Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/119

 to the same work is a singular attempt at programme music, and the minute directions as to the constitution of the orchestra and manner of performance almost forestall the similar annotations to be found in the works of Hector Berlioz. During the latter years of Arne's life he achieved but few successes. He was fond of writing his own libretti, which were, unfortunately, anything but good, and the failure of his pupils at one opera-house—particularly if another pupil had been successful at the rival house—caused little bickerings which jarred upon his sensitive nature. In August 1775 he wrote to Garrick, complaining of the latter's neglect: 'These unkind prejudices the Doctor can no other wise account for than as arising from an irresistable Apathy,' a statement to which Garrick replied a few days later: 'How can you imagine that I have an in-esistable Apathy to you? I suppose you mean Antipathy, my dear Doctor, by the construction and general turn of your letter—be assur'd as my nature is very little inclined to Apathy, so it is as far from conceiving an Antipathy to you or any genius in this or any other country,' in spite of which polite assurance Garrick wrote in the same year: 'I have read your play and rode your horse, and do not approve of either;' endorsing the pithy note, 'Designed for Dr. Arne, who sold me a horse, a very dull one; and sent me a comic opera, ditto' (Gaemck's Correspondence, Forster Collection). These few glimpses of Arne's personal characteristics hardly carry out the statement of a contemporary that 'his cheerful and even temper made him endure a precarious pittance' (, Musical Tour, letter lxv.); yet after his death it seems generally to have been considered that during his lifetime his genius was never sufficiently appreciated, and that as a musical hack, expected to supply music for the ephemeral plays produced at both Covent Garden and Drury Lane, he frittered away the talents which ought to have been devoted to better work. His death took place on 5 March 1778. According to the account of an eye-witness (Joseph Vernon, the singer) he died of a spasmodic complaint (Gent. Mag. vol. xlviii.) in the middle of a conversation on some musical matter, with his last breath trying to sing a passage the meaning of which he was too exhausted to explain. He was buried in St. Paul's, Covent Garden. The best portrait extant of Arne is an oil painting by Zoffany, now in the possession of Henry Littleton, Esq., but there is also an engraving of him after Dunkarton, and another (published 10 May 1782) after an original sketch by Bartolozzi.

A caricature of Rowlandson's, entitled 'A Musical Doctor and his Pupils,' is also probably meant for Arne. Manuscripts of his music are now rarely found, most of them having been destroyed when Covent Garden theatre was burnt in 1808, but the full autograph score of 'Judith' is preserved in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 11515-17).



ARNISTON,. [See .] 

ARNOLD, BENEDICT (1741–1801), American and afterwards English general, was born at Norwich, Connecticut, 14 Jan. 1740-1. (The date usually given of 1740 seems to have originated from a confusion between the new and old styles.) His family, of respectable station in England, had emigrated from Dorsetshire; his great grandfather had been governor of Rhode Island; his father, a cooper, owned several vessels in the West Indian trade. From his infancy he manifested a mischievous and ungovernable disposition, of which several characteristic traits are recorded. On attaining man's estate he entered into business as a bookseller and druggist at New Haven, Connecticut, married, adventured like his father in the West Indian trade, and acquired considerable property, partly, there is reason to suspect, by smuggling. Upon the outbreak of the dissensions between the colonies and the mother country he took a leading part upon the side of the patriots, and immediately on receiving the news of the battle of Lexington (19 April 1775) put himself at the head of a company of volunteers, seized the arsenal at New Haven, and marched to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where, with true military instinct, he proposed to the committee of public safety an expedition to capture Ticonderoga, on Lake George, and Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, the keys to the communications between Canada and New York. The plan was approved, and Arnold was despatched to Western Massachusetts to raise troops. While thus engaged he learned that another expedition, under the direction of Ethan Allen, was proceeding from Vermont with the same design. He hurried to join it, and claimed the command, which was refused him, and he had to be