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In the year in which this madrigal-for a true madrigal it is in spite of its title canzonet'-saw the light, Morley published his famous treatise called A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke, in which the science of the time is supposed to be taught by means of dialogues. The book is essential to those who would know the rules of the early counterpoint, but it is not either plain or easy reading, since many of the terms are difficult to define, and the style is a marvel of involution. Morley seems to have allowed himself a greater amount of liberty than many of his contemporaries in respect of the modal character of his canto fermo, and in the example given it is not easy to be absolutely certain whether the HypoÆolian or the Phrygian should be named as the mode. On the former theory, the first tenor will be the modal part (the cadence is shown by the asterisk, as before), and the modulation into the dominant is by a breach of rule; on the latter, the second tenor is the modal part, and by way of exception descends by two degrees instead of one upon the final, E, at the seventh bar from the end. In this same year Nicholas Yonge published a second set of Musica Transalpina, in which one of the best known of Italian madrigals, the exquisite Cinthia, thy Song, of Giovanni Croce, found a place; and Morley collected a set of 'canzonets' from the authors of the same nation, comprising specimens of Anerio, Vecchi, Bassano, Viadana, and others. There is little trace of his composing, or at least publishing, any more music of his own after this date, but in 1598

he obtained the same sort of monopoly that Byrd had enjoyed, and brought out yet another collection of Italian five-part madrigals. A far more important compilation of his must have been completed only a short time before his death; this was The Triumphs of Oriana, in which the composers of the period combined to celebrate Queen Elizabeth in a series of madrigals, formed on the pattern of a set first printed at Antwerp in 1601 under the title of Il Trionfo di Dori. Each of these ends with the words ' Viva la bella Dori,' a line which corresponds perfectly in rhythmical structure with the English refrain, 'Long live fair Oriana.' There is a considerable difficulty about the date of the Oriana collection; the fact that it bears the same date on the title-page as the collection on which it was modelled is of itself rather suspicious, but the presence of madrigals referring to the death of Elizabeth is still more startling, until we know that the collection, though dated 1601, did not make its actual appearance until 1603. The book is a lasting evidence of the high place attained by the English school of the day as compared with the composers of any other nation. The Englishmen unite the vigour of the Northerners with the sweetness of the Italians, and their skill in the manipulation of many parts is remarkable in almost every specimen. The writers seem to have vied with each other in making the refrain as elaborate as possible, and treating it with every kind of imitative device. Perhaps the most beautiful as well as the best known of the set is Weelkes's As Vesta was from Latmos hill descending, in which the splendid treatment of the refrain, with the bass singing the phrase in notes eight times as long as the notes sung by the other voices, is a never-failing source of wonder and delight. In the same madrigal, which is too easily accessible to require printing here, the little touches of realism at such passages as first two by two,' 'then three by three,' 'all alone,' came running all amain,' and so forth have a charming naïveté of their own. It is perhaps worth noting that John Milton, the father of the poet, was one of the composers represented. There also figures in the list the name of Ellis Gibbons, the elder brother of Orlando Gibbons, in whom the English school of this period was to find its consummation, and who had not come up from Cambridge at the time when the book was published.

Another of the Oriana composers, Richard Carlton, 'Priest, Batchelor in Musique,' brought out his own madrigals in 1601; one of them may serve as an example of the typical madrigal of the time, with its pretty words, its solid harmonies, and its elegance of structure. In the last bar of p. 269 will be noticed an F sharp in the alto part against an F natural in the first soprano. Such cases are too frequent in the madrigals of the best period to be attributed to the carelessness of printers, but if the effect be found to offend modern ears it is perhaps allowable to alter the alto part to F natural.