LAWES, HENRY, a composer to whom English music is much more indebted than its two historians seem to have been inclined to admit, was a native most probably of Salisbury, of which cathedral his father was a vicar-choraL He was born in the year 1600, as appears from an inscription under his portrait, now in the episcopal palace of that city. Lewes received his professional education under John Cooper, an Englishman, who having travelled and studied in Italy, thought fit to Italiauise his names, and is generally mentioned as Giovanni Coperario. In 1625 Lewes was appointed one of the gentlemen of the chapel, and afterwards clerk of the cheque to Charles L In 1633, in conjunction with Simon Ives, be produced the music to a masque presented at Whitehall by the members of the four inns of court, under the direction of such grave personages as Noy, the attorney-general, Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, Whitelocke, Sislden, , and received one hundred pounds for his share in the business. About the same time he composed the music to Milton's 'Comm,' which was performed at Ludlow Castle in 1634. Ile was well acquainted with the best poets of his time, and set many of their verses to music, particularly Waller's. He also lived much with persons of rank, whose poetical effusions were, in abundance of instances, made vocal by the notes of Lawca. These appear in the publications of his time, but chiefly in his three seta of ' Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two, and Three Voices,' published iu 1653, 1655, and 1669, comprising about 150 songs, ducts, and trios, printed in ' lozenge' notes, In type of an indifferent kind, with no accompaniment but an unfigured base, and therefore not very appreciable in the present day except by tolerably good hannonists, who to musical knowledge add some acquaintance with the style of our old music and its notation.
Lewes continued in the service of Charles till the king's death. Ho I then had recourse to teaching, in which pursuit his time was much occupied, for his superior taste and ability, his good sense and gentle manlike manners, occasioned his instructions to be eagerly sought after. At the Restoration he resumed his places in the chapel-royal,
and composed the anthem for the coronation of Charles IL He died in 1662, and his remains were deposited in Westminster Abbey.
From the cold language in which Hawkins and Burney speak of Henry Laives, and more especially from the disparaging expressions of the latter, we are much disposed to think that neither was acquainted with the best of his productions. The song in ' Comus Sweet Echo'—inserted by Hawkins, is a very poor specimen of his genius. Had either of those historians looked carefully into his three books of airs, &c., they could not but have found enough to convince them of his invention and judgment ; enough to prove that the encomiums of oontemporary poets, especially Milton, himself an expert musician, were sincere and deserved. How beautifully in Comm ' does the great poet allude to his friend's compositions, where, speaking of him as ' The Attendant Spirit' (a character personated in the masque by the composer himself), he says " Thyrsis I whose artful strains have oft delay'd The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, And ,weeten'd every musk-rose of the dale." And in his thirteenth sonnet, addressed to Lewes, beginning " Harry, whose tuneful and song," he bears honourable testimony to the moral worth and judgment of the musician, which, he says, distinguished him "from the throng." The opinion of Waller is not less favourably and strongly expressed ; and Herrick, in his ' Hesperides,' is almost enthusiastic in praise of the great English composer ; for it is a gross mistake to suppose that Lewes adopted the style of the Italian music fashionable in his time.
In a preface to his first book he defends himself against the charge of imitation; and an impartial comparison of his best airs with those of his foreign contemporaries will not only prove him to be an original composer, but that the English in his time, and indeed long after, could boast a school of music peculiarly their own.