Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/73



281). 6. ‘Catches and Canons for three and four voices’ (Walsh); the book contains several cantatas written for special occasions, among them one apparently on the marriage (14 March 1734) of the Princess Anne, daughter of George II, with William, prince of Orange, and another evidently referring to the marriage of Frederick, prince of Wales (27 April 1736). 7. A Te Deum mentioned in the ‘Daily Gazetteer,’ 18 Feb. 1736. 8. ‘Jephthah,’ oratorio, 1737. 9. ‘Love's Revenge, or Florimel and Myrtillo,’ set to words by Greene's friend, John Hoadly (1711-1776) [q. v.], in 1737 (?), and performed at the Gloucester festival, 1745. 10. Service in C, composed 1737 (printed, together with five of his anthems, in Arnold's ‘Cathedral Music’). 11. ‘The Judgment of Hercules,’ a masque, 1740. 12. A cantata and four English songs, in two books, 1742 (one of the songs is the beautiful and justly celebrated ‘Go, Rose,’ often reprinted, as in the ‘Harmonicon,’ vol. iv.) 13. Six solo anthems (Walsh); all of these, with the exception of ‘Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving,’ are in 14. ‘Forty Select Anthems in score’ (Walsh), 2 vols., dedicated to the king, 1743; seven of these are printed in Page's ‘Harmonia Sacra,’ and elsewhere, and a few of them, such as ‘God is our hope and strength,’ ‘I will sing of Thy power,’ ‘Lord, let me know mine end,’ ‘O, clap your hands,’ &c., still keep their place in cathedral services. 15. ‘The Force of Truth,’ oratorio, 1744. 16. ‘Phœbe,’ a pastoral opera, 1748. 17. Addison's ode, ‘The Spacious Firmament.’ 18. ‘Spenser's Amoretti,’ twenty-five sonnets set to music, and dedicated to the composer's patroness, the Duchess of Newcastle (Walsh). 19. ‘The Chaplet,’ twelve English songs. Many other songs were printed separately in broadsheets, &c. 20. Nine anthems, published early in the present century, principally from manuscripts.

In his criticism of this composer's works Burney was singularly unfortunate, for so far from showing the influence of Handel or the Italian opera to any appreciable extent, the best of them are thoroughly English in character and style, and his ballads, such as ‘Go, Rose,’ and ‘The Bonny Sailor,’ have a perfect right to be included in all collections of national music. In these and in his anthems his melodies are always natural and flowing, while in the latter especially there is no lack of scientific skill or earnestness of purpose. As an organ-player he was distinguished for his prominent use of solo stops, at that time an important innovation. His fame was not confined to England alone, for Mattheson, in his ‘Vollkommene Capellmeister’ (Hamburg, 1739), mentions him among the eminent organists of Europe, a compliment he pays to no other Englishman. A full-length portrait of Greene by Hayman, taken with his friend Hoadly, is in the possession of J. E. Street, esq.

[Grove's Dict. i. 624, iv. 654; Hawkins's Hist. of Music, ed. 1853, pp. 800, 859, 879, 909; Burney's Hist. iii. 614, &c.; The Georgian Era; Gent. Mag. December 1755 (in which the date of death is given as 1 Dec.); Busby's Concert-room Anecdotes; Miss L. M. Hawkins's Anecdotes, vol. i. (of continuation), p. 336; Lysons's Annals of the Three Choirs; Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal, communicated by Mr. W. Barclay Squire; Add. MSS. in Brit. Mus. 17820, 31462, 31821; Brit. Mus. Catal.; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers, p. 84; London Marriage Licences; Mattheson's Vollkommene Capellmeister, p. 479; Musical Times for June 1888, giving a report of the proceedings at the re-interment of Greene.]  GREENE, RICHARD (1716–1793), antiquary and collector of curiosities, was born at Lichfield in 1716. The Rev. Joseph Greene (1712–1790) (Gent. Mag. 1790, i. 574), headmaster of Stratford-upon-Avon grammar school, was his brother, and Johnson was his relation. He lived and died as a surgeon and apothecary in Lichfield; a Scottish university conferred on him, it is said, the degree of M.D., but though highly gratified he never assumed the title of doctor. In 1758 he was sheriff of the city of Lichfield; he was bailiff in 1785 and in 1790, and was one of the city aldermen. Greene was the first to establish a printing-press at Lichfield, and from about 1748 until his death his zeal in collecting objects of interest never flagged. He deposited these curiosities in the ancient registry office of the bishops of that see, which stood nearly opposite the south door of the cathedral, and has long since been pulled down. A view of one side of the room of this museum, sent by the Rev. Henry White of Lichfield, appeared in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for 1788, pt. ii. 847, and was reproduced in Stebbing Shaw's 'History of Staffordshire.' The fame of his collections spread far and wide, and the building was open gratuitously on every day except Sundays. After a life entirely spent in the city of his birth he died there on 4 June 1793, aged 77. His first wife was named Dawson, and by her he had one daughter, who married William Wright of Lichfield. His second wife was Theodosia Webb of Croxall in Derbyshire, who died at Lichfield on 1 Aug. 1793 ; she had issue an only son, Thomas, a lieutenant and surgeon in the Stafford militia. Greene's portrait, with the motto, styled by Boswell 'truly characteristical of his disposition, Nemo sibi vivat,'  Rh