lydian airs

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MODERN LANGUAGE NOTESVOLUMEXL MARCH, 1925 NUMBER

LYDIAN AIRS

One of Milton's many heresies from onventional deas was hisfrank desire in L'Allegro to be lapped in soft Lydian airs.Throughout he Renaissance he term Lydian was the standardreproach for everything hought o be vicious n music. Lydianairs were the jazz of the time, but the name had connotationsmuch more definitely gly than those commonly ttached o mod-ern syncopation. WVhathose connotations ere Giraldio Cinthiotells us in his Dialogo Secondodella vita civile:l

Non dico pero questo, perche alle donne a Musica non con-venga, ma non questa molle, non questa non meno asciva, che sifossegia la Lydia, che parue tanto abomineuole Platone, che nonla volle accittare modo alcuno nella sua Republicacome ascivae guastratrice i gli animi di huomini, delle donne parimente.It was probably from the volume of which this dialogue was apart that Shakespeare obtained his knowledge f Cinthio's No-velle, and Ml.Jusserand has given good evidence that Spenserwas familiar with this same dialogue of Cinthio. Certainly pen-ser reflected ts animus against Lydian music in his picture ofMalecasta's hall:

And all the while sweet musike did divideHer looser notes with Lydian harmony.3

Ultimately his prejudice gainst Lydian music goes back to thePlatonic bigotry gainst all modes except the Dorian and to thePlatonic ideal expressed y Laches of the perfect man who doesnot content imeslf nly with the most beautiful harmony n his

1 Second edition, Venice, 1580, p. 36.2 Modern Philology, January, 1906.3The Faerie Queene, Book iii, Canto 1, stanza 40.

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130 MODERN LANGLUAGENOTES

lyre or o01 some frivolous nstrument, ut who, n the reality ofhis life, invests his words and deeds with harmony ccording othe Dorianimode anidnot according o the Ionian, much ess ac-cording o the Phrygian r Lydian.4 Milton admitted vdian airsinto his Tower of Ivory in defiance f their exclusiolifrom theideal republic ramed y the Platonic Socrates. Why he did so isa questioni ot very difficult, erhaps, but interesting. He wasperfectly, amiliar, no doubt, with the passage in The Republicwhere Socrates condemns ll musical modesexcept he Dorian onthe score of their naptness for the education of brave and tem-perate men, and Plato's narrow but exalted deal of character obe set before he educator oincided ery loselywith his owin dealas expressed n the Tractate on Education.- Whv, then, did hediffer rom Cinthio and most of his humanist predecessors ndcontemporaries ho shared the Platonic phobia against L-vdianairs?

For this there were at least two reasonsof quite different indls,

aind he best wayto get at them s to analyzethe musicalprejudiceinherited rom Plato. Cinthio simplified t too much in makingLydian music synonymous imply with sensual music. In TheRepublic Plato condemned ydian music first ecause t was ele-giac and expressedmoods of sadness and despair unbecoming nmen devoted o the defence of their country. He condemned tonly secondarily ecause t seduced o sensuality.6 Becausethesemodes (Mixolydian nd Lydian) expressed ad and dissolute mo-

tions respectively, aid Plutarch,7 Plato did well to reject themand to choose the Dorian mode as the only one convenient orwarlike anid temperate men. The Lydian mode had been muchemployed n tragedy nd in excluding t Plato forbade music toexpress ragedy. For the Platonist ll music had to be martial orelse religious r didactic.

Of the harmonies, aid Socrates, I know nothing, ut I wantto have one warlike, whichwill sound the note which brave

mnanutters n the hour of danger or stern resolve; . . . and another o

4Laches, 188 d.5 Of Education, Areopagitica, The Commonwealth, edited by Laura E.

Lockwood, Boston, 1911, p. 9.6 The Dialogues of Plato translated into English by B. Jowett, Vol. III,

pages 273-274.De Musica, Cap. 17.



