An Introduction te

ner, the Notes next below it defcending are La fol fa, La fol fa, and then you have your Mi again: For your better understanding of which, obferve the before-mentioned old Metre, whofe Rules are plain, true, and eafie.

2.

No man can fing true at first fight,
Unless he names bis Notes aright:
which foon is learnt, if that your Mi
You know its Place where e're it be.

If that no Flat be fet in B,
Then in that Place ftandeth your Mi.

Sol la Mi fa fol. La fa fol

Bfa Bmi. But if your *B alone be Flat,
Then E is Mi, be sure of that.

E la mi.

*

Example

Sol la fa fol la Mi fa fol

3:1f

3.

the Skill of Mufick.

Ş. A la mire.

If both be Flat, your B and E, *Alamire. Then *A is Mi here you may fee.

*

Example.

La Mi fa fol la fa fol la.

If all be Flat, E, A, and B, *D la fol. Then Mi alone doth stand in *D.

Example.

La fa fol la Mi fa sol·la

The first three Notes above your Mi
Are fa fol la, here you may fee;
The next three under Mi that fall,
Them la fol fa you ought to call,

Example.

Sol la Mi fa fol la fa fol fa la fol fa Mi la fol fa

If you'll fing true without all blame,
You call all Eights by the fame name.

Exam

"Mi contra Fa,
Diabolus est in Musica,”.

calling this set of notes "the Devil." We therefore believe, with Burney, that this is one of the most technical musical points in all Shakespeare. Furness (Variorum Edition), however, presents several opinions to the contrary. 2

Less remarkable is the allusion to "sol-fa" in the

I

Taming of the Shrew" (Act i. Sc. 2), where Petruchio intimidates his servant :

"Grumio. My master has grown quarrelsome: I should knock you first,

And then I know after who comes by the worst.
Petruchio, Will it not be?

'Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll wring it; I'll try how you can 'sol, fa,' and sing it.

[He wrings Grumio by the ears. Grumio. Help, masters, help! my master is mad."

In "Love's Labour's Lost," Act iv. Sc. 2, Holo

According to the gamut described above; to-day the syllables would be "fa, sol, la, si;" they constitute a "tritone," i. e. a suc cession of three whole tones.

2 Furness's own opinion, Vol. V., p. 55, is that Edmund sings "Fa, sol, la, mi,”—“just as Mistress Quickly sings and down, down, adown-a' in "Merry Wives," i. 3. 44, when Doctor Caius is approaching."

fernes uses the vocal syllables in singing, but this passage is unimportant.

In the disputed passage from "King Lear," the word "division" is used in a punning sense. The divisions of the royal family are patent enough, but in music "division" also had a particular meaning; it was the breaking of a melody, or its descant, into small notes, as, for example,'

Division of foregoing.

In 1659 Christopher Simpson published a work for viol, in which he says:

"Diminution, or division to a ground, is the breaking either of the base or of any higher part that is applicable thereto." The modern musician would call it variation.

In the chamber-scene of "Romeo and Juliet (Act iii. Sc. 5), Shakespeare uses the word “division," and once more in a punning way, for even in the most earnest scenes our poet cannot resist the temptation to play upon words. The passage occurs after Juliet pleads with her lover to stay, urging that it was the nightingale, and not the lark, whose notes they had heard. She at last yields to

their separation with

'See example of Purcell's "Ground Bass," page 103, for a fuller illustration of this.

"Juliet. It is, it is, hie hence, be gone, away;
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,

Straining harsh discords, and unpleasing sharps.
Some say, the lark makes sweet division;
This doth not so, for she divideth us:
Some say, the lark and loathed toad change eyes;
O, now I would they had changed voices too!
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence, with hunts-up to the day.
O, now be gone; more light and light it grows."

The Hunts-up" that Juliet refers to was a lively hunting-song in its origin, but in Elizabethan times any lively song fitted for the early morn, and even an Aubade, or morning love-song, was so called. In Chapter X. will be found a fuller analysis of these, with a musical example. Division is again spoken of in the following musical episode in "King Henry IV.,” Part I. (Act iii. Sc. 1):

"

"Mortimer. I will never be a truant, love,
Till I have learn'd thy language; for thy tongue
Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn'd,
Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower,
With ravishing division to her lute.

Glendower. Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.
[Lady Mortimer speaks again.

Mortimer. O, I am ignorance itself in this.
Glendower. She bids you,

Upon the wanton rushes lay you down,
And rest your gentle head upon her lap,
And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,
And on your eye-lids crown the god of sleep,