_ _We did keep time, sir, in our catches._ Sneck up!
L. 103-114, another song, "Farewell, dear heart" [Appendix].
It is perhaps necessary to explain the nature of a Catch, or Round,
more clearly. The two names were interchangeable in the 16th and 17th
centuries. It was not till quite modern times that 'Catch' implied a
necessary quibble in the words, deliberately arranged by the writer.
First, a Catch or Round of the best type of Elizabethan times
consisted of _one melody_, generally perfectly continuous. Secondly,
the said melody was always divisible into a certain number of _equal
sections_, varying from three to six, or even eight; and as many
sections as there were, so many voices were necessary. Thirdly, each
of these equal sections was deliberately arranged so as to make
_Harmony_ with every other.
Here are the words of a Round of the 17th century, which is divisible
into three equal sections, and therefore is sung by three voices.
1. 'Cuckoo! Hark! how he sings to us.
2. Good news the cuckoo brings to us;
3. Spring is here, says the cuckoo.'
Now, the way for three persons, A, B, and C, to sing this Catch or
Round, is as follows:--
A begins [see above, line 69, '_Begin_, fool'] line 1, and immediately
proceeds to line 2; at this very instant, B in his turn begins line 1,
and acts similarly. When A has reached the first syllable in line 3,
and B is at 'Good' in line 2, it is time for C also to begin at line
1.
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