The Opera of _Dido and Æneas_ has often been quoted as a marvellous effort of Purcell's early days. Being a complete Opera without spoken Dialogue, it is a most interesting example of Purcell's advanced views, and, had he written it in 1675 (when only seventeen years of age), it would indeed have been a marvel. But I feel sure Mr Barclay Squire is right in putting it much later--in 1689. Although a splendid piece of work it is that of a man of experience and not of a youth. One of the composer's best Operas is _Dioclesian_, an adaption from Beaumont and Fletcher by {133} Betterton. It is scored for strings, flutes, hautboys (3), bassoons and trumpets. It is very interesting music, and there is a "Masque" included in it, containing some of the host of Purcell's operatic work. Purcell corrected the copies of the first issue by his own hand. I possess one of these scarce books. He tells us a little of his troubles with the printer in an advertisement at the end of the book. "In order to the speedier publication of the Book I employed two several printers, but one of them falling into some trouble and the volume swelling to a bulk beyond my expectations have been the occasion of this delay." The music to _Dioclesian_ and to _Amphitryon_ (a play by Dryden), added greatly to Purcell's fame; and Dryden who at one time thought Grabu, the French master of the King's Music, to be far superior to any English composer, now mentions Purcell as one "in whose Person we have at length found an Englishman equal with the best abroad. At least my opinion of him has been such since his happy and judicious performances in the last Opera." (Dryden's.) Dryden wrote another Opera in 1691, _King Arthur_, which Purcell set to music. This is, I think, the best (excepting _Dido and Æneas_) of Purcell's dramatic works, containing as it does the {134} celebrated Air _Come if you dare_ and the Frost Scene. I cannot dwell longer on Purcell's dramatic music, but will turn for a moment to the music for _St Cecilia's Day_ in 1692. This was performed, as usual, in Stationers Hall (the Hall still stands at the bottom of Paternoster Row), and _The Gentleman's Magazine_ of the time mentions the performance and tells us the interesting fact that the second stanza was sung with incredible graces by Mr. Purcell himself. So it seems that Purcell had an alto voice; and it is pleasant to go into the very Hall, with the Musicians Company of the present day, and think of the old building echoing, years ago, to the strains of Purcell's voice.