Page:Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age (1896).djvu/16

an epistle to the reader Byrd hastens to set us right on that point: "Benign reader, here is offered unto thy courteous acceptance music of sundry sorts, and to content divers humours. If thou be disposed to pray, here are pslams; if to be merry here are sonnets." There is, indeed, fare for all comers; and a reader has only himself to blame if he goes away dissatisfied. In those days, as in these, it was not uncommon for a writer to attribute all faults, whether of omission or commission, to the luckless printer. Byrd, on the other hand, solemnly warns us that "in the expression of these songs either by voices or instruments, if there be any jar on dissonance," we are not to blame the printer, who has been at the greatest paints to secure accuracy. Then the composer makes a modest appeal on behalf of himself, requesting those who find any fault in the composition "either with courtesy to let the same be concealed," or "in friendly sort" point out the errors, which shall be corrected in a future impression. This is the proper manner of dealing between gentleman. His next publication was "Songs of Sundry Natures," 1589, which was dedicated to Sir Henry Carey, first Lord Hunsdon, who seems to have been as staunch a patron of Byrd as his song, Sir George Carey, was of Dowland. In 1611 appeared Byrd's last work, "Psalms, Songs,