On the back of half a dozen I find written, So, so , and no more⸺and upon a couple Moderato ; by which, as far as one may gather from Altieri’s Italian dictionary,—but mostly from the authority of a piece of green whipcord, which seemed to have been the unravelling of Yorick’s whiplash, with which he has left us the two sermons marked Moderato , and the half dozen of So, so , tied fast together in one bundle by themselves,—one may safely suppose he meant pretty near the same thing.
There is but one difficulty in the way of this conjecture, which is this, that the moderato’s are five times better than the so, so’s ;—show ten times more knowledge of the human heart;—have seventy times more wit and spirit in them;—(and, to rise properly in my climax)—discovered a thousand times more genius;—and to crown all, are infinitely more entertaining than those tied up with them:—for which reason, whene’er Yorick’s dramatic sermons are offered to the world, though I shall admit but one out of the whole number of the so, so’s , I shall, nevertheless, adventure to print the two moderato’s without any sort of scruple.
What Yorick could mean by the words lentamente ,— tenutè ,— grave ,—and sometimes adagio ,—as applied to theological compositions, and with which he has characterised some of these sermons, I dare not venture to guess.⸺I am more puzzled still upon finding a l’octava alta! upon one;⸺ Con strepito upon the back of another;⸺ Siciliana upon a third;⸺ Alla capella upon a fourth;⸺ Con l’arco upon this;⸺ Senza l’arco upon that.⸺All I know is, that they are musical terms, and have a meaning;⸺and as he was a musical man, I will make no doubt, but that by some quaint application of such metaphors to the compositions in hand, they impressed very distinct ideas of their several characters upon his fancy,—whatever they may do upon that of others.
Amongst these, there is that particular sermon which has unaccountably led me into this digression⸺The funeral sermon upon