288 The Duchess of Newcastle 



desired me to sing one of the songs My Lord made, 

 your brother set, and you were pleased to sing. I 

 told them first, I could not sing any of those songs; 

 but if I could, I prayed them to pardon me, for neither 

 my voice, nor my skill, was not proper, nor fit for 

 them, and neither having skill nor voice, if I should 

 offer to sing any of them, I should so much disadvan- 

 tage My Lord's poetical wit, and your brother's 

 musical composition, as the fancy would be obscured 

 in the one, and the art in the other; nay, instead of 

 musick, I should make discord, and instead of wit, 

 sing nonsense, knowing not how to humour the words, 

 nor relish the notes. Whereas your harmonious voice 

 gives their works both grace and pleasure, and invites 

 and draws the soul from all other parts of the body, 

 with all the loving and amorous passions, to sit in the 

 hollow cavern of the ear, as in a vaulted room, wherein 

 it listens with delight, and is ravished with admiration; 

 wherefore their works and your voice are only fit for 

 the notice of souls, and not to be sung to dull, unlisten- 

 ing ears. Whereas my voice and those songs, would be 

 as disagreeing as your voice and old ballads, for the 

 vulgar and plainer a voice is, the better it is for an old 

 ballad; for a sweet voice, with quavers, and trilloes, 

 and the like, would be as improper for an old ballad, 

 as golden laces on a thrum suit of cloth, diamond 

 buckles on clouted or cobbled shoes, or a feather on a 

 monk's hood. Neither should old ballads be sung so 

 much in a tune as in a tone, which tone is betwixt 

 speaking and singing; for the sound is more than 

 plain speaking, and less than clear singing, and the 

 rumming or humming of a wheel should be the musick 

 to that tone, for the humming is the noise the wheel 

 makes in the turning round, which is not hke the 

 musick of the spheres. And ballads are only proper 



