Note E495 — 114.
Reading edition
"The better brest," etc. On these words Hawkins, in his Hist. of Music, ed. 1853, ii. 537, remarks: "In singing, the sound is originally produced by the action of the lungs, which are so essential an organ in this respect, that to have a good breast was formerly a common periphrasis to denote a good singer." Cf. Shakspere, Twelfth Night, Act ii. sc. 3, "By my troth, the fool hath an excellent breast." Halliwell quotes:
"I syng not musycall For my brest is decayd." —Armonye of Byrdes, p. 5.
Ascham, in his Toxophilus, says, when speaking of the expediency of educating youths in singing: "Trulye two degrees of men, which have the highest offices under the king in all this realme, shall greatly lacke the vse of singinge, preachers and lawyers, because they shall not, without this, be able to rule theyr brestes for euerye purpose."—Lond. 1571, fo. 86; and in Strype's Life of Arch. Parker it is stated that "In the Statutes of Stoke College, Suffolk, founded by Parker, is a provision in these words: 'of which said queristers, after their breasts are changed, will the most apt of wit and capacity be holpen with exhibitions of forty shillings.'"