 From the fable of the bees or private visus public benefits by Bernard Mandeville edition 1714 This is a LibberVox recording. All LibberVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer Please visit LibberVox.org read by Anna Simon The Grumbling Hive or Naves Turned Honest A spacious hive well stocked with bees that lived in luxury and ease and yet as famed for laws and arms as yielding large and Early swarms was counted the great nursery of sciences and industry No bees had better government, more fickleness or less content They were not slaves to tyranny nor ruled by wild democracy But kings that could not wrong because their power was circumscribed by laws These insects lived like men and all our actions they performed in small They did whatever's done in town and what belongs to sword or gown To the artful works by nimble sleight of minute limbs escaped human sight yet We've no engines, laborers, ships, castles, arms, artifices, craft, science, shop or instrument But they had an equivalent which since their languages are known must be called as we do our own As grant that among other things they wanted dice yet they had kings and those had gods from what we may justly Conclude they had some play unless a regiment be shown of soldiers that make use of none Vast numbers thronged the fruitful hive yet those vast numbers made them thrive Millions endeavoring to supply each other's lust and vanity whilst other millions were employed to see their handy works Destroyed they furnished half the universe yet had more work than laborers Some with vast stocks and little pains jumped into business of great gains and some were damned to sights and spades and All those hard laborious trades where willing wretches daily sweat and wear out strength and limbs to eat Whilst others followed mysteries to which few folks bind Prentices that want no stock but that of bras and may set up without a cross as Sharpers parasites pimps players pickpockets coiners quacks Soothsayers and all those that in enmity with downright working cunningly Convert to their own use the labor of their good-natured heatless neighbor These were called knaves, but bar the name the grave industrious were the same all trades and places knew some cheat No calling was without deceit The lawyers of whose art the basis was raising feuds and spitting cases Opposed all registers that cheats might make more work with dipter states as words unlawful That one's own without a lawsuit should be known They kept off hearings willfully to finger the refreshing fee and to defend a wicked cause Examined and surveyed the laws as burglars shops and houses do to find out where they'd best break through Physicians valued fame and wealth above that drooping patients health or their own skill the greatest part studied instead of rules of art Grave pensive looks and dull behavior to gain the apothecaries favor the praise of midwives priests and all That serve at birth or funeral to bear with ever-talking tribe and hear my ladies aren't prescribed with formal smile and kind How'd you to phone on all the family and Which of all the greatest curses to endure the impertinence of nurses Among the many priests of Jove hard to draw blessings from above Some few will learn it an eloquent but thousands hot and ignorant Yet all past muster that could hide their sloth lust ever is in pride for which they were as famed as Tailors for cabbage or for brandy sailors Some meager looked and meanly clad would mystically pray for bread meaning by that an ample stall yet Literally received no more and whilst these holy drudges starved the lazy ones for which they served Indulged their ease with all the graces of health and plenty in their faces The soldiers that were forced to fight if they survived got on our bite though some that shunned the bloody fray Had limbs shut off that ran away Some valiant generals fought the foe others took bribes to let them go Some ventured always where it was warm lost now a leg and then an arm yet quite disabled and put by they lived on half Their salary whilst others never came in play and stayed at home for double pay Their kings were served but navishly cheated by their own ministry many that for their welfare Slave robbing the very crown they saved Pensions were small and they lived high yet boasted of their honesty Calling whenever they strained their right the slippery trick a percocide and when folks understood their can't they changed that for a Monument unwilling to be short or plain in anything concerning gain For there was not a bee but would get more I won't say that he should but then he dared to let them know that paid for it as your Gamesters do that though at fair play never will own before the losers what they've won But who can all their frauds repeat the very stuff which in the street They sold for dirt and rich the ground was often by the buyers found Sophisticated with a quarter of good for nothing stones and mortar no flail had little cause to matter who saw the other sold for butter Justice herself famed for fair dealing by blindness had not lost her feeling her left hand Which the scales should hold had often drops them bribed with gold and Though she seemed impartial where punishment was corporal Pretended to a regular cause in murder and all crimes of force Though some first pilloried for cheating were hanged in hemp of their own beating Yet it was thought the sword she bore Checked but the desperate and the poor that urged by mere necessity were tied up to the wretched tree for crimes Which not deserve that fate but to secure the rich and great Thus every part was full of vice yet the whole mass a paradise Flattered in peace and feared in wars They were the steam of foreigners and lavish of their wealth and lives the balance of all other hives Such were the blessings of that state their crimes conspired to make them great and virtue who from politics had learned a Thousand cunning tricks was by their happy influence made friends with vise and ever since the worst of all the multitude Did something for the common good This was the state's craft that maintained the whole of which each part complained This as in music harmony made jarrings in the main agree parties directly opposite assist each other as to her first spite and temperance with sobriety serve drunkenness and gluttony The root of evil avarice that damned ill-natured baneful vice was slave to prodigality That noble sin whilst luxury employed a million of the poor and odious pride a million more Envy itself and vanity were ministers of industry their darling fully Fickleness in diet furniture and dress that strange ridiculous vice was made the very wheel that turned the trade Their laws and clothes were equally objects of mutability Forward was well done for a time in half a year became a crime Yet whilst they altered thus their laws still finding and correcting flaws They amended by inconstancy faults which no prudence could foresee Thus vice nursed ingenuity which joined with time and industry had carried life's Conveniences its real pleasures comforts ease to such a height the very poor lived better than the rich before and nothing could be added more How vain is mortal happiness had they but known the bounds of bliss and That perfection here below is more than gods can well bestow the grumbling brutes had been content with ministers and government But they at every ill success like creatures lost without redress Cursed politicians armies fleets whilst everyone cried damn that cheats and would though conscious of his own in others Barbarously bear none One that had got a princely stall by cheating master king and poor dared cry aloud the land must sink for all its fraud and Whom do you think the sermonizing rascal chit a glover that sold lamb for kid The least thing was not done amiss or crossed the public business But all the rogues cried brazenly good gods had we but honesty Mercury smiled at the impudence and others call it want of sense Always to rail at what they loved But jove with indignation moved at last an anger soar he'd rid the balling hive of fraud and did The very moment it departs and honesty fills all their hearts there shows them like the instructive tree Those crimes which they're ashamed to see which now in silence they confess by blushing at their ugliness Like children that would hide their faults and by their color own their thoughts Imagining when they're looked upon that others see what they have done But oh ye gods what consternation how vast and sudden was the alteration in half an hour The nation round meet fellow penny in the pound the mass Hypocracies flung down from the great statesman to the clown and some in borrowed looks well known Appeared like strangers in their own the bar was silent from that day for now the willing debtors pay Even what's by creditors forgot who quitted them that had it not Those that were in the wrong stoop mute and drops the patched vexatious suit on which since nothing less can thrive Then lawyers in an honest hive all except those that got enough with incorns by their sides trooped off Justice hanged some set others free and after gold delivery her presence being no more required with all her train and pump retired First marched some smith with locks and grates fetters and doors with iron plates Next goalers turn keys and assistants before the goddess at some distance her chief and faithful ministers Squire catch and laws great finisher bore not the imaginary sword, but his own tools an axe and cord Then on a cloud the hood-winged fair justice herself was pushed by air About her chariot and behind where sergeants bums of every kind tip-staffs and all those officers that squeeze a living out of tears Those physics lived whilst folks were ill none would prescribe but bees of skill Which through the hive dispersed so wide that none of them had need to write Waved vain disputes and strove to free the patience of their misery Left drugs and cheating countries grown and used the product of their own knowing the gods sent no disease to nations without remedies Their clergy roused from laziness laid not their charge on journey bees But served themselves exempt from vice the gods with prayer and sacrifice All those that were unfit or knew their service might be spared withdrew Nor was their business for so many if the honest stand the need of any Few only with the high priest state to whom the rest obedience paid Himself employed in holy cares resigned to others state affairs. He chased no stavelling from his door nor pinched the wages of the poor But at his house the hungry's fed the harrowing finds unmeasured bread the needy traveler board and bed Among the king's great ministers and all the inferior officers the change was great for frugally. They now lived on their salary That a poor bee should ten times come to ask his due a trifling sum and by some well-hard Clark be made to give a crown or never be paid would now be called a downright cheat though formally a perquisite All places managed first by three who watched each other's Navery and often for a fellow feeling promoted one another's stealing are happily supplied by one by which some thousands more are gone No honor now could be content to live and owe for what was spent Liveries and broker shops are hung. They part with coaches for a song Sell stately horses by whole sets and country houses to pay debts Vane cost is shunned as much as fraud. They have no forces kept abroad Laugh at the esteem of foreigners and empty glory got by wars. They fight But for their country's sake when right all liberties at stake Now mind the glorious hive and see how honesty and trade agree The show is gone. It thins a pace and looks with quite another face For it was not only that they went by whom vast sums were yearly spent But multitudes that