e up rather
its faith than its money. The Abbey authorities never thought of giving
up either, but they threatened Purcell with terrible penalties unless he
gave up the money. Almost with a pistol at his head they asked him to
give up his money or his post. How the squabble ended no man knows; the
conjecture that he 'refunded' the money--_i.e._, gave it to those it did
not belong to--is unsupported.

These are the only scraps of veracious history that come down to us; the
other choice bits I take to be exercises in prosaic romance.

CHAPTER IV

During the last portion of his life (1690-5) Purcell composed a large
amount of music, and that is nearly all we know. Of course, he went on
playing the organ--that is indubitable. Of course, also, he gave
lessons; but it is a remarkable fact that few musicians after his death
claimed to have been his favourite pupils or his pupils at all. That he
became, as we should say nowadays, conductor at Drury Lane or any other
theatre cannot be asserted with certitude, though it is probable. He
wrote incidental music for about forty-two dramas, some of the sets of
pieces being gorgeously planned on a large scale. He had composed
complimentary odes for three Kings; in the last year of his life he was
to write the funeral music for a Queen, and the music was to serve at
his own funeral. During this last period he wrote his greatest ode,
"Hail, Bright Cecilia"; his greatest pieces of Church music, the _Te
Deum_ and _Jubilate_; and in all likelihood his greatest sonatas, those
in four parts. He also rewrote a part of Playford's _Brief Introduction
to the Skill of Music_.

It is not my intention to analyse the dramas. No more can be done in the
narrow space than give the reader a notion of Purcell's general
procedure of filling his space, and the salient characteristics of the
filling. Although _Dido_ differs from the other plays in containing no
spoken dialogue, and may not strictly fall into this period, I shall for
convenience' sake treat it with them. After dealing with the dramatic
work there will remain the odes, the anthems and services, and the
instrumental music.

THE THEATRE MUSIC.

We can scarcely hope to hear the bulk of the music for the theatre, as
has been remarked, because of the worthlessness of the plays to which it
is attached. Even _King Arthur, The Tempest, The Fairy Queen_ and
_Dioclesian_ pieces are too fragmentary, disconnected, to be performed
with an