Bathing In The River

PIETRO REGGIO was one of the numerous Italian musicians who settled in England in the seventeenth century. Born at Genoa, he was in the service of Christina, Queen of Sweden, during her residence in Rome, but came to England before 1677. He published a book of songs in 1680, from which the song here printed is taken. The words are from Abraham Cowley's book, The Mistress, or several copies of Love- Verses (1668) ; the original song has six stanzas, of which Reggio has set the first and third. Reggio lived mostly at Oxford, where he enjoyed a considerable reputation. He is supposed to be identical with a musician mentioned by Pepys as the " slovenly and ugly fellow, Signor Pedro, who sings Italian songs to the theorbo most neatly " (Diary, July 22, 1664). He died in 1685.