The author has ventured to give the following air, which he fancies would almost suggest the words of the song to which Sir John Finett is supposed to have appropriated it.  As we have before mentioned, the tune is traditionary, possessing some of the peculiar characteristics we have described.  It bears a considerable resemblance to the ancient Jewish music, and likewise to the airs generally given to the little snatches of old ballads in Shakespeare’s plays, which are supposed to have been handed down successively from the performers in his time; being then probably “household” music more ancient than the ballads themselves.  This opinion seems warranted by the poet himself in that beautiful allusion, with which he introduces one of the songs of the Clown, in Twelfth Night—­

    “Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain: 
    The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
    And the free maids that weave their thread with bones,
    Do use to chant it; it is silly sooth,
    And dallies with the innocence of love
    Like the old age.”

[Illustration:  Music]

HOGHTON TOWER.

    They bade me sing, they bade my smile,
    They bade my heart be gay;
    They called my spirit forth to while
    The laughing hours away. 
    I’ve sung, I’ve smiled:  where’er my path
    Mirth’s dazzling meteors shine;
    All hearts have owned its magic power,
    And all are glad but mine.

FOOTNOTES: 

[29] “Sir George Goring, of Hurst Pierrepoint, in Sussex, representative of a junior line of the respectable family of Goring, which maintains its importance in that county, was bred at Court, under the care of his father, one of Elizabeth’s Gentlemen Pensioners; was knighted May 29, 1608; in 1610, occurs as Gentleman in Ordinary of the Bedchamber to Prince Henry; and now accompanied the king to Scotland as Lieutenant of his Gentlemen Pensioners.  He was recommended to James equally by his sagacity and a peculiar jocularity of humour, and became the king’s familiar companion.”—­Nichols’s Royal Progresses, vol. iii. p. 256.

[30] Sir John Finett, says Anthony a Wood (Fasti by Bliss, vol. i. col, 492), was son of Sir Robert Finett, of Soulton, near Dover, in Kent, son and heir of Sir Thomas, son and heir of John Finett, of Sienna, in Italy (where his name is ancient), who came into England in quality of servant to Cardinal Campegius, and married a maid of honour to Queen Katharine.  “Sir John was always bred in the Court, where by his wit, innocent mirth, and great skill in composing songs, he pleased James the First very much.  He was sent into France in 1614, about matters of public concern, and in the year after received the honour of knighthood at Whitehall; about which time (or rather about 1612) he was made assistant to the master of the ceremonies, with the reversion of that place.”—­Nichols’s Progresses, vol. iii. p. 133.