[2] It is in the possession of the Rev. Dr Cooper Smith, and is contained in a large volume of songs, all in the handwriting of Lawes. [3] One of his most beautiful songs, _The Lark_, contained a curious misprint which I have been able to correct. The song was printed by Playford, after Lawes' death, so he could not correct the proofs. The second line stands "While nights _shall be_ shades abide." This always struck me as odd, and when I saw the original in Dr Cooper Smith's book I looked for this line. It reads: "While night's _sable_ shades abide." It has been reprinted many times with the typographical error, but I hope it is now put right. [4] It was in this performance that a woman (Mrs Coleman) first appeared upon the dramatic stage in this country. {84} IX. MATTHEW LOCKE 1630 (?)--1677 A prominent personage in the seventeenth-century musical world was Matthew Locke. The exact date of his birth is not known, but it was approximately 1630. Matthew Locke laid the foundation of his art as a chorister in an English Cathedral, and at Exeter there is evidence that he occupied that position in 1638. The evidence cannot be disputed, as it is graven in the very fabric of the old Cathedral. The embryo musician took the trouble, upon two occasions, to inscribe his name upon the walls of the Cathedral, together with the dates. Upon the inner side of the old organ screen runs the legend "Matthew Lock, 1638," and in a more abbreviated form at a later date "M. L., 1641." As a boy he seems to have been content with a name of four letters _Lock_; in his later years he always attached a final "e" to his patronymic. At Exeter he had the advantage of being trained by Edward Gibbons, brother of the great Orlando, and, in addition to Gibbons' share in {85} his training, he owed much to William Wake, Organist, for whom he wrote one of his first published works. The period following Locke's later inscription--1641--was one not calculated to encourage or foster the art of music; the country was in a state of civil war, the soldiers of Cromwell wrought sad havoc in the Cathedrals, and the musical portions of those establishments came in for no small share of their destroying wrath. At Westminster Abbey we are told "the soldiers brake down the organs for pots of ale," and the Cathedral at which Locke served his pupilage fared very badly at the hands of the Roundheads.