MUSIC. 2D9 
tinued to be the favourite inflrument in Britain for many 
a^es, under the Britifh, Saxon, Danifh, and Norman, kings. 
T he fiddle, however, is mentioned fo early as 1200 in the 
legendary life of St. Chriflopher. 
Chaucer, who in the 14-th century enlarged our vocabu¬ 
lary, polifhed our numbers, and with acquifitions from 
France and Italy augmented our flore of knowledge, 
entitles one of his poems the Hiftory of St. Cecilia; and 
the celebrated patronefs of mufic muff no doubt be men¬ 
tioned in a hiftory of the art. Neither in Chaucer, how¬ 
ever, nor in any of the hillories or legendary accounts 
of this faint, does any thing appear to authorife the 
religious veneration paid to her by the votaries of mufic; 
nor^is it eafy to difcover whence it has aril'en. She was a 
native of heathen Rome, and fuffered martyrdom for re- 
fufing to renounce the Chriftian religion, though her 
feveral legends are not agreed either as to the period of her 
birth or bufferings, nor as to the particular death to which 
{lie was condemned. She is ftated to have very early made 
a vow of perpetual chaftity, but that her parents never- 
thelefs compelled her to marry a young man named Vale¬ 
rianus, a heathen, and who, “ going to bed on the wed¬ 
ding-night, as,” we are told, “ the cujiom then was," re¬ 
ceived' information from his fpoufe that he mull with¬ 
draw from her chamber, as lire was nightly vifited by an 
angel from heaven, who would otherwife deftroy him. 
Valerianus pleaded for an interview with the angel, 
which Cecilia explained to him as impofiible, unlefs he 
would abjure his pagan errors, and receive baptiftn; 
adding fuch “ fweet and convincing arguments” in fup- 
port of her fuperior faith, as in the end completely to 
convince his reafon. Valerianus, therefore, and his bro¬ 
ther Tibertius, to whom he communicated all that had 
pafied, were made converts to the true church; fhortly 
after which the good hulband found his wife at prayers 
in her clofet, and by her fide, joining in her devotion, an 
angel clothed with brightnefs, in the lliape of “ a beau¬ 
tiful youth ;” who allured Valerianus, that both his own 
and his brother’s converfion were accepted, and would 
loon be crowned with the “ blelfings of martyrdom.” 
Valerianus and Tibertius were foon after beheaded, as the 
angel had encouraged them to hope; and Cecilia, Hill re¬ 
maining ftedfaft, in defpite of the efforts made to perfuade 
or intimidate her into idolatry,, was, according to fome 
authors, thrown into a cauldron of boiling water and 
fealded to death, or, as others Hate, ftifled in a dry bath ; 
while fome albert, that, furviving the latter attempt on 
her life, Ihe was beheaded. Her martyrdom is generally 
regarded as having taken place about the year 230, though 
there are various authorities which place it lo early as 
between 176 and 180. There is at Rome an elegant 
church dedicated to St. Cecilia, which it would be 
deemed prophane not to believe to Hand on the precife 
iite of the houfe in which lire received the vifits of her 
heavenly admirer; and, conforming to the tale of her 
having been fealded to death, a chapel is fhown which is 
declared to have been eredted on the fpot where {he met 
that dreadful fate. To this faint, as we have faid, has 
been ailigned the patronage of ecclefialtical melody, from 
her alleged excellence in finging the divine prailes, to 
which flie joined inllrumental mufic : and we are not 
only alfured, by the members of the papal church, that 
the angel who was enamoured of her, quitted the celef- 
tial manlions, overcome by the facination of her harmony; 
but that, when {he was beheaded, he joined in a fweet 
melodious concert with other angels, who conducted her 
to the realms of blils. When Stationers’ Hall was re¬ 
built after the fire of London, a folemn annual mufical 
meeting was held there on her anniverfary ; and for the 
celebration of that folemnity, Purcell compofed his juftly- 
admired Te-Deum and Jubilate ; while it is to be no¬ 
ticed, that Dryden, Pope, and others of our bell poets, 
compofed Odes on St. Cecilia’s Day, all joining in her 
praile as the patronefs of mufic, and, according to poeti¬ 
cal licence, alluding to the ftory of. an angelic admirer 
coming down to vifit her. Dryden’s Alexander's Feall, 
which, for its ftrength and beauty of expreflion, Hands 
pre-eminent, clofes with the following encomium on this 
mufical faint: 
Ere heaving bellows learn’d to blow, 
While organs yet were mute ; 
Timotheus, to his breathing flute 
And founding lyre, 
Could fwel) the foul to rage, or kindle foft defire. 