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LYDIAN AIRS 131

be used in times of peace and freedom f action, when there s nopressure f necessity nd he is seeking o persuade God by prayer,or man by instruction nd advice; or on the other hand whichexpresses is willingness o isten opersuasion r advice and whichrepresents im when he has accomplishedhis aim, not carriedaway by snccess, nt acting moderately nd wisely nd acquiescin-gin the event. These two harmonies I ask you to leave; . . . thestrain f courage nd the strain f temperance; hese say eave.It is not hard to unclerstand hyMilton, heyoung nthusiast ver

Thebesand Pelops' line

Anid he tale of Troy divine,should have baulked at a theory f music which forbade xpres-sion, to take a presumable xample, f the despair of Orestes, rof Lear.

But AMiltontood very much alone amonig is contemporaries ninterpreting he Greek deal of temperance r the well-poised ife(sophrosyne) in a way, to leave the tragic sense unhampered.Spenser's treatment f Temperalnce n the Second Book of TheFaerie Queene had made grief and its concomitant nger almostas dangerous nemies f self-control s sensuality. Sir Guyon, heKnight of Temperance, moralizes:

When raging passion with fierce yrannyRobs reason of her dew regalitie,And makes t servaunt o her basest part,The strong t weakenswith nfirmitie,And with bold furie rmes the weakest hart:The strong lhrough leasure oonestfalles, he weak

through smart. 9

The sage and serious Spenser was a much better Platonist thanMIilton nd in consequence f that fact The Faerie Queene lacksthe tragic lements hat might have raised t to the epic level.

Spenser's allegory of the pleasure through which the strongsoonest falles is embodied n the stories of Phaedria 10and of

Acrasia's Bower of Bliss.1 His less familiar allegory of thesmart through which the weak fall is the story of Amavia,12

8 Plato translated by Jowett, op. cit., p. 274.9 The Faerie Queene, Book ii, Canto 1, stanza 57.10 The Faerie Queenze,Book i, Cantovi.-' Ibid., II, Xii.-2 Ibid., II, i.



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the too-fond wife who killed herself or grief over her murderedhusband. The angry ceneswhere Pyrochles, uror and Occasionappear 3 are extensions f this allegory, or under the nfluence fa tradition ultimately toic and wide-spread n both the MiddleAges and in the RenaissanceSpenser thought f grief nd angeras having their psychological oots n the same smart. 4 Hegavemore weight o anger than Socrates did becausehe lived afteranger had been raised for severalcenturies o the rank of a verypopular viceas one of the SevenDeadly Sins.

It is very far from my purpose o suggest hat the Second Bookof The Faeiie Queene as a whole was a crystallization f orthodoxPlatonism. It is just a good illustration howinghow strikinglythe ethical principle underlying he Socratic prejudice againstLydian airs had gained ground during the Renaissance. Manyother nstances might e found. Almost very eriousbookwrittenin England, France and Italy between 400 and 1600, when Eu-rope was striving o self-consciously o bring n an heroic ge, in

somedegree hared Spenser's nheritance f the Platonic Puritan-ism succinctly efended y Socrates n the passage already quotedfrom he Third Book of The Republic. The war of Reason againstPassion was the universal theme which asted in various formsuntil it was dissolved by the reactions f sentimentalism nd ro-manticism ate in the eighteenth entury.

The most nfluential hampions f the Platonic Puritanism dur-ing the Renaissancewereeducators. They did not, of course, harePlato's doubts about poetry, ut they were nclined to think venless liberally han he did about music. They were as certain aswas Socrates that contemporary opular music was, as it was putby Sassuolo, who taught music in Mantua in the first uarter ofthe fifteenth entury, inquinata, impudens, orrupta tque cor-

3 Ibid., II, iv.14The identification of fear with anger is a familiar dogma of orthodox

modern psychology. That there is nothing arbitrary in its application toliterary purposes is shown by a remark of Mr. Aldous Huxley in TheYoung Archimides, p. 311: Mr. Huxley describes an Italian peasant furi-ous with grief because his little boy has been driven to suicide by selfishkindness of his padrona. To be angry is easier than to be sad, hewrites, and less painful. It is comforting to think of revenge. 'Don'ttalk like that,' I said. 'It's no good. It's stupid. And what would bethe point? ' He had had those fits before when grief became too painfuland he had to escape from t. Anger had been the easiest way of escape.



