“I’ll pickle your roast beef, Davey, before I am done!”
The threat was no idle one. Refused an engagement at Drury Lane, which was under Garrick’s management, Arne set up his famous pupil at Covent Garden, where she had such success in The Beggar’s Opera, that all the town flocked to hear her, and Garrick was nearly ruined.
The degree of Mus. Doc. was conferred on Arne by Oxford University in July, 1759. In addition to being a great composer, he was a great teacher, laying particular stress on the importance of clear enunciation of the words. Most of his earlier works were written for his wife, who accompanied him on a visit to Ireland in 1742, and who was a very successful singer. After she retired from public life Arne’s pupils interpreted his compositions. He had one son, Michael, who went on the stage at an early date, but his chief successes were gained as a player of the harpsichord.
Like so many other great men, Dr. Arne was buried in St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, and there was originally a monument to him in that church, but owing to the carelessness of some plumbers engaged in repairs, the building was almost totally destroyed by fire in the year 1795; and though it was rebuilt on the same plan and in the same proportions, the memorials of its mighty dead were never replaced, and there is nothing now to show that here rest, with Dr. Thomas Arne, the poets, Samuel Butler and Peter Pindar; the dramatists, Mrs. Centlivre and William Wycherley; the painter, Sir Peter Lely; the sculptor, Grinling Gibbons; and many more whose names are inscribed upon the scroll of Fame.
Eleonore D’Esterre-Keeling.
