LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE; For JUNE, 1818. A New and Improved Series. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ILLUSTRIOUS AND DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS. Number One Hundred and Eleven. HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY QUEEN CHARLOTTE. In our Number for February, 1806, we mentioned, at large, the birth, marriage, &c. of this illustrious Princess; we shall therefore merely repeat that she was born on the 16th May, 1744, and was married on the 7th of September, 1761, to his Most Gracious Majesty George III. King of Great Britain, &c. &c. We have the satisfaction of presenting our readers this mouth with a most correct and highly-finished likeness of our venerable and gracious Queen, taken at the time she honoured Bath with her royal presence, In the first series of this work, in our Number for February, 1806, we presented the public with a fine engraving of this illustrious character, from a portrait paint- We have given also a full account of her ed by Sir William Beechey; and those virtues, which are all of the domestic kind, who have from the first patronized our and we believe that we are justified in work will now have an opportunity of re- asserting, that as a tender and obedient marking the changes effected in the course wife, and a kind and indulgent parent, she of twelve years. The likenesses taken at has never been equalled. To her public each period are exquisite; the costume bounty as a Queen, which is always given varies but little, and the same distinguish-without ostentation, we are assured that ing line of features, the same character of her private donations far exceed those alphisiognomy may be traced in each. ready known to the world. Royalty is not exempt from care and sorrow: the Queen of England, blessed in a numerous offspring, has, nevertheless had her portion of anguish. After many years of conjugal happiness, such as few are fated to experience, she felt the fatal realization of seeing it clouded for ever, in the awful affliction with which Heaven had been pleased to visit her King and husband. She is mistress of all the finer accomplishments, particularly in that of music; and has composed several airs in a most chaste, and truly harmonious style; and her Majesty may be said to have a thorough knowledge, collectively, of all the fine arts. Hh2 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. A BRIEF HISTORY OF MUSIC, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE PRESENT TIME, SELECTED FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES. MUSIC OF THE EAST. (Continued from page 200.) of them are well known in the islands of the Archipelago. The Greeks have there a bow instrument with three catgut strings, upon which they play with a wooden bow, fitted with horse hair, to which they give the necessary tension in playing by press AMONG the Turks and Arabs, a man rather regards the learning of music as a discredit more than the accomplishment of a man of rank: the native austerity also of their manners reuders them insensible to the charms of harmony; and the contempting it with the little finger; it is called the in which they hold the art extends also to lyra. This instrument is always accom those who are musicians by profession, panied with the voice. who are but little esteemed and ill paid. An art thus despised by the great, neither cherished nor admired by connoisseurs, cannot be supposed, when labouring under such disadvantages, to have made any rapid progress. The music of the East is of a very different character from that of Europe; it is grave, simple, and without any complexity of modulation: the Orientals use no notes when they sing, but sing by ear; and the Dervises, when they chaunt, do not seem to have the slightest knowledge of musical || notes. At Bagdat and at Constantinople they have concerts, which are not ill formed to please those ears which are not accustomed to all the intricacies of the musical art: but it is very disagreeable to hear all their instruments playing in unison; unless it happens that one of the musicians takes a fancy to play in one continued bass, by making an incessant repetition. Yet if the music of the East is not to the European taste, ours is not less disagreeable to them; they seem, in particular, to dislike the violin, and think their own music much more sublime and excellent. The Turks say that the music of the Europeans is wild and disagreeable, and they wonder that any man of sense or gravity can take pleasure in it. From the simple construction of their musical instruments, they are certainly of very ancient origin, and have been transmitted down from generation to generation without any material alteration. Several Some bow instruments belong peculiarly to the Arabs, such as the semenge, a sort of bad violin, joined with a drum. Its body is commonly a cocoa nut-shell, with a piece of skin extended upon it; three strings of catgut, and sometimes of horse hair, are fitted to it; and it is played with a bow, not less awkward in its form than the Greek lyra. The semenge is the instrument of those wandering musicians who accom pany the dancing women. The Arabs have another kind of violin named maraffa, with a string of horse hair, and a skin stretched upon the body of the instrument. This violin suits admirably well with the shrill voices of the common singers at their coffee-houses. Among the wind instruments used by the Turks, is the flute called salamanic; it is entirely open, and without any reed, so that to wind it is no easy matter. This is the favourite instrument of the Merlavi Dervises, who excel in playing on the flute. It is made either of a reed or of a piece of fine wood. The sumara is a sort of flute with two pipes, the shorter is used for playing airs, and the longer a continued bass. In Asia the natives always accompany their dancing with tambourines: these are of different sorts, either circular pieces of wood, or earthen pots made for the purpose, covered with skin and sounded with the fingers. The most elegant tambourine is that they call the doff, to which the women dance in the harams. The castanets may also be reckoned amongst their musical instruments; and these are carried || sic, and the simplicity of that of the ancient by the public dancing girls: a few orders Greeks. also of mendicant Mahometan priests always carry different kinds of horns and drums, which they blow or sound before they ask alms. Among the Chinese, however, a desire of improvement in music seems evident, and was particularly exemplified at the time of Lord Macartney's embassy. The chief director of the Imperial orchestra frequently was a visitor at the evening concerts performed by the Ambassador's band. He was particularly attracted by some of the instruments, which, when of fered to him as presents, he declined, but requested permission to take drawings of them. He, accordingly, sent for painters, who spread large sheets of paper on the The military music of the Turks is now beginning