A century of ballads, 1810-1910 : their composers and singers : with some introductory chapters on "Old ballads and ballad-makers"

Front matter

1810-1910

MILLS & BOONES

LIST OF GENERAL LITERATURE

Preface

^ I "'HIS is a story of popular song — nothing ^ more. It does not aim at being either critical or instructive, but only entertaining.

My grateful thanks are due to all those — composers, singers, authors, publishers — who have so generously responded to my appeals for assistance in my endeavour to effect the object I had in view.

H. S.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

IN dealing with the earlier and more historical portion of this book, I have consulted, principally, the following works : Grove’s Dictionary of Music^ Chappell’s Old English Popular Music ^ Alfred Edward Moffat and Frank Kidson’s The Minstrelsy of England^ Rev. S. Baring-G Quid’s English Minstrelsie^ and Edmonstoune Duncan’s The Story of Minstrelsy»

My acknowledgments are also due to the authors and publishers of the following books : Antoinette Sterling and Other Celebrities^ M. Sterling Mackinlay, Hutchinson and Co. ; Reminiscences of my Life^ Sir Charles Santley, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons ; The Life of Sterndale Bennett^ J. R. Sterndale Bennett, Cambridge University Press ; Sir Arthur Sullivan^ Arthur Lawrence, James Bowden.

For permission to use the facsimile of Sir William Sterndale Bennett’s ‘‘Sing, Maiden,

vii

Vlll

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Sing ” my thanks are due to Mr. J. R. Sterndale Bennett and Messrs. Novello and Co. ; for that of Gounod’s ‘‘Salve Regina” to Messrs. Phillips and Page ; for the facsimile letters from Gounod, Gladstone and Swinburne to Mr. Fred. E. Weatherly ; for the caricature of Hatton to Mr. Charles Lyall and the Musical Times ^ and for the Hatton letter to Mr. D. Hatch.

Part I Chapter Page

I. The Evolution of the Ballad . . . 3

II. Ballads of the Seventeenth Century. . 22

III. Ballad Operas and Eighteenth -century

Ballads . . ... 34

IV. Concerts and Concert Singers of the Period 55

Part II

I. Some Early Nineteenth-century Ballads . 71

II. Bishop and “Home, Sweet Home” . . 88

III. Benedict and Balfe . . . . 99

IV. Sterndale Bennett, Hullah, and Hatton . 115

V. The Songs of Henry Russell . . .129

VI. The Ballad Fifty Years Ago . . . 138

VII. Sullivan and “The Lost Chord” . . 149

VIH. Some Composers of Sullivan’s Day . . 160

IX. An Harmonious Quartet . . . 187

X. The St. James’s Hall Ballad Concerts . 212

XI. Plunket Greene and Stanford’s Irish Songs 237

XII. Songs of To-day and Yesterday . . 248

XIII. Some Modern Ballads and their Composers 270

XIV. The Song-Cycle and the Short Song . . 289

XV. Some Present-day Women Composers . . 305

XVI. The Light Humour Ballad . . . 327

Index to Ballads and Songs . , . 339

IX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Facsimile page of “Sumer is icumen in” . Frontispiece

Facing page

Characteristic Letter from J. L. Hatton to a Musical Friend . . ... 71

Madame Albani . . ... 94

Mr. Wilhelm Ganz . . . . . 94

Sir Charles Santley . . . . 105

Mr. Henry Bird . . ... 105

Facsimile page of Original MS. of Sterndale Bennett’s “Sing, Maiden, Sing” . . • 117

