ABSTRACT
First published Edinburgh Saturday Post, 2 February 1828, p. 311. Never reprinted. The impatience with the Edinburgh orchestra, the sarcasm at the expense of ‘the Athens!’, and the strong opinions on musical subjects, all suggest De Quincey, especially in the context of Edinburgh’s Post. Other apparent signs include the many dashes, italics, and exclamation-marks, the quibbles and word-play, and the phrase ‘Bartholomew-Fair Band’ (which echoes ‘Bartholomew Fair quackery’, in a similar context in the article on opera four weeks earlier (above, p. 236)). ‘Bartholomew-Fair’ refers to a place near London, and perhaps also to Ben Jonson’s play of that title. The mention of the price of admission, ‘seven shillings’, recalls the account of ‘my Opera pleasures’ in the Confessions, where De Quincey speaks of paying ‘five shillings’ for an evening of opera (Vol. 2, pp. 49, 48). Phrases like ‘this perfection of blundering’ suggest De Quincey by their implication of high aesthetic standards, as opposed to the moral or religious standards that prevailed elsewhere in the Post. Finally, the remarks on the ‘One instrument’ which ought to be ‘kicked out of every respectable orchestra’ might be compared to De Quincey’s diatribe against ‘the clangorous instruments, and the absolute tyranny of the violin’, in the Confessions (Vol. 2, p. 48). For ‘kicked out’ in other articles in the Post, see above, pp. 44, 75, and 173, and Vol. 6, pp. 232 and 254).