lived on them were daily forced to do the same In vain to other trades they'd fly all were overstocked accordingly The prize of land and houses falls Miraculous palaces whose walls like those of thieves were raised by play are to be let Whilst the once gay well-seeded household gods would be more pleased to expire in flames than see the mean inscription on the door Smile at the lofty once they bore The building trade is quite destroyed Artifices are not employed no limner for his art is famed stonecutters carvers are not named Those that remain grown temperate strive not how to spend but how to live And when they paid their tavern score resolved to enter it no more No witness jilt in all the hive could wear now cloth of gold and thrive Nor torquil such vast sums advance for burgundy and ortolans The courter is gone that would as miss subbed at his house on christmas peace Spending as much in two hours stay as keeps a troop of holes a day The hearty chloe to live great had made her husband rob the state But now she sells her furniture which the indies had been ransacked for Contracts the expensive bill of fare and wears a strong suit a whole year The slight and fickle ages past and clothes as well as fashions last Weavers that joined rich silk with plate and all the trades subordinate are gone Still peace and plenty rain and everything is cheap though plain Kind nature free from gardener's force allows all fruits in her own cause But rarities cannot be had where pains to get them are not paid As pride and luxury decrease so by degrees they leave the seas Not merchants now but companies remove whole manufacturers All arts and crafts neglected lie content the bane of industry makes them admire their homely store and neither seek nor covet more So few in the vast hive remain the hundredth path they can't maintain against the insults of numerous foes whom yet they valiantly oppose Till some well-fenced retreat is found and here they die or stand their ground No harrowing in their armies known but bravely fighting for their own their courage and integrity at last were crowned with victory They triumphed not without their cost for many thousand bees were lost Hardened with toils and exercise they counted ease itself a vice which so improved their temperance that to avoid extravagance They flew into a hollow tree blessed with content and honesty The moral then leave complaints fools only strive to make a great and honest hive To enjoy the world's conveniences be famed in war yet live in ease without great vices Without great vices is a vain utopia seated in the brain Fraud luxury and pride must live whilst we the benefits receive Hungers a dreadful plague no doubt yet who digests or thrives without Do we not owe the growth of wine to the dry crooked shabby vine Which whilst its shoots neglected stood choked other plans and ran to wood But blessed us with its noble fruit as soon as it was tied and cut So vice is beneficial found when it's by justice lobbed and bound Nay whether people would be great as necessary to the state as hunger is to make them eat Bear virtue can't make nations live in splendor they that would revive a golden age must be as free for occurrence as for honesty An inquiry into the origin of moral virtue the introduction One of the greatest reasons why so few people understand themselves is that most writers are always teaching men what they should be And hardly ever trouble heads with telling them what they really are As for my part without any compliment to the courgette's reader or myself I believe man besides skin flesh bones, etc. That are obvious to the eye To be a compound of various passions that all of them as they are provoked and come uppermost govern him by turns whether he will or no To show that these qualifications which we all pretend to be ashamed of are the great support of a flourishing society Has been the subject of the foregoing poem But there being some passages in it seemingly paradoxical I have in the preface Promised some explanatory remarks on it which to render more useful I have thought fit to inquire how men no better qualified might yet by his own imperfections Be taught to distinguish between virtue and vice And here I must desire the reader once for all to take notice that when I say men I mean neither Jews nor Christians, but mere men in the state of nature and ignorance of the true deity All untold animals are only solicitors of pleasing themselves and naturally follow the bend of their own inclinations Without considering the good or harm that from there being pleased will accrue to others This is the reason that in a wild state of nature those creatures are fit to live peacefully together in great numbers That discovered the least of understanding and have the fewest appetites to gratify And consequently no species of animals is without the curb of government less capable of agreeing long together in multitudes Than that of men Yet such are his qualities whether good or bad I shall not determine that no creature besides himself can ever be made sociable But being an extraordinary selfish and headstrong as well as cunning animal However, he may be subdued by superior strength It is impossible by force alone to make him tractable and receive the improvements he is capable of The chief thing therefore which law givers and otherwise men that have laboured for the establishment of society Have endeavoured has been to make the people they were to govern Believe that it was more beneficial for everybody to conquer than indulge his appetites And much better to mind the public than what seemed his private interest As this has always been a very difficult task So no wit or eloquence has been left untried to compass it and the moralists and philosophers of all ages Employed their utmost skill to prove the truth of so useful an assertion But whether mankind would have ever believed it or not It is not likely that anybody could have persuaded them to disapprove of their natural inclinations Or prefer the good of others to their own If at the same time he had not showed them an equivalent to be enjoyed as a reward for the violence Which by so doing they of necessity must commit upon themselves Those that have undertaken to civilize mankind were not ignorant of this But being unable to give so many real rewards as would satisfy all persons for every individual action They were forced to contrive an imaginary one That as a general equivalent for the trouble of self-denial should serve on all occasions And without costing anything either to themselves or others Be yet a most acceptable recompense of the receivers They thoroughly examined all the strength and frailties of our nature And observing that none were either so savage as not to be charmed with praise Or so despicable as patiently to bear contempt Justly concluded that flattery must be the most powerful argument that could be used to human creatures Making use of this bewitching engine They extolled the excellency of our nature above other animals And setting forth with unbounded praises the oneness of our sagacity and vastness of understanding Bestowed a thousand encomiums on the rationality of our souls By the help of which we were capable of performing the most noble achievements Having by this artful way of flattery insinuated themselves into the hearts of men They began to instruct them in the notions of honor and shame Representing the one as the worst of all evils and the other as the highest good to which mortals could aspire Which being done they laid before them how unbecoming it was the dignity of such sublime creatures To be solicitous about gratifying those appetites which they had in common with brutes And at the same time unmindful of those higher qualities that gave them the preeminence over all visible beings They indeed confessed that those impulses of nature were very pressing That it was troublesome to resist and very difficult wholly to subdue them But this they only use as an argument to demonstrate how glorious the conquest of them was on the one hand And how scandalous on the other not to attempt it To introduce moreover an emulation amongst men They divided the whole species in two classes vastly differing from one another The one consisted of abject low-minded people that always hunting after immediate enjoyment Were wholly incapable of self-denial and without regard to the good of others had no higher aim than their private advantage Such as being enslaved by voluptuousness yielded without resistance to every gross desire And made no use of the rational faculties but to heighten their central pleasures These vile groveling wretches they said were the dross of their kind And having only the shape of men differed from brutes in nothing but their outward figure But the other class was made up of lofty high-spirited creatures that free from sorted selfishness esteemed the improvements of the mind to be their fairest possessions And setting a true value upon themselves took no delight but in embellishing that path in which their excellence he consisted Such as despising whatever they had in common with irrational creatures Opposed by the help of reason their most violent inclinations And making a continual war with themselves to promote the peace of others Aimed at no less than the public welfare and the conquest of their own passions These they called the true representatives of their sublime species Exceeding and worth the first class by more degrees than that itself was superior to the beasts of the field As in all animals that are not too imperfect to discover pride We find that the finest and such as are the most beautiful and valuable of their kind have generally the greatest chair of it So in man the most perfect of animals it is so inseparable from his very essence How cunningly so ever some may learn to hide or disguise it That without it the compound he is made of would want one of the cheapest ingredients Which if we consider it is hardly to be doubted but lessons and remonstances So skillfully adapted to the good opinion man has of himself as those I have mentioned Must if scattered amongst a multitude not only gain the ascent of most of them as to the speculative part But likewise induce several Especially the fiercest most resolute and best among them to endure a thousand inconveniences And undergo as many hardships that they may have the pleasure of counting themselves men of the second class And consequently appropriating to themselves all the excellencies they have heard of it From what has been said we ought to expect in the first place that the heroes who took such Extraordinary pains to master some of their natural appetise and preferred the good of others to any visible interest of their own Would not recede an inch from the fine notions they had received concerning the dignity of rational creatures And having ever the authority of the government on their side would all imaginable vigor Assert the esteem that was due to those of the second class as well as their superiority over the rest of their kind In the second that those who wanted a sufficient stock of either pride or resolution To boy them up in mortifying of what was dearest to them Followed the central dictates of nature would yet be ashamed of confessing themselves to be those despicable Wretches that belong to the inferior class and were generally reckoned to be so little removed from brutes And that therefore in their own defense they would say as others did and hiding their own imperfections as well as they could Cry up self-denial and public spurtness as much as any For it is highly probable that some of them convinced by the real proofs of fortitude and self-conquest They had seen would admire in others what they found wanting in themselves Others be afraid of the resolution and