I must just copy the whole of the title-page of +Sir Henry Bishop's+
operatic version of _The Comedy of Errors_. Nothing could give any
idea of what Shakespeare has been through save an analysis of the music
that follows, but I can only touch on that. "The overture, songs, two
duets, and glees in Shakespeare's _Comedy of Errors_, performed at the
Theatre Royal, Covent Garden; the words selected entirely from
Shakespeare's Plays, Poems, and Sonnets. The music composed and the
whole adapted and compressed from the score for the voice and
pianoforte by Sir Henry R. Bishop, Composer and Director of the Music
to the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden."
I have written this down just as it was printed. I was so overwhelmed
by it that I felt sure that neither I nor anyone else could improve
upon it. I knew there was only one bit of the play set to music--and
not a very beautiful example either--in the ordinary anthologies of
Shakespeare's music. It is by Dr Kemp, who died in 1824. He chose
these few lines from Act ii., Scene 2, lines 187-191, but Bishop, very
wisely, does not touch these lines. He brings in every kind of song
and tune, from, as he puts it, "Shakespeare's Plays, Poems, and
Sonnets," with no reference to the play for which he was composing
music. The overture is of the "potpourri" style. After four bars of
slow music the theme of Ophelia's song in _Hamlet_, "How shall I my
true love know?", is played. A few bars afterwards a theme from _The
Tempest_, then a very cheerful subject from _Macbeth_, followed by a
bright little thing from _The Winter's Tale_. Then comes an old tune
for "When that I was" {11} (_Twelfth Night_); next a melody from _The
Tempest_ and "St Valentine's Day" lead pleasantly into the catch,
"Which is the properest day to drink," from _Twelfth Night_, all
preparing the way for "Under the greenwood tree" (_As You Like It_).
After this theme is given a fair chance, a subject from _The Winter's
Tale_ is produced, followed by "Blow, blow," from _As You Like It_. A
sad little bit from _Macbeth_, succeeded by a very bright coda from
_The Winter's Tale_, brings the overture to a conclusion. But why call
it the "Overture to _The Comedy of Errors_"? There is not a suggestion
or a line in this overture, except the one on the title-page, that has
anything to do with the play to which that is supposed to be the
opening, though it is beautifully printed as "_Comedy of Errors_
Overture."
No one minds Bishop writing a potpourri overture and calling it
"Shakespeariana," but why call it "The Comedy of Errors"?--unless he
wishes the title to describe the overture, not the overture the play.
The first vocal number in this strange work is a setting of "It was a
lover," from _As You Like It_. It is a simple but quite pretty song.
The next is a song for Antipholus of Ephesus, words selected from
Shakespeare's Sonnets; it is called "Beauty's valuation," and is a good
example of the composer's worst manner. Then comes a strange setting
of "Blow, blow," from _As You Like It_. The melody of the first part
is by Dr Arne and the refrain by Mr Stephens, the whole arranged for
four male voices by Bishop; it makes a strange medley! After this one
is not surprised to find the "Willow song" from _Othello_ sung by
Adriana to quite a cheerful tune. Dr Arne's "Under the greenwood
tree," arranged for a male quartet by Bishop, follows. The next number
is a curious duet for Ceremon and Antipholus of Ephesus to the words
beginning "Saint Witnold footed thrice the world," from _King Lear_
(Act iii., Scene 4). There is no attempt to bring out the weirdness of
these strange words. Bishop then composed a very obvious duet for
tenor and baritone, with effective _cantabile_ {12} passages and plenty
of pauses and shakes. Adriana now sings Bishop's setting of "Come live
with me" (Marlowe), quite the prettiest number in the opera, though the
words seem a little bold for her, and more suited to the nameless
character, the last in Shakespeare's cast. Luciana then sings Sir
Henry's "favourite cavatina," "Sweet rose, fair flower," words culled
from _The Passionate Pilgrim_, but ascribed by Bishop to the Sonnets.
Perhaps this was a "favourite cavatina." The publisher says so, and
ought to know, having bought it; but I cannot say I really like it.
The third act is brought to a brilliant finish by Bishop's famous glee
from _As You Like It_, "What shall he have who killed the deer?" The
fourth act begins cheerfully by Adriana singing the composer's "Take,
oh take those lips away," which is really a very bad setting. _The
Passionate Pilgrim_ is again drawn upon for the next number, a duet for
Adriana and Luciana. This is a feeble affair rather in Horn's "I know
a bank" manner, and the words are again attributed to "The Sonnets."
Sir Henry appears to have no more idea of what a sonnet really is than
the London editor who asked a poet for a sonnet "not more than a
hundred lines long." A pleasant change is caused by the glee party
singing "Come, thou monarch of the vine," from _Antony and Cleopatra_,
as an unaccompanied trio. Luciana now sings "The springtime of love,"
words from _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, a good florid vocal soprano
solo; and the opera finishes with "Lo, here the gentle lark," from
_Venus and Adonis_, with flute _obbligato_. This is too well known to
need description. I daresay it made as good an end as any other that
Bishop could have devised.
I have written at some length on this musical "pasticcio," as this kind
of opera is called, because it presents strange points of interest.
The persistent way in which no single line from _The Comedy of Errors_
was set to music for this production is only equalled by the manner in
which Purcell did not set a line of Shakespeare in his _Fairy {13}
Queen_. Whenever modern critics point out the faults in our occasional
Shakespearian productions, one can always say, "Remember 1819, the year
of the first performance of this atrocity."
It is not surprising to find that Sir Henry Bishop was knighted (in
these days he might get the O.B.E.); but it is odd that he should have
succeeded Dr Crotch in the chair of music at Oxford.
{14}