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Untitled Article
whisper of the breeze to the tempest and earthquake , reaching its climax with a deafening crash of instruments imitative of a tremendous storm , and concluding with a burst of heaven ' s artillery ! So far every one understands the use and abuse of the favourite crescendo in music ; but I fear I shall not easily sucoeed in
making evident the same abuse as it exists in the pages < rf Walter Scott . I throw myself however on the reader ' s indulgence , and beg to present to him , as an illustration of my meaning , a scene from the novel of ' Kenilworth , ' selected for my purpose without much trouble . The Earl of Leicester having been exposed to serious dangers by the sudden appearance of Amy
Robsart at Kenilworth * has retired to his own private apartments accompanied by the wretch Varney . Well aware of the terrible consequences that might ensue from Elizabeth ' s anger at discovering him to be Amy ' s husband , the noble Earl gravely thinks on the means of resisting the impetuous Queen , and writes down the names of all the individuals who are likely in such an
extremity to become his partisans . Varney ventures to show him the folly of open resistance , and proves to him that Elizabeth ' s throne is not to be shaken . Leicester angrily casts away the list of names , and commands his favourite , in resolute terms , to admit his friends into the Castle , and place them in readiness to master the Queen ' s guards . The wicked Varney professes obedience ;
but , to save his master ( on whose fate his own depends ) from committing a rashness that might drag him to inevitable ruin , he warily begins by throwing out insinuations against the young damsel , for whose sake Leicester is so ready to plunge himself into an ocean of troubles ; then he plausibly makes those insinuations appear strong- suspicions and acquire the semblance of truth ; afterwards they become as it were certainties : every word of the
infamous adviser is a semitone more acute than the preceding one , a phrase more emphatic and accented , and contains an artifice which gradually augments the tone and multiplies the force of sound and the number and velocity of the notes . Leicester is led on from incredulity to surprise ; from surprise to grief ; from grief to rage , despair , and Tevenge : he is a tempest roused b y the breath of a zephyr ; an avalanche , whose nucleus was a snow-ball ! In short , the scene is a true musical crescendo , in the widest sense
of the term . * Again ; Rossini has been accused of plagiarism ; not , to be sure , in the sense which constitutes piracy , and exposes him to legal tribunals . But we shall not examine the matter too narrowly ; otherwise it would not be difficult to point out , in the most original of all authors , some thoughts which , by their analogy to other thoughts , would establish a true case of plagiarism , f
• Very cleverly made out Ed . f Not exactly ; it should be plain that they are the same thought !* , and without a new and important application . —Ei > .
Untitled Article
Rossini ofe * Walter ScotU 537
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1836, page 567, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2661/page/43/
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