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ruptrix.'15 On the other hand, they needed the example of Soc-rates oconfirm heir faith hat music s a necessary art of educa-tion. Vergerius, writing t Padua in 1392, acknowledged hat

As to music, he Greeks efused he title of Educated' to any-one who could not sing or play. Socrates set an exampleto theAthenian youth by himself earning o play in his old age; urgingthe pursuit of music not as a sensuous ndulgence, ut as an aidto the inner harmony f the soul. In so far as it is taught as ahealthy ecreation or the moral and spiritual nature, music is atruly iberal art, and, both as regards ts theory nd its practice,

should find place in education.6

Aeneas Sylvius, n the Letter to Ladislas, King of Bohemia, n1459, asked even ess certainly han Vergerius

whether we ought to include Mlusic mong the pursuitsunsuited o a Prince The Romans of the ater age seemto havedeprecated ttention o this art in their Emperors. It was, on theother hand, held a marked efect n Themistocles hat he could nottune the lyre. The armies of Lacedaemon marched to victoryunder the inspiration f song, although Lycurgus ould not haveadmitted he practice had it seemed o him unworthy f the stern-est manhood. The Hebrew poet-king eed be but alluded to, andCicero s on his side also. So amid somediversity f opinion ourjudgment nclines to the inclusion of Music, as a subject to bepursued n moderation nder nstructors nly of serious haracter,who will rigorously isallow all melodies of a sensuous nature.Under these conditions we accept the Pythagorean pinion thatMusic exerts soothing nd refreshing nfluence pon the mind. 7

This Pythagorean pinion of the soothing nd refreshing ffectof music was a betrayal f the Platonic Philistinism, hough Ver-gerius was half unconscious f the fact and half ashamed of it.As soon as music got a foothold s an acceptedrecreation t wason the way to reclaim its full character s an art, instead ofremaining mere discipline orboysor for men kept permanentlyimmature y a purely military ife. With ts limited icense only

as a cure for tired and neurotic minds music was still a very le-mentary rt, in theory t least, but it was on the high road to

16 Cesare Guastri, Intorno alla Vita e all'insegnamento di Vittorino daFeltre, lettere di Sassolo Pratese volgarizzate. Firenze, 1869, p. 69.

I P. P. Vergerius, De ingenuis moribus, translated by WV. . Woodwardin Vittorino da Feltre and other Humanist Educators, Cambridge, 1922.

17W. H. Woodward, ibid., p. 239.



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become he enthusiastically racticed rt that we know t to havebeen in the home of John Milton, Senior, n Bread Street. Theheresy hat made music an art had a century f history lreadybehind it among writers n education n England when Mliltonpublished his Letter of Education to Master Samuel Hartlib.Vives, the Spanish disciple of Erasmus who divided his time be-tweenEngland and the Low Countries nid was as well acclimatedin Englalnd s in Holland, justified music n a general discussionof the recreative alue of all the arts n his De tradendis isciplinis(1531).18 Returning o the subject for a fuller discussion,withan Aristotelian cho 19he defendedmusic again as a recreation ya skilful confusion f that value with the orthodox disciplinaryvalue recognized y the rigorous latonists.

