The first part.

Phi. But what if it have a tail?

Ma. I pray you give me leave first to dispatch those which lack tails: and then I will speak of them which have tails.

Phi. Go to then, but what if the next note be ascending?

Ma. Then is it a brief, thus.

Musical notation on a five-line staff showing a ligature (two notes connected by a diagonal ascending block) followed by similar figures, with the numbers 2 2 2 2 2 2 printed below to indicate rhythmic value.

Phi. But interrupting your course of speech of Ligatures: how many notes doth that character contain which you have set down last?

Ma. Two.

Phi. Where do they stand? For I thought it should have been set thus, A musical staff showing a vertical block followed by five diamond-shaped notes ascending. because it stretcheth from A la mi re to E la mi.

Ma. The notes stand at the beginning and the end, as in this example aforesaid: the first standeth in A la mi re, the last in E la mi.

Phi. Proceed then to the declaration of the tailed notes.

Ma. If the first note have a tail on the left side hanging downward: (the second ascending or descending) it is a brief:

First notes with tails coming down.

Musical notation on a staff showing various ligatures with downward-pointing tails on the left side. Below the staff are the numbers 2 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 2 2 indicating rhythmic values.

Phi. But how if the tail go upward?

Ma. Then is it and the next immediately following, (which I pray you keep well in mind,) a semibreve:

First notes with tails ascending.

Musical notation on a staff showing ligatures with upward-pointing tails on the left side. Below the staff are the numbers 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 indicating rhythmic values.

Phi. How if the tail go both upward and downward?

Ma. There is no note so formed as to have a tail on one side to go both upward and downward.

Phi. But how if it have a tail on the right side?

Ma. Then out of doubt it is as though it were not in Ligature and is a Long, thus.

Every Note having a tail on the right side, is as though it were not in Ligature

Musical notation on a staff showing notes and ligatures where the first note has a tail on the right side. Below the staff are the numbers 4 2 4 2 4 4 4 4 4 indicating rhythmic values.

And this is true, as well in the last notes as in the first.

Phi. Now I think you have told me all that may be spoken of the first notes: I pray you proceed to the middle notes, and their nature.