ABSTRACT
A prime instance of the continuation of French musical activity within the court’s orbit can be seen in the work of Robert Cambert, who stayed on in England despite the probable demise of the Royall Academy of Musick in the spring of 1674 and the departure of several of its members during the ensuing year. Notwithstanding Pierre Des Maizeaux’s later characterization of him as “Sur-Intendant de la Musique de Charles II,”2 Cambert appears never to have held a bona fide court appointment: as we have already noted, John Buttrey has plausibly argued that he was based not in the royal music itself, but rather in the household of Charles II’s chief mistress, the Duchess of Portsmouth, from whence the musician-who, according to Lecerf, had attracted “des marques d’amitié & des bienfaits considérables du Roi d’Angleterre & des plus grands Seigneurs de la Cour”3-would have been available to the royal court on an informal basis as
1 See p. 253, above. 2 Pierre Des Maizeaux, revised (1709) version of “La Vie de Monsieur de Saint-Evremond.