At lad divine Cecilia came, 
Inventrefs of the vocal frame; 
The fweet enthufiaft, from her facred llore, 
Enlarg’d the former narrow bounds, 
And added length to lolemn founds, 
With nature’s mother-wit,and arts unknown befor^t, 
Let old Timotheus yield the prize. 
Or both divide the crown ; 
He rais’d a mortal to the ficies, 
She drew an angel down. 
The title of doftor in mufic, peculiar to the univerfities 
of our own country, according to Anthony Wood was 
firfl conferred in the reign of king Henry II. but this 
is fixing it at an earlier period than that in which fuch a 
title can be proved to have fubfifted at Oxford or Cam¬ 
bridge, or to have been conferred on the profeflors of 
other fciences. Spelman, a more nice and accurate After 
of fabts, believes that the appellation of doblor was not 
among the degrees granted to graduates in England till 
the reign of king John, about 1207. 
It is known that this title was created on the continent 
about the middle of the twelfth century, as more honour¬ 
able than that of magijier, or matter, which was become 
too common. Its original fignification implied not only 
learning and {kill, but abilities to teach, according to 
the opinion of Ariftotle, who fays, that the molt certain 
proof of knowledge in any fcience is the being able to 
inltruct others. John de Muris begins the fecond part of 
his Treatife on Mufic with the following palfage : “ Prin- 
ceps philofophorum Arillotles ait in principio mathema¬ 
tics: fuse, omnino feientis fignum ell pofie docere.” Muli- 
ces Trabl. MS. Bodi. 300. 
But the precife time when this creation extended to 
the faculties of medicine and mulic does not appear; nor 
can the names be found of thofe profeflors in either 
to whom the title was firfl granted. It has, however, 
been frequently remarked, (Burney’s Hid. Mufi vol. ii.) 
that during the middle ages mufic was always ranked 
among the feven liberal arts, that it was included in the 
trivium and quadrivium, and thjit it was ftudied by all 
thofe who afpired at reputation lor learning throughout 
Europe. The trivium comprifed the three fciences of 
grammar, rhetoric, and logic, which teach us how to rea- 
lon with accuracy and precifion ; and the quadrivium com¬ 
prehended arithmetic, mufic, geometry, and aftronomy, as 
the four branches of the mathematics which lilently con¬ 
template whatever is capable of being numbered or mea- 
fured. 'Now it is remarkable, that, in our univerfities, 
mufic is the only one of thefe leven fciences that confers 
degrees on its Undents; and in other countries, though 
theology, law, and medicine, bellow this honour, which 
are not of the feven, yet mufic, which is, can afpire at no 
fuch diftinbtion. However, it evidently appears that the 
mufic which was'regarded as a fcience by our forefathers, 
was merely fpeculative, and fuch as concerned harmonics, 
the ratio of mufical intervals, and the philofophy of found ; 
and in this fenfe mufical degrees are perhaps but fel- 
dom conferred in our univerfities according to the origi¬ 
nal fpirit of the inflitution. But the prefent flatutes, not 
wholly neglecting the gratification of the ear, are more 
favourable to practical mufic, and allow candidates for 
degrees to perform exercifes, in which fpecimens may be 
furnifhed of their {kill in melody, harmony, and compo- 
fition, where thofe founds are arranged and combined 
which fcience meafures and fixes by calculation. 
.By 
