Charles Burney

The Present State of Music in France and Italy (2nd, corrected edition)

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

Geneva

still full of fire; and though so emaci-
ated, a more lively expression cannot be
imagined.

He enquired after English news, and
observed that poetical squabbles had
given way to political ones; but seemed
to think the spirit of opposition as ne-
cessary in poetry as in politics. "Les
querelles d'auteurs sont pour le bien de la
littŽrature, comme dans un governement libre
les querelles des grands, et les clameurs des
petits sont necessaires a la libertŽ*." And
added, "When critics are silent, it does
not so much prove the age to be correct,
as dull." He enquired what poets we had
now; I told him that we had Mason and
Gray. They write but little, said he,
and you seem to have no one who lords
it over the rest like Dryden, Pope, and
Swift. I told him that it was one of