In the first, Henry IV. in sickness asks for music; the second is an account of Cerimon's attempt to rouse the half-drowned Thaisa with at least partial assistance from music; while the third represents Prospero using a solemn air to remove the magic spell which he had cast on Alonso and his other enemies.
H. 4. B. IV, iv, 133. K. Hen. on his sick-bed.
K. Hen. Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends;
Unless some dull and favourable hand
Will whisper music to my wearied spirit.
Warwick. Call for the music in the other room.
Pericles III, ii, 87. Cerimon's house at Ephesus. Thaisa, cast up by the sea, is brought to life by his directions.
Cerimon. Well said, well said; the fire and the cloths.
The rough and woful music that we have,
Cause it to sound, beseech you.
The vial once more;—how thou stirr'st, thou block!—
The music there! I pray you, give her air.
Tempest V, i, 51. Prospero employs music to disenchant Alonso, Antonio, etc.
Pro. ... and, when I have required
Some heavenly music (which even now I do),
To work mine end upon their senses....
L. 58.
A solemn air; and the best comforter
To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains.
Next we have two examples of 'Music at Home.' In the case of the Duke in Twelfth Night, it is 'concerted' music, and the players seem to be performing such a quaint old piece as 'The Lord of Salisbury his Pavin,' by Gibbons, in Parthenia, the last 'strain' of which has just such a 'dying fall' as is mentioned in line 4. [See the remarks on the passage from Lucrece in [Section I.] on the technical meaning of 'strain.']
Twelfth Night I, i.
Duke. If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.—
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O! it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour.—Enough! no more:
'Tis not so sweet now, as it was before.