Hawkins, J: General History of the Science and Practice of M

Excerpt from A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, Vol. 3

In the interim it is to be obferved that fongs and ballads, with eafy tunes adaptech to them, mull at all times have been the enter tainment, not only of the common people, but of the better fort Thefe mufi have been of various kinds, as namely, fatirical, humour ous, moral, and not a few of them of the amorous kind. Hardly any of thefe with the mufic to them are at this day to be met with, and thofe few that are yet extant are only to be found in odd part books, written without bars, and with ligatures, 111 a character fo obfolete; that all hope of recovering them, or of rendering to any tolerable degree intelligible any of the common 'popular tunes in ufe before the middle of the fixteenth century mult be given up. The two that follow have neverthelefs been recovered by means ofa manu fcript formerly in the collection of Mr. Ralph Thorefby, and men tioned 111 the catalogue of his Mufeum, at the end of his Hiftory of Leeds they both appear to have been fet by William Cornifh of the chapel royal 1n the reign of Henry VII. The words of the firft fong were written by Skelton, and there 1s a direct allufion to them in a poem of his entitled the Crowne of Lawrell, p1inted among his, Works; The latter fon'gfiis Tuppofed to be a fatire on thofe drunkent.

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