Purcell | Page 5

the others it need only be said that we see in their
music the old modes losing their hold and the new key sense growing
stronger. Their music compared with the old is modern, though
compared with all music later than Handel it is archaic.
CHAPTER II
What we know of Purcell's life is nothing, or next to nothing; what is
written as his life is conjecture, more or less ingenious inference, or
pure fiction. In that we know so little of him he is blessed, but the
blessedness has not as yet extended to his biographers. At one time a
biographer's task was easy: he simply took the hearsay and inventions
of Hawkins, and accepted them as gospel truth whenever they could not
be tested. The fact that whenever they could by any means be tested
they were found to be false--even this did not dismay the biographer.
Hawkins's favourite pastime was libelling the dead. He libelled Dr.
Johnson, and Boswell promptly and most vigorously dealt with him; he
libelled Purcell grossly--he deliberately devised slanderous tales of him.
The biographers, with simple, childlike credulity, went on whenever
possible repeating his statements, for the obvious reason that this
course was the easiest. Hawkins knew nothing of Purcell. He can be
proved to be wrong, not merely about this or that detail, but about
everything. He is said to have known one Henry Needler, a pupil of
Purcell, and also Gostling, the son of the singer of the same name for
whom Purcell wrote; but neither acquaintance seems to have profited
him aught. His anecdotes are the product of inborn wickedness and an
uncouth, boorish imagination. When we have cleared away his garbage,
there remains only a skeleton life, but at any rate we have the
satisfaction of knowing that is pure fact.
Henry Purcell was born (probably) about the end of 1658, and
(probably also) in Westminster. Some of his family were musicians
before him. His father, Henry Purcell the elder, was a Gentleman of the
Chapel Royal (that is, a singer in the choir, and in many cases organist
as well), and was master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey for
three years. He held various posts in the "King's Musick," sharing the

duties of "lute and voyce" for a time with one Angelo Notari. The latter
appears to have died in 1663; but strangely enough after his death he
asked for arrears of salary for 1661 and 1664. However, in 1663 Henry
Purcell the elder seemed to have taken over the whole duties of their
joint post; and he, Purcell, died in 1664. If Henry the younger was six
years old at the time of his father's death, then he must have been born
in 1658 or, at latest, the early part of 1659; if he was born in 1658 or
the early part of 1659, then he must have been six years old at the time
of his father's death. So much we know positively; anything more is
supposition--that is, the whole affair is supposition; but this supposition
has one merit: it cannot be very widely wrong. Pepys knew Henry the
elder, and refers to him in his Diary; and it may be remarked in passing
that those who wish to grow familiar with the atmosphere in which
Purcell was brought up, and lived and worked, must go to Pepys, who
knew all the musicians of the period, and the life of Church, Court, and
theatre. Thomas Purcell, brother of Henry the elder, was also a
Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. He succeeded Henry Lawes as Court
lutanist, and held other positions, and evidently stood high in favour.
This Thomas certainly adopted Henry the younger at the death of
Henry the elder, and afterwards he wrote of him as "my sonne." Young
Henry seems to have become a choir-boy as a mere matter of family
custom. He joined as one of "the children" of the Chapel Royal, with
Captain Cooke as his master. Cooke must have been a clever musician
in spite of the military title he had gained while fighting on the Royalist
side in the Civil War. He had an extraordinarily gifted set of boys under
him, and he seems to have trained them well. When some of them tried
their infantile hands at composition he encouraged them. Pepys heard
at least one of their achievements, and records his pleasure. And it must
be remembered that Pepys was a composer and connoisseur--he would
go many miles to hear a piece of music. Cooke died in 1672, and
Pelham Humphries became master of "the children." He was born in
1647, and therefore was eleven years older than Purcell; he, too, had
been a child of the Chapel Royal. In 1664 Charles sent him abroad to
study foreign