prowess of those of the second class And that all of them were kept in awe by the power of their rulers Wherefore it is reasonable to think that none of them whatever they thought in themselves Would dare openly contradict what by everybody else was thought criminal to doubt of This was or at least might have been the manner after which savage men was broke From whence it is evident that the first rudiments of morality broached by skillful politicians to render men useful to each other As well as tractable were chiefly contrived that the ambitious might reap the more benefit from And govern vast numbers of them with a greater ease and security This foundation of politics being once laid it is impossible that men should long remain uncivilized For even those who only strove to gratify their appetites being continually crossed by others of the same stamp Could not but observe that whenever they checked their inclinations or but followed them with more circumspection They avoided a world of troubles and often escaped many of the calamities that generally attended the too eager pursuit after pleasure First they received as well as others the benefit of those actions that were done for the good of the whole society And consequently could not forbear wishing well to those of the superior class that performed them Secondly the more intent they were in seeking their own advantage without regard to others The more they were hourly convinced that none stood so much in their way as those that were most like themselves It being the interest then of the very worst of them more than any to preach up public spiritedness That they might reap the fruits of the labor and self-denial of others And at the same time indulge their own appetites with less disturbance They agreed with the rest to call everything which without regard to the public Man should commit to gratify any of his appetites vice If in that action there could be observed the least prospect that it might either be injurious to any of the society Or ever render himself less serviceable to others And to give the name of virtue to every performance by which man Contrary to the impulse of nature should endeavor the benefit of others or the conquest of his own passions Out of a rational ambition of being good It shall be objected that no society was ever anyways civilized before the major part had agreed upon some worship or other Of an overruling power and consequently that the notions of good and evil And the distinction between virtue and vice were never the contrivance of politicians, but the pure effect of religion Before I answer this objection. I must repeat what I've said already that in this inquiry into the origin of moral virtue I speak neither of Jews or Christians But men in a state of nature and ignorance of the true deity And then I affirm that the idolatrous superstitions of all other nations and the pitiful notions The head of the supreme being were incapable of exciting man to virtue And good for nothing but to awe and amuse a rude and unthinking multitude It is evident from history that in all considerable societies How stupid or ridiculous so ever people's received notions have been as to the deity they worshiped Human nature has ever exerted itself in all its branches and there is no earthly wisdom or moral virtue But at one time or other men have excelled in it in all monarchies and commonwealths that for riches and power have been anyways remarkable The Egyptians not satisfied with having deified all the ugly monsters they could think on Were so silly as to adore the onions of their own sowing Yet at the same time their country was the most famous nursery of arts and sciences in the world And themselves more eminently skilled in the deepest mysteries of nature than any nation has been since No states or kingdoms under heaven have yielded more or greater patterns in all sorts of moral virtues than the greek and roman empires More especially the latter and yet how loose absurd and ridiculous were their sentiments as to sacred matters For without reflecting on the extravagant number of their deities If we only consider the infamous stories they fathered upon them It is not to be denied But that their religion far from teaching men the conquest of their passions and the way to virtue Seemed rather contrived to justify their appetites and encourage their vices But if we would know what made them excel in fortitude courage and magnanimity We must cast our eyes on the pomp of their triumphs the magnificence of their monuments and arches Their trophies statues and inscriptions the variety of their military crowns their honors decreed to the dead Public and comiums on their living and other imaginary rewards they bestowed on men of merit And we shall find that what carried so many of them to the utmost pitch of self-denial Was nothing but their policy in making use of the most effectual means that human pride could be flooded with It is visible then that it was not any heathen religion or other idolatrous superstition That first put men upon crossing his appetites and subduing his dearest inclinations But a skillful management of wary politicians and the nearer we search into human nature The more we shall be convinced that the moral virtues are the political offspring which flattery be got upon pride There is no man of what capacity or penetration Soever that is wholly proof against the witchcraft of flattery if artfully performed and suited to his abilities Children and fools will swallow personal praise But those that are more cunning must be managed with greater circumspection And the more general the flattery is the less it is suspected by those it is leveled at What you say in commendation of a whole town is received with pleasure by all the inhabitants Speak in commendation of letters in general and every man of learning will think himself in particular obliged to you You may safely praise the employment a man is of or the country he was born in because you gave him an opportunity Of screening the joy he feels upon his own account under the esteem which he pretends to have for others It is common among cunning men that understand the power which flattery has upon pride When they are afraid they shall be imposed upon to enlarge Though much against their conscience upon the honor fair dealing and integrity of the family country Or sometimes the profession of him they suspect Because they know that men often will change their resolution and act against their inclination That they may have the pleasure of continuing to appear in the opinion of some what they are conscious not to be in reality Thus sagacious moralists draw men like angels In hopes that the pride at least of some will put them upon copying after the beautiful originals which they are represented to be When the incomparable Sir Richard Steele in the usual elegance of his easy style Dwells on the praises of his sublime species and with all the embellishments of rhetoric Sets forth the excellency of human nature It is impossible not to be charmed with his happy turns of thought and the politeness of his expressions But though I've been often moved by the force of his eloquence and ready to swallow the ingenious softest through the pleasure Yet I could never be so serious but reflecting on his artful incomiums I thought on the tricks made use of by the women that would teach children to be mannerly When an awkward girl before she can either speak or go begins after many entreaties to make the first rude essays of curtsying The nurse falls in an ecstasy of praise There's a delicate curtsy. Oh fine miss. There's a pretty lady Mama miss can make a better curtsy than her sister Molly The same is echoed over by the maids whilst mama almost hooks the child to pieces Only miss molly who being four years older knows how to make a very handsome curtsy Wonders of the perverseness of their judgment and swelling with indignation is ready to cry at the injustice that is done her Till being whispered in the ear that is only to please the baby that she is a woman She grows proud at being led into the secret and rejoicing at the superiority of her understanding Repeats what has been said with large additions and insults over the weakness of her sister Whom all this while she fancies to be the only bubble among them These extravagant praises would buy anyone above the capacity of an infant be called fulsome flatteries And if you will abominable lies Yet experience teaches us that by the help of such grossing comiums Young missus will be brought to make pretty curtsies and behave themselves womanly much sooner And with less trouble than they would without them Just the same with boys whom they'll strive to persuade that all fine gentlemen do as they're bid And that none but beggar boys are rude or dirty their clothes Nay, as soon as the wild bret with his untoward fist begins to fumble for his head The mother to make him pull it off tells him before he's two years old that he is a man And if he repeats that action when she desires him He's presently a captain a lord mayor a king or something higher if she can think of it till Aged on by the force of praise the little urchin endeavors to imitate man as well as he can And strains all his faculties to appear what his shallow model imagines he is believed to be The meanest wretch puts an inestimable value upon himself And the highest wish of the ambitious man is to have all the world as to that particular of his opinion So that the most insatiable thirst after fame that ever hero was inspired with was never More than an ungovernable greediness to engross the esteem and admiration of others in future ages As well as his own and what mortification Soever this truth might be to the second thoughts of an alexander or a caesar The great recompense in view for which the most exalted minds have with so much Allegretty sacrifice their quiet health sensual pleasures and every inch of themselves has never Been anything else but the breath of man the aerial coin of praise Who can forbear laughing when he thinks on all the great men that have been so serious on the Subject of that Macedonian madmen his capacious soul that mighty heart in one corner of which According to Lorenzo Gretchen the world was so commodiously lodged that in the whole there was room for six more who can forbear laughing I say when he compares the fine things that have Been said of alexander with the end he proposed himself from his vast exploits to be proved From his own mouth when the vast pains he took to pass the high despice forced him to cry out Oh you Athenians could you believe what dangers I expose myself to to be praised by you To define then the reward of glory in the amplest manner the most that can be said of it is that it Consists in a superlative felicity which a man who is conscious of having performed a noble action And joys in self-love whilst he is thinking on the applause he expects of others But here I shall be told that besides the noisy toils of war and public bustle of the Ambitious there are noble and generous actions that are performed in silence That virtue being its own reward those who are really good have a satisfaction in their Consciousness of being so which is all the recompense they expect from the most worthy Performances that among the heathens there have been men who when they did good to others Were so far from coveting thanks and applause that they took all imaginable care to be Forever concealed from those on whom they bestowed their benefits and consequently That pride has no hand in spurring men on to the highest pitch of self-denial In answer to this I say that it is impossible to judge of a man's performance unless we are Thoroughly acquainted with the principle and motive from which he acts Pity though it is the most gentle and