His name has always been associated with the Canon _Non nobis Domine_, but it would be very difficult to establish his claim to the authorship. Altogether the old musician has a remarkable list of varied compositions to his credit. Besides those already mentioned he wrote some excellent _Fancies_ and _In Nomines_ for strings, making a real advance upon the somewhat stilted specimens of Instrumental Music then in vogue, and helping to free the Instrumental form of composition from the vocal. _Fancies_ and _In Nomines_ I shall speak of in detail in a later lecture. William Byrd had a long and honourable career and contributed in a remarkable degree to the development of the Art of Music in England in the 17th century. There is much truth in Peacham's verdict that his music "cannot be mended by the best Italian of them all." [1] _i.e._, stuttering; originally _stot_, from the German _stottern_. To "stut" is still used in Cheshire dialect, (_v._ Wilbraham's _Glossary of Cheshire Words_.) [2] It may have been because he was a Roman Catholic and his name would not have been welcome to Elizabeth. [3] Now published. Edited by Mr. Fuller Maitland and Mr. Barclay Squire. {21} III. THOMAS MORLEY. 1557--1603 The next of our twelve musicians in chronological order of birth is Thomas Morley, born in 1557, when Byrd was a young man, though his course was run long before that veteran had finished with the affairs of this world. He was a pupil of Byrd, and was probably a chorister of St Paul's Cathedral. In 1588 he graduated B.Mus. at Oxford, and some three years later was appointed Organist of St Paul's. This position he did, however, not hold long, as in 1592, he was appointed a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. In 1598 he was granted the licence, which had previously been held by Tallis and Byrd, for the exclusive right of printing and selling Books of Music and Ruled Paper, and many of the musical works which were published at that time were issued by Este, Peter Short, William Barley, and others, as the assigns of Thomas Morley. In 1602 he resigned his positions at the Chapel Royal, probably from ill-health, as one gathers {22} from the Introduction to his _Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practical Music_ that he was rather a confirmed invalid. Some have taken the year of his resignation as that of his death, but there is nothing to support this, and though Hawkins and Burney are at one in placing his death in 1604, the correct date is 1603. Details of Morley's life are scanty, by his works we must know him. His compositions are both vocal and instrumental, sacred and secular; and, in addition to his work in the various branches of composition, much of his fame rests upon his authorship of the first really satisfactory treatise on music, _The Plaine and Easie Introduction_ already referred to.