"New Songs in the Third Part of the Comical History of _Don Quixote_. Written by Mr. D'Urfey, and sung at the Theatre Royal. With other new songs by Mr. D'Urfey. Being the last piece set to musick by the late Famous Mr. Henry Purcell, Mr. Courtivill, Mr. Akroy'd, and other eminent Masters of the Age. Engrav'd on Copper-Plates. London, printed for Samuel Briscoe, at the Corner-shop of Charles-street, in Russell-street, Covent Garden, 1696. Price Three Shillings. Where are also to be had, the First and Second Parts of Mr. D'Urfey's Songs, set to musick by Mr. Henry Purcell."[49] In the year of the publication just named another song was printed, commencing, "Lovely Albina," with the heading, "The last Song that Mr. Henry Purcell sett before he dy'd." But a later edition says, "The last song the author sett before his sickness." There cannot be much doubt, therefore, that the air "From Rosie Bowers" was really Purcell's last work. D'Urfey's print and tradition agree in this. And now we come to the last scene of all. It is the 21st of November, 1695,--by a curious coincidence the eve of the festival of St. Cecilia, a day so frequently celebrated by Purcell. In a house on the West side of Dean's Yard, Westminster, in a darkened chamber, the dying musician is lying on his couch in full possession of all his faculties, as he himself had just said in his will, but with a thorough knowledge that he was about to pass into the land of shadows. He could possibly hear some faint murmurs of the evensong service wafted from the old Abbey close by, perhaps some well-remembered phrase of one of his own soul-stirring anthems. The psalm of the day which would be chanted at that evening service concluded with words which he had set to music the world was not likely soon to forget--music which still remains unsurpassed in truthfulness and dignity. A more noble or a more fitting death-chant for a child of song it would be difficult to find:-- "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, From everlasting, and world without end. And let all the people say, Amen." By his bed-side were gathered his aged mother, his young wife, and his three infant children; and so amid their sighs and tears his gentle spirit passed into the better world, there to continue his service of song and praise in fulness and perfection. That Purcell was sincerely loved and mourned by relations and friends we know, and the following testimony of tender regard will be read with interest. It is written on the fly-leaf of a copy of his opera _Dioclesian_:--[50] Ex Dono Carissimi Desideratissimique Autoris HENRICI PURCELL Musarum Sacerdotis: Qui Anno Domini 1695 Pridie Festi Sᵗᵃᵉ Cæcilæ Multis Flebilis occidit, Nulli Flebilior quàm Amico suo atque Admiratori JACOBO TALBOT. _Translated thus_: