Charles II of England appointed him as a composer for his own private music in 1665, and with the death of Nicholas Lanier in 1666 he became the second person to hold the title Master of the King's Musick. He adapted Robert Cambert's opera Ariadne for a London performance in 1674, and wrote music for John Dryden's Albion and Albanius in 1685. In 1693 he left England, the only land where he had achieved any kind of fame, and completely disappeared from historical record.] Consonants were not necessarily doubled where we would now expect. Standardised modern spelling is a fairly recent (mid 19th century) imposition, probably coinciding with the various Public Education Acts. Some spellings may be left over from Middle English, e.g. 'sily' from 'sely', dialect 'seely', from OE 'sÊlig' (luck, happiness); thus 'sily' (p. 58) may have meant 'lucky' or 'happy' instead of the modern 'silly'. Or 'sily' may be our modern 'silly', with an undoubled middle consonant. Damaged or missing punctuation has been repaired and sundry indents have been adjusted for consistency. Errata Page 96: 'VVidow' corrected to 'Widow'. (Possibly a printer's error....). ... "Which way to take the Widow Brown," Page 103: 'do' corrected to 'to': "They'll hourly study to deceive," Page 107: 'VVho' corrected to 'Who': "Who dare not their Grief declare," (... or maybe the printer was short of 'W's). Sundry other instances of 'VV' have been corrected to 'W'. Page 131: 'Ny' corrected to 'My': "My Nose takes the burthen...." Page 161: 'MORTAL's' corrected to 'MORTALs': "Mortals learn your Lives to measure," Page 238: 'maguanime' corrected to 'magnanime': "Sat notus pro magnanime" Page 312: missing 'I' added to last line to complete rhyme: "And Priest and Victim I." Page 316: 'I'ye' corrected to "I've": "I've lost a Harry Groat," [Note: Harry was King Henry; a groat was an old English silver coin, first coined by Henry III in 1249, and by Edward III in 1351. Originally worth one penny, it later rose to the value of fourpence. The groat was revived between 1836 and 1856, and withdrawn from circulation in 1887 (from Collins New Age Encyclopedia, 1963)]. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, Volume VI, by Various