Jack Hatton (a Caricature Sketch by Charles Lyall) . 127

Mr. Edward German . . . . 140

Mr. Harold Boulton . . . . 140

Sir F. Paolo Tosti . . . . . 152

SiG. Tito Mattei . . . . . 152

Mr. a. H. Behrend . . ... 164

Mr. D’Auvergne Barnard . ... 164

Facsimile first page of Gounod’s “Salve Regina” 183 Dr. F. H. Cowen . . ... 187

Mr. J. L. Roeckel . . ... 187

Mr. Stephen Adams . . ... 193

Mr. Fred. E. Weatherly . ... 193

Madame Clara Butt . . . . 216

Mr. Kennerley Rumford . . . . 216

Mr. Ben Davies . . . . . 225

XI xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing page

Madame Ada Crossley . ... 225

Sir Charles Stanford . ... 237

Mr. Plunket Greene . ... 237

Sir Edward Elgar . . ... 243

Dr. R. Vaughan Williams . ... 243

Mr. Hermann Lohr . . ... 253

Mr. Herbert Bunning . ... 253

Mr. Lawrence Kellie ... 264

Mr. Leslie Stuart . . ... 264

Mr. H. Trotere . . ... 273

Mr. Clifton Bingham . ... 283

Mr. Edwin Greene . . ... 283

Mr. Landon Ronald . ... 290

Mr. Edward Teschemacher . ... 290

Mr. Frank Lambert , ... 297

Mr. Noel Johnson . . ... 297

Mr. Charles Willeby . ... 305

Madame Liza Lehmann . ... 305

Miss Frances Allitsen . . . *311

Miss Florence Aylward . . . -311

Miss Teresa del Riego . . . . 316

Madame Guy d’Hardelot . ... 316

Mrs. Amy Woodforde-Finden . . . 321

Miss Dorothy Forster . . . . 321

Madame Marie Horne . ... 325

Madame Emilie Clarke . . • • 325

PART I

INTRODUCTORY

‘‘old ballads and ballad-makers

1810-1910

Chapter I

THE EVOLUTION OF THE BALLAD HAT is a ballad? Nowadays the name

V V is used to describe any type of ‘‘popular ” song, irrespective of its length, its subject, or its musical treatment. In olden times the word has had various meanings, but the distinction between a ballad and a song has never been very strongly marked. “A song and a ballad,” says a writer of an introduction to the Book of English Songs, published in 1851, “have points of resemblance and difference. A ballad, which at present seems to signify a song wherein a story is told, originally meant a short or even a long poem, modulated in the recital to serve as a musical accompaniment to a dance, from halla7'e, to dance. A song strictly should express sentiment only, but the distinction has often been disregarded. A ballad is allowed more licence than a song, and can be any length ;

a song- should be short and terse, and each verse exactly alike in rhythm.”

This explanation does not help us much. But it bears witness to one fact, namely, that originally a ballad was not a love song at all, or very seldom. This distinction, which indeed hardly exists to-day, it would be impossible to retain for the purposes of this book, and in dealing with the ballads of the last century or so I shall treat the word as signifying any song of whatever nature or sentiment that is of a popular type.

But in taking a bird’s-eye view of the history and gradual evolution of English songs and ballads it will be necessary to refer to the older and distinctive meanings of the word ballad, which had in earlier days a certain significance. The connection of ballads and dance tunes, as signified by the derivation of ballad from the Italian hallata^ a dance, which is again derived from hallare^ to dance, has been mentioned by the writer quoted above, and must be taken into consideration as being one of the many uses to which the word ‘‘ballad” has been put at various stages of its history. Morley in his Plaine and easie introduction to Pi'acticall Musicke^ published in 1597, says: “There is another kind — more light than this [the Vilanelle] which they tearm Ballete or daunces, and are songs which being sung to a dittie may likewise be danced, these and other light kinds of musicke are by a general name called aires.” “Such were the songs,” remarks Mr. W. H. Cummings in GrovCy “to which Bonny Boots, a well-known singer and dancer of Elizabeth’s Court, both ‘tooted it’ and ‘footed it.’” A further reference is found in Butler’s The Principles of Musicke^ published in 1636, in which the author speaks of “the infinite number of Ballads set to sundry pleasant and delightful tunes by amusing and witty composers, with country dances fitted unto them.”

It seems an established fact that the words of many old songs were written to popular dance tunes, and that the custom was in country villages to dance and sing them at the same time. Dancing in those days was a more stately and deliberate affair than it is in modern times, so that the feat is not so difficult a one as it might appear. The tunes of a number of these old Country Dances have been preserved, and in many cases the words also. A collection of them was published in 1686, under the title of The Dancing Master^ from which I take the following description of “Joan Sanderson or The Cushion Dance,” a very popular ballad dance with the country lads and lasses of the period.

