2.6. Of concorde in long and short measures, and by neare or farre distaunces, and which of them is most commendable.
Bvt this ye must obserue withall, that bycause your concordes containe the
chief part of Musicke in your meetre, their distaunces may not be too wide
or farre a sunder, lest th'eare should loose the tune, and be defrauded of his
delight, and whensoeuer ye see any maker vse large and extraordinary
distaunces, ye must thinke he doth intende to shew himselfe more
artificiall then popular, and yet therein is not to be discommended, for
respects that shalbe remembred in some other place of this booke.
Note also that rime or concorde is not commendably vsed both in the end and
middle of a verse, vnlesse it be in toyes and trifling Poesies, for it sheweth
a certaine lightnesse either of the matter or of the makers head, albeit
these common rimers vse it much, for
as I sayd before, like as the Symphonie in a verse of great length, is (as it
were) lost by looking after him, and yet may the meetre be very graue and
stately: so on the other side doth the ouer busie and too speedy returne of
one maner of tune, too much annoy & as it were glut the eare, vnlesse it
be in small & popular Musickes song by these
Cantabanqui vpon
benches and barrels heads where they haue none other audience then boys or
countrey fellowes that passe by them in the streete, or else by blind harpers
or such like tauerne minstrels that giue a fit of mirth for a groat, &
their matters being for the most part stories of old time, as the tale of Sir
Topas, the reportes of
Beuis of
Southampton,
Guy
of
Warwicke,
Adam Bell, and
Clymme of the
Clough & such other old Romances or historicall rimes, made
purposely for recreation of the common people at Christmasse diners &
brideales, and in tauernes & alehouses and such other places of base
resort, also they be vsed in Carols and rounds and such light or lasciuious
Poemes, which are commonly more commodiously vttered by these bussons
or vices in playes then by any other person. Such were the rimes of
Skelton (vsurping the name of a Poet Laureat) being in deede but a
rude rayling rimer & all his doings ridiculous, he vsed both short
distaunces and short measures pleasing onely the popular eare: in euery song
or ditty concorde by compasse & concorde entertangled and a mixt of
both, what that is and how they be vsed shalbe declared in the chapter of
proportion by
scituation.