In the merry month of May O towards the close of day Methought I heard at last O the gentle nightingale, The lady and the mistress of all musick; She sits down ever in the dale Singing with her notès smale And quavering them wonderfully thick.

Musick he not only understands, but practises on the German flute, in the highest perfection; so that, according to the regal censure of Philip of Macedon, he may be ashamed to play so well.

Soon after this time Dr. Johnson had the mortification of being informed by Mrs. Thrale, that, 'what she supposed he never believed[1044],' was true; namely, that she was actually going to marry Signor Piozzi, an Italian musick-master[1045].

Author: John R. Musick Release Date: December 5, 2003

TOO SOON The Age of Tyranny By JOHN R. MUSICK ILLUSTRATIONS

JOHN R. MUSICK.

Pearch thou my spirit on her silver breasts, And with their pains redoubled musick beatings, Let them toss thee to world where all toil rests, Where bliss is subject to no fears defeatings, Her praise I tune, whose tongue doth tune the spheres, And gets new muses in her hearers ears.

Arion, when, through tempests cruel wracke, He forth was thrown into the greedy seas, Through the sweet musick which his harp did make Allur'd a dolphin him from death to ease.

But my rude musick, which was wont to please Some dainty eares, cannot, with any skill, The dreadfull tempest of her wrath appease, Nor move the dolphin from her stubborn will.

how the minstrils gin to shrill aloud Their merry musick that resounds from far, 130 The pipe, the tabor, and the trembling croud*, That well agree withouten breach or iar.

Come some Musick.

We'll not doo't basely, For beinge brought upp to musick and to sing, Demandinge in that kind there charity, And they perceivinge us much better bred Then these our present fortunes might deserve, May move in them compassions.

What sweete musick Was that at the back gate hath cald mee upp Somwhat before my hower? Fr.

Or when on harvest holliday I lead the dance along, If Lucy chance to cross my way, So sure she leads me wrong, If I attempt the pipe to play, And catch my Lucy's eye, The trembling musick dies away, And melts into a sigh.

Secure, let fluent parrots feign The musick of the dove; 'Tis only in the eye may reign The eloquence of love.

Thursday next, the 22nd of this instant, November, at the Musick-school in Essex Buildings, over against St. Clement's Church in the Strand, will be continued a concert of vocal and instrumental musick, beginning at five of the clock, every evening.

Thursday next, the 22nd of this instant, November, at the Musick-school in Essex Buildings, over against St. Clement's Church in the Strand, will be continued a concert of vocal and instrumental musick, beginning at five of the clock, every evening.

"This famous 'musick-room' was afterwards Paterson's auction-room.

If the Italians have a Genius for Musick above the English, the English have a Genius for other Performances of a much higher Nature, and capable of giving the Mind a much nobler Entertainment.

Musick is certainly a very agreeable Entertainment, but if it would take the entire Possession of our Ears, if it would make us incapable of hearing Sense, if it would exclude Arts that have a much greater Tendency to the Refinement of humane Nature: I must confess I would allow it no better Quarter than 'Plato' has done, who banishes it out of his Common-wealth.

In the same manner, I would allow the Italian Opera to lend our English Musick as much as may grace and soften it, but never entirely to annihilate and destroy it.

A Composer should fit his Musick to the Genius of the People, and consider that the Delicacy of Hearing, and Taste of Harmony, has been formed upon those Sounds which every Country abounds with: In short, that Musick is of a Relative Nature, and what is Harmony to one Ear, may be Dissonance to another.

I have seen a couple of Rivers appear in red Stockings; and Alpheus, instead of having his Head covered with Sedge and Bull-Rushes, making Love in a fair full-bottomed Perriwig, and a Plume of Feathers; but with a Voice so full of Shakes and Quavers that I should have thought the Murmurs of a Country Brook the much more agreeable Musick.

Besides, Sir, I have heard of a very extraordinary Genius for Musick that lives in Switzerland, who has so strong a Spring in his Fingers, that he can make the Board of an Organ sound like a Drum, and if I could but procure a Subscription of about Ten Thousand Pound every Winter, I would undertake to fetch him over, and oblige him by Articles to set every thing that should be sung upon the English Stage.

After this he looked full in my Face, expecting I would make an Answer, when by good Luck, a Gentleman that had entered the Coffee-house since the Projector applied himself to me, hearing him talk of his Swiss Compositions, cry'd out with a kind of Laugh, Is our Musick then to receive further Improvements from Switzerland!