WILSON, JOHN English composer. He was engaged to write the music for a "Maske of Flowers," written for the wedding of the earl of Somerset and the daughter of the earl of Suffolk in 1614. Although the printed copy does not contain Wilson's name, he afterwards printed the songs in an arrangement for three voices in his "Cheerfull Ayres" (166o). Other songs from plays, including some from Shakespeare were printed by him in later collections, and there is reason to suppose that he sang on the stage and is identical with a Jacke Wilson, men tioned in the stage direction of the first f olio edition of Shake speare (1623). Wilson became one of the King's Musicians in 1635 and was evidently a remarkable lutenist, much appreciated by Charles I. on that account and also for his singing. In the Civil War he went with the court to Oxford, and in 1645 was made Mus.D. of the university, as being "now the most noted Musitian of England." After the surrender of Oxford he retired into the country for some years, most of his compositions being published during this period. In 1656 he was appointed profes
sor of music at Oxford, with rooms in Balliol college. His pro fessorship came to an end in 1661. In 1657 he had published what purported to be his last work, the "Psalterium Carolinum" for three voices and organ or theorbo. The "Cheerfull Ayres" which followed contained earlier songs revised. He went back to his post as one of the King's Musicians at the Restoration and in 1662 became a gentleman of the Chapel Royal in place of Henry Lawes. He died at the Horseferry, Westminster, on Feb. 22, 1674. A portrait of him is in the Oxford Music School. His early settings of Shakespeare's songs, including "Take, 0 take those lips away," and other of his songs show him to have been a master of melody. His manuscript music is in the British Museum, the Bodleian, and elsewhere; songs and catches occur in Playford's "Select Musicall Ayres and Dialogues" (1652, 1653), in his "Catch that catch can" (1667) and other collections. See the article by G. E. P. Arkwright in Grove's Dictionary.