Page:The Spirit of French Music.djvu/143

 He had in his youth written a Daughter of Jephtha, a mediocre work indeed; but he now realised that these high poetic sources, these purified and ennobled materials were not for him. He had, I say, this modesty as regards himself. He shewed it also (and, alas, not without some reason) on behalf of the kind of public that the political revolutions of France, the prevalent social confusion and romantic jumble of ideas, had prepared for a musician of the year 1831. What he expected of Scribe, or what Scribe offered him was heavy historic melodrama conceived in a spirit of trivial romanticism, and overloaded with contrivances and special scenic or decorative machinery,. [sic] This last element of the combination was not after all the worst, being the most capable of inspiring in Meyerbeer a relatively sincere music.

I do not deny that there are in Scribe's "books" some elements less worthless than others I indicate his average quality.

Nothing could be more instructive than the metamorphoses of Robert the Devil. It was conceived first as comic opera, then as a fantastic ballet, and lastly as grand opera. The two former destinations would have been more suitable for one of those naughtily