A benefit for Mrs. Knowles, on the 2nd of April, was given for which Arne composed music. The advertisement announced: “Act the 2nd. A Duetto between Mr. Sadler and Mr. Butler, accompanied with French Horns, etc., called The Death of the Stag. The Music composed by Mr. Arne!” At the end of the play “by particular desire” Miss Brent sang, “Where the bee sucks.” The duet with French horns was doubtless composed to exhibit the skill of “Mr. Charles and his Second.” On the 5th of May, Miss Spencer had a benefit at the Theatre, when she introduced “A new Ballad call’d Kitty, or the Female Phaeton; the words by Prior, set by Mr. Arne.” This song became a favourite at Ranelagh Gardens. Mrs. Arne contemplated giving a benefit concert and ball in May; the programme was to include music from Arne’s “Alfred,” but after several advertisements and postponements, it was announced that “Mrs. Arne is obliged to acquaint the Public that Mr. Arne (by Desire) intending one capital Performance of Alfred before his Departure from this Kingdom, she will make no other Benefit on her own Account, and those Tickets which are disposed of among her Friends will be then taken, on paying the additional Price.” Subsequent advertisement announced: “By Special Command of their Excellencies the Lords Justices.—For the Benefit of Mr. and Mrs. Arne. At the Great Music-hall in Fishamble-street, on Tuesday, the 25th of this Inst., May, will be performed, in the Manner of an Oratorio, Alfred the Great, composed by Mr. Arne, at the special command of His late Royal Highness, Frederic, Prince of Wales, and originally performed in his Palace at Cliefdon. Mr. Arne will accompany the Performance on the Harpsichord, and Mr. Walsh will perform a Concerto on the Organ. The Vocal Parts to be performed by Mrs. Arne, Mr. Sadler, Miss Brent, Miss Spencer, Miss Young and Miss Polly Young. Ticket, a British Crown. All outstanding Tickets, for the Opera of Eliza and the Tickets delivered by Mrs. Arne, will be taken. After the Performance (by Desire) will be a Ball, conducted in the most elegant Manner, on Account of which the Performance will begin at Seven. Tickets to be had only of Mr. Arne, at the Passage Door next the Golden Scales, in Fishamble-street.”
Arne, by Bartolozzi.
After this performance in 1756, Arne appears to have left Dublin, and probably never revisited that city. Mrs. Arne remained in Dublin with her niece, Miss Polly Young, who had a benefit at the Smock Alley Theatre on the 8th of July, and was assisted by Miss Young and Miss Brent. The Youngs sang also at a benefit concert given for Miss Polly Young, at Marborough Green, on the 7th of September. It seems pretty clear that Arne deserted his wife at this time, and that the fact soon became known to many in Dublin. An “Assembly” was announced for her benefit early in December, but was postponed from time to time; finally, the Journal, March 5-8, 1767, announced: “Mrs. Arne, having opened the Music-Hall in Fishamble-Street for her Benefit on Saturday the 12th of Feb., under great Disadvantages, is advised by her Friends (who had Notice of that Night, and are sensible of her Losses) to fix on Thursday, the 10th of March, for her Benefit and Miss Young’s, when the Ladies and Gentlemen who will honour them with their Company, may depend they shall on no Account be disappointed.—N.B. The Tickets given out for the different Nights she has advertised will be taken, and others had of Mrs. Arne, at her Lodgings in Aungier-street and at the Music-Hall. Price 5s. 6d.” Later in the year (April 24th) Mrs. Arne and Miss Young gave a concert. Allusion has already been made to Mrs. Arne’s frequent attacks of indisposition, and it is reasonable to think that her husband’s conduct would have a grave effect on her health and spirits. She seems to have relinquished public performance for a time and retired into private life. A very interesting glimpse of her is to be found in “The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany.” Writing to her sister, Mrs. Dewes, from Mount Panther, County Down, on the 8th of August, 1758, she said: “On Saturday we dined at Mr. Bayly’s; Miss Bayly had gone on a party of pleasure. I was surprised there at meeting Mrs. Arne (Miss Young that was); they have her in the house to teach Miss Bayly to sing; she was recommended to Mr. Bayly by Mrs. Berkeley as an object of compassion. She looks, indeed, much humbled, and I hope is as deserving as they think her to be; great allowances are to be made for the temptations those poor people fall under. She has been severely used by a bad husband, and suffered to starve, if she had not met with charitable people. She behaves herself very well, and though her voice has lost its bloom as well as her face, she sings well, and was well taught by Geminiani and Handel, and had she not been idle would have been a charming singer. Mr. Bayly plays on the violin, his curate on the German flute; Mrs. Arne and Miss Bayly sing, and a girl of nine years old[15] accompanies them on the harpsichord most surprisingly; she is a niece of Mrs. Arne’s; the race of the Youngs are born songsters and musicians. It is very agreeable to have such an entertainment in our power to go to whenever we please.” Poor Mrs. Arne! humbled, half-starved, deserted by her husband, losing her good looks, and the bloom of her voice, sings well, and if she had not been idle would have been a charming singer! Mrs. Delany, a gifted and kind-hearted woman, was evidently ignorant of the fact that the lady she criticised was forty-seven years of age, and had been constantly before the public, as a vocalist, for twenty-six years.
