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beautiful anthems and services still heard with pleasure in our 
Cathedrals. On the recommendation of his friend, the learned 
Camden, the Oxford university conferred upon him a Doctor’s 
degree. He composed the music for the marriage of Charles I. 
and Henrietta Maria of France, but during his official attendance 
at that ceremony, took small-pox, to which he fell a victim. 
Of his many Madrigals, we may name :—“ Dainty Sweet Bird;” 
“The Silver Swan ;” “‘O that the learned poets.” We must not 
dwell longer on the Madrigal period. No music is better calculated 
to improve the performer, or give pleasure to the audience ; and it 
has always seemed to me a great pity that these fine old Madrigals 
lie so neglected. We have had a long “‘ /talian craze,” and while 
we have been looking abroad for our musical delights, we have 
overlooked the treasures which lie at our feet. Fashion has a good 
deal to do with this, and as an illustration, I will give you an 
anecdote recorded of Malibran, the great prima donna. 
Malibran was once at a party where a discussion arose as to 
the merits of English music. The greater part of those present 
declared that none but foreign music was good, whilst Malibran 
maintained that no foreign music could exceed in beauty many of 
the Scotch, Irish, Welsh, and English airs—but without convincing 
her hearers. Later in the evening she volunteered a new Spanish 
_ ballad, and after a light prelude, commenced, adagio :— 
‘* Maria trayga un caldero, 
De aqua Llama levante, 
Maria pon tu caldero 
Ayamos nuestro te.” 
She finished—of course the plauditsresounded——forwith her glorious 
voice even the multiplication table would have been delightful, and 
the air was triumphantly quoted as a fresh instance of the beauty 
and superiority of foreign productions. Malibran then offered to 
repeat it, with an English version of the words, and in quickened 
time produced, to their utter consternation, “ Polly put the kettle 
on.” As Mark Twain would add—there’s a moral in that. 
One word before we quit the Madrigal. Instrumental accom- 
_ paniments are inadmissible except as a help to weak and unsteady 
