e services of these patriarchs of
the English school surpass the great majority of similar productions by
our later masters. They may, indeed, suffer when compared with the
masses of the great continental masters; but they nevertheless possess a
certain degree of simple majesty, well suited to the primitive character
of the ritual of that church which disdains the use of ornament, and on
_principle_ declines to avail herself of any appeal to the senses as an
auxiliary to devotion. We have been the more particular in our notice of
these early masters, because, long without any rivals, their church
music even now stamps the public taste, and is still held in the highest
esteem by many among whom their names alone suffice to hold the judgment
captive.

It is needless to advert to Humphrey and other composers, some of whose
productions are still in vogue; enough has been said to show with what
reason the _absolute_ correctness of English taste in sacred music, in
which we suppose ourselves so peculiarly to excel, may be called in
question.

We proceed to sketch the history of the other branches of the art in
England, and commence at once with Henry Purcell, the greatest of our
native masters, previously to whom music is said to have been manifestly
on the decline during the seventeenth century. It has been often
remarked of Purcell, that he had "devance son siecle." Many of his
faults, defects, or crudities, may undoubtedly be attributed to the age
which he adorned. The tide of public approbation has of late set
strongly in his favour; and could the fulsome panegyrics, of which he
has been the object, be implicitly received, Purcell would be considered
as nothing less than a prodigy of genius. Several attempts at dramatic
music had been made before Purcell's time. Matthew Lock had already set
the songs of _Macbeth_ and the _Tempest,_ and had also given to the
world "The English Opera, or the vocal music in Psyche," in close
imitation of Lulli, the long famed composer of Louis XIV. Purcell
followed in the new track, taking for his models the productions of the
first Italian composers. The fact, that Purcell was under obligations to
the Italians, may startle many of his modern admirers; but with a
candour worthy of himself, in the dedication of his _Dioclesian_ to
Charles Duke of Somerset, he says, that "music is yet but in its nonage,
a forward child. 'Tis now learning Italian, which is its best master."
And in the preface