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"I ashamed to aver it, that next to Theology, there is no "Art comparable with Music; for it alone, next to Theo'logy, doth effect that which otherwise only Theology 666 can perform; that is, a quiet and cheerful mind.' Now "if Music merits so high a place as this holy man hath "given it, can we deny love and honour to them that with "their grace and bounty raise the professors thereof; or "to whom shall we that labour in that quality better re"commend our works, than to our patrons and bene"factors?

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"Receive therefore, most honoured Knight, the fruits of "your bounties, and the effects of those quiet days, which "by your goodness I have enjoyed. And as the glory of a new finished house belongs, not so much to the work66 man that built it as to the Lord that owns it, so if any "part of this new work of mine can excite commendation, "the grace is chiefly yours, tho' the labour mine; but be66 cause there is no man more distrustful of his own endeavours than I am myself, I beseech you receive my labours "into your protection, whose worth can best countenance "them from misfortune. I will only assist you with a poor "man's bounty, I mean my many humble prayers to the "highest protector, beseeching him to bless you with long "life and prosperity, to his glory, and our comforts, that "must ever owe you our service and love,

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"Your worship's wholly devoted,

"RICHARD ALISON."

CCLVI.

O heavy heart! whose harms are hid,
Thy help is hurt, thy hap is sad:
If thou shouldst break, as God forbid,

Then should desert want his reward.

Hope well to have-hate not sweet thought,
Foul cruel storms fair calms have brought.
After sharp showers the sun shines fair;
Hope comes likewise after despair.

In hope a king doth go to war,
In hope a lover lives full long:
In hope a merchant sails full far,

In hope just men do suffer wrong:
In hope the ploughman sows his seed;
Thus hope helps thousands at their need.
Then faint not heart among the rest,
Whatever chance, hope thou the best.

Tho' wit bids will to blow retreat,

Will cannot work as wit would wish;
When that the roach doth taste the bait,
Too late to warn the hungry fish.

When cities burn with fiery flame,
Great rivers scarce may quench the same;
If will and fancy be agreed,

Too late for wit to bid take heed.

But yet it seems a foolish drift,

To follow will and leave the wit:
The wanton horse that runs too swift,
May well be stay'd upon the bit.
But check a horse amidst his race,
And out of doubt you mar his pace;
Thus wit and reason doth men teach
Never to climb above their reach.

Although these four stanzas are doubtless by the same

author, there is no connexion between the two first and two last, the one subject being Hope, the other a sort of amplification of the Madrigal, No. XXVIII., Wedded to will is witless. I should say they were the offspring of no

common muse.

CCLVII.

The sturdy rock, for all his strength,
By raging seas is rent in twain;
The marble stone is piercd at length
With little drops of drizzling rain:
The ox doth yield unto the yoke,
The steel obeys the hammer's stroke.

The stately stag, that seems so stout,
By yelping hounds at bay is set ;
The swiftest bird that flies about,

Is caught at length in fowler's net.
The greatest fish in deepest brook,

Is soon deceived by subtle hook.

There are two stanzas more in the original, but Alison has only adapted the foregoing to music. The Poem will be found entire in Percy's Reliques. It is taken from The Paradise of Dainty Devices, A.D. 1576, where it is subscribed M. T., which Ritson judges to be the initials of M. Thorn, whose name is elsewhere printed at length. Without at all detracting from Dr. Percy's merit as an antiquary, I hope I may here be allowed to smile at a very silly remark, made by him in his note upon this poem, wherein he says "that Richard Alison's Hour's Recreation is usually "bound up with three or four sets of Weelkes' Madrigals." Now the fact of the matter is this; the Doctor most likely

had in his possession an odd alto part of Madrigals by sundry composers, accidentally bound in the same volume, (now in the British Museum,) among which are those by Alison and Weelkes, and he therefore took it for granted that there was some connexion between them.

In equal ignorance, I suspect, of anceint musical matters, Ritson and others after him speak of a book which they call The Aberdeen Cantus, as being something very valuable; but which as far as I can understand is nothing more than a single Cantus or treble part book (being one voice only out of three or four) of a collection, printed in that town about the middle of the seventeenth century, and as far as music is concerned, utterly worthless.

CCLVIII.

There is a garden in her face,

Where roses and white lilies show;
A heav'nly Par'dise is that place,

Wherein all pleasant fruits do grow.
There cherries hang, that none may buy,
Till cherry ripe themselves dò cry.

Those cherries fairly do enclose

Of orient pearls a double row;

Which when her lovely laughter shows,
They look like rosebuds fill'd with snow.
Yet them no peer nor prince may buy,
Till cherry ripe themselves do cry.

Her

eyes like angels watch them still,

Her brows like bended bows do stand:

Threat'ning with piercing frowns to kill
All that approach with eye or hand
Those sacred cherries to come nigh;

Till cherry ripe themselves do cry.

The ancient cry of Cherry ripe has of late years obtained much celebrity from what most people suppose to be a modern song by that name, and written by the author of Paul Pry; but which is taken from Herrick's Hesperides. The following is the original.

"Musick's Miscellanie, or mixed varietie of pleasant "Roundelays, and delightful Catches of three, four, five, "six, seven, eight, nine, ten parts in one. None so ordi

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nary as musical; none so musical as not to all very plea"sing and acceptable. London: printed by William Barley "for R. B. and H. W., and are to be sold at the Spread

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Eagle at the great north door of St. Pauls, 1609.

"To the well disposed to read, and to the merry disposed "to sing.

* From two Greek words signifying Miscellaneous Harmony.