WILLIAM MORRIS 429
some of his tastes and notions, was any change manifestedin this regard. In the comparatively recent work of “ ADream of John Ball,” Morris again alludes in sympatheticterms to his impressions of the olden plain-song ofCatholic worship; when he tells how there came to him a“ sound of ... a song, gradually swelling, . . . familiarenough to me to bring back to my mind the great archesof some cathedral in France and the canons singing in thechoir.” “As a matter of fadt he had,” says Mr. BernardShaw, “ a perfedt ear, a most musical singing voice, andso fine a sense of beauty in sound (as in everything else)that he could not endure the clatter of the pianoforte orthe squalling and shouting of the average singer. WhenI told him that the Amsterdam choir, brought over hereby M. de Lange, had discovered the secret of the beautyof mediaeval music, and sang it with surpassing excellence,he was full of regret for having missed it; and the Violconcerts of M. Dolmetsch pleased him greatly. Indeed,once, during his illness, when M. Dolmetsch played himsome really beautiful music on a really beautiful instru-ment, he was quite overcome by it.” Certainly Morriswas not “musical” as the term is commonly applied.That which passes vulgarly for “ music ” had no attradtionsfor him; conventional instruments, conventionally handled,his soul abhorred. Nay, so intolerant was he of thecounterfeits performed to-day that he would sometimesincur the risk, in default of an explanation of his behaviour,of being set down as irredeemably unmusical. For in-stance, lie has been known, on arriving during service-time at an ancient English cathedral which, at any othermoment, and under other circumstances, he would havebeen only too eager to explore, to eledt to wait outsideuntil the last note of the voluntary had died away soonerthan submit to listen to the organ-playing. This phe-nomenon is not unknown in certain temperaments. It issaid to exist in Swinburne to a degree so much greaterthat it causes him acute agony to hear the sound of music.In neither case, however, must the symptom be supposedto arise from lack of the musical faculty, but, on the con-