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 in 1721. The rarity of this last edition would seem to imply that it was not a large or successful one, and it is not hard to assign the reason. The popularity of Purcell among all classes of the community had been greater than that enjoyed by any native musician up to that time; but by the second decade of the eighteenth century the vogue of Handel, who absorbed many of Purcell's characteristics, was so well established that Purcell's works were for the time thrown into the shade. Yet Purcell was never neglected by the higher class of musicians in England, and the two-hundredth anniversary of his death was worthily celebrated in London in November 1895 by a festival occupying three days, and including a memorial service in Westminster Abbey. From time to time efforts have been made to publish his music in a way worthy of the greatest composer England has produced. Besides the selections issued by Goodison, Clarke, Corfe, Arnold, and others, the edition of his sacred music in four folio volumes, by Vincent Novello, deserves first mention. All his anthems (with the exception of a few that have come to light since), a large number of hymns, canons, &c., are included in this publication (1829–32). Several of the most important dramatic works and the St. Cecilia ode of 1692 were issued in 1840–8 by the Musical Antiquarian Society. In 1878 an association called the Purcell Society was formed with a view to issuing a really complete edition; the work is progressing slowly; five volumes—all admirably edited—have appeared.

The works of Purcell may be summarised as follows: Seventy-nine anthems, hymns, and services; thirty-two odes and welcome songs, including those on St. Cecilia's day; fifty-one dramatic works, including operas, incidental music, and songs—including the doubtful ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Circe’ music; many fantasias in manuscript for strings (see Addit. MS. 30930 for twenty complete instrumental compositions); twenty-two sonatas (trios) published; one violin sonata (manuscript); two organ toccatas; many harpsichord pieces (thirty-four published in ‘A Choice Collection,’ and twelve [with Blow] in ‘Musick's Handmaid’); numerous songs, catches, and canons.

Purcell's portrait was painted once by Kneller and twice by Clostermann, and a bust of Purcell was formerly in the Music School, Oxford, but has disappeared. Kneller's portrait is now in the possession of Alfred Littleton, esq. It is a somewhat idealised head of a young man, with prominent eyes and full firm mouth; it was engraved by W. Humphreys, from a drawing by Edward Novello, for Novello's edition of Purcell's ‘Sacred Music.’ A drawing of a head, by Kneller—doubtless a sketch for the finished picture—was in the possession of Dr. Burney, and is now in the British Museum; it was engraved by J. Holloway in 1798, and again by J. Corner. Of Clostermann's two portraits, one—a three-quarter-length—in the possession of the Ven. Archdeacon Burney, represents the composer seated at the harpsichord (a replica is in the possession of Miss Done); and the other, of which there is a mezzotint by Zobel in the collection of the Royal Society of Musicians, shows a face much thinner and longer than that of the other portraits, and represents Purcell in the last year or two of his life. A fourth portrait of Purcell, by an unknown author, in the board-room of Dulwich College, was formerly considered to represent Thomas Clark, organist of the college. Two other portraits, said to have been formerly at Dulwich College, have vanished, one of Purcell as a choir-boy (, Dict. iii. 51), and the other of him in later life, from which the engraving by W. N. Gardiner, after S. N. Harding, in Harding's ‘Biographical Mirror,’ 1794, is said to have been made. Other engravings by R. White are in the sonatas of 1683, representing Purcell in his twenty-fifth year, and (a head after Clostermann) in ‘Orpheus Britannicus.’ H. Adlard engraved a portrait (either after Clostermann or possibly from the bust). A head in an oval is in the ‘Universal Magazine’ (December 1777), ‘from an original painting,’ but apparently from White's engraving of 1683.

Purcell married before 1682. A son, John Baptista, was baptised in Westminster Abbey on 9 Aug. of that year, and was buried in the cloisters on 17 Oct. following. Two other sons died in infancy, and his youngest daughter, Mary Peters (b. 1693), seems to have died before 1706. Only two children—a son and daughter—reached maturity. The daughter, Frances (1688–1724), who proved her mother's will on 4 July 1706, married, about 1707, Leonard Welsted [q. v.], the poet; their daughter died in 1726. Purcell's surviving son, Edward (1689–1740?), competed twice, without success, for the post of organist at St. Andrew's, Holborn, formerly held by his uncle, Daniel Purcell, and in 1726 was made organist of St. Margaret's, Westminster. He was also organist of St. Clement's, Eastcheap, and one of the first members of the Royal Society of Musicians; he is believed to have died in 1740. Edward's daughter Frances was baptised on 4 May 1711 at St. Margaret's, Westminster; his son, Edward Henry Purcell, who was one of the children of the Chapel