Benjamin Franklin Part 64

I lament with you most sincerely the unfortunate end of poor MUNGO. Few squirrels were better accomplished; for he had had a good education, had travelled far, and seen much of the world. As he had the honour of being, for his virtues, your favourite, he should not go, like common skuggs, without an elegy or an epitaph. Let us give him one in the monumental style and measure, which, being neither prose nor verse, is perhaps the properest for grief; since to use common language would look as if we were not affected, and to make rhymes would seem trifling in sorrow.

EPITAPH.

Alas! poor MUNGO!

Happy wert thou, hadst thou known Thy own felicity.

Remote from the fierce bald eagle, Tyrant of thy native woods, Thou hadst nought to fear from his piercing talons, Nor from the murdering gun Of the thoughtless sportsman.

Safe in thy wired castle, GRIMALKIN never could annoy thee.

Daily wert thou fed with the choicest viands, By the fair hand of an indulgent mistress; But, discontented, Thou wouldst have more freedom.

Too soon, alas! didst thou obtain it; And wandering, Thou art fallen by the fangs of wanton, cruel RANGER!

Learn hence, Ye who blindly seek more liberty, Whether subjects, sons, squirrels or daughters, That apparent restraint may be real protection; Yielding peace and plenty With security.

You see, my dear Miss, how much more decent and proper this broken style is, than if we were to say, by way of epitaph,

Here SKUGG Lies snug, As a bug In a rug.

and yet, perhaps, there are people in the world of so little feeling as to think that this would be a good-enough epitaph for poor Mungo.

If you wish it, I shall procure another to succeed him; but perhaps you will now choose some other amus.e.m.e.nt.

Remember me affectionately to all the good family, and believe me ever,

Your affectionate friend, B. FRANKLIN.

TO PETER FRANKLIN

[No date.][79]

DEAR BROTHER,

I like your ballad, and think it well adapted for your purpose of discountenancing expensive foppery, and encouraging industry and frugality. If you can get it generally sung in your country, it may probably have a good deal of the effect you hope and expect from it. But as you aimed at making it general, I wonder you chose so uncommon a measure in poetry, that none of the tunes in common use will suit it.

Had you fitted it to an old one, well known, it must have spread much faster than I doubt it will do from the best new tune we can get compos'd for it. I think too, that if you had given it to some country girl in the heart of the _Ma.s.sachusetts_, who has never heard any other than psalm tunes, or _Chevy Chace_, the _Children in the Wood_, the _Spanish Lady_, and such old simple ditties, but has naturally a good ear, she might more probably have made a pleasing popular tune for you, than any of our masters here, and more proper for your purpose, which would best be answered, if every word could as it is sung be understood by all that hear it, and if the emphasis you intend for particular words could be given by the singer as well as by the reader; much of the force and impression of the song depending on those circ.u.mstances. I will however get it as well done for you as I can.

Do not imagine that I mean to depreciate the skill of our composers of music here; they are admirable at pleasing _practised_ ears, and know how to delight _one another_; but, in composing for songs, the reigning taste seems to be quite out of nature, or rather the reverse of nature, and yet like a torrent, hurries them all away with it; one or two perhaps only excepted.

You, in the spirit of some ancient legislators, would influence the manners of your country by the united powers of poetry and music. By what I can learn of _their_ songs, the music was simple, conformed itself to the usual p.r.o.nunciation of words, as to measure, cadence or emphasis, &c., never disguised and confounded the language by making a long syllable short, or a short one long, when sung; their singing was only a more pleasing, because a melodious manner of speaking; it was capable of all the graces of prose oratory, while it added the pleasure of harmony. A modern song, on the contrary, neglects all the proprieties and beauties of common speech, and in their place introduces its _defects_ and _absurdities_ as so many graces. I am afraid you will hardly take my word for this, and therefore I must endeavour to support it by proof. Here is the first song I lay my hand on. It happens to be a composition of one of our greatest masters, the ever-famous _Handel_. It is not one of his juvenile performances, before his taste could be improved and formed: It appeared when his reputation was at the highest, is greatly admired by all his admirers, and is really excellent in its kind. It is called, "_The additional_ Favourite _Song in_ Judas Maccabeus." Now I reckon among the defects and improprieties of common speech, the following, viz.

