_Page_ 9. "April is in my mistress' face."--Compare Robert Greene's verses in "Perimedes, the Blacksmith," 1588:--
"Fair is my love, for April in her face, Her lovely breasts September claims his part, And lordly July in her eyes takes place: But cold December dwelleth in her heart: Blest be the months that set my thoughts on fire, Accurs'd that month that hindereth my desire!"
_Page_ 11. "The Urchins' Dance" is from the anonymous play "The Maid's Metamorphosis," 1600. In the same play are the following dainty verses;--
"_1 Fairy._ I do come about the copse Leaping upon flowers' tops; Then I get upon a fly, She carries me above the sky, And trip and go!
_2 Fairy._ When a dew-drop falleth down And doth light upon my crown, Then I shake my head and skip And about I trip.
_3 Fairy._ When I feel a girl a-sleep, Underneath her frock I peep, There to sport, and there I play; Then I bite her like a flea, And about I skip."
Thomas Ravenscroft, compiler of the "Brief Discourse," won his spurs at a very early age. He took his degree of Bachelor of Music before he had reached his fifteenth year, as we learn from some commendatory verses prefixed to the "Brief Discourse;"--
"Non vidit tria lustra puer, quin arte probatus, Vita laudatus, sumpsit in arte gradum."
He was twenty-two when he published the "Brief Discourse" in 1614: but in 1611 be had published "Melismata, musical fancies fitting the court, city, and country humours," and he edited two collections that appeared in 1609--"Pammelia" and "Deuteromelia." "Pammelia" is the earliest English printed collection of Catches, Rounds, and Canons; both words and music were for the most part older than the date of publication. "Deuteromelia" was intended as a continuation of "Pammelia."
_Page_ 12. Robert Dowland, editor of "A Musical Banquet," was a son of John Dowland; he succeeded his father as one of the Court musicians in 1626, and was alive in 1641.
_Page_ 16. Thomas Ford, when he published his "Music of sundry kinds," 1607, was a musician in the suite of Prince Henry. At the accession of Charles I. he was appointed one of his musicians, and he died in 1648--the year before his royal patron was beheaded.
_Page_ 23. "Little lawn then serve[d] the Pawn."--The Pawn was a corridor, serving as a bazaar, in the Royal Exchange (Gresham's).