| Citation |
PG-P.757.005
20 Jan 1757:11,12,13,21,22 (1465)
Gentlemen, You will oblige many of your readers, by
publishing, at your conveniency, the following account of
Alfred, as it has been several times represented, during the
Christmas holidays, in one of the apartments of the college,
as an oratorial exercise, by a sett of young gentlemen.
In every scene the moral is divine,
And truth and mercy breathe in every line.
No thought to spread a blush on virtues cheek;
No word but what an anchorite might speak. [from]
Prologue to Alfred.
. . . [5 1/3 columns, the first act of The Redemption of
England from the Cruelties of the Danish Invasion by Alfred
the Great, originally written by Thompson and Mattle, and
altered in 1751 by Mallet. Rewritten for the students,
removing all women's parts and adding some new hymns and
pieces of music. Text begins in the second column:]
An Occasional Prologue for the Young Gentlemen of the
College of Philadelphia, who, for their improvement in
oratory, acted Alfred, in January, 1757. (spoken by W.
Hamilton, entering hastily and interrupting the music.)
Peace with your fiddling there--It shall be spoke:
To clip away our prologue is a joke.
. . . [several passages refer to music. Among them:
The scene opens with a] shepherdess at a distance,
singing as follows to peace, and two shepherds listening in
full view. . .
[Edwin] is interrupted by aerial music, and the
appearance of the genius of Great-Britain. . .
as if some wing'd musician of the sky
call'd from cherubic harp immortal sounds
. . . the Genius of Britain advances to slow and solemn
music, looks full upon Alfred, and then leaning on her
trident, the following verses from the Triumph of Hibernia,
as set to music by the great Handel, are sung; being
substituted with a small alteration, as well adapted to this
piece, and more easily performed than the piece in the
original . . .
[After dialogue,] Here Alfred is further confirmed in
his noble purposes by the following song sung by two
invisible spirits, in the character of his Guardian angels;
which was altered from the original, retaining only one or
two lines; and refitted to an excellent piece of new music
by one of the performers.
First spirit.
Alfred, Father of the state!
Hark! Thy guardian Gods declare:
Dangers prove to the hero great;
Banish from thee black despair. . .
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