The absolute monarchy of Zeno and Metastasio, whom all other poets slavishly imitated, would alone suffice to explain the fact that in the course of the last century opera seria received the fixed and unalterable form it still retains; we have seen that the tendency was the same as regards the music. This makes it comprehensible that in reading the text or the scores in the present day we have so lively an impression that they are but copies of one original. In no art does the feeling for what is enduring pass so easily and quickly into the taste for what pleases the age as in music. What affords most delight to the present often expresses only a transitory mood with a momentary truth, and when the smoke and the fragrance which surrounded it have disappeared, only an empty form remains; just as a mask keeps the impression of the features without the play of the muscles, which alone give life and expression. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: It is not known when this term came into use--both before and after others were customary: Dramma musicale, dramma per musica, melodramma [Footnote Menestrier]. Des représentations en musique (Paris, 1684), p. 248.] [Footnote 2: Rochlitz, Für Freunde d. Tonk., I., p. 262. Winterfeld, Gabrieli, II., p. 12. Kiesewetter, Schicks. d. welt. Gesanges, p. 24. E. O. Lindner, Zur Tonkunst, p. 1.] [Footnote 3: "Daphne" was adapted by Opitz, and composed by H. Schütz as the first German opera; it was performed in Torgau, 1627 (Fürstenau, Zur Gesch. d. Musik in Dresden, I., p. 97).] [Footnote 4: Æsthetic criticism forms the chief part of Steff. Arteagas' well-known work, Le Rivoluzioni del Teatro Musicale Italiano (Bologna, 1783-88. Ven., 1785, three vols.; translated by Forkel. Leipzig, 1782. 8). Less authentic are G. W. Fink, Wesen u. Gesch. d. Oper (Leipzig, 1835), G. Hogarth's Memoirs of the Opera (Lond., 1855), S. Edwards' History of the Opera (London, 1862).] [Footnote 5: Cf. Winterfeld, Zur Gesch. heil. Tonkunst, II., p. 337,] [Footnote 6: An old copy of his Telemacco indicates it as "opera centesima nona, recitata in Capranica l'anno 1718."] [Footnote 7: Villarosa, Memoria dei Compositori di Musica del Regno di Napoli (Neap. 1840).] [Footnote 8: Ant. Groppo, Catal. di tutti Drammi per Musica recitati ne' Teatri di Venezia dell' a 1637-1745 (Ven., 1745).] [Footnote 9: [Al. Machiavelli] Serie cronologica dei Drammi recitati su de' publ. Teatri di Bologna dell' a 1600-1737 (Bol.f 1737).] [Footnote 10: Burney, Reise, I., p. 293. Cramer, Magaz. f. Mus., II., p. 50. Kelly, Remin., I., p. 65.] [Footnote 11: An account of the scheme of Italian opera is given in the Lettre sur le Mécanisme de l'Opéra Italica (Naples, 1756).] [Footnote 12: Many interesting remarks may be found in Vine. Manfredini's Regole Armoniche (Veo., 1797), IV., 6, p. 119, dello stile serio.] [Footnote 13: Metastasio, Opp. post., I., p 357.]