[43] The “Pomp” is the “Masque,” as it would be called in England. The “great and ancient Menestrandise” is the old association or guild of Minstrels. The Charter of the King of the Minstrels, granted by John of Gaunt, King of Castile and Leon, and Duke of Lancaster, dated 1381, may be seen in Hawkins’s History of Music. An old verse in “Robin Hood’s Garland” alludes to the festive sports of the Minstrels in these words, which almost reproduce the above description of Couperin’s piece:-- “This battle was fought near Tutbury town When the bag-pipers baited the bull, I am king of the fiddlers, and swear ’tis a truth, And call him that doubts it a gull; For I saw them fighting, and fiddled the while, And Clorinda sung Hey derry down: The bumpkins are beaten, put up thy sword, Bob, And now let’s dance into the town. Before we came to it we heard a great shouting, And all that were in it look’d madly; For some were a’ bull-back, some dancing a morrice, And some singing Arthur a Bradley.” [Illustration: Old engraving after Wagniger’s design. The true musician is climbing up the Ladder of Contrapuntal Art ever higher and higher (see in the engraving the words _plus ultra_) to the Concert of Angels (legitime certantibus). From the “Basis and Fundamental Tone” the musical notes are being carried to the Gold-furnace (various flames in which are labelled, _e.g._ motet, canzonet, canon, etc.). The enemies are seen up above breaking the tritone, the false fifth, and the ninth; arrows are being shot at the Artist on the left as he writes (volenti nil difficile, “nothing is difficult to the willing mind”), but they are shattered on the Shield of Minerva, on which is represented the Austrian Eagle. ] Scarlatti