The anthems and psalms, with the exception of the _Miserere_ which is
the last psalm at Lauds, most of the lessons and other parts of the
office, are sung in plain chant. From the middle of the 15th century
the three lamentations or first three lessons of each day used to be
sung in _canto figurato_ in the papal chapel: but by order of Sixtus
V, only the first lamentation of each day is thus sung, and even it
is much shortened, as Clement XII directed: the two others are sung
in _canto piano_ according to Guidetti's method. The first lamentation
both of the first and second day is by the celebrated Pierluigi da
Palestrina: that of the third day by Allegri. Baini observes, that
the first lamentation of the second day is considered the finest:
Palestrina composed it for four voices, besides a bass, which entering
at the pathetic apostrophe 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, be converted to the
Lord' "every year makes all the hearers and singers, who have a soul,
change colour". Bayni, Mem. Stor. T. 1. The lamentations of Jeremiah
have the form of an acrostic, that is, the verses begin with the
letters of the Hebrew alphabet in regular order, the first with
Aleph, the second with Beth, and so in succession. It was difficult
to observe a similar order in the Latin Vulgate: but to preserve
some vestige of it, the name of the Hebrew letter, with which each
verse begins in the original, is sung before the same verse in the
translation.

[Sidenote: Conclusion of the office.]

When the _Benedictus_ or canticle of Zachary and its anthem are
finished, the choir sings the verse "Christ was made for us obedient
even unto death": on the second night they add "even unto the death of
the cross": and on the third, "for which reason God hath exalted him,