by ARTHUR CRANMER
(Baritone) and SOLOMON (Pianoforte)
MORLEY'S piece was originally a ' Canzonet to two voices.' It runs thus:-
When lo ! by breake of morning My love herself adorning,
Doth walk the woods so dainty,
Gath'ring sweet violets and cowslips plenty,
The birds, enamour'd, sing and praise my Flora; #
Lo ! here a new Aurora !
THERE was a gap in our musical productivity after the first quarter of the seventeenth century, when Morley, Dowland and the other great madrigalists and lutenists were gone. Actually the next really outstanding composer was Purcell. In between, a few good and able if not brilliant men, such as the brothers Lawes, kept the flag flying in a rather mild breeze. To Henry Lawes (1595-1662) Milton wrote a sonnet and Herrick an epigram. He composed music for poems by both, his best known work being the music to Milton's masque, Comus.
THE Elizabethans were commonly versatile, but in that few could beat
Thomas Campion. He was a Doctor of Medicine, and practised as such. He wrote many of the best songs of the time, and, as everybody knows, he was a poet. By way of doing things thoroughly, he wrote a Treatise on ' Poesie,' and also one on music which went into several reprints.
His song is a fresh-airy piece in praise of Spring, contrasted with the discontent of the poet. The secret of his mood is in the last two lines :—
Unkindly if true love be used, 'Twill yield thee little grace.