In the following January, 1759, Mrs. Arne and Miss Young were residing together in Dublin, at Mrs. Rowe’s, in Drogheda Street. A Grand concert of Vocal and Instrumental Musick, followed by a Ball, was given for Mrs. Arne’s Benefit at the Fishamble Street Music Hall on the 6th of March, when both appeared and sang; another benefit performance for Mrs. Arne was given on the 17th of April, when “Much ado about Nothing” was performed. Miss Young, Mrs. Storer and Mr. Wilder were the vocalists. A benefit concert and ball, for Mrs. Arne, was given on the 10th of December; she had then removed to “Mrs. Lee’s, in William-street.” It is significant that she did not sing on this occasion, nor is there any evidence of her appearing again before the Dublin public; a Grand Ball was announced for the Benefit of Mrs. Arne and Miss Young at the Fishamble Street Music Hall on the 25th of November, when it was stated: “Before the Minuets Miss Young will sing some capital Songs, accompanied by herself on the Harpsichord.”
Mr. Arne had been fully engaged in the various gardens and theatres in London. At Covent Garden “Cymbeline” was produced, with songs by him. His pupil, Miss Brent, had appeared at Drury Lane Theatre, in his opera “Eliza,” on March the 3rd, 1758, and at Covent Garden on the 10th of October, 1759, as Polly, in the “Beggar’s Opera.” On the 6th of July, 1759, the University of Oxford conferred upon Arne the degree of “Doctor in Music.”[16] It is said that he composed an Ode which he submitted to the authorities; but no copy of it is known to exist.
In 1760, on the 28th of November, Dr. Arne’s musical entertainment “Thomas and Sally,” written by Bickerstaff, was produced at Covent Garden Theatre. Miss Brent made a great success both as singer and actress; the other vocalists included Mr. Beard, Mrs. Vernon, and Mr. Mattocks. The piece obtained immediate and lasting popularity. The music was published with the following title: “Thomas and Sally, or the Sailor’s Return, a Dramatic Pastoral, with the Overture in score, songs, dialogues, duettos and dance tunes, as performed at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden by Mr. Beard and Miss Brent, Mr. Mattocks, Mrs. Vernon, and chorus. The music compos’d by Doctr. Arne. London Printed for J. Walsh, in Catherine Street, in the Strand. Enter’d at Stationers’ Hall.”
In 1761, on the 27th of February, at Drury Lane Theatre, Arne brought out his oratorio “Judith,” one of his most important compositions. The Public Advertiser of the above date, announced: “At the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane, This Day, will be performed a new Sacred Oratorio call’d JUDITH. The Music composed by Dr. Arne, with a Concerto on the Organ. Pit and Boxes will be laid together at Half a Guinea. First Gallery 5s. Upper Gallery 3s. 6d. Tickets for the Pit and Boxes may be had of Mr. Varney, at the Stage-Door of the Theatre. To begin at half an hour after Six o’clock.” The following day a brief notice appeared in the same journal, which said: “Last Night the new sacred Oratorio call’d Judith, was performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, to a most polite Audience, who gave it the greatest Approbation and Applause ever known, on the Occasion.” Evidence of the success of the oratorio is the repetition of it on the 4th and 6th of March. It was also again performed in Lenten season of 1762 at the theatre. In 1764, on February 29th, it was performed at the Chapel of the Lock Hospital, Grosvenor Place, Pimlico, on behalf of the funds of the charity. A more notable repetition took place at Covent Garden Theatre on the 26th of February 1773, when for the first time ladies formed a part of the chorus; before this time the treble chorus was confined to boys’ voices. This happy innovation of Dr. Arne’s was well received; the Public Advertiser said: “The Oratorio of Judith, composed by Dr. Arne, which was performed at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, yesterday evening, was received with uncommon Applause. The principal singers acquitted themselves to the utmost Satisfaction of the Audience. Mr. Barthelemon was greatly admired in his Solo on the Violin, and too much cannot be said of Signor Spandau’s Concerto on the French Horn, as it surpassed any Performance on that Instrument hitherto heard in this Country. The striking Appearance of the Band and Chorus, which were much more numerous than they usually have been, received a most pleasing Addition from the Female Singers, then first introduced.” It is somewhat remarkable that the Pianoforte was first used in public as an accompaniment for the voice when a song from “Judith” was sung at Covent Garden Theatre by Miss Brickler on the 16th of