I have heard him express admiration for Leonardo da
Vinci that he did not accord to Raffaelle. Raffaelle was too ostentatious
of meaning; his merits were too obvious,--too much thrust upon the
understanding; not retired nor involved, so as to need discovery or
solution. He preferred even Titian (whose meaning is generally obvious
enough) to Raffaelle; but Leonardo was above both. Without doubt, Lamb's
taste on several matters was peculiar; for instance, there were a few
obsolete words, such as _arride, agnize, burgeon_, &c., which he fancied,
and chose to rescue from oblivion. Then he did not care for music. I never
heard a song in his house, nor any conversation on the subject of melody
or harmony, "I have no ear," he says; yet the sentiment, apart from the
science of music, gave him great pleasure. He reverenced the fine organ
playing of Mr. Novello, and admired the soaring singing of his daughter,--
"the tuneful daughter of a tuneful sire;" but he resented the
misapplication of the theatres to sacred music. He thought this a
profanation of the good old original secular purposes of a playhouse.
As a comprehension of all delights he loved London; with its bustle and
its living throngs of men and women; its shops, its turns and windings;
the cries and noises of trade and life; beyond all other things.
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