class="blockquot">"I have adventured to dedicate these few discordant tunes to be censured by the ingenious disposition of your Lordship's Honorable rare perfection, perswading my selfe, that these labours, composed by me and others (as in the survey hereof, your Lordship may well perceive), may not by any meanes passe, without the malignitie of some malitious Momus, whose malice (being as toothsome as the adder's sting), couched in the progres of a wayfayring man's passage, might make him retire though almost at his journeyes end. Two speciall motives have imbouldened me (Right Honorable) in this my proceeding. First, for that I consider, that as the body cannot bee without the shadow, so Homer (the Prince of Poets) may not be without a Zoilist: The second and last is (the most forcible motive), I know (not onely by report, but also by experiment) your Lordship to bee not onely Philomusus, a lover of the Muses, and of learning; but Philomathes, a personage always desirous (though in all Arts sufficiently skilfull) to come to a more high perfection or Summum bonum. I will not trouble your Lordship with to to [sic] tedious circumstances, onely I humbly intreat your Lordship (in the name of many) to patronage this work with no lesse acceptance, then I with a willing and kinde hart dedicate it. So shall I think the initium of this worke not onely happely begun, but to bee finited with a more happie period.

"Your Honour's devoted in all dutie,

"THOMAS MORELY."

The Triumphs of Oriana consists of twenty-five madrigals, set by the most eminent musicians of the day, and edited (as the title-page and dedication show) by Thomas Morley, a most "rare and cunning musician," and moreover an especial favourite with the reigning queen, in whose honour the work is said to have been composed.

Sir John Hawkins, in his History of Music, vol. iii. p. 406., says the "occasion" of the publication of The Triumphs of Oriana was this:

"The Lord High Admiral, Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, was the only person, who, in the last illness of Elizabeth, could 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 prize-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 the very year that Essex was beheaded. There is some piece of secret history which we have yet to learn, that would enable us to account for giving the Queen this romantic name; probably she was fond of it. Camden relates that a Spanish ambassador had libelled her by the name of Amadis Oriana, and for his insolence was put under a guard."

Dr. Burney, in his sketch of the Life of Thomas Morley (General History of Music, vol. iii. p. 101.), speaking of this work, says,

"As Italy gave the ton 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 Giovenale, afterwards Bishop of Saluzzo, who employed thirty-seven of the most renowned Italian composers to set Canzonetti in honour of the Virgin Mary, published under the following title: Tempio Armonico della Beatissima Virgine nostra Signora, fabbricatole per opera del Reverendo P. Giovenale, A. P. della Congregatione dell' Oratorio. Prima Parte, a tre voci, Stampata in Roma da Nicola Mutii, 1599, in 4to."

That by Oriana is meant Queen Elizabeth, there can be but little doubt. The appellation surely does not countenance the supposition that there "must be some secret piece of history" in the case. Queen Elizabeth, we all know, was a woman of inordinate vanity. Even at the age of three score and ten she delighted in the names of Cynthia, Diana, and such like; and Oriana, who was the heroine of the well-known romance Amadis de Gaul, and a lovely and virtuous woman to boot, could not fail to gratify her. How D'Espes, the Spanish ambassador, could libel her under the double title of Amadis Oriana, it is difficult to imagine; but so it was, according to Camden (anno 1569). "Libellos famosos spargit, in quibus Reginæ existimationem contumeliosè atterit sub nomine Amadis Orianæ."

The pretty sounding tale related by Sir John Hawkins, that the work in question was undertaken with a view to alleviate the grief of the queen for the death of the Earl of Essex, and that prizes were given by the Earl of Nottingham for the best composition for that purpose, is entirely without foundation. Sir John Hawkins gives no authority for his statement, and I believe it rests entirely upon conjecture.

The Triumphs of Oriana (as we have seen) was printed at London in the year 1601. In the same year was published at Antwerp a collection of madrigals with the following title: Il Trionfo di Dori, descritto da diversa, et posti in Musica, da altretranti Autori a Sei Voci, In Anversa, Appresso Pietro Phalesio, 1601. From the date of these two collections, it appears almost impossible that either should have been an imitation of the other; and yet, by an extraordinary similarity in point of style, number, variety of composers, and burthen of the poetry, there can be but little doubt such was the case. The point will be therefore to ascertain if either of these works was printed previously to this date, 1601. I have no doubt that the Orianas is the first and only edition of the work. On the other hand, there is good reason (from a variety of circumstances) to suppose that the copy of Il Trionfo di Dori with this date will turn out to be the second edition.

The poetry (if such it can be called) of the Orianas is a paraphrase of Il Trionfo di Dori. The Italian burden or conclusion is always—

And the English version:

Mr. Oliphant, in his collection of poetry entitled La Musa Madrigalesca, is perhaps not far wrong when he says that the rhymes of the Orianas would "disgrace the veriest tyro in Grub Street;" but, nevertheless, I have extracted a few specimens, premising that they are the best I could find among the "twenty-five":—