The poem was published in 1634 and was wrongly attributed to Sir William Davenant. Another Masque, by James Shirley, _The Triumph of Peace_, was produced in the same year, Lawes and another well-known musician, Simon Ives, writing the music, for which they received the sum of £100. The following year saw the production of _Comus_, the greatest of Masques. It will be seen that Lawes differed from most of our English Composers in devoting himself, at the outset of his career, almost exclusively to the stage. I cannot help thinking this is to be explained by the fact that he was not educated in a Cathedral Choir, but was a pupil of Giovanni Coperario. Now this musician had an experience which few of his contemporaries enjoyed. He {73} studied in Italy--going there as plain John Cooper and returning to his native country as Giovanni Coperario. His sojourn in Italy was at a remarkable time; the time when the first Opera and the first Oratorio were given. It is very interesting to be told--and I have been told on the authority of my friend Rev. Spooner Lillingston--that among the names given in a certain record of the performance of the first Opera was found that of the Englishman, Giovanni Coperario. This seems to me to be an important fact. Lawes would come under the influence of Coperario, who, with his love for Italian music and experience of the beginning of Opera would, no doubt, help Lawes to take up the music of the stage, instead of the music of the Church. Our composer was not, however, long before he embarked on some Church music by setting _A Paraphrase upon the Psalms of David_ by George Sandys, and also contributing another volume of tunes to _Church Psalms_, in which he was joined by his clever brother William, who was, later on, killed at the siege of Chester. Among the commendatory poems prefixed to this volume was the well-known sonnet by Milton addressed to Lawes, beginning: {74} Harry, whose tuneful and well measured Song First taught our English musick how to span Words with just note and accent----