“I present you here with such numbers best fitting your innated Harmony, and I hope not unworthy your Patronage.”

Music offered as numbers matched to a patron's native sense of harmony · Dedication to Sir Henry Fanshawe, First Set of English Madrigals, 1613

• Art
• Harmony
• Music

“What I may produce hereafter is wholly Yours, as who hath more right to the Fruit than he that owneth the Stock?”

Later work is owed to the patron who fostered the artist · Dedication to Sir Henry Fanshawe, First Set of English Madrigals, 1613

• Art
• Duty
• Gratitude

“These are the primitiae of my Muse, planted in your pleasure, and cherished by the gentle calm of your Favour.”

First published work offered as first-fruits grown under a patron's care · Dedication to Sir Henry Fanshawe, First Set of English Madrigals, 1613

• Art
• Gratitude
• Poetry

“Should they prove distasteful with the queasy-palated, or surfeited delight, yet with the sound I presume they will pleasingly relish.”

He trusts listeners of sound judgement over those jaded by fashion · Dedication to Sir Henry Fanshawe, First Set of English Madrigals, 1613

• Criticism
• Music
• Taste

“The excellent variety of these Compositions hath fed time with fullness, and bred many Censors, more curious than perhaps judicial.”

Abundance of new music, he says, multiplies captious judges rather than fair ones · Dedication to Sir Henry Fanshawe, First Set of English Madrigals, 1613

• Criticism
• Judgement
• Music

“No Science carries so sufficient authority in itself, but must needs submit to that Monster Opinion, half truth, half falsehood.”

Even a well-founded art, he argues, cannot escape the mixed verdict of public taste · Dedication to Sir Henry Fanshawe, First Set of English Madrigals, 1613

• Art
• Criticism
• Opinions