_First Voice_.--Now Hymen at the altar stands, And while he joins their faithful hands, Behold! by ardent vows brought down, Immortal Concord, heavenly bright, Array'd in robes of purest light, Descends, th' auspicious rites to crown. Her golden harp the goddess brings; Its magic sound Commands a sudden silence all around, And strains prophetic thus attune the strings.
_First Voice_.-- The Swain his Nymph possessing, _Second Voice_.-- The Nymph her swain caressing, _First and Second_.-- Shall still improve the blessing, For ever kind and true. _Both_.-- While rolling years are flying, Love, Hymen's lamp supplying, With fuel never dying, Shall still the flame renew.
To so great a master as yourself I have no need to suggest that the peculiar tone of the composition demands sprightliness, occasionally checked by tenderness, as in the second air,--
Again, you need not be told that each fifth line of the two first recitatives requires a crescendo.
And your exquisite taste will prevent your falling into the error of Purcell, who at a passage similar to _that_ in my first air,
Here the first violin must drop his _bow_.
But, besides the absurdity of disarming his principal performer of so necessary an adjunct to his instrument, in such an emphatic part of the composition too, which must have had a droll effect at the time, all such minutiae of adaptation are at this time of day very properly exploded, and Jackson of Exeter very fairly ranks them under the head of puns.
Should you succeed in the setting of it, we propose having it performed (we have one very tolerable second voice here, and Mr. Holmes, I dare say, would supply the minor parts) at the Greyhound. But it must be a secret to the young couple till we can get the band in readiness.
[Mrs. Cowden Clarke remarks in her notes on this letter that the references to Purcell and to Jackson of Exeter are inventions. For Mr. Holmes see note above.
Here should come a letter from Lamb to Laman Blanchard, dated Enfield, November 9, 1828, thanking him for a book and dedication. Samuel Laman Blanchard (1804-1845), afterwards known as a journalist, had just published, through Harrison Ainsworth, a little volume entitled _Lyric Offerings_, which was dedicated to Lamb. After Lamb's death Blanchard contributed to the _New Monthly Magazine_ some additional Popular Fallacies.]