Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/85

 THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION.

��to complete — I am about to take a great liberty with you, and the impulse which prompts it — be it offensive or not — you must place to the account of the feelin<; which you or your music has inspired within me. And what is your music but yourself? — the incar- nation of your spirit, made material by creation, and thus apparent — apparent through the agency of the body !

" Do you know a Scotch air, called 'Robin Gray'?

�� ��Young Ja - mie lov'd me well, and ask'd me for his bride, fi:c.*

Now compare the aria {Andante, without a number) ' Sei stille dem Herrn ' [' rest in the Lord '] with it. You may, perhaps, see nothing semblant in the two; but so much warranty have I for thinking that there is, that when Buxton — who brought it to me while I was with Miss Mounsey,t examining some of the proofs of your ' Elijah ' — heard her, at his request, try it over — I being engaged at the table copying — he said : ' Why that's like " Robin Gray"! I thought so, ere the above phrase was completed, and Miss Mounsey agreed with our opinions. I said nothing more then, but when I returned home I looked at it again, and at bar lo — look at it ! — see the close :--

• Mr. Bartholomew doubtless quoted this and the following example from memory.

■)■ Afterwards Mrs. Mounsey Bartholomew. ( 67 )

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