صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

66

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

are desirous of rest, I cannot contain myself from taking "some pains therein, especially when I cast mine eyes upon such worthy lovers and patrons of that faculty as your Lordship hath always been and is; and yet to in"vite me thereunto, neither your Lordship's patronage in general, nor your many honorable favours to me in par"ticular, have been so potent inducers, as the desire I had "to present your Lordship with a fit emblem to your mind, "Musicke. Perhaps these my poor labours will not give it "answerable to your honorable mind, which is a harmony " of many excellent virtues; yet therein they will give you “occasion to add one virtue to the rest, when you shall be "pleased to accept favorably of them, for doing their en"deavour. These are like to be my last travails in this kind, "and your Lordship my last Patron; who in that respect ut esse Phoebi dulcius lumen solet 'Jamjam cadentis ;

66

66

...........

"must esteem the more of them, and of their author, who "will always remain,

"Your Lordship's in all true affection at command,

"WILLIAM BYRD."

"To all true lovers of musicke, William Byrd wisheth "all true happiness both temporal and eternal.

"Being excited by your kind acceptance of my former "travails in musicke, I am thereby much encouraged to "commend to you these my last labours, for mine ultimum "vale: wherein I hope you shall find musicke to content "every humour, either melancholy, merry, or mixt of "both.

66

66

Only this I desire, that you will be but as careful to "hear them well expressed, as I have been both in the composing and correcting of them. Otherwise the best song "that ever was made will seem harsh and unpleasant; for "that the well expressing of them, either by voices or in

"struments is the life of our labours, which is seldom or "never well performed at the first singing or playing. Be"sides a song that is well and artificially made cannot be "well perceived or understood at the first hearing, but the "oftener you shall hear it, the better cause of liking you "will discover; and commonly that song is best esteemed "with which our ears are most acquainted. As I have "done my best endeavour to give you content, so I be"seech you satisfy my desire in hearing them well ex"pressed; and then I doubt not for art and air, both of "skilful and ignorant, they will deserve liking. “Vale, "Thine, WILLIAM BYRD."

XXII.

This sweet and merry month of May,
While nature wantons in her prime;
And birds do sing, and beasts do play
For pleasure of the joyful time:
I choose the first for holiday,

And greet Eliza with a rhyme.
O beauteous Queen of second Troy*,
Take well in worth a simple toy.

This rhyme was doubtless written in praise of Queen Elizabeth. The music is for four and six voices, composed after the Italian vein, at the request of Thomas Watson, who printed it in his set of Italian Madrigals Englished, A.D. 1590; and who, I have no doubt, was the writer of

* London. In a pageant by Sir W. Dixie, Lord Mayor 1585, one of the characters representing London is made to say,

"New Troy I hight, whom Lud my Lord sirnamed."

the words, as I find the two following lines by him in the collection called England's Helicon, 1600.

"O beauteous Queen of second Troy,

66

Accept of our unfeigned joy."

The expression take well in worth, means, take in good part or kindly; as though the poet would have said, It is my best, what more can I offer?

XXIII.

Come woful Orpheus, with thy charming lyre,
And tune my voice unto thy skilful wire;
Some strange chromatic notes do you devise,
That best with mournful accents sympathise :
Of sourest sharps and uncouth flats make choice,
And I'll thereto compassionate my voice.

What a delightful property it is of music that it can mitigate our sharpest griefs, as well as enhance our greatest pleasures!

"Send me," (said some unfortunate King who had been defeated by Belisarius,) "a loaf of bread lest I perish with "hunger, a sponge to dry up my tears, and a musical in"strument to console me under my affliction."--Histoire de la Musique by Bonnet, 1715.

He whose soul is not attuned to dulcet harmony, is according to Shakspeare a most dangerous character. (Vide Merchant of Venice, Act v.)

"The man that hath no music in himself,

"Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,

"Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils:

"The motions of his spirit are dull as night,

"And his affections dark as Erebus:

"Let no such man be trusted."

XXIV.

Let not dull sluggish sleep
Close up thy waking eye;
Until with judgment deep

Thy daily deeds thou try.

He that one sin in conscience keeps,

When he to quiet goes;

More vent'rous is than one who sleeps

Midst twenty mortal foes.

I could envy the author of such beautiful lines. They have much the appearance of a paraphrase from the sacred writings.

XXV.

A feigned friend by proof I find,

To be a greater foe

Than he that with a spiteful mind

Doth seek my overthrow:

For of the one I can beware,

With craft the other breeds my care.

Such men are like the hidden rocks,
Which in the seas do lie;

Against the which each ship that knocks
Is drowned suddenly.

No greater fraud, nor more unjust

Than false deceit, hid under trust.

A similar description of a feigned friend is given by G. Turberville in his Sonnets, 1570.

"Not he so much annoys, that says, I am thy foe;

"As he that bears a hateful heart, and is a friend to show:

"Of th' one we may beware, and fly his open hate, "But th'other bites before he barks, a hard avoided mate."

And likewise in Belvidere, a collection of Poetry by J. Bodenham, 1600.

“No foe so fell, or cunning to escape,

"As is a friend clad in a foeman's shape;
"An open foe a man may soon prevent,
"But a false friend murders in blandishment."

XXVI.

The eagle's force subdues each bird that flies:
What metal can resist the flaming fire?
Doth not the sun dazzle the clearest eyes,

And melt the ice, and make the frost retire?
Who can withstand a puissant King's desire?
The hardest stones are pierced thro' with tools,
The wisest are with Princes made but fools.

This is part of a Poem entitled The Legend of Jane Shore, by Thomas Churchyard, A.D. 1559, in a work called The Mirror for Magistrates, a fact which it appears difficult to reconcile with the statement of Sir J. Harrington, who in the Nuga Antiquæ, calls it "a special verse of King Henry "the Eighth, when he conceived love for Anna Boleyn, " and that his (Sir J. Harrington's) father, who was of the "household, gave him good assurance of the same." He is moreover of opinion, "that if there be no better reason “than the rhyme, it were sufficient to think that no other “than such a King could write such a sonnet."

« السابقةمتابعة »