am _dog at a
catch_.

_Clo._ By'r lady, sir, and _some dogs_ will _catch well_.

_Sir And._ Most certain. Let our _catch_ be, "Thou Knave."

_Clo._ "Hold thy peace, thou knave," knight? I shall be
constrained to _call thee knave_, knight.

_Sir And._ 'Tis not the first time I have constrained one to
call me knave. _Begin_, fool: it begins, "_Hold thy peace_."

_Clo._ I shall never begin, if I hold my peace.

_Sir And._ Good, i'faith. Come, begin.

[_They sing a catch._]

_Enter_ MARIA.

_Mar._ What a caterwauling do you keep here!

* * * * *

_Sir To._ My lady's a Cataian; we are politicians;
Malvolio's a Peg-a-Ramsey, and "_Three merry men be we_."...
_Tilly-valley_, lady! [_Sings._] "There dwelt a man in
Babylon, lady, lady!"

* * * * *

_Sir To._ [_Sings._] "O! the twelfth day of December."----

_Mar._ For the love o'God, peace!

_Enter_ MALVOLIO.

_Mal._ My masters, are you mad? or what are you? Have you no
wit, manners, nor honesty, but to _gabble like tinkers_ at
this time of night? Do ye make an _alehouse_ of my lady's
house, that ye squeak out your _cozier's catches_ without
any mitigation or remorse of voice? Is there no respect of
place, persons, or _time_ in you?

_Sir To._ _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