the least mischievous of all our passions Is yet as much a frailty of our nature as anger pride or fear The weakest minds have generally the greatest chair of it for which reason None are more compassionate than women and children It must be owned that of all our weaknesses It is the most amiable and bears the greatest resemblance to virtue Nay without a considerable mixture of it the society could hardly subsist But as it is an impulse of nature that consults neither the public interest Nor our own reason it may produce evil as well as good It has helped to destroy the honour of virgins and corrupted the integrity of judges And whoever acts from it as a principle what good Soever you may bring to the society has nothing to boast of But that he has indulged a passion that has happened to be beneficial to the public There is no merit in saving an innocent babe ready to drop into the fire The action is neither good nor bad and what benefits Soever the infant received we only obliged ourselves For to have seen it fall and not strove to hinder it Would have caused a pain which self-preservation compelled us to prevent Nor has a rich prodigal that happens to be of a commiserating temper And loves to gratify his passions greater virtue to boast of When he relieves an object of compassion with what to himself is a trifle But such men as without complying with any weakness of their own Can part from what they value themselves and from no other motive But their love to goodness perform a worthy action in silence Such men, I confess, have acquired more refined notions of virtue Than those I have hitherto spoke of Yet even in these, with which the world has yet never swarmed We may discover no small symptoms of pride And the humblest man alive must confess that the reward of a virtue's action Which is the satisfaction that ensues upon it Consists in a certain pleasure he procures to himself by contemplating on his own worth Which pleasure, together with the occasion of it, are a certain signs of pride As looking pale and trembling at any imminent danger are the symptoms of fear If the two scrupleous reader should at first view condemn these notions Concerning the origin of moral virtue and think them perhaps offensive to Christianity I hope he'll forbear his censures when he shall consider That nothing can render the unsearchable death of the divine wisdom More conspicuous and that man whom providence had designed for society Should not only by his own frailties and imperfections Be led into the road to temporal happiness But likewise receive from a seeming necessity of natural causes A tincture of that knowledge in which he was afterwards to be made perfect By the true religion to his eternal welfare End of From the Fable of the Bees or Private Vice's Public Benefits from 1714 by Bernard Mandeville There are references in the introduction to Appendices 1 and 2 Which are not included in this recording Chapter 1 The Early History of the Magical The magical may be defined as a piece of secular vocal unaccompanied part music It is frequently set to words containing some little sentiment of worldly wisdom The true form should consist of a series of conversational phrases Or of passages in imitation, one part answering another And interwoven so as to form harmony The whole should constitute one movement Magicals were composed for two, three, four, five and six voices And published in separate books for each voice Which explains a present difficulty in obtaining many of these magickals complete Polyphony, i.e. many melodies, is a characteristic of the magical A form of composition which practically ceased about the year 1812 Modern composers follow the monodic style i.e. one melody only, usually given to the leading voice Magickals were written for a musically educated people, entirely unaccompanied And the art of rendering a number of melodies in harmony Was thoroughly understood and expounded in the time of Elizabeth Magickals were performed without the help of any instrument Either as an assistance or to hide defects A true explanation of the decline of magical singing Is to be found in the fact that the people ceased to cultivate the practice of singing at sight Consequently they lost at the same time the power of maintaining a part against other voices And this reason still remains a potent factor against a revival of magical singing at the present time The year 1500 may fairly be fixed as the date when magical writing first commenced in Italy These magickals found their way into the other countries of Europe And the influence of them upon English musicians soon became manifest Early in the 16th century pieces called songs were composed in this country with undoubted tendencies towards the Magigalian form It is true that the magical in its true form had not at this early period found its way here But those who study the composition of Richard Edwards Entitled in Going to My Naked Bed, which appeared in 1560, cannot fail to be struck With the resemblance it bears to the productions of the end of the century When the term and classical form had come from Italy and Flanders A collection of secular and sacred pieces designed for social recreation was published in the year 1530 by Winkinda Word containing compositions of Cornish, Ashwell, Taverner, Redford, Piggott, Fairfax, Guiness, Jones, and Dr. Cooper Dr. Rambo, in 1847, passed the severe criticism upon this work that the music and words were truly barbarous An early composer of part music, Robert Fairfax, is said to have lived during the last decade of the 15th century A composition of his entitled That Was My Woe Is Now My Most Gladness was considered by Dr. Bernie to have been written on the accession of Henry VII of the Throne of England after the Battle of Bosworth Field If this supposition be correct, a later date than 1470 cannot be assigned for his birth About the year 1500 he was appointed organist of the Abbey of St. Albans which possessed an organ considered the finest then in England given to it in 1438 by Abbott John Wattham Steed In 1502 Fairfax, who lies buried in the Abbey, received one pound for setting an anthem of Our Lady and St. Elizabeth Another early musician was one John Redford, poet and dramatist, who was organist and armanner of St. Paul's Cathedral in the Reign of Henry VIII Tusser, the poet, a pupil of Redford, and also of a hundredth good points of husbandry, 1557, in his autobiographical poem Thus Mention's Redford, as master of the children of St. Paul's about 1535 But mark the chance, myself to Vance, by friendship slot to Paul's I got So found I grace a certain space still to remain With Redford there, the like nowhere, for cunning such and virtue much, by whom some part of music art so did I gain The introduction of the Italian Magical in its true form into England in the year 1588, may safely be ascribed to a merchant, Nicholas Yong, hereafter referred to Since its introduction, various suggestions as to its origin and derivation have been offered It still remains an open question whether, in the land of its birth, the word originally signified religious poems addressed to the Virgin, poems of love and gallantry, or mourning and evening songs, with which the lover sang his obade or serenade under the window of his mistress. In Spain in Old Castile there is a town called Madrigal. Many years ago another town of the same name existed in South America, so great was the favour with which the Madrigal was received in England that it at once took root and flourished with astonishing rapidity. Every one of the native composers wrote Madrigals. Upwards of ninety-two collections were published between the years 1588 and 1638, convincing evidence in itself as to the influence it had over the musician and performer alike. These facts have likewise an interest as showing the readiness of the English as a nation to accept what was best in the arts from whatever source. While the Netherlands were producing little in respect to music, which even the general enthusiasm concerning the Madrigal could not revive, doubtless because decay had already commenced to set in, our own countrymen were eager with that awakened life and energy which pervaded the age of Elizabeth, to venture into every unexplored region with the success which was stamped upon all their endeavours. The results of their labours are our inheritance to this day. Erasmus in his Moray Encomium, concerning music of the time of Henry VIII, says, the English could lay claim to be the best-looking most musical and to the best tables of any people. Englishmen have no reason to be dissatisfied with the labours of the native composers resulting from a friendly rivalry to the Italian and Flemish masters. John Wilby, in particular, in his works, is said to have equaled, if not excelled, the greatest Madrigal composers on the continent. The English musicians caught the true Madrigal spirit, and although the tide of popular favour was ebbing after the accession of the first of the stewards, there was no perceptible falling from the standard of perfection in the compositions of John Ward or Orlando Gibbons, the English Palestrina, two of the very latest of the Madrigal writers. Like the fabled swan, which appeared to sing most sweetly when death approached, so with the Madrigal. The suggestion has been made that Aegean Willet, who was born at Bruges in 1490, may have invented the Madrigal. At any rate he was mainly responsible for its artistic form. To his compositions, as well as to those of his successors, is mainly due the impetus given to English music. The Italian, French and Flemish schools produced a vast number, probably to be estimated at several hundreds, many of which found their way to England, brought hither by merchants, and others who travelled for merchandise. It was generally believed at this time that English poetry would not readily lend itself to the Madrigalian form of composition. Jusserrand, in the English novel in the Time of Shakespeare, wrote, long after an English nation rich in every sort of glory had come into being, writers are to be found hesitating to use the national idiom. A desire, however, soon arose to have pieces to which English words could be sung. This was met by one or two leading spirits, who caused certain Italian Madrigals to be translated, and these were published in 1588 with Nicolaus Young as editor. Nicolaus Young published in 1588 a collection of Italian Madrigals under the title Musica Transalpina. This was the first work in England in which the word Madrigal was used. In the Epistle dedicatory, Young thus wrote, Since I first began to keep house in this city, it has been no small comfort unto me that a great number of gentlemen and merchants of good account, as well of this realm as a foreign nations, have taken in good part such entertainment of pleasure as my poor ability was able to afford them, both by the exercise of music daily used in my house, and by furnishing them with books of that kind yearly sent me out of Italy and other places, which, being for the most part Italian songs, are for sweetness of air very well liked of all, but most in account with them that understand that language. From Musica Transalpina, Madrigals translated of four, five and six parts En Yong 1588. Included in this collection were two Madrigals by William Byrd, the remainder all by Italians, who may thus presumably lay claim to the honour of being the first Englishman to compose and publish Madrigals. The success of several publications between 1588 and 1590 excited, as it was very natural to expect it would do, an emulation in the English musicians to compose original Madrigals in their own language, which was so well received that from henceforth those of the Italians appear to have been neglected. The influence wielded by musicians