‘‘This dance is begun by a single person (either man or woman), who taking a cushion in hand, dances about the room, and at the end of the tune stops and sings, ‘ This dance it will no further go.’ The musician answers, ‘ I pray you, good sir, why say you so ? ’ Man : ‘ Because Joan Sanderson will not come too.’ Musician: ‘She must come too, and she shall come too, and she must come whether she will or no.’ Then the man lays down the cushion before the woman, on which she kneels, and he kisses her, singing, ‘Welcome, Joan Sanderson, welcome, welcome.’ Then she rises, takes up the cushion, and both dance, singing, ‘ Prinkum-prankum is a fine dance, and shall we go dance it once again, once again, and once again, and shall we go dance it once again?’ Then, making a stop, the woman sings as before, ‘This dance it will no further go.’ Musician: ‘I pray you, madam, why say you so?’ Woman: ‘Because John Sanderson will not come too.’ Musician: ‘He must come too, and he shall come too, and he must come whether he will or no.’ And so she lays down the cushion before a man, who, kneeling upon it, salutes her, she singing, ‘ Welcome, John Sanderson, welcome, welcome.’ Then he taking up the cushion, they take hands, and dance round singing as before. And thus they do till the whole company are taken into the ring ; and if there is company enough, make a little ring in its middle, and within that ring set a chair, and lay the cushion in it, and the first man set in it. Then the cushion is laid before the first man, the woman singing, ‘ This dance it will no further go ’ ; and as before, only instead of ‘ Come too ’ they sing ‘ Go fro ’ ; and instead of ‘Welcome, John Sanderson,’ they sing ‘ Farewell, John Sanderson, farewell, farewell,’ and so they go out, one by one, as they came in. Note. — The women are kissed by all the men in the ring at their coming and going out, and likewise the men by all the women.”

It will be noticed that there is a good deal of indiscriminate kissing connected with the performance of this dance ; and this seems to have been a feature of many of these old ballad dances, which may possibly have something to do with their popularity.

But it is more than probable, in spite of its derivation, that this meaning of the word ballad was a later interpolation. The old English ballads were for the most part long pieces of narrative verse, generally followed by an envoi or moral, such as the famous “Chevy Chase” and the “Battle of Otterburn.” The first purveyors of ballads in England were the Bards, who held an important place in popular estimation before the Norman Conquest. These ballads were transmitted orally from father to son for centuries. With the advent of Christianity the authority of the Bards, who were formerly treated as sacred persons, soon dwindled, and gradually they came to be known as Gleemen or Harpers.

With the Norman Conquest came the French Troubadours, or Minstrels, who also sang to the harp, and the old name of Gleemen was presently forgotten. Minstrelsy flourished greatly in the reign of Richard I (1189), the old story of that monarch’s release from captivity by his favourite minstrel Blondel is too well known to repeat here.

Music, in fact, seems to have played a large part in the lives of the people from the earliest times. “Songs and Ballads,” says Sir John Hawkins in his History of Music^ “with easy tunes adapted to them, must at all times have been the entertainment, not only of the common people, but of the better sort ; and these must have been of various kinds, satirical, humorous, moral, and amorous.” Every trade and every form of amusement or sport had its song ; love, war, the dangers of the sea, the delights of country life, all and each were represented in song. At first they were handed down by tradition ; but later, when the art of printing became known, the popular ballads of the day were hawked up and down the country by itinerant pedlars, who frequently sang them first and sold them afterwards.

The earliest known example of an old English popular song or ballad which has come down to us is the now famous Rota, or endless canon, ‘‘Sumer is icumen in.” This dates in all probability from about the year 1240, and contains the earliest known example of canon, and of persistently repeated bass. Its antiquity, if nothing else, makes it sufficiently interesting for me to quote the words here.

Original words.

Sumer is icumen in,

Lhude sing Cuccu,

Sing Cuccu.

Lhouth after calve cu ;

Cuccu, cuccu.

Words modernized.

Summer is come in.

Loud sing. Cuckoo !

Groweth seed and bloweth mead And spring’th the wood now ;

Sing Cuckoo.

^ i.c. frequents the green fern.

lO

Merry sing, Cuckoo,

Cuckoo, cuckoo !

Well singst thou, Cuckoo,

Nor cease thou never now.

The next ballad which claims our attention is the Song of Agincourt, dating from Henry V’s reign. ‘‘When the King entered the City of London in triumph after the battle,” says Chappell, “the gates and streets were hung with tapestry representing the histories of ancient heroes ; and boys with pleasing voices were placed in artificial turrets, singing verses in his praise. But Henry ordered this part of the pageantry to cease, and commanded that for the future no ‘ditties should be made or sung by minstrels or others ’ in praise of the victory as his : ‘ for that he would whollie have the praise and thankes altogether given to God. ’ ” The Song of Agincourt appeared soon afterwards, and was a favourite piece with the minstrels of the day. It begins

Deo gracias, Anglia,

Redde pro victoria :

“ Return thanks, O England, to God for the victory,” thus conforming, in the letter at any rate, to the King’s injunctions.