May, 1767. The playbill announced that after the first Act of the “Beggar’s Opera,” “Miss Brickler will sing a favourite song from Judith, accompanied by Mr. Dibdin, on a new instrument called Piano Forte.” The published score of the music of “Judith” has for title, “Judith an Oratorio as it is Perform’d at the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane, Compos’d by Dr. Arne, London. Printed for J. Walsh in Catherine Street in the Strand.” This volume unfortunately does not contain a single chorus. The Overture is scored for Strings, Hautboys, Bassoon and Horns. It opens with a spirited Allegro, followed by a short Andante movement for strings only; the other instruments resume in the final Allegro Moderato. A solo, “Wake, my harp,” which was sung by Mrs. Cornelys, is accompanied by strings, violins pizzicato, harp and harpsichord in a very effective manner. In an air, “Haste to the gardens of delight,” sung by Mr. Tenducci, two flutes are added to the orchestration; and in another air, “With heroes and sages,” also sung by Tenducci, we find the bassoons have parts independent of the basses, a somewhat novel departure at the period when Arne wrote. An air, “No more the Heathen shall blaspheme,” sung by Mr. Fawcett, has the novel accompaniment of two violoncellos and bass; no other instruments until the last four bars of symphony, when the violins are introduced. Fortunately the composer’s autograph score exists in the British Museum, and in that we find much of interest. It exemplifies in some degree the well-known haste and carelessness of the composer; there are sundry memoranda, such as “take care of the Instrumental parts where I have mistaken the lines,” “Bassoons in semibriefs,” &c. The choruses are in this case his own; there was no borrowing from Handel. The first, “Father of mercies,” is short—only thirty-seven bars. The next, “When Israel wept,” is also short and good. “Hear, angels, hear” extends to one hundred and twenty-six bars; “Hail, immortal Bacchus,” eighty-five bars; “Prepare the genial bower,” eighty-seven bars; and the next, a very fine chorus, “Who can Jehovah’s wrath abide,” one hundred and eight bars; “Breathe the pipe,” sixty-two bars; and the last chorus, “Here, sons of Jacob,” written in five vocal parts for soprano, alto, tenor and bass, sixty-four bars. Dr. Arne was remarkable for his deficient memory respecting things trifling in themselves, yet sometimes of considerable consequence as connected with other matters. If he made an appointment to meet a friend, whether for the purpose of business or amusement, he would probably mistake the day; if he wrote an order for the theatre, it was equally probable that the play would be misnamed, or that the frank would bear a wrong date. On one occasion, when he had prepared an elaborate Ode, he had it rehearsed, and announced the day for its public performance. The great room at the Crown and Anchor[17] was crowded with company impatiently waiting for their expected gratification. Arne arrived at the tavern-door in a fiacre, leaped out with the score under his arm, and left the parts behind him. When the doctor discovered his neglect, he was in the condition of a madman. Persons were dispatched in all directions in search of the coach, but it could not be found; and the band and company were subjected to the mortification of being dismissed—the first without performing, and the latter without hearing, a note of the prepared Ode. Could this have been the Ode which, it is said, he composed as an exercise for his degree? Arne, by his connection with the theatres, had constant opportunities for cultivating the acquaintance of Italian singers, and of keeping up his knowledge of the Italian language; he was evidently influenced in his later compositions by this familiarity. The simplicity of his melodies became disfigured by excessive ornamentation, and was the subject of adverse criticism. The scurrilous poet, Churchill, in 1761, published the “Rosciad,” a satire on actors, in which he violently attacked Arne:
Let Tommy Arne, with usual pomp of style,
Whose chief, whose only merit’s to compile,
Who, meanly pilfering here and there a bit,
Deals music out, as Murphy deals out wit;
Publish proposals, laws for taste prescribe,
And chaunt the praise of an Italian tribe;
Let him reverse Kind Nature’s first decrees,
And teach e’en Brent a method not to please:
But never shall a truly British age
Bear a vile race of eunuchs on the stage:
The boasted work’s called national in vain,
If one Italian voice pollute the strain.
Where tyrants rule, and slaves with joy obey,
Let slavish minstrels pour th’ enervate lay;
To Britons far more noble pleasures spring
In native note, while Beard and Vincent sing.