through their compositions has been such as frequently to obliterate the element of nationality. There are cases on record where several birthplaces have been assigned to the same individual, arising from claims made for this or that musician by the inhabitants of the different countries in which they might have made a temporary or permanent residence. Absence of correct details as to dates of birth and death prevails in the cases of a large majority of the composers and musicians of the 16th and 17th centuries. Positions of importance at the courts of Europe, as well as in the palaces of the nobles in foreign countries, were very frequently offered to and accepted by the English musicians during this period. Chapter 2 Influence of the Magical on the Music of the Time The introduction of the Magical in English society tended to give music a fresh impulse as well as a new character. It disclosed the possibilities up to this time unknown in England of the art of music to add to the social and intellectual enjoyment of mankind, and to claim an attention to a practice of the art by those who are best able to judge of its merits, and at the same time best qualified by their learned attainments to take part in the performance of the gems imported into this country. Of vocal music the magical appears to have been most in practice of any kind at this time, as well in England as in other countries. We learn the growing love for madrigal singing and the patronage which the English musicians of that time received from their Queen, from the dedication to the first set of William Bird 1588. Having observed that since the publishing of my last labours in music, divers persons of honour and worship have more esteemed and delighted in the exercise of the art than before, it has greatly encouraged me to take further pains to gratify their courteous dispositions thereunto, from Psalms, Sonnets, and Songs of Sadness and Piety by W. Bird 1588. In the address to the reader in the same set, Bird writes that since his last impression of music the exercise and love of that art hath exceedingly increased, that madrigal singing was a favourite amusement of the time, is a fact resting upon undoubted evidence and confirmed by the large supply of materials adapted to gratify the growing taste for this form of music. Without going beyond such as have come within our own reach, some idea may be formed of its extent from the necessarily imperfect list in Appendix II. Excluding a large number of inferior compositions there are extent at least a thousand English madrigals by composers of name and note. This fact in itself shows clearly the state and general cultivation of musical knowledge at this period, while all the evidence available points to the same conclusion. A foreign resident in England by the name of Gagliard has left the following account of English music in the time of Shakespeare. He wrote, madrigals were much in use in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in which compositions the English of that time have left proof of their ability even to vie with the best Italian composers. Nobody could then pretend to a liberal education, who had not made such a progress in music as to be able to sing his part at sight, and it was usual, when ladies and gentlemen met, for madrigal books to be laid before them, and everyone to sing their part. I believe everyone is sensible of the difficulty there would be at present, of finding among the lovers of music a sufficient number qualified for such a performance. But since the glorious reign of Queen Elizabeth's music, for which, as well as her sister arts, England was then renowned all the world over, has been so much neglected, as much by the little encouragement it has received from the great, as by reason of the civil wars, that at length this art was entirely lost. The singing of the part-songs, which soon became one of the chief social recreations of the period, continued to charm all lovers of vocal harmony for many years. Such madrigals, for instance, as those by John Wilby, must have been known to his near neighbour Sir Thomas Gresham, and Douglas Wilby was a welcome and not infrequent guest at the mansion in Broad Street. Accepting the evidence from contemporary authority for the fact that madrigal singing formed the customary entertainment art of dinner in all polished circles, it requires but a small demand on our belief to imagine that the madrigals of Wilby, Bird and the other English composers were not seldom heard within the walls of Gresham's house, and that in the performance of them Gresham himself was accustomed to join. Dr. W. A. Barrett suggested that Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Sir Walter Raleigh, and many others who contributed to the madrigal poetry of the period, were frequent listeners as well as performers at Wilby's house in Austin Friars. The father of John Milton the poet was himself a madrigal composer. The custom prevailed throughout the reign of Elizabeth and extended into that of James the First. Many names familiar to all readers were able to take their share in this universal custom of madrigal singing. Slowly but effectively a cloud gathered over the fair prospect of native music, which appeared soon after the accession of the stewards. The influence of the madrigal, as also its place amongst the social enjoyment of the people, were soon to be numbered as things belonging to the past golden age of Elizabeth. There are perhaps more reasons for the decay of the madrigal than the one regarding the want of favour shown towards the composers on the part of James the First. The madrigal could only be performed by a number of voices. The song, with the instrumental accompaniment on the other hand, by one voice. Again, the perfection of the lute, the vile, the virginal, and other instruments introduced entirely new features into music. Chapter Three Shakespeare and Other Poets Their Part in the Madrigal The madrigal collections of the time of Shakespeare contain many choice specimens of lyrical poetry. At the same time it must be confided that a large number of the Elizabethan madrigals were set to words too frequently characterised by mediocrity. A writer in the early part of this century remarked that the madrigal was a species of vocal harmony very elegant in its structure, and adapted to such poetry as was fit to be sung or uttered in the hearing of the most polite and well-bred persons. Such collections of lyrical poetry as The Paradise of Dainty Devices, 1576, England's Helicon, 1600, The Golden Garland of Princely Delights, 1620, amongst others, various editions of which appeared in the 16th and 17th centuries, contained lyrics set in the madrigal form by some of the best composers of this period. Although discussion during the last 200 years has left the derivation of the word madrigal still doubtful, it is certain that the character of the poetry is distinctly pastoral. The prevailing belief that English poetry was too harsh and unyielding to be readily coupled with the pleasant note was noticed in a former chapter. The experiment once made, this prejudice to the use of native verse, was soon disposed of. The first book of songs or airs of four parts, issued by John Dowland in 1597, contains, My Thoughts Are Winged with Hopes, the initials W.S., being appended to it, in a manuscript of the time preserved in the Hamburg City Library. Three Madrigals by Thomas Wilkes, My Flock's Thief Knot, etc., are with but little authority ascribed to Shakespeare. They are contained in the Passionate Pilgrim, a collection of poetry, as Mr. Polgrave says in The Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics, published by a speculative bookmaker in 1599. A few of the pieces may with certainty be said to be by Shakespeare, a very few of which are dubious and several either demonstrably not his or bearing internal signs of other authorship. Sino More Ladies was set by Thomas Ford. In many instances the poetry appeared for the first time in the various musical collections which appeared during this period. The Madrigals of Byrd, Dowland, Pilkington, Bateson and Ward, published between the years 1588 and 1624, was set to the poetry of Sir Philip Sidney. My true love hath my heart. In a grove most rich of shade, Go, my flocks, get you hence. Come, shepherd's weeds, O sweet woods, may be mentioned. Alfonso Ferrabosco, who settled in England very early in life, is said to have set many of the lyrics contained in the masks and plays of Ben Johnson. His well-known Come, My Celia, Let Us Prove was published in 1609 in a collection composed by Ferrabosco, and slow as slow Fresh Fount appeared in 1608, set by Henry Ewell. There is good reason to believe that the words of all the pieces in Morley's first book, dated 1595, were written by Michael Drayton. Bright Star of Beauty occurs in a set which saw the light in 1622 by John Atty. Fond Love is Blind, from Barnfield's Affection at Shepherd, 1594, appeared in Bateson's second set, 1618. During the years 1607 to 14, Thomas Campion, Doctor of Medicine, Poet and Madrigal writer, produced four books, the poetry almost entirely his own. The pieces set by Philip Rosseter and published in 1601 were also by Campion. In 1612 Orlando Gibbons gave to the admirers of the Madrigal a collection for five voices, consisting of twenty. For some considerable time the whole of the verses were attributed to Sir Christopher Hatton. As a set-off to this, Dr Rambo says that some are by Dr Dunn and others by Joshua Sylvester. The truth probably is that Hatton merely selected the poetry for Gibbons. Richard Carlton, in 1601, selected three at least of the stanzas of Edmund Spencer's Fairy Queen, Nought is on earth more sacred or divine, Ye gentle ladies in whose sovereign power, And Nought under heaven so strongly doth allure, For a set of Madrigals to five voices. More than most fair, also from the Fairy Queen, appeared in 1630, arranged by Martin Pearson. John Dowland, the greatest lute player of the time for Elizabeth, has been described as the friend of Shakespeare and the companion of the leading poets of his time. From the Polyhymnia, 1590, of George Peel, he selected his golden locks Tyne Hath to Silver turned, and published it in his first book in 1597. Melpomony, the Muse of Tragic Songs, from the Arraignment of Paris, 1584 by George Peel, served to inspire the Madrigal of Thomas Forter, produced in 1619 in his first set. In the England's Helicon already mentioned, there are several lyrics by Anthony Monday, i.e. Shepard Tony, Beauty-Sate Basing alone being used by William Corkine, Robert Jones and Francis Pilkington. The question of the authenticity of some of the poems found in these collections of Madrigals renders the task of identification very difficult. In fact, the anonymous list will always remain an extensive one. So Walter Raleigh is, however, responsible for at least two, vis what is our life, the play of passion, from the collection of Orlando Gibbons, and, like Hermit Poor, impensive place obscure. The wide choice open to the Madrigal composers of the Age of Shakespeare may thus be recognised, and when a further list merely of names of lyrical writers is given, some idea may readily be formed of the number and activity of the Elizabethan poets. The inferences to be drawn from these facts are, first, that the demand and patronage extended towards these writers of Madrigals must have been extensive. Second, the adaptability of this school of lyric poetry for the purposes of the Madrigal. Among many others who have enriched the lyrical poetry of England are Dr Dunn, Robert Green, Falk Greville, Lord Brooke, Shepard Tony, or Anthony Monday, to accept the recent identification of Mr. A. H. Bullen, Joshua Sylvester, John Lyley, Henry Constable, Thomas Lodge, Francis