Let the pupil practice pure and good music which, fter thePythagoreanmode, ooths, ecreates, nd restores o itself he wear-ied mind of the student; theni et it lead back to tranquillity ndtractability ll the wild and fierce arts of the student's ature, sit is related n the ancient world, . . that rockswere moved ndwild beasts allured by it. 20Vives' recent ranslator, rofessor Foster Watson, compareshimwith Francis Bacon as a pioneer n the fields n which he worked.21His influence, ike Bacon's,was a solvent f traditional aboosandreverences. In The Tractate on Education Milton echoedhis jus-tification f music on traditional isciplinary rounds nd recom-mended religious,martial or civil ditties; which, f wise men and

prophets e not extremely ut, have a great power ver dispositionsand manners o smooth nd make them gentle from rustic harsh-ness and distempered assions. But music as a cure for rusticharshness s a very much more urbane conception han music as acure for distempered assions, nd in Milton's subsequent ecom-mendation f music as not inexpedient fter meat, to assist andcherish nature n her first oncoction, 2 the dilettante must havefelt that at last the orthodox latonist among music masters hadbeenput to rout.

18 Vide the translation published by Foster Watson, Cambridge, 1913,p. 40.

19 The Politics of Aristotle, translated by B. Jowett, p. 252.20 Foster Watson's translation of Vives, p. 205.21 op. cit., Introduction, pp. xxi, xxxiv, liii, etc.22 Of Education, Areopagitica, The Commonwealth, by John Milton,

edited by Laura E. Lockwood, Boston, 1911, p. 26.



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To nmusicallyophisticatedmoderns his whole question of theethical bearing of mausic eems strange becausewe do not under-stand what Miltonmeant when he said that many wise men andprophets were strangely mistaken f music did not have incalcu-lable power o discipline he passions. People who, ike Mlr. CarlVan Vechten, know the interchangeable alues which Handelgave to secular and sacred tunes and who can deny hat minorkeys .re adand that majorkeys re always suggestive f joy, 23maywonderhow t was possible o composenmusic hichyou couldlbe sure would either ncite to lnoble eeds or sooth he disorder fthe mind. That may be a lost art, but we may be certain hat texisted n the Renaissan-ce, t least in Utopia, for Sir ThomasMore says so. All their Musicke in Utopia, it seems,

bothe that they playe upon instrumentes, nd that theysinge with mannes voycedothe so resemble nd expressenaturallaffections, he sound and tunle s so applied and made agreeable othe thinge, hat whether t bee a prayer, r els a dytty f gladnes,or patience, of trouble, mournynge, r of anger; the fasshion ofthe melodye othe o represente he meaning of the thinge hat itdoth wonderfullye ove, stirre, pearce, and enflame he hearersmyndes. 4

No one in the seventeenth entury oubted Aristotle's dictumthat characters re affected y music or his proof of it by thepowerwhich the songsof Olympus nd of many others xercised;for beyond question they nspired enthusiasm and enthusiasmis an emotion f the ethical part of the soul. 0 Aristotle's er-tainty n this score had been reinforced y every writer n musicin the intervening enturies nd in Milton's mind it stood on amuch surer footing than did the contemporary otions aboutastronomy r any other branch of science.26 n holding this view

23 Carl Van Vechten, Music and Manners, New York, 1916, p. 183.24 The Utopia of Sir Thomas More: Ralph Robinson's translation with

Roper's Life of More and some of his letters, edited by George Sampsorn,

London, 1910, pp. 182-3.25 Polities, translated by Jowett, Book VIII, section 5.26 Boethius, for example, repeats Aristotle's idea without acknowledg-

ment in his discussion of the proposition on which he founded the DeMusica, viz., Musicam naturaliter nobis esse conjunctam, et mores velhonestare vel evertere. Summing up his argument he concludes, Quidquod cum aliquis cantilenam libentius auribus atque animo capit, ad illudetiam non sponte convertitur, ut motum quoque aliquam similem aiditae



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and at the same time recommending he use for pleasure of thewholegamut of vocal and instrumental usicavailable n his timeMilton proved himself rebel against the ethical theory hat hadlimited deas about music throughout he entire Renaissance.

There was one more aspect of the Platonic prejudice againstLydian music which Milton definitely id not share. It was theunderlying reference or simple nd archaic types of melody, hefundamentally eactionary lement n Plato's feeling which madehim resist he law of development n all of the arts which makesprogress onsist n ceaselessdifferentiation nto new and more andmore complex ypes. This side of Plato's feeling s veiled in TheRepublic, but Plutarch expressed t frankly nough. Soterichus'exposition f the history f music in the De lusiccas motivatedthroughout y the belief that the innovations f recent centurieshad ruined he art.

