To these lines he appends the name of Tom Brown, and tells us that Jack was intended for Dr. Blow, and that "Purcell appears to have spent much of his time with Tom Brown, who wrote the words of most of his catches." Purcell never set a single line of Brown's, and they were wholly unacquainted with each other, as may be learnt from the following verses written by Brown in June, 1693, two years before Purcell's death, "To his unknown friend, Mr. H. Purcell, upon his excellent compositions in the Harmonia Sacra."
"Long did dark Ignorance our Isle 'ore-spread,
Our Musick and our Poetry lay dead;
But the dull Malice of a barbarous age
Fell most severe on David's sacred page:
To wound his Sense and quench his Heav'n born fire
Three vile Translators lewdly did conspire;
In holy Doggerel and low chiming Prose
The King and Poet they at once depose:
Vainly the unrighteous charge he did bemoan,