A memoir of so distinguished a literary character, of so excellent a musical critic, as Dr. Burney, cannot be read without exciting a very considerable degree of interest, particularly as coming from the pen of a celebrated writer; and, still more especially, as embodying numerous anecdotes of persons who filled such prominent stations, and shone with so much brilliancy, during a period that may almost be called our own. Had the whole been written with the spirit and in the manner of those early letters which Madame d’Arblay has here so judiciously published in all their native vivacity and unaffected simplicity, the work would have been delightful and irreproachable: but, unhappily, she delayed putting together her materials till that judgment, once so strong, was no longer in full vigour; till advancing age had somewhat lessened those qualifications which, at the time when she was deprived of her highly-gifted, excellent, and venerable parent, she, most undeniably, possessed for the performance of such a task.
Vain would it be to express a wish that Madame d’Arblay could be induced to publish what we will venture to call a castigated edition of this Memoir; her age renders it next to impossible that such a hope should be realized: but the time probably will come, when what she has here collected will be revised, be combined in a very different manner, and then form a work worthy of being classed among the most entertaining of the many pieces of biography in which the literature of our country abounds.
ON THE RE-INTRODUCTION OF THE LYRE,
In its most ancient form of a four-stringed Instrument.
To the EDITOR of the HARMONICON.
SIR,
WE have lately seen the guitar, an instrument nearly new to this country, introduced among us, and acquire great popularity. This was an instrument of the Greeks, though far less a favourite than the lyre. Why, then, should not the lyre be now found to possess yet higher recommendations? The fact of its origin in Greece, and the high estimation in which it was held by that people, prove, at least, that it deserves our study.
The strings of the lyre, it appears, were gradually increased from four to forty. The lyre of Apollo had only four strings; and the number of seven continued to be established by law at Sparta, so late as the time of Timotheus, who attempted an innovation in adding four more, and was condemned for it.
Some circumstances render it, in my opinion, probable that, in playing on the lyre, the ancients stopped the strings, at various places, by means of some metallic substance, in order to produce a great variety of notes. Probably the plectrum might occasionally be used for that purpose. It was, indeed, scarcely possible that their κιθαρα should so perfectly resemble the guitar of the present day (as observed in the sequel), without suggesting to them the stopping of the strings of the lyre.