Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/613

] by him is certain; and it became so much cultivated in this country as to become almost exclusively an English art.

COINAGE

The coins of this period were the work of the Roteri family. Of these there were John, Joseph, and Philip, and Norbert Roteri, the son of John. They were men of much taste and skill, as their coins show, though by no means equal to Simon, the coiner of Cromwell. Their father was a Dutch banker, who had obliged Charles during his exile by the loan of money, on condition that, in case of restoration, he should employ his sons. They, however, introduced some decided improvements into our coin, particularly that of graining or letters on the rims of the coin.

Silver Twopence of Charles II.

Charles called in all the commonwealth money, and coined fresh. In 1662 the gold coin called a guinea was first invented, from gold brought from the coast of Guinea, and had the stamp of an elephant under the king's head, in honour of the African company which imported it. In the last year of Charles's reign he coined farthings of tin, with only a bit of copper in the middle. The figure of Britannia still retained on our copper coinage was first introduced in the copper coinage of Charles, and was modelled from Miss Stuart, afterwards duchess of Richmond, of whom Charles was deeply enamoured, by Phihp Roteri—much to the scandal of all decent subjects.

Half-a-Crown of James II.—Silver.

James II. followed the fashion of Charles in coining tin halfpence and farthings with copper centres. After his abdication he was reduced in Ireland to coin money out of old brass cannon, and pots and pans, and, when that failed, out of pewter.

MUSIC.

With the restoration came back mirth and music, which had been banished by the puritans from both churches and private houses. From this taste, however, it is but just to except Cromwell and Milton. Cromwell was especially fond of the organ, and gave concerts in his own house when at the head of the government. Milton, as might be supposed from his poetical nature, and the solemn music of his verse, was equally attached to harmony of sounds. He was the friend of Henry Lawes, one of the greatest composers of the time, and addressed to him the well-known sonnet on the publication of his airs, beginning

But perhaps the royalists were all the more musical on their return to power to mark their contempt of the gloomy puritans, and music burst forth in church and chapel, in concert, and theatre, and private house with redoubled energy. The theatres and operas did not delay to draw the public by the charms of music as well as of representation. Even during the latter years of the commonwealth Sir Wilham Davenant opened a kind of theatre under the name of masque and concert, and enlivened it by music. The royalists at Oxford during the time Charles I.'s court was there, held weekly musical parties with the members of the university; and no sooner was the commonwealth at an end than the heads of houses, fellows, and other gentlemen renewed these parties, and furnished themselves with all necessary instruments, and the compositions of the best masters. But what marks the musical furore of this period more than all was the flocking of the aristocracy and the finest musical performers to the miserable house of a dealer in coal-dust in Clerkenwell, where musical parties were held. "It was," says Dr. John Hawkins, "in Aylesbury Street, Clerkenwell. The room of the performance was over the coal-shop; and, strange to tell, Tom Britton's concert was the weekly resort of the old, the young, the gay, the fair of all ranks, including the highest order of nobility." Dr. Pepusch and frequently Handel played the harpsichord—though this must have been at a later period, for he did not arrive in England till 1710. Mr. Needler, accountant-general of the excise; Hughs the poet, Woolaston the painter, and many other amateurs were among the performers. Walpole says Britton took money from his visitors, but Hawkins entirely denies it.

The example of Tom Britton was contagious, and similar places of musical entertainment, but on the principle of professional emolument, were soon opened east and west. Amongst the first of these was Sadler's Wells.

One of the finest composers for the theatre and opera was Matthew Locke. He was appointed composer in ordinary to Charles II., and composed a church service and some anthems; but he was much more famous for his setting of songs, and the music to plays. He wrote that to Davenant's alteration of "Macbeth," to Shadwell's opera, "Psyche," and various other dramas. He received a salary of two hundred pounds a year as director of the king's music. He became a convert to Catholicism, and was made organist to Catherine, the queen of Charles. But the rage for everything French was growing, and Locke was succeeded in his office by a Frenchman, Cambert, who produced an English opera; and he by Louis Grabut, another Frenchman, who set Dryden's "Albion and Albanias," a satire on Shaftesbury—a poor performance. After Charles quarrelled with Louis XIV., Italian taste superseded the French, and Italian music and musicians were patronised. Amongst the latter Nicola Matteis was a popular violinist.

But that which possessed the most decided merit was the