Kinwell-Mush, Thomas Watson, Nicholas Breton, Edward Veer, Earl of Oxford, John Wooden, Thomas Middleton, Samuel Daniel, William Brown, Edmund Bolton, Anthony Brewer, and M Thorn. It has been stated by more than one writer that it is also worthy of remark that the words of all Madrigals, with the single exception of the Madrigali spirituality of Palestrina, are of a secular, sprightly or witty nature. Dr Rambo in his Bibliotheca Madrigaliana 1847, in reference to an attempt to gather a complete collection of Madrigalian poetry for publication, mentions that a prospectus was issued in 1816 to the effect that such a project was contemplated, but from some cause or other not explained the promised work never appeared. In the choice of the words for their Madrigals, the composers appear to have allowed themselves much latitude. The sonnet, the stanza, the lyric, the satirical and love poem were forms apparently equally suited to the musical Madrigal. To sum up these remarks on the poetry of the Madrigal, an opinion, G. Sainsbury, a history of Elizabethan literature 1887, has been expressed that such an outflow of verse within the confines of a quarter of a century can find no parallel in the literary history of any other nation in the world. Further, that it seldom occurs that the whole poem constitutes a gem, but a verse here and there like a flash is found. Chapter 4 Principal Madrigal Composers The practice of Madrigal writing was so far engrossing as to include among its partisans the principal composers of the era. William Byrd, around 1540 to 1623, belonged to the parish of St. Helen's Bishop's Gate, and resided opposite to Crosby Hall, adjoining the Garden of Sir Thomas Gresham. He published three collections of part music, and headed the list so far as number of compositions was concerned, in all he was responsible for 114 single pieces. Byrd probably owed his musical education with Ty, Talis and others to the monastic institutions, where, before the Reformation, music was principally cultivated by the monks. John Wilby, around 1560 to around 1612, is chiefly known as a writer of Madrigals. Contemporary report described him as a musician of rare endowments. He published two sets of Madrigals, which contained all but three of his entire vocal compositions known. These sets give us sixty-four specimens, the merits of which are said to have gained him the enviable fame of being the greatest of the English-Madrigalian composers. The editor of Wilby's works for the Musical Antiquarian Society in 1846 says, the variety of character and colouring which adorns the Madrigals of this great writer is surprising, considering the prescribed range in which the harmonist of this period was accustomed and trained to walk. John Dowland, 1562 to around 1626, was born in the city of Westminster, where, says Thomas Fuller, he had his longest life and best livelihood. He was unquestionably a greater lute player than Madrigal composer, though even in the latter he excelled. Fuller further tells us that Christian IV, King of Denmark, coming over into England, requested him of King James, who unwillingly willing parted with him. He appears to have spent many years at the court of the King of Denmark, and during that period published three sets for voices. In all he published four. Dowland composed sixty-four Madrigals. His skill on the lute was mentioned by the dramatist Spen Johnson, Middleton, Fletcher, Massinger, Barnfield, and in one of the sonnets ascribed to Shakespeare. The criticism, by Dr. Bernie, passed upon Dowland as a Madrigal composer, has been described as an inconsiderate depreciation of his talents. Thomas Morley, 1563 to 1604, has been remembered by posterity more particularly for his official connection with the triumphs of Oriana, the subject of our next chapter. He published eight other collections, containing upwards of ninety-three of his own compositions. A solemn burial service by him, the first perhaps of the kind ever known in England, continued to be performed at public funerals until it gave way to those of Purcell and Croft. John Bennett, around 1565 to around 1605, is reputed to have been one of the best composers of the Elizabethan period. There appears to be less known concerning his career than even of the majority of musicians. Churches containing, as they did, the registers which were burned in the Great Fire, would have placed many points now in dispute beyond a doubt. Bennett published but one set of Madrigals containing seventeen, and a further six were contained in a work edited by Thomas Ravenscroft in the year 1614. In the preface to which he is mentioned as Maester John Bennett, a gentleman admirable for all kinds of composers, either in art or air, simple or mixed, of what nature soever. In whose works the very life of that passion which the ditty sounded is so truly expressed, as if he had measured it alone by his own soul, and invented no other harmony than his own sensible feeling did afford him. Francis Pilkington, around 1570 to around 1625, describes himself as a Bachelor of Music and Lutonist on the title pages of his three publications. Dr. Bernie, who apparently knew very little about the Madrigal, speaks slightingly also of this composer. He nevertheless possessed a strong patron in Ferdinand, Fifth Earl of Derby, and has left us no less than sixty-nine examples of his industry and ability. Thomas Wilkes, born 1575, was very young when he gave to the world some of the best productions of his life. He was but twenty-two when the first set of Madrigals appeared by him, that is, in the year 1597. He subsequently issued four more sets, totaling ninety-four compositions in all. A recent criticism thus speaks of him. His works are distinguished by originality and excellent part-writing, as well as by a certain characteristic stiffness. Many of them are still popular and have been often reprinted. The position of Wilkes among his Madrigalian contemporaries is deservedly a high one. Thomas Bateson, around 1580 to around 1620, was appointed organist to Chester Cathedral at the age of nineteen. He is said to have been the first to receive a musical degree in the University of Dublin. He was responsible for fifty-nine compositions, and published two sets of Madrigals. Dr. Rambo says, There can be but little difference of opinion as regards to the merits of Bateson, when judged by comparison with his contemporaries, and with reference to those old tonal laws which alike guided the secular as well as the ecclesiastical writers of the Elizabethan school. His reputation rests upon the first set of Madrigals, but these suffice to establish it. Thomas Ford, 1580 to 1648, was one of the musicians of Henry Prince of Wales, son of James I. In 1607 he published Music of Sundry Kinds, two parts. The first contains the celebrated, since first I saw your face, and there is a lady sweet and kind. A copy of this work is very rare, if any perfect copy exists. Nevertheless, some of its contents, and such as Make Us Wish for More, are well known. There were probably eleven Madrigals in this collection. Michael East, born around 1580, is only known to dabblers in music by his How Merrily We Look for Three Voices, which has served to enrich almost every subsequent collection of vocal harmony, whose various compilers from previous compilations have never thought it worthwhile to see whether its author might not have produced another composition of equal merit. With the assistance of my colleague, Mr. R. E. Strickland, who has scored it, I have unearthed a four-part Madrigal entitled In Dolorous Complaining, taken from the second set of Madrigals, 1606, and I hope to have it published, as well as publicly performed. East's publications are much more numerous than those of any composer of his time. Between 1604 and 1638 he published seven sets, with a total of 46 Madrigals to his credit. Orlando Gibbons, 1583 to around 1627, was organized to Canterbury Cathedral. He published but one set of Madrigals, twenty in number, in 1612. His Silver Swan is generally considered to be the most perfect work of the kind of the English school. Its wonderful conciseness, the exceeding beauty of each part, and the charm of its melodic treatment fully explain its lasting popularity. The year 1612 was thus signalized by the appearance of a set of Madrigals which may rank among the highest of their class. Gibbons was one of the latest, as he was one of the greatest, of the noble body of musicians to which he belonged. John Hilton, around 1600 to 1657, was organist and parish clerk of St Margaret's Westminster. It is assumed that he was compelled to resign the post of organist in 1644, when all organs were ordered to be taken down, and the church appears to have been without one until after the restoration. He is said to have been an ingenious and sound musician, although not of a luminous composer. He published his sole original work in 1627, containing twenty six pieces, but the great work of his life was not produced until after an interval of twenty five years. This was catch that catch can, to which twenty one composers contributed. The curious, who desire information concerning the other Magigalian writers, must seek the authorities of whom there are many. Appendix one to this volume gives approximate date of birth and death, where it has been possible to discover the same of the most renowned writers of the period. Chapter 5 Collection of Magigals Made in Honor of Elizabeth The triumphs of Oriana 1601 Twenty-seven Magigals, the triumphs of Oriana, and one called the Farewell, to five and six voices, composed by divers several authors, newly published by Thomas Morley, Bachelor of Music, and one of the gentlemen of Her Majesty's Honourable Chapel. 1601 in London, printed by Thomas East, the Assign of Thomas Morley, cum privilegio regia miastatis. The origin of this celebrated collection of Magigals still remains a disputed matter, and before entering upon a full account of the work, it will be more proper to quote what some authorities have left on record, so that each reader may form his or her own opinion. Let us begin by a quotation from A General History of the Science and Practice of Music by Sir John Hawkins, published in 1776. There is some piece of secret history which we are yet to learn that would enable us to account for the giving the Queen this romantic name. Probably she was fond of it. As a set-off to this, Camden, the antiquary, relates that the Spanish ambassador, in one of his letters, had spoken of the Queen under the name Oriana, at which she was much offended. Dr. Rambo, in the leisure hour for 1875, wrote with confidence that the celebrated triumphs of Oriana were written in praise of England's Elizabeth. Whilst in 1847, that is, 28 years earlier, he thus wrote in his Bibliotheca Magigaliana, this set of Magicals was written in honour of Queen Elizabeth's, who figures under the name of Oriana. Sir John Hawkins supposed that the work was undertaken with a view to alleviate her grief for the death of the Earl of Essex, and that prizes were given by the Earl of Nottingham for the best compositions for that purpose, but this is mere idle conjecture. The writer of the article in the British and Foreign Review, 1845, merely reiterated the opinion of Sir John Hawkins. Dr. W. A. Barrett, in English Glees and Parts Songs, 1886, thus describes the work. There are 27 pieces in this collection, all in praise of Oriana, the fanciful name by which Queen Elizabeth was distinguished by certain poets of the time. And, in English Magigal Composers, a published lecture read at the London Institution, January 18th, 1877, is the following. In these compositions, some writers suppose that Queen Elizabeth was glorified under the fanciful title of Oriana, because the collection is dedicated to