to be known in Europe: that, however, which is in use through the East affords only an unpleasant jarring noise, and would be entirely unworthy of notice did it not serve to mark the distinctions of rank. A Pacha of three tails is preceded by a greater variety of musical instruments, playing martial music, than a nobleman of inferior rank dares to use, so that a per-floor, and having placed on them the clason's dignity may be known by the music rionets, flutes, bassoons, and French horns, going before him. The principal martial they traced with their pencils the different instruments consist of a very noisy kind of figures of those instruments, measuring all trumpet called the surma; a Turkish drum the apertures, and noting the minutest of prodigious size called the tabbel, this particulars: when this operation was comthey hold horizontally, and strike against pleted they wrote down their remarks, and it on both sides; a hautboy of a very acute || delivered them to their employer, who said sound, and another which has much the he intended to have similar instruments same sound as the European basoon; and inade by Chinese workmen, and to fit them a favourite martial music among the Turks to a scale of his own. The European violin consists of two plates of some sonorous had already been adopted in China, but it metal, which they strike against each other was not in common use; they had an into mark the cadence. strament of their own bearing some resemblance to it, but with two strings only. Several Chinese have now learned to write their music on ruled paper. This slight account of the state of Eastern music serves to confirm the received ideas concerning the rudeness of the Jewish mu ANECDOTES OF ILLUSTRIOUS FEMALES. ANNE, FIRST DUCHESS OF BEDFORD. pulses of passion and revenge till he became atrocious in his conduct, had yet more generosity in his nature than his wife: reduced to extreme poverty, he sold his house at Chiswick, his plate, jewels, and furni the Duke of Lenox to urge the Earl to Tais lady, though daughter to that give his consent. Somerset, though spoilinfamous pair, Robert Car Earl of Somer-ed by court favour, and yielding to imset and his Countess, was well worthy the noble alliance she made. Ignorant of her mother's dishonour, the feelings of this truly virtuous and delicate female were severely shocked by reading the whole account of her parents' guilt in a pamphletture, to raise a fortune for his daughter of she accidentally found lying in a window. She instantly fell down in a fit, and was found senseless, with the pamphlet lying open before her. Francis Earl of Bedford was so averse to the alliance, that he gave his son leave to chuse a wife out of whatsoever family he might please except that of Somerset. The affections of the young lovers were only increased by this opposition; the King himself interposed, and sent twelve thousand pounds, which the Earl of Bedford demanded, saying, that he had rather undo himself than make her unhappy. ANNE COUNTESS OF SOMERSET. ILLUSTRIOUS Only from noble birth and high descent, we shall not sully our pages by detailing her crimes, or the arts she put in practice to become the wife of the Earl LADY JACOB. WHEN Goudemar, the Spanish Ambassador, was in England, in the reign of James I., we are informed by an author of that time, that those who had handsome wives or daughters purposely threw them in his way, aud that some frail ladies had sold their favours at a very dear rate. Lady Jacob was one of the greatest wits of that reign; and as she stood at the balcony of her house, in Drury-lane, when Gondemar passed by, she gave him no other salutation than that of opening her mouth as wide of Somerset. The good Sir Thomas Overbury tried all in his power, as Anne, the daughter of the Earl of Suffolk was already married, to hinder her divorce, and her consequently becoming the bride of Somer set. Her passions more violent than her Jover's, her resentments were stronger, and her caution less. She resolved to procure the death of Overbury, and sent him in his imprisonment poisoned tarts and jellies: her sudden fall and confession of her guilt need no repetition; yet both she and her husband obtained their pardon, but were coufined for life in the house of Lord Wal-as she could. When the Ambassador relingford. The guilty love of this wretched turned the same way, she did the same; pair now turned to the most inveterate and at length the haughty Spaniard sent a hatred: till her death, which happened message to know the reason of this act of before that of Somerset, their life was pass-incivility? She replied, that she heard he ed in continual reproaches and recriminations. In the end of this wretched woman may be read a fine but awful lesson of Divine Providence on the complicated errors of her life. Let us hope that Heaven in its mercy inflicted its punishments on the criminal here, and left her fate a warning to future generations. had purchased some very trifling favours of some other ladies at a very exorbitant price, and she gaped to let him know she had a mouth to be stopped as well as others. LADY BURLINGTON. WHEN this lady was first introduced to the celebrated Dean Swift, she declared (to use her Ladyship's own words) that she actually took him to be "some hedge ale She whose ambition was unbounded died in friendless obscurity, and in indigence: her once beautiful body covered with a loathsome disease, as if she had been poi-house parson." She was, accordingly, soned, like the victim of her arts and ven geance, the unhappy Overbury; and she who once delighted in the most costly perfumes, became offensive to the sense, and her odour insupportable. She who found no place too delicate" for the sole of her foot," now seemed, with the utter neglect of her meagre and squalid person, to delight only in excess of sluttishness, and in imitating those disgusting animals who find their best solace in the mire that surrounds them. || highly offended with the familiarity of his address and behaviour, which she regarded as extremely presumptuous and insolent. The Dean asked her to sing; which request, instead of being complied with, only inspired the lady with disgust, and bursting into tears, she quitted the apartment.— When, however, she next saw him, she approached him with the most graceful condescension, and said, "Mr. Dean, I will sing to you whenever you please." CHARACTERS OF CELEBRATED FRENCH WOMEN. JANE, COMMONLY CALLED JOAN OF arc, At the time that this celebrated female had attained her eighteenth year, her character might be said to be formed. To a noble and benign countenance, and a form tall and well proportioned, she united a mind of strong reason and of a prudence seldom equalled even in those of riper years. The continual defeats experienced by the French army inflamed her courageous heart, and brought forth all the native energies of her character. She encouraged every spark of indignation which she found kindling in her bosom against the English, and worked herself up to that pitch of enthu |