1. _Wrong placing the accent or emphasis_, by laying it on words of no importance, or on wrong syllables.

2. _Drawling_; or extending the sound of words or syllables beyond their natural length.

3. _Stuttering_; or making many syllables of one.

4. _Unintelligibleness_; the result of the three foregoing united.

5. _Tautology_; and

6. _Screaming_, without cause.

For the _wrong placing of the accent, or emphasis_, see it on the word _their_ instead of being on the word _vain_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: with _their_ . . vain my-ste-rious art.]

And on the word _from_, and the wrong syllable _like_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: G.o.d-_like_ wis-dom _from_ ... a-bove.]

For the _drawling_, see the last syllable of the word _wounded_. And in the syllable _wis_, and the word _from_, and syllable _bove_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Nor can heal the wound-_ed_ heart.

[Ill.u.s.tration: G.o.d-like _wis_-dom _from_ a-_bove_.]

For the _stuttering_, see the words _ne'er relieve_, in

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ma-gic charms can _ne'er_ . . re-_lieve_ you.]

Here are four syllables made of one, and eight of three; but this is moderate. I have seen in another song, that I cannot now find, seventeen syllables made of three, and sixteen of one. The latter I remember was the word _charms_; viz. _cha, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, arms_. Stammering with a witness!

For the _unintelligibleness_; give this whole song to any taught singer, and let her sing it to any company that have never heard it; you shall find they will not understand three words in ten. It is therefore that at the oratorios and operas one sees with books in their hands all those who desire to understand what they hear sung by even our best performers.

For the _Tautology_; you have, _with their vain mysterious art_, twice repeated; _magic charms can ne'er relieve you_, three times. _Nor can heal the wounded heart_, three times. _G.o.dlike wisdom from above_, twice; and, _this alone can ne'er deceive you_, two or three times. But this is reasonable when compared with _the Monster Polypheme, the Monster Polypheme_, a hundred times over and over, in his admired _Acis and Galatea_.

As to the _screaming_, perhaps I cannot find a fair instance in this song; but whoever has frequented our operas will remember many. And yet here methinks the words _no_ and _e'er_, when sung to these notes, have a little of the air of _screaming_, and would actually be screamed by some singers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _No_ ma-gic charms can _e'er_ re-lieve you.]

I send you inclosed the song with its music at length. Read the words without the repet.i.tions. Observe how few they are, and what a shower of notes attend them: You will then perhaps be inclined to think with me, that though the words might be the princ.i.p.al part of an ancient song, they are of small importance in a modern one; they are in short only a _pretence for singing_.

I am, as ever, Your affectionate brother, B. FRANKLIN.

P.S. I might have mentioned _inarticulation_ among the defects in common speech that are a.s.sumed as beauties in modern singing. But as that seems more the fault of the singer than of the composer, I omitted it in what related merely to the composition. The fine singer, in the present mode, stifles all the hard consonants, and polishes away all the rougher parts of words that serve to distinguish them one from another; so that you hear nothing but an admirable pipe, and understand no more of the song, than you would from its tune played on any other instrument. If ever it was the ambition of musicians to make instruments that should imitate the human voice, that ambition seems now reversed, the voice aiming to be like an instrument. Thus wigs were first made to imitate a good natural head of hair; but when they became fas.h.i.+onable, though in unnatural forms, we have seen natural hair dressed to look like wigs.

ON THE PRICE OF CORN, AND MANAGEMENT OF THE POOR[80]

TO THE PUBLIC

I am one of that cla.s.s of people, that feeds you all, and at present is abused by you all; in short I am a _farmer_.

By your newspapers we are told, that G.o.d had sent a very short harvest to some other countries of Europe. I thought this might be in favour of Old England; and that now we should get a good price for our grain, which would bring millions among us, and make us flow in money; that to be sure is scarce enough.

But the wisdom of government forbade the exportation.

"Well," says I, "then we must be content with the market price at home."