Comment on this legal robbery of the fruit of an author's brain-work is quite unnecessary.
The music to Œdipus is very dramatic, but not of great importance. That of the Fairy Queen, on the contrary, is of considerable pretension and was a great success. Downes, in his Roscius Anglicanus, says:—
"This in ornaments was superior to the other two (King Arthur and Dioclesian), especially in cloaths for all the singers and dancers; scenes, machines, and decorations, all most profusely set off, and excellently perform'd: chiefly the instrumental and vocal part compos'd by the said Mr. Purcell, and dances by Mr. Priest. The Court and town were wonderfully satisfy'd with it, but the expences in setting it out being so great the company got little by it."
A portion of the music was published by the composer with the title, "Some select songs as they are sung in the Fairy Queen, set to musick by Mr. Henry Purcell, London. Printed by J. Heptinstall for the Author, and are to be sold by John Carr, at the Inner Temple Gate, near Temple Barr, by Henry Playford at his shop in the Temple, and at the Theatre in Dorset Gardens, 1692."
A few pieces from the opera were also published separately; one beginning "Now the maids and the men," with the curious heading "A Dialogue in the Opera call'd the Fairy Queen, set by Mr. Henry Purcell, sung by Mr. Reading[44] and (Mr. Pate in Woman's habit), and exactly engrav'd by Tho. Cross."
The Fairy Queen seems to have shared the fate of much other music of Purcell's, for the London Gazette, Oct. 13th, 1700, has the following advertisement:—"The score of the musick for the Fairy Queen set by the late Mr. Henry Purcell, and belonging to the Patentees of the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, London, being lost by his death, whosoever brings the said score, or a copy thereof, to Mr. Zackary Baggs, Treasurer of the said Theatre, shall have 20 guineas reward." The advertisement was repeated, evidently without any successful result, as the opera was not reproduced, but long years afterwards one of the songs, "If Love's a Sweet Passion," was adapted to words by Gay for the Beggar's Opera.
In this same year, 1692, Purcell composed an ode for the Queen's birthday to words of Sir Charles Sedley, commencing "Love's Goddess sure was blind." This ode is notable as containing the song, "May her blest example chase," the bass of which is the melody of the old ballad "Cold and raw," a very popular song of the day. It had been wrought into a catch by John Hilton in 1652, but the reason for its incorporation by Purcell in the Queen's birthday ode is narrated by Hawkins as follows:—
"This tune was greatly admired by Queen Mary, the consort of King William; and she once affronted Purcell by requesting to have it sung to her, he being present. The story is as follows: the Queen having a mind one afternoon to be entertained with music, sent to Mr. Gostling, then one of the chapel, and afterwards sub-dean of St. Paul's, to Henry Purcell and Mrs. Arabella Hunt, who had a very fine voice and an admirable hand on the lute, with a request to attend her; they obeyed her commands; Mr. Gostling and Mrs. Hunt sang several compositions of Purcell, who accompanied them on the harpsichord: at length the Queen beginning to grow tired, asked Mrs. Hunt if she could not sing the old Scots' ballad, 'Cold and raw.' Mrs. Hunt answered yes, and sang it to her lute. Purcell was all the while sitting at the harpsichord unemployed, and not a little nettled at the Queen's preference of a vulgar ballad to his music; but seeing her majesty delighted with this tune, he determined that she should hear it upon another occasion: and accordingly in the next birthday song, viz. that for the year 1692, he composed an air to the words, 'May her bright example,' the bass whereof is the tune to 'Cold and raw:' it is printed in the second part of the Orpheus Britannicus, and is note for note the same with the Scots' tune."
Hawkins no doubt had this story from Gostling, the son of the Gostling mentioned in the anecdote, and it is therefore probably true.
In the same year he composed one of his most celebrated odes, for the festival held in honour of St. Cecilia at the Stationers' Hall, November 22nd. The Gentleman's Journal or Monthly Miscellany, a periodical published immediately afterward, gives an account of the performance as follows:—