of London, and whose intelligence is generally to be relied on, informs us that a very considerable sum was set apart for the liveries of the minstrels. The same writer, also, gives us an account of a kind of pageant, or exhibition, which was per. formed for the entertainment of the young Prince Richard, son of Edward the Black Prince, on the Sunday before Candlemas, 1377, wherein he mentions the following musical instruments-trumpets, sackbuts, cornets, shawms, and minstrels, with in About the year 1271, a short time before Edward 1. ascended the throne, he took his harper with him to the Holy Land; and when Edward was wounded with a poison-numerable torch lights; and that they rode ed knife at Ptolemais, the faithful musician hearing a struggle, rushed into the royal apartment and killed the assassin. Edward should have borne this in mind, and have cherished the minstrels for the sake of this from Newgate through Chepe, over the bridge, through Southwark to Kennington and Lambeth, where the young Prince remained with his mother, his uneles the royal Dukes, and other noble Lords. These instruments were well suited to a procession, but would certainly have been too noisy if played in a room. HISTORY OF MUSIC. It was an important period in English history when Chaucer, whom we might style our first poet, augmented our vocabulary, polished our numbers, and enriched our knowledge with acquisitions from France and Italy. As Dr. Burney justly remarks,-" Literary plunder seems the most innocent kind of depredation that can be made upon our neighbours; as they are deprived of nothing but what they can well spare, and which it is neither dishonourable to lose, nor disgraceful to take." In the third book of Chaucer's House of Fame, he bestows above sixty lines in describing music, musicians, and musical instruments. Stowe collected many of Chaucer's ballads, but in all the ancient libraries and MSS. none of our musical researchers have been able to find the tune of an English song or dance so ancient as the fourteenth century. At the coronation of Henry V. in 1418, there were no other instruments than harps; but an historian of that period informs us that their number in that Prince's hall was prodigious. He seems not, however, to have been fond of music, for when he entered the city of London triumphant from the battle of Agincourt, some children were placed on temporary turrets, to sing 53 during many years of this reign, that at the annual feast of the fraternity of the Holy Cross, at Abingdon, in Berkshire, twelve priests received only fourpence each for singing a solemn dirge; while the same number of minstrels had each two shillings and fourpence, besides diet and horsemeat. About this time two very eminent musicians flourished in England, and obtained a high degree of celebrity; these were John Dunstable and Dr. John Hambois. Dunstable was the musician whom the Germans have mistaken for St. Dunstan: Dunstable was not only a musician but a mathematician, and an eminent astrologer. Two or three fragments are all that are now left of his compositions. Dr. John Hambois possessed much learning, but music formed the chief of his studies: and here it may not be amiss to mention, when speaking of the degree of Doctor being conferred on him, to look back to an institution which is peculiar to our universities. We are told, moreover, by Anthony Wood, that the degree of Doctor of Music was first given in the reign of Henry II.; but those who are more nice in their researches, and consequently more correct in their information, tell us that the appellation of Doctor was not granted till the reign of King John, in 1207. Hollinshed mentions an enumera verses in praise of the hero: Henry, whe-tion of the most eminent men in the reign ther from modesty or disgust, gave orders that no songs should be recited by harpers, or others, in honour of the recent victory. It is somewhat extraordinary that the only song known at all from so early a date, the original music of which has been really preserved, was written on the victory at Agincourt, in 1415. A MS. on music is, nevertheless, preserved at Oxford, of yet more ancient date. It was written by an Englishman of the name of Theinred, precentor of the monastery of Dover, in the year 1871. The turbulent and unhappy reign of Henry VI. was, notwithstanding, favourable to music, as far as related to minstrelsy: for minstrels, though Heury was a very devout Prince, were better paid than the clergy. And Hearne observes, that of Edward IV. among whom he cites John Hambois, "an excellent musician;" and adds, that "for his notable cunning therein he was made a Doctor of Music." In the reign of Edward IV. that is, when he became established on the throne, music seems to have been under better regulation than during that of the so often dethroned Henry VI. Edward incorporated the minstrels into a regular body, and this incorporation resembled the ancient flute players among the Romans. In an account of the establishment of the fourth Edward's houshold, we read of several musicians retained in his service, as well for his private amusement as for the service of his chapel. (To be continued.) ANECDOTES OF ILLUSTRIOUS FEMALES. ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF HUNGARY. THE life of this truly illustrious woman, who, by her piety and benevolence, justly merited to be placed where she was, among the saints, was checquered with events which even her extraordinary beauty and endowments could not prevent, when they too often approached her in the guise of afflictions. Not only did she feed from her own table a multitude of indigent persons, but she sought out the habitations of disease and misery, attending the former like paring with her own hands her benevolent offerings to the poor, waiting on them, making up their beds, and enduring with constant and unremitting perseverance the infectious air of an hospital during the burning heat of an ardent summer. Yet calumny attacked the fame of this virtuous Princess. The treasurers of her husband complained of her prodigality; but the young Landgrave too well knew that the most prudent economy aided her generosity: far then from giving ear to their idle an assiduous and careful nurse, and alle-reports, he only placed increased confidence viating the latter to the very utmost of her power, and never did the cries of the poor assail her in vain. One day when the Prince of Thuringe, her husband, gave a splendid feast, and Elizabeth was magnificently dressed to do him honour, as she passed through the avenues of his palace she met a poor mendicant, who craved alms. The Princess having no money about her, told the beggar to wait some other time." Do not," said the miserable wretch, " do not send me away without relief; how can you dismiss me in his name by which I have implored an alms?"-The Princess, touched with compassion, immediately took from her head a veil of immense value and gave it to the beggar. in his virtuous and amiable partner. Soon after the Prince departed for the Holy Land: Elizabetlı accompanied him a great part of his journey; and on her return to court she laid aside every exterior mark of magnificence, and wore constantly the habit of a widow, which she never afterwards quitted. Her piety had drawn on her the envy and hatred of Sophia, her mother-in-law; and had been displeasing to the proud nobility. Deprived of all her wealth, and driven out with disgrace from the palace of her husband, she found herself compelled to take refuge in a public inn, with a few of her ladies in waiting, who were resolved never to abandon her. This happened at a time when the weather was remarkably severe. Elizabeth had neither food nor firing; nor could she even obtain a situation in one of the many hospitals she had Elizabeth kept constantly employed in her apartments a considerable number of young women, with whom she used to sit and spin vestments for the poor. Her favourite occupation was to see to the bleach-founded. The news of her deplorable situ ing of linen for the service of the altar, and in making and mending garments for the indigent. ation reached the Bishop of Bamberg, her uncle, who took her into his castle, and caused her marriage portion to be restored to her. Elizabeth made no other use of it than distributing it amongst the poor. A horrible famine having desolated Germany in 1225, Elizabeth, in the absence of her husband, distributed all the corn that grew on his lands amongst the poor. As the Castle of Marpurg, wherein were the granaries, was situated on a very steep rock, to spare to the interesting objects of her pity the trouble and fatigue of climb | King of Hungary being informed of the ing it, she caused a large hospital to be built at the foot of the rock, which she visited herself every day. Historians remark that it was a most admirable sight to see a Princess in the early bloom of youth, and dazzling by her beauty, pre The Pope, touched with the merits, virtue, and undeserved afflictions of this Princess, publicly declared himself her protector; and she retired to Marpurg, chusing for her dwelling a very small cottage. The wretched lot of his daughter, sent a nobleman to bring her to his palace; but she never would be persuaded to quit her humble retreat, where she died at the age of twenty-four years. |