Another ballad which in all probability dates

THE EVOLUTION OF THE BALLAD ii from this reign, or even a little earlier, is the famous ‘‘John Dory,” though no version of the tune seems to be known as existing before 1600. Carew, in his Survey of Corn%vall^ published in 1602, says : “The prowess of one Nicholas, son to a widow near Foy, is descanted upon in an old three-man’s song, namely, how he fought bravely at sea with one John Dory (a Genowey as I conjecture) set forth by John, the French King, and after much blood shed on both sides, took and slew him.” It may be noted in passing that the old songs were always written for three or more voices, and hence came to be known as “threeman’s songs,” often corrupted into “freeman’s songs.”

This old ballad of “John Dory” was still well known and popular in Charles II’s reign. Dryden refers to it in one of his lampoons as follows : —

These will appear such chits in story,

’Twill turn all politics to jests.

To be repeated like John Dory When fiddlers sing at feasts.

Before his death Henry V granted an annuity of a hundred shillings to each of his minstrels, and the grant was confirmed in the reign of his son Henry VI.

From the latter’s reign probably date “ Nowell,

Nowell,” and the still more famous Heave and ho Rumbelow. ”

Heave and ho rumbelow,

Row the boat, Norman row.

Row to the haven.

Norman was Mayor of London in this reign, and Ritson in his Ancient Songs and Ballads^ quoting the historian Fabian, gives the following account of the song, the authorship of which is credited to the Thames watermen : —

‘‘John Norman, Mayre of London, upon the morrowe of Symon and Judes daye, the accustomed daye when the new mayre used yearly to ryde with great pompe to Westminster to take his charge, this mayre, first of all mayres, brake that ancient and olde continued custom, and was rowed thyther by water, for the which the watermen made of hym a roundell or song to hys great prayse, the which began,” etc. Playford afterwards substituted “ Whittington ” for “ Norman.” It is interesting to note that D’Israeli, in his Curiosities of Literature^ mentions hearing the sailors at Newcastle, when heaving anchors, singing “ Heave and ho ! rumbelow ! ”

Skelton, in his poem “ Bowge of Court,” has a reference to this old ballad.

His throat was clear, and lustily could feign.

And ever he sang, sith I am nothing plain To keep him from piking it was a great pain :

Hold up the helm, look up, and let God steer !

I would be merry, what wind that ever blow :

Heave and ho ! rumbelow, row the boat, Norman, row.

With regard to Nowell,” a Christmas Carol, there appear to have been two versions of the words, sacred and secular, an arrangement which was apparently quite common in those days.

From about this period dates the old ballad of ‘‘Chevy Chase,” which was above all the ballad of the English people, and was set to many different airs. It was originally sung to the tune of “When Flying Fame,” and later to that of “The Two Children in the Wood.”

There is little further to record in the way of ballads till we come to the reign of Henry VIII, under whose patronage music flourished abundantly. Henry was passionately devoted to the art, and no mean performer on the lute and virginals, besides being a composer of some distinction. It was during his reign that the word “ballad” (or “ballet,” as it was then often written) came into general use as a name for narrative pieces in rhyme set to music, and indeed for songs of all kinds. In this reign, too, the first song-book was printed in England, in 1530, by Wynken de Worde. This book contained nine songs, but gave the bass part only of the songs. Of Henry’s own compositions the best remembered is his “ Pastime with good company,” also known as ‘‘The Kynges Ballad.” Another ballad popular in this reign, though apparently not written by the King himself, was “ Now Robin lend to me thy bow,” while mention must be made of Anne Boleyn’s “O death, rocke me on slepe,” a song whose title suggests that this unhappy lady had some premonition of her approaching end on the scaffold.

Other ballads of the time were “ Hey ding-ading ” (probably the same as “ Old Sir Simon the King”), “Have with you to Florida,” “Bonny Lass upon a Green,” “ By a Bank as I Lay ” (a great favourite with Henry VI 1 1, and afterwards reprinted as a Christmas Carol, “Welcome Yule”), “As I went to Walsingham,” “Pepper is Black,” “ Greensleeves ” (one of the most famous of the old ballad dances, which is still being printed and sung, though no longer danced), and “Go from my Garden, go.” There were, of course, hundreds of topical songs on events of the moment, but those hardly come under the category of ballads, as understood in this book. The best class of ballads confined itself entirely to historical or sentimental subjects.

