L A W 
Chichefter; but he was foon called to London, where, in 
1602, he was fworn a gentleman of the chapel royal; which 
place, however, he refigned in 1611, and became one of 
the private or chamber muficians to Charles, then prince, 
and afterwards king. Fuller fays, “he was refpefled and 
beloved of all fuch perfons as call any looks towards vir¬ 
tue and honour;” and he feems well entitled to this praife. 
He nianifefted his gratitude and loyalty to his royal mailer 
by taking up arms in his caufe againft the parliament. 
And though, to exempt him from danger, lord Gerard, 
the king’s general, made him a commiflary in the royal 
army, yet the aitivity of his fpirit difdaining this .in¬ 
tended fecurity, at the fiege of Chefter, 164.5, he loft his 
life by an accidental (hot. The king is faid, by Fuller, 
to have been fo afteCled at his lofs, that, though he was al¬ 
ready in mourning for his kinfman lord Bernard Stuart, 
killed at the fame fiege, his majelly put “on particular 
mourning for his dear fervant William Lawes, whom he 
commonly called the father of mufic.” 
His chief compofitions were fantalias for viols, and 
fongs and fymphonies for mafques; though his brother 
Henry, in thepreface to the Choice Plalmesforthree voices, 
which they publifhed jointly, boafts, that “he compofed 
more than thirty feveral forts of mufic for voices and in- 
ftruments, and that there was not any inllrument in ufe 
in his time but he compofed for it as aptly as if he had 
only ftudied that.” In Dr. Aldrich’s Collection, Chrift- 
church, Oxon, there is a work of his called Mr. William 
Lawes’s Great Confort, “wherein are fix fetts of muficke, 
fix books.” His Royal Confort for two treble viols, two 
viol da gambas, and a thorough-bafe, which was always 
mentioned with reverence by his admirers in the 17th 
century, is now confidered a moll dry, aukward, and un¬ 
meaning, compofition. It mull, however, have been pro¬ 
duced early in his life, as there are no bars, and the paf- 
fages are chiefly fuch as were ufed in queen Elizabeth’s 
time. In the mufic-fchool at Oxford are two large ma- 
nufcript volumes of his works in fcore, for various inftru- 
ments; one of which includes his original compofitions 
for mafques, performed before the king, and at the inns 
of court. His anthem for four voices, in Dr. Boyce’s fe- 
cond volume, is the belt compofition that we have feen 
of this author. He mull have been confiderably older 
than his brother Henry, though they frequently compofed 
in conjunction. We are, however, unable to clear up 
this point of primogeniture: Henry’s name is placed firlt 
in the title to Choice Pfalmes, publifhed in 1648, in the 
preface to which he fays, “ as to that, which is my part 
in this compofition, it takes precedence of order only, not 
of worth.” And yet he fays of his own tunes juft: before, 
“they had their birth at the fame time as his.” His 
boafted canons, publifhed by his brother Henry at the 
end of their Pfalms, as proofs of his great abilities in har¬ 
mony, when fcored, appear fo far from finiflied compofi¬ 
tions, that there is not one of them totally free from ob¬ 
jections, or that bears the ftamp of a great mafter. 
LAWES (Henry), brother of the above, was likewife 
a difciple of Coperario. By the cheque-book of the cha¬ 
pel royal, it appears that he was fworn in pilteller in Ja¬ 
nuary 1625, and, in November following, a gentleman of 
the chapel royal: after this, he was appointed clerk of the 
cheque, and one of the public and private muficians to 
Charles I. William and Henry Lawes were at this time 
in fuch general favour, that, though the kingdom was di¬ 
vided into factions, and not only varied more in their 
principles, but difputed them with more violence, than 
at any other period of our hiftory, there was but one 
opinion concerning the abilities of thefe muficians. The 
reputation of Henry was higher, ,and more firmly efta- 
blifhed, than that of his brother but modern muficians 
are unable to account for the great reputation which he 
acquired, and the numerous panegyrics bellowed on him 
by the greateft poets and muficians of his time; for the 
praife of fuch writers as Milton and Waller is durable 
lame. Tallis, Bird, or Gibbons, who were all infinitely 
LAW 399 
fuperior to Lawes, never had their abilities blazoned by 
contemporary poets or hiftorians of eminence. Fenton, 
the editor ot Waller’s works, tells us, that “the belt po¬ 
ets of his time were ambitious of having their verfes fet 
to mufic by this admirable artift;” and, indeed, he not 
only fet fome of the works of almolt every poet of emi¬ 
nence in Charles I.’s reign, but of young noblemen and 
gentlemen who feem only to have tried their ftrength 011 
the lyre for his ufe, and of whole talents for poetry no 
other evidence remains than what is to be found in Lawes’s 
publications. 
