Shakespeare refers to eleven Irish tunes, of which the famous “Callino Casturame” (Cailin og a stuir me) is still fresh.  Irish dances were extremely popular at the English court from 1600 to 1603 and were introduced into the Masks.  Shakespeare’s “intrinsic friend,” John Dowland of Dublin, was one of the greatest lutenists in Europe from 1590 to 1626.  In the dedication of a song “to my loving countryman, Mr. John Foster the Younger, merchant of Dublin in Ireland,” Dowland sufficiently indicates his nationality, and his compositions betray all the charm and grace of Irish melody.  It is of interest to add that the earliest printed “Irish Dance” is in Parthenia Inviolata, of which work, published in 1613-4, there is only one copy known—­now in the New York Public Library.  From 1600-1602, Charles O’Reilly was harpist to the court of Denmark at 200 thalers a year.  His successor was Donal Dubh ("the black”) O’Cahill (1602-1610), who followed Anne of Denmark to the English court.  Walter Quin of Dublin was music master to King James’s eldest son, Prince Henry, from 1608 to 1611.  Other noted harpers of the first half of the seventeenth century are:  Rory dall ("the blind”) O’Cahan; Nicholas dall Pierce; Tadhg MacRory; John, Rory, and Henry Scott; Owen MacKeenan; Owen MacDermot; Tadhg O’Coffey; and Father Robert Nugent, S.J.  Darby Scott was harper to the Danish Court from 1621 till his death, at Copenhagen, on December 19, 1634.  Pierce Ferriter, a “gentleman harper”, was executed at Killarney in 1652.  Myles O’Reilly and the two Connellans were famous harpers between the years 1660-1680.  Evelyn, the English diarist, in 1668, praises the excellent performance on the harp of Sir Edward Sutton, who, in the following year, was granted by King Charles II. the lands of Confey, Co.  Kildare.  Two beautiful harps of this period are still preserved—­the Fitzgerald Harp and the Fogarty Harp.

There are many exquisite airs of the seventeenth century, some of which have been incorporated in Moore’s Irish Melodies.  The titles of several airs of this epoch are of historical interest, e.g., “Sarsfield’s Lament,” “Lament for Owen Roe O’Neill,” “MacAlistrum’s March,” “Ned of the Hill,” “The Breach of Aughrim,” “Limerick’s Lamentation,” “Lilliburlero,” “Ballinamona,” “The Boyne Water,” and “The Wild Geese.”  Irish tunes abound in the various editions of Playford’s Country Dances from 1651 to 1720.

Turlogh O’Carolan (1670-1738), who has been styled “the last of the Irish bards”, wrote and composed innumerable songs, also Planxties, Plearacas, and Lamentations.  It is here merely necessary to note that twenty-six of O’Carolan’s airs are included in Moore’s Irish Melodies, although his claim to them has only recently been proved by the present writer.  Goldsmith’s eulogy of O’Carolan is well known.