Towards the end of Henry’s reign a reaction against ballads and ballad-singers set in. The persecution began with a proclamation in 1533, when an edict was issued to suppress “fond books, ballads, rhimes, and other lewd treatises in the English tongue.” Four years later a man of the name of John Hogon was arrested for singing in public a political ballad to the tune of The Hunt is up”; and in 1543 an Act was passed ‘‘for the advancement of true religion, and for the abolishment of the contrary,” in which it was stated that “froward and malicious minds, intending to subvert the true exposition of Scripture, have taken upon them, by printed ballads, rhymes, etc., subtilly and craftily to instruct his highness’ people, and specially the youth of this his realm, untruly. For reformation whereof, his majesty considereth it most requisite to purge his realm of all such books, ballads, rhymes, and songs, as be pestiferous and noisome. Therefore, if any printer shall print, give, or deliver any such, he shall suffer for the first time imprisonment for three months, and forfeit for every copy 10/., and for the second time, forfeit all his goods, and his body be committed to perpetual prison.”

However, during the reign of Edward VI ballads began to multiply again, and no new proclamation was passed. But with the accession of Mary there was published a fresh edict against “books, ballads, rhymes, and treatises,” which, she complained, had been “set out by printers and stationers, of an evil zeal for lucre, and covetous of vile gain.”

When Elizabeth came to the throne this persecution ceased, and the art of balladry began to flourish again. ‘‘But,” says Chappell, “the educated classes did not again bestow their patronage upon this kind of amusement, and henceforward the ballad became the exclusive property of the lower orders of the people, both song and tune being in future provided for them by persons little if at all removed in social position from themselves.”

The number of ballads that were printed during the reign of Elizabeth was something enormous, and the country was overrun with itinerant ballad-singers, idle youths who reaped a golden harvest by “singing and selling ballads in every corner of cities and market-towns, and especially at fairs, markets, and such-like public meetings.”

Henry Chettle, in a strange publication entitled Kind Hards Dreame^ first published in 1592, has given an account of these ballad singers and sellers, in which he contrasts that time with the simplicity of former days. The ghost of Anthony Now-Now, alias Anthony Munday, an old balladwriter and itinerant fiddler, is supposed to be speaking, when he says: “When I was liked there was no thought of that idle upstart generation of ballad-singers, neither was there a printer so lewd that would set his finger to a lascivious line. But now ballads are abusively chanted in

THE EVOLUTION OF THE BALLAD i;

every street ; and from London this evil has overspread Essex and the adjoining counties. There is many a tradesman of a worshipful trade, yet no stationer, who after a little bringing up apprentices to singing brokery, takes into his shop some fresh men, and trusts his old servants of a two months’ standing with a dozen groatsworth of ballads. In which, if they prove thrifty, he makes them pretty chapmen, able to spread more pamphlets by the state forbidden, than all the booksellers in London.”

This Anthony Munday, by the way, was a famous ballad-singer of his day, who got his nickname of Anthony Now-Now from the fact that one of his favourite songs was the one beginning

When shall a man shew himself gentle and kinde ?

When should a man comfort the sorrowful minde ?

O Anthony, now, now, now,

O Anthony, now, now, now.

Elsewhere in the same pamphlet the author makes special mention of the sons of one Barnes, who ‘‘most frequented Bishop’s Stortford, the one with a squeaking treble, the other with an ale-blown base, and used to brag that they earned twenty shillings a day.”

It appears abundantly evident that ballads, whilst increasing in quantity, had begun to deteriorate considerably in quality. “I loathe to speak of it,” says Bishop Hall in Ma7'tm Mai'- i8 sixttiSj published in this same year, 1592, ‘‘every red-nosed rhymester is an author, every drunken man s dream is a book ; and he, whose talent of little wit is hardly worth a farthing, yet layeth about him so outrageously as if all Helicon had run through his pen : in a word, scarce a cat can look out of a gutter, but out starts a halfpenny chronicler, and presently a proper new ballet of a strange sight is indited.”