the Earl of Nottingham. So much for the authorities, now for the full account as given by Sir John Hawkins. The collection was printed in 1601, although for some reason or another not published until two years after. It seems by the work itself as if all the musicians of Queen Elizabeth's time, who were capable of composing, had endeavoured each to excel the others in setting a song, celebrating the beauties and virtues of their sovereign. For the triumphs of Oriana, it appears that the following musicians contributed. Viz, Michael East, Daniel Norcombe, John Mundy, Ellis Gibbons, John Bennett, John Hilton, George Marson, Richard Carlton, John Holmes, Richard Nicholson, Thomas Tomkins, Michael Cavendish, William Cobbold, Thomas Moorley, John Farmer, John Wilby, Thomas Hunt, Thomas Wilkes, John Milton, George Kirby, Robert Jones, John Leslie, and Edward Johnson. The occasion of this collection is said to be this. The Lord High Admiral, Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, was the only person during the last illness of Elizabeth, who was able to prevail on her to go into and remain in her bed. And with a view to alleviate her concern for the execution of the Earl of Essex, he gave, for a prized subject to the poets and musicians of the time, the beauty and accomplishments of his royal mistress, and by a liberal reward excited them severally to the composition of this work. This supposition is favoured by the circumstance of its being dedicated to the Earl and the time of its publication, which was in the very year that Essex was beheaded. The title and plan of the work were doubtless suggested by a similar Italian one, published at Rome in 1599, with the title Il Trion Fordidori. To quote from another author, As Italy gave the toll to the rest of Europe, but particularly to England, in all the fine arts during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it seems as if the idea of employing all the best composers in the kingdom to set the songs in the triumphs of Oriana to music, in honour of our Virgin Queen, had been suggested to Morley and his patron, the Earl of Nottingham, by Padre Giovanale, afterwards Bishop of Saluzzo, who employed 37 of the most renowned Italian composers to set canzanetti and madrigals in honour of the Virgin Mary, published under the following title, Dr Rambeau says that the Italian collection was made in praise of some Italian dame, published before the year 1597. The only unprofessional contributor to the triumphs of Oriana was the father of Milton the Poet. The theme of every madrigal in the collection is similar, and the burden of each the same. Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana, long live fair Oriana. The contents of this work necessarily vary in excellence, will be wilks, Bennett and Morley preserving their usual station. In conclusion, let me quote a very just appreciation of the work. If the Queen merited such a tribute of loyalty and gratitude from the musicians of her age, she received in turn an enviable requital. Her praises are wrought into lasting monuments of art. And Mr. W. H. Husk, librarian to the Sacred Harmonic Society, the writer of the article in A Dictionary of Music and Musicians 1880. Concerning this collection says, the Italian work just named is entitled Forci, written in praise of a lady who is figured under the name of Doris, each of which ends with the words Viva la bella d'Ori. End of the Introduction to English Madrigals in the Time of Shakespeare by F. A. Cox. Read by Ruth Golding. On the Method of Grace by George Whitfield. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by T. Wellington. On the Method of Grace. As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere, and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskillful guides. And yet in all ages we find that there have been many wolves in sheep's clothing, many that dogged their untempered mortar, that prophesied smoother things than God did allow. As it was formerly, so it is now, there are many that corrupt the word of God and deal deceitfully with it. It is so in a special manner in the prophet Jeremiah's time, and he, faithful to his Lord, faithful to that God who empowered him, did not fail from time to time to open his mouth against them, and to bear a noble testimony to the honor of that God in whose name he from time to time spake. If you will read his prophecy, you will find that none spake more against such ministers than Jeremiah. In the words of the text, in a more special manner, he exemplifies how they had dealt falsely, how they had behaved treacherously to poor souls. Says he, they have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slyly, saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. The prophet in the name of God had been denouncing war against the people. He had been telling them that their house should be left desolate, and that the Lord would certainly visit the land with war. Therefore, says he in the eleventh verse, I am full of the fury of the Lord. I am weary with holding in. I will pour it out upon the children abroad and upon the assembly of young men together, for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days. And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together, for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord. The prophet gives a thundering message, that they might be terrified and have some convictions and inclinations to repent. But it seems that the false prophets, that the false priests, went about stifling people s convictions, and when they were heard or a little terrified, they were for dogging them over the wound, telling them that Jeremiah was but an enthusiastic preacher, that there could be no such thing as war among them, and saying to people, peace, peace, be still, when the prophet told them there was no peace. How many of us cry, peace, peace, to our souls when there is no peace? How many are there who are now settled upon their leaves, that now think they are Christians, that now flatter themselves that they have an interest in Jesus Christ, whereas if we come to examine their experiences we shall find that their peace is but a peace of the devil s making. It is not a peace of God s giving, it is not a peace that passes human understanding. It is a matter therefore of great importance, my dear hearers, to know whether we may speak peace to our hearts. We are all desirous of peace. Peace is an unspeakable blessing, but how can we live without peace? And therefore, people from time to time must be taught how far they must go, and what must be wrought in them before they can speak peace to their hearts. This is what I design at present, that I may deliver my soul, that I may be free from the blood of all those to whom I preach, that I may not fail to declare the whole counsel of God. I shall, from the words of the text, endeavor to show you what you must undergo, and what must be wrought in you before you can speak peace to your hearts. But before I come directly to this, give me leave to premise a caution or two. And the first is, that I take it for granted, you believe religion to be an inward thing. You believe it to be a work in the heart, a work wrought in the soul by the power of the spirit of God. If you do not believe this, you do not believe your Bibles. If you do not believe this, though you have got your Bibles in your hand, you hate the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. For religion is everywhere represented in Scripture as the work of God in the heart. The Kingdom of God is within us, says our Lord. And He is not a Christian who is one outwardly, but He is a Christian who is one inwardly. If any of you place religion in outward things, I shall not perhaps please you this morning. You will understand me no more when I speak of the work of God upon a poor sinner's heart than if I were talking in an unknown tongue. First then, before you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be made to see, made to feel, made to weep over, made to bewail your actual transgressions against the law of God. According to the covenant of works, the soul that sineth it shall die. Cursed is that man, be he what he may, be he who he may. That continueeth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. We are not only to do some things, but we are to do all things, and we are to continue so to do, so that the least deviation from the moral law, according to the covenant of works, whether in thought, word, or deed, deserves eternal death at the hand of God. And if one evil thought, if one evil word, if one evil action deserves eternal donation, how many hells, my friends, do every one of us deserve, whose whole lives have been one continued rebellion against God? Before ever, therefore, you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be brought to see, brought to believe, what a dreadful thing it is to depart from the living God. And now, my dear friends, examine your hearts, for I hope you come hither with a design to have your souls made better. Give me leave to ask you in the presence of God whether you know the time, and if you do not know exactly the time, do you know there was a time when God wrote bitter things against you, when the arrows of the Almighty were within you? Was ever the remembrance of your sins grievous to you? Was the burden of your sins intolerable to your thoughts? Did you ever see that God's wrath might justly fall upon you on account of your actual transgressions against God? Were you ever in all your life sorry for your sins? Could you ever say my sins are gone over my head as a burden too heavy for me to bear? Did you ever experience any such thing as this? Did ever any such thing as this pass between you and your soul? If not, for Jesus Christ's sake, do not call yourselves Christians. You may speak peace to your hearts, but there is no peace. May the Lord awaken you, may the Lord convert you, may the Lord give you peace, if it be His will before you go home. Did you ever feel and experience this, any of you, to justify God in your damnation? To own that you are by nature children of wrath, and that God can justly cut you off, though you never actually had offended him in all your life. If you were ever truly convicted, if your hearts were ever truly cut, if self were truly taken out of you, you would be made to see and feel this. And if you have never felt the weight of original sin, do not call yourselves Christians. I am verily persuaded original sin is the greatest burden of a true convert. This ever grieves the regenerate soul, the sanctified soul. The indwelling of sin in the heart is the burden of a converted person. It is the burden of a true Christian. He continually cries out, Oh, who will deliver me from this body of death, this indwelling corruption in my heart? This is that which disturbs a poor soul most, and therefore if you never felt this inward corruption, if you never saw that God might justly curse you for it. Indeed, my dear friends, you may speak peace to your hearts, but I fear, nay, I know, there is no true peace. After we are renewed, yet we are renewed but in part. Indwelling sin continues in us. There is a mixture of corruption in every one of our duties, so that after we are converted, where Jesus Christ only to accept us according to our works, our works would dam us. For we cannot put up a prayer, but it is far from the perfection which the moral law requires. I do not know what you may think, but I can say that I cannot pray but I sin. I cannot preach to you or to any others but I sin. I can do nothing without sin. As one expresses it, my repentance wants to be repented of, and my tears to be washed in the precious blood of my dear Redeemer. Our best duties are as so many splendid sins. Before you can speak peace to your