Scipio Africanus visited his descendant in a dream and--

_Shewed he him the litel erthe, that heer is,
In regard of the hevenes quantit�:
And after shewed he him the nyn� sper�s,
And after that the melodye herde he
That cometh of thilke sper�s thry�s-three
That welle is of musicke and melodye
In this world heer, and cause of armonye._

While Shakespeare in the last Act of _The Merchant of Venice_ makes all
the stars vocal, and not the planets only:

_There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims..._

And Milton in _Arcades_ goes straight back to Plato (save that his
spheres are nine, as with Chaucer):

_then listen I
To the celestial Sirens' harmony
That sit upon the nine enfolded spheres
And sing to those that hold the vital shears
And turn the adamantine spindle round
Of which the fate of gods and men is wound.
Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie
To lull the daughters of Necessity,
And keep unsteady Nature to her law,
And the low world in measured motion draw