One of the most famous, but by no means the most decent, of the ballads that were in vogue about this time was the one known as “The Carman’s Whistle,” which is mentioned by Henry Chettle in his Kind Hart's Dreame^ when he says : “It would be thought the carman, that was wont to whistle to his beasts a comfortable note, might as well continue his old course, whereby his sound served for a musical harmony in God’s ear, as now to follow profane jigging vanity.”

It seems that the carmen of this period were particularly noted for their musical abilities and for whistling the tunes of the popular ballads of the day. In a tract written by Taylor, the Water- Poet, entitled “The World runnes on Wheels,” he says: “If the carman’s horse be melancholy or dull with hard and heavy labour, then will he, like a kind piper, whistle him a fit of mirth to any tune ; of which generosity and courtesy your coachman is altogether ignorant, for he never

THE EVOLUTION OF THE BALLAD ig whistles, but all his music is to rap out an oath.” And again : ‘^The word Carmen, as I find it in the dictionary, doth signify a verse, or a song ; and betwixt C2smen and cdivman there is some good correspondence, for versing, singing, and whistling, are all three musical.”

Amongst other ballads which appear to have been immensely popular at this time may be mentioned ‘‘Watkin’s Ale, ” ‘‘Chopping-Knives,” and “Frier Fox-Taile.”

“The words of these popular ballads,” says Chappell, “were written by such men as Elderton, ‘with his ale-crammed nose,’ and Thomas Deloney, ‘the balleting silk-weaver of Norwich.’ The former is thus described in a MS. of the time of James I, formerly in the possession of Mr. Payne Collier : —

“ ‘Will Elderton’s red nose is famous everywhere,

And many a ballet shows it cost him very dear ;

In ale, and toast, and spice, he spent good store of coin. You need not ask him twice to take a cup of wine.

But though his nose was red, his hand was very white.

In work it never sped, nor took in it delight ;

No marvel therefore ’tis, that white should be his hand That ballets writ a score, as you well understand.’

“ Nashe, in ‘ Have with you to Saffron Walden,’ says of Deloney, ‘ He hath rhyme enough for all miracles, but whereas his muse, from the first peeping forth, hath stood at livery at an ale-house wisp, never exceeding a penny a quart, day or night — and this dear year, together with the silencing of his looms, scarce that — he is constrained to betake himself to carded ale, whence it proceedeth that since Candlemas, or his jig of John for the King^ not one merry ditty will come from him ; nothing but The Thunderbolt against Swearers^ Repent^ England, Repent^ and the Stra7ige Judgments of Godd Such, then, were the men who were to replace the ministrels.”

Once more, in the thirty-ninth year of Elizabeth’s reign, repressive measures were passed, in an Act by which all ‘‘minstrels wandering abroad” were held to be “rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars,” and were to be punished as such. Again, in 1648, the Provost-Marshal was empowered to seize upon all ballad-singers and to send them to the several militias. But the Act had little effect on the ballad-singers of the day. “They were found in every corner of the big cities, and in every market town throughout the country, singing and selling ballads.”

“The England of the Tudors and Stuarts,” says a recent writer, “was certainly a musical England ; and Erasmus in 1604 said it had the most handsome women, kept the best tables, and was the most cultivated in music of all the peoples of the world. The Commonwealth gave a check to music, but with the Restoration came renewed vitality; and the reign of Charles II has been called the Augustan Age of Song.”

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there arose a new generation of balladwriters, men who were the master-musicians of their age, and destined to achieve an imperishable place in the history of English national song.

Chapter II Ballads Of The Seventeenth Century

The seventeenth century was fairly rich in song-writers, prominent among whom was Henry Lawes, some of whose songs are still sung to this day. Born at Dinton, in Wiltshire, in 1595, Henry Lawes was a most gifted musician and a thorough Englishman. “In order to ridicule the growing fashionable taste for Italian vocal music — really not understood by its enthusiastic hearers,’’ says Mr. Frank Kidson in his Minstrelsy of England^ “he set to music the contents table of an Italian song book, and palmed it off as an Italian song ! ” Among the best known of his songs are “ Love’s Votary ” (a setting of Herrick’s “To Anthea ”), “The Lark,” “Dear, thy face is Heaven to me,” “While I listen to thy voice,” and his settings of the songs in Milton’s Comics,

His elder brother William, though perhaps not so well known, was also a clever composer, and was court musician to Charles I. His setting of Herrick’s “Gather ye Rosebuds” is still often sung- ; and it is interesting to note that the words were still in manuscript when set by him. He was killed at Chester in the Civil War in 1645.