COMPOSERS of our time find an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the poetry of Queen Elizabeth's days and the century that followed her reign. Among the most popular settings of such poems are Roger Quitter 's Seven Elizabethan Lyrics. Last of these seven is the anonymous Fair House of Joy. It is a rapturous song of love. Typical lines are these :—
' Love is the perfect sum
Of all delight! '
And these:—
0 Love ! they wrong thee much
That say thy sweet is bitter:
The title is taken from part of the second stanza :—
' Fair house of joy and bliss,
Where truest pleasure is,
I do adore thee.'
THE Song of the Flea is the cynical song of Mephistopheles in Auerbaeh's drinking cellar, at the opening of Goethe's Faust. It is a satire upon princes' favourites, telling of a king who kept ' such a fine fat flea,' dressed him in silks and velvets and made him a Minister.

: Songs by Ethel
Williams (Contralto). Children's Story. A Talk on ' Desert Islands,' by Arnica. Pianoforte Solos by Margaret Ablethorpe