Music, he said, is an invention f the godsand is thereforein all its aspects a respectable rt. The ancients n their practice

of it, as in their practice f all the arts, watched ver ts dignity;but the moderns, ejecting ll its venerable ualities, have intro-duced nto the theatres n the room of this virile and heavenly rtthat s so dear to the gods an effeminate nd mechanized rt. 7Soterichus regretted he innovation n recent centuries f morecomplex nstruments nd more complex rhythms nd harmoniesthan had been known before he Attic stage reached the peak ofits development. Readers of The Republic will know that in this

Plutarch was expressing lato's deepest prejudice. Milton's en-thusiasm for the skilful organist plying his grave and fancieddescant n lofty ugues, nd for the whole ymphony ith artfuland unimaginable ouches dorning nd graving the well-studiedchords of some choice composer128 leaves no doubt that on thescore of capacity o appreciate he law of evolution n music andits expression n recent nventions n the art Milton was no Pla-tonist.29

cantilenae corpus effingat, t quod omnino aliquod melos auditum sibimemor animus ipse decerpat? The De Musica, Book i, Caput i. Boethii,Opera omnia, Paris, 1860, Vol. I, p. 1171.

27 De Musica, Section 15.28 Of Education, Areopagitica, The Comqnonwealth, pp. 25-6.29 Most English writers on music before Milton were pessimists about

the state of the art and like Plato were admiratores temporis acti. Roger



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On examinationMilton's short discussion f music n The Trac-tate on Education proves o have beenthe protest f a mind esthet-ically mature against the moralistic nd reactionary lements nthe Platonic tradition. In the frankly xpressed aste for Lydianairs in L'Allegro it is not fantastic o read Milton's claim thatmusic should share the right of poetry o be sensuous and pas-sionate.30

MERRITT Y. HUGHES.University of California.

ALDHELAMAND THE SOURCE OF BEOWULF 2523In Modern Language Notes for February, 924, I pointed out

the correspondence etween he fluenta cruenta of Aldhelm's DeVirg. 2420 and the flod blWde eol of Beow. 1422, and from hisdrew he nference hat the author of Beowulfwas acquaintedwithAldhelm'spoem. This line 1 of Aldhelm occurs n the account ofthe martyr Victoria, the striking act in whose egendary areerwas her defeat f a dragon whosepoisonous reath had infected heItalian city of Tribula, and led its inhabitants o seek deliverancefrom heir peril in flight. Upon their promise o abjure heathen-

Ascham in Toxophilus makes Nymphodorus talk as follows: Thereforeeyther Aristotle and Plato knowe not what was good and euyll for learn-inge and vertue, and the example of wyse histories be vainlie set afore vsor els the minstrelsie of lutes, pipes, harpes, and all other that standethby suche nice, fine, minikin fingering suche as the mooste parte of schol-ers whom I knowe vse, if they vse any) is farre more fitte for the woman-nishnesse of it to dwelle in the courte among ladies than for any greatthing in it whiche shoulde helpe good and sad studie, to abide in thevniuersitie amonges scholers. But perhaps you knowe some great good-nesse of such musicke and such instrumentes, where vnto Plato & Aris-totle his brayne coulde neuer attayne, and therfore will saye no moreagaynst it. The English Works of Roger Ascham edited by William

Aldis Wright, Cambridge, 1904, p. 14.3OAlthough this article puts Milton's attitude toward music against abackground in the history of ideas about the art very different rom thatchosen to illustrate it by Mr. Sigmund G. Spaeth in AIilton's Knowledge ofMusic (Princeton, The University Library, 1913), it would not be under-stood as differing rom his conclusion (p. 67) that the prevailing currentin Milton's musical tastes was Doric rather than Lvdian.

1 Which see in the passage quoted below, next to the last line.

lydian airs

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