Travers was a chorister at the Chapel Royal under John Goldwin, was taught by Pepusch, and was apprenticed to Maurice Greene. He held the post of Organist at the Chapel Royal from 1737 until his death. This piece is one of six three-part canzonets published in Travers' "Eighteen Canzonets", London, 1746. This collection was an early and popular contribution to works in the canzonet style, and helped set the template for writers of more ambitious glees in the second half of the eighteenth century. The original edition contained a particularly meticulous figured bass. That has been abandoned in the present edition in favour of a reduction. These canzonets were incorporated into the glee tradition, and are most appropriately performed in accordance with that tradition; unaccompanied.

Lyrics: Horace (trans. William Oldisworth)

Fair and ugly, false and true,
All to great Venus' yoke must bow:
Such pleasure in our pains she takes,
And laughs to see what sport she makes.