heart, you must not only be sick of your original and actual sin, but you must be made sick of your righteousness, of all your duties and performances. There must be a deep conviction before you can be brought out of your own self-righteousness. It is the last idol taken out of our heart. The pride of our heart will not let us submit to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But if you never felt that you had no righteousness of your own, if you never felt the deficiency of your own righteousness, you cannot come to Jesus Christ. But then, before you can speak peace to your souls, there is one particular sin you must be greatly troubled for, and yet I fear there are few of you who think what it is. It is the reigning, the damning sin of the Christian world, and yet the Christian world seldom or never think of it. And pray, what is that? It is what most of you think you are not guilty of, and that is the sin of unbelief. Before you can speak peace to your heart, you must be troubled for the unbelief of your heart. But can it be supposed that any of you are unbelievers here in this churchyard that are born in Scotland in a reformed country that go to church every Sabbath? Can any of you that receive the sacrament once a year, O that it were administered oftener, can it be supposed that you who had tokens for the sacrament, that you who keep up family prayer, that any of you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? My friends, we mistake historical faith for a true faith, wrought in the heart of the Spirit of God. You fancy you believe because you believe there is such a book as we call the Bible because you go to church. All this you may do and have no true faith in Christ. Merely to believe there was such a person as Christ, merely to believe there is a book called the Bible will do you no good. More than to believe there was such a man as Caesar or Alexander the Great. The Bible is a sacred depository. What thanks have we to give to God for these lively oracles? But ye may have these and not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. My dear friends, there must be a principle wrought in the heart by the Spirit of the Living God. Did I ask you how long it is since you believed in Jesus Christ? I suppose most of you would tell me you believed in Jesus Christ as long as ever you remember. You never did misbelieve. Then you cannot give me a better proof that you never yet believed in Jesus Christ, unless you were sanctified early as from the womb. For they that otherwise believed in Christ know there was a time when they did not believe in Jesus Christ. You say you love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. If I were to ask you how long it is since you loved God, you would say as long as you can remember. You never hated God. You know no time when there was enmity in your heart against God. Then, unless you were sanctified very early, you never loved God in your life. My dear friends, I am more particular in this, because it is a most deceitful delusion whereby so many people are carried away that they believe already. Therefore it is remarked of Mr. Marshall, giving account of his experiences, that he had been working for life, and he had ranged all his sins under the Ten Commandments. And then, coming to a minister, asked him the reason why he could not get peace. The minister looked to his catalogue. Away, says he, I do not find one word of sin or unbelief in all your catalogue. It is the peculiar work of the Spirit of God to convince us of our unbelief, that we have got no faith. Says Jesus Christ, I will send the Comforter, and when he comes, he will reprove the world of the sin of unbelief. Of sin, says Christ, because they believe not on me. I am now talking of the invisible realities of another world, of inward religion, of the work of God upon a poor sinner's heart. I am now talking of a matter of great importance, my dear hearers. You are all concerned in it. Your souls are concerned in it. Your eternal salvation is concerned in it. You may be at peace, but perhaps the devil has lulled you asleep into a carnal lethargy and security, and will endeavor to keep you there till he get you to hell. And there you will be awakened, but it will be dreadful to be awakened and find yourself so fearfully mistaken when a great gulf is fixed, when you will be calling to all eternity for a drop of water to cool your tongue, and shall not obtain it. End of On the Method of Grace. This is in the public domain. I feel an almost savage envy on hearing that London has been flooded in my absence, while I am in the mere country. My own Battersea has been, I understand, particularly favored as a meeting of the waters. Battersea was already, as I need hardly say, the most beautiful of human localities. Now that it has the additional splendor of great sheets of water, there must be something quite incomparable in the landscape, or waterscape, of my own romantic town. Battersea must be a vision of Venice. The boat that brought the meat from the butchers must have shone along those lanes of rippling silver with the strange smoothness of the gondola. The green grocer who brought cabbages to the corner of the Lachmere road must have lent upon the oar with the unearthly grace of the gondolier. There is nothing so perfectly poetical as an island, and when a district is flooded, it becomes an archipelago. Some consider such romantic views of flood or fire slightly lacking in reality, but really this romantic view of such inconveniences is quite as practical as the other. The true optimist who sees in such things an opportunity for enjoyment is quite as logical, and much more sensible, than the ordinary, indignant rate payer who sees in them an opportunity for grumbling. Real pain, as in the case of being burnt at Smithfield, or having a toothache, is a positive thing. It can be supported, but scarcely enjoyed. But after all, our toothaches are the exception, and as for being burnt at Smithfield, it only happens to us at the very longest intervals. And most of the inconveniences that make men swear or women cry are really sentimental or imaginative inconveniences, things altogether of the mind. For instance, we often hear grown up people complaining of having to hang about a railway station and wait for a train. Did you ever hear a small boy complain of having to hang about a railway station and wait for a train? No. For to him, to be inside a railway station is to be inside a cavern of wonder and a palace of poetical pleasures. Because to him, the red light and the green light on the signal are like a new sun and a new moon. Because to him, when the wooden arm of the signal falls down suddenly, it is as if a great king had thrown down his staff as a signal and started a shrieking tournament of trains. I myself am of little boy's habit in this matter. They also serve who only stand and wait for the 215. Their meditations may be full of rich and fruitful things. Many of the most purple hours of my life have been passed at Clapham Junction, which is now, I suppose, underwater. I have been there in many moods so fixed and mystical that the water might well have come up to my waist before I noticed it particularly. But in the case of all such annoyances, as I have said, everything depends upon the emotional point of view. You can safely apply the test almost every one of the things that are currently talked of as the typical nuisance of daily life. For instance, there is a current impression that it is unpleasant to have to run after one's hat. Why should it be unpleasant to the well-ordered and pious mind? Not merely because it is running, and running exhausts one, the same people run much faster in games and sports. The same people run much more eagerly after an uninteresting little leather ball than they will after a nice silk hat. There is an idea that it is humiliating to run after one's hat, and when people say it is humiliating, they mean it is comic. It certainly is comic, but man is a very comic creature, and most of the things he does are comic, eating, for instance. And the most comic things of all are exactly the things that are most worth doing, such as making love. A man running after a hat is not half so ridiculous as a man running after a wife. Now a man could, if he felt rightly in the matter, run after his hat with the manliest ardor and the most sacred joy. He might regard himself as a jolly huntsman, pursuing a wild animal, for certainly no animal could be wilder. In fact, I am inclined to believe that hat hunting on windy days will be the sport of the upper classes in the future. There will be a meat of ladies and gentlemen on some high ground on a gusty morning. They will be told that the professional attendants have started a hat in such and such a thicket, or whatever be the technical term. Notice that this employment will in the fullest degree combine sport with humanitarianism. The hunters would feel that they were not inflicting pain. Nay, they would feel that they were inflicting pleasure. Rich, almost riotous pleasure, upon the people who were looking on. When last I saw an old gentleman running after his hat in Hyde Park, I told him that a heart so benevolent as his ought to be filled with peace and thanks at the thought of how much unaffected pleasure his every gesture and bodily attitude were at that moment giving to the crowd. The same principle can be applied to every other typical domestic worry. A gentleman trying to get a fly out of the milk, or a piece of cork out of his glass of wine, often imagines himself to be irritated. Let him think for a moment of the patience of anglers sitting by dark pools, and let his soul be immediately irradiated with gratification and repose. Again, I have known some people of very modern views, driven by their distress, to the use of theological terms to which they attach no doctrinal significance, merely because a drawer was jammed tight and they could not pull it out. A friend of mine was particularly afflicted in this way. Every day his drawer was jammed, and every day in consequence it was something else that rhymes to it. But I pointed out to him that his sense of wrong was really subjective and relative. It rested entirely upon the assumption that the drawer could, should, and would come out easily. But if, I said, you picture to yourself that you are pulling against some powerful and oppressive enemy, the struggle will become merely exciting and not exasperating. Imagine that you are tugging up a lifeboat out of the sea. Imagine that you are roping up a fellow creature out of an alpine crevasse. Imagine even that you are a boy again and engaged in a tug of war between French and English. Shortly after saying this I left him. But I have no doubt at all that my words bore the best possible fruit. I have no doubt that every day of his life he hangs on to the handle of that drawer with a flushed face and eyes bright with battle, uttering encouraging shouts to himself and seeming to hear all round him the roar of an applauding ring. So I do not think that it is altogether fanciful or incredible to suppose that even the floods in London may be accepted and enjoyed poetically. Nothing beyond inconvenience seems really to have been caused by them, and inconvenience, as I have said, is only one aspect, and that the most unimaginative and accidental aspect of a really romantic situation. An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered. The water that girdled the houses and shops of London must, if anything, have only increased their previous witchery and wonder. For as the Roman Catholic priest in the story said, wine is good with everything except water, and on a similar principle, water is good with everything except wine. End of On Running After One's Hat by G. K. Chesterton