Waller has more than once bellowed his fragrant in- 
cenfe on this mufician. Peek fays, that “ Milton wrote 
his Mafque at therequeft of Lawes ;” but whether Milton 
chofe Lawes, or Lawes Milton, for a colleague in Comus, 
it equally manifelts the high rank in which he ftood with 
the greateft poets of his time. All the melodies of Henry 
Lawes remind us of recitative or pfalmody, and fcarcely 
any thing like an air can be found in his whole book of 
Ayres. As to his knowledge and refources in counter¬ 
point, they were neither great nor profound. Plis works 
were chiefly publifhed under the title of “ Ayres and Dia¬ 
logues,” of which he printed three feveral books, the firlt 
in 1655, the fecond in 1655, and the third in 1658. Be- 
fides thefe, many of his fongs and dialogues were pub- 
lifned by Playford in collections, entitled “SeleCt Mufical 
Ayres and Dialogues,” by Dr. Wilfon, Dr. Charles Col- 
man, Nicholas Laniere, and others. The tunes which he 
fet to Sandys’s excellent verfion of the pfalms, as well as 
thole to the Choice Pfalmes of the fame paraphrafe, which 
w’ere compofed by Henry Lawes and his brother, in a kind 
of anthem or motet ftyle, though ufliered into the world, 
in 1648, by fuch innumerable panegyrics in rhyme, are 
fo far from being fuperior to the fyllabic pfalmody of 
their predeceflors who clothed Sternhold and Hopkins in 
narcotic ftrains, that they feem to poffefs not only lefs 
pleafing melody, but lefs learned harmony, than may be 
found in anterior publications of the fame kind. And 
this feems to be the opinion of the public; as they were 
never adopted by any vociferous fraternity, or admitted 
into the pale of a Angle country church, that we have 
been able to difcover, fince they were firft printed. One, 
of thefe, firft publifhed by Henry, to the feventy-fecond 
pfalm, has, indeed, long had the honour of being jingled 
by the chimes of St. Lawrence Jewry, fix times in the four- 
and-twenty hours, in a kind of Laus perpctua. During 
the civil war, Henry Lawes iupported himfelf by teach¬ 
ing ladies to fing; however, he retained his place in the 
chapel royal, and, at the reftoration, compofed the co¬ 
ronation-anthem. Yet he did not long furvive this event ; 
for, in October 1662, he died, and was buried in Weft- 
minlter-abbey. 
LAW'FUL, adj. Agreeable to law; conformable to 
law'; allowed by law; legitimate; legal.—It is not lawful 
for thee to have her. Matt/i. xiv. 4. 
LAW'FULLY, adv. Legally ; agreeably to law.—I 
may be allowed to tell your lordlhip, the king of poets, 
what an extent of power you have, and how lawfully 
you may exercife it. Dryden. 
This bond is forfeit; 
And lawfully by this the Jew may claim 
A pound of flelli. Shakefpeares Merck, of Venice. 
LAW'FULNESS, f. Legality; allowance of law.—It 
were an error to fpeak further, till I may fee fome found 
foundation laid of the laufulncfs of the aCtion. Bacon. 
LAW'GIVER, f. Legiflator; one that makes laws.— 
A law may be very reafonable in itfelf, although one does 
not know the reafon of the lawgivers. Swift . 
LAVYGIVING, adj. Legiflative: 
Lawgiving heroes, fam’d for taming brutes, 
And railing cities with their charming lutes. Waller. 
LAW'ING of DOGS, f Expeditation.—The court 
of regard, or furvey of dogs, is to be holden eve.y third 
3 . year» 
