Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/372

 302 NOTES AND QUERIES. ti 2 s.x.Ap R i L 2 2 ,i922. "Warres," "Famines" and great " Signes from Heaven " it goes on to relate how upon Thursday the 4 day of this instant August, about the hour of foure or five a clock in the afternoons, there was a wonderfull noyse heard hi the ayre, as of a drum beating most fiercely which after a while was seconded with a long peale of small shot and after that a discharging as it were of great ordnance in a pitcht field. This continued with some vicissitudes of small shot and great ordnance for the space of one hour and an halfe, and then making a mighty report altogether ; at the ceasing thereof there was observed to fall down out of the skie a stone of about foure pounds weight, which was taken up by them who saw it fall, and being both strange for the forme of it and somewhat miraculous for the manner of it, was by the same parties who are ready to attest this Truth brought up and showed to a worthy member of the House of Commons, upon whose ground it was taken up, and by him to divers friends who hath both seen and handled the same. Now the manner of finding the stone was on this wise : one Captaine Johnson and one Master Thompson men well known in that part of Suffolke were that day at Woodbridge about the launching of a ship that was newly builded there who hearing this mar- vellous noise towards Alborow verily supposed that some enemy had landed and some sudden onset made upon the town of Alborow. This occasioned them to take horse and hasten home- wards, the rather because they heard the noise of the battle grow lowder. And being at that instant when the greatest cracke and report was made in conclusion on their way upon an heath betwixt the two Townes Woodbridge and Alborow they observed the fall of this stone which grazing on the fall of it along upon The Heath some 6 or 7 yards, had outrun their observation where it rested had not a Dog which was in their Company followed it by the scent as was hot and brought them where it lay covered over with grasse and earth that the violence of its course had contracted about it. This is the true relation of the finding of this stone, which is 8 inches long and 5 inches broad and 2 inches thick. And now being on their way nearer Alborow they met the greatest part of the townespeople who were generally all run out of their houses round about amazed with this noyse of Warre and descrying no Enemy neere ; when suddenly there was heard a joyfull noise as of musicke, and sundry instruments in a melodious manner for a good space together, which ended with an harmonious ringing of bells. This is the true relation of this most strange signe from Heaven the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who steeres the course of all humane affaires, have mercy on this sinfull land and nation, and in the midst of these distractions which are both in our Church and State, open our eyes to see, and our hearts to consider this gracious day of our visitation, and give us grace to meet him by a true and unfained repentance, that under the shadow of his wings may be our refuge until these stormes be overpast. These concluding lines, I think, must have been supplied by Mr. Swayn. If the miraculous stone had descended on the thick casing containing the brains (if any) of that zealous hypocrite William Dowsing, at an early stage of his visitation, how many lovers of our beautiful Suffolk churches would be ready to admit the heavenly origin of the missile ! ARTHUR T. WINN. THE ROMANTIC ELEMENT IN SETTE- CENTESCAN DRAMATIC CRITICISM. GIAN RINALDO CARLJ. FEW critics of dramatic theory in the Settecento have devoted attention to Gian Rinaldo Carli, and even those who speak of him ignore the single work by which Carli has importance for modern criticism and merely devote a few lines to a less important study of American life, ' Delle Lettere Americane.' This single work, ' Dell' Indole del Teatro Tragico,' delivered as an academic discourse in Venice in October, 1744, must be ranked with Pier Jacopo Martello's Calepio's, * Paragone della Poesia tragica d' Italia con quella di Francia ' as one of the most revolutionary and most romantic utterances of the eighteenth century in dramatic criticism. It is not my intention to examine critically the treatise on the nature of tragedy, since such an examination would, of necessity, be considerably pro- tracted, but to give extracts from it illustra- tive of the fundamental ideas inspiring the author. ' Dell' Indole del Teatro Tragico,' in the short form of an academic speech, was published in ' Raccolta d' opuscolis cientifici e filologici ' (Venezia, Zane, 1744), and later, elaborated to a full-bodied treatise, in ' Opere ' (Milano, 1787), vol xvii. In the following extracts the earlier form is given as i., the later as ii. The theories themselves divide naturally into three sections the attack against the authority of Aristotle ; the criticism of Greek drama ; and the definition of what modern drama should be. I. The attack against Aristotle is based on Carli' s observation of the effect produced on the audience by tragedies on the Aris- totelian model. With the exception of the ' Demetrio ' of Metastasio, they were played to empty houses. The more tragedies are directed to persuade and convince the intellect, the less they move ;
 * Tragedia antica e moderna ' and Pietro