This is a confession of the approaching defeat at the hands of the Italians, when English music was to abdicate its position.
***
I have dwelt at some length on this Diary of an English amateur at the Court of Charles II. I have done so not merely for the amusement of reviving a few agreeable types which have not undergone overmuch variation in a couple of centuries:—the distinguished English gentleman, statesman and artist, thoroughly sane and well-balanced, with the quiet activity, the serenity of mind, the good humour and the rather childlike optimism which one often meets with north of the Channel; pleasantly gifted, as a musician, but superficial, and seeking in music rather a wholesome pleasure, as Milton advised[1] rather than a passion beyond his control. And around him are other familiar types: Mistress Pepys, the Englishwoman who is determined to be a musician; who perseveringly labours at the keyboard, never becomes discouraged "and has good fingers." And there are others too…
But it is not for this reason that I have undertaken to ransack this Diary. It possesses a real historical interest in that it is a barometer of English musical taste about the year 1660; that is, at the beginning of the golden age of English music.
- ↑ We know that Milton, in his famous treatise On Education, speaking of scholars and athletic exercises, suggests that "the interim of unsweating themselves regularly, and convenient rest before meat, may, both with profit and delight, be taken up in recreating and composing their travailed spirits with the solemn and divine harmonies of music." He adds that music would be still more appropriate after eating, "to assist and cherish nature in her first concoction, and send their minds back to study in good tune and satisfaction."
