"The Owl is abroad."

On what ground is the fine base song, "The Owl is abroad," attributed to Henry Purcell? Dr. Clarke has done so in his well-known selections from Purcell's works; and Mr. G. Hogarth, in his *Memoirs of the Musical Drama*, speaking of Purcell's *Tempest*, says: "There is a song for Caliban, *The Owl is abroad, the Bat and the Toad*, which one might suppose Weber to have imagined." Is it not really the property of John Christopher Smith, the friend of Handel? Amongst the few books of printed music in the *British Museum Catalogue* is *The Tempest, an Opera, composed by Mr. Smith*, in which is the…