The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare and Music, by Edward W. Naylor
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Title: Shakespeare and Music
With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries
Author: Edward W. Naylor
Release Date: October 31, 2006 [EBook #19676]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE AND MUSIC ***
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SHAKESPEARE AND MUSIC
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE MUSIC OF THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES
BY
EDWARD W. NAYLOR, M.A., MUS. BAC.
LONDON
J.M. DENT & CO., ALDINE HOUSE, E.C.
1896
_All rights reserved._
[Transcriber's Notes:
1. The original text uses a "fraction" format for citations to
Shakespeare's plays, e.g.:
3
_Rom._ -----
5, 25
For clarity, in this e-text the "fractions" have been converted to a
one-line citation, e.g., _Rom._ III, v, 25 (signifying Act III, scene
v, line 25). Where the original does not use the fraction format, the
citation style has not been altered.
2. The original text sometimes misspells "Passamezzo" as "Passemezzo"
and "viol da gamba" as "viol de gamba." These have been corrected in
this e-text.
3. The original text inconsistently uses a breve over the e in
"Parthenia" and "Passameso." For clarity, the breve has been removed
in this e-text, as it is not part of the usual spelling of these
words, and has in fact been omitted from the 1931 revised edition of
the book.]
PREFACE
This book contains little that is not tolerably well known both to
Shakespeare scholars and musicians who have any acquaintance with the
history of music. It is hoped that it may be of some use to a large
class of students of Shakespeare who have no opportunity to gather up
the general information which will be found here. The author also
ventures to believe that some brother musicians will be gratified to
see at one view what a liberal treatment the great Poet has given to
our noble art. It will be observed that settings of Shakespearian
Songs of a later date than the generation immediately succeeding
Shakespeare's death are not noticed. The large number of settings of
the 18th century, by such men as Arne, though interesting musically,
have nothing whatever to do with the student of Shakespeare and the
circumstances of his time. It can only be regretted that so much of
the original music seems to have perished.
The author is greatly indebted to Mr Aldis Wright, who has kindly
looked through the work in MS., and contributed one or two interesting
notes, which are acknowledged in the proper place.
LONDON, _March 1896_.
CONTENTS
PAGE
DESCRIPTION OF FRONTISPIECE ix
INTRODUCTORY 1
TECHNICAL TERMS AND INSTRUMENTS 21
MUSICAL EDUCATION 58
SONGS AND SINGING 65
SERENADES AND 'MUSIC' 96
DANCES AND DANCING 113
PYTHAGOREANISM, etc. 152
USE OF MUSICAL STAGE DIRECTIONS 165
APPENDIX 185
DESCRIPTION OF FRONTISPIECE
[Illustration]
[I am indebted for the arrangement of this picture to the kindness of
the authorities at South Kensington Museum, where all these
instruments may be found, except the Pipe and Cornet, which belong to
my friend, Mr W.F.H. Blandford.]
_In the middle, on table._
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S 'VIRGINAL.' Date, latter half of 16th century.
Outside of case (not visible in picture) covered with red velvet.
Inside finely decorated. Has three locks. Is more properly a Spinet,
the case not being square, but of the usual Spinet shape--viz., one
long side (front view), and four shorter ones forming a rough
semi-circle at back.
_Top row, counting from the right._
1. TABOR-PIPE. Modern, but similar to the Elizabethan instrument.
French name, 'galoubet.' Merely a whistle, cylindrical bore, and 3
holes, two in front, one (for thumb) behind. The scale is produced on
the basis of the 1st harmonic--thus 3 holes are sufficient. It was
played with left hand only, the tabor being hung to the left wrist,
and beaten with a stick in the right hand. Length _over all_ of pipe
in picture, 1 ft. 2-1/2 in.; speaking length, 1 ft. 1-1/8 in.; lowest
note in use, B flat above treble staff. Mersennus (1648), however,
says the tabor-pipe was in G, which makes it larger than the one in
the picture. A contemporary woodcut (in Calmour's 'Fact and Fiction
about Shakespeare') of William Kemp, one of Shakespeare's
fellow-actors, dancing the Morris, to tabor and pipe, makes the pipe
as long as from mouth to waist--viz., about 18 inches, which agrees
with Mersennus. A similar woodcut in 'Orchésographie' makes the pipe
even longer. Both represent pipe as conical, like oboe. The length of
the tabor, in these two woodcuts, seems to be about 1 ft. 9 in., and
the breadth, across the head, 9 or 10 in. No snare in the English
woodcut, but the French one has a snare.
2. CORNET (treble), date 16th or 17th century. Tube slightly curved,
external shape octagonal, bore conical. Cupped mouthpiece of horn, 6
holes, and one behind for thumb. Lowest note, A under treble staff.
3. RECORDER. Large beak-flute of dark wood. Three joints, not
including beak. The beak has a hole at the back, covered with a thin
skin, which vibrates and gives a slight reediness to the tone. The
usual 6 finger holes in front, a thumb hole behind, and a
right-or-left little-finger hole in lowest joint.
4. SMALL FRENCH TREBLE VIOL, 17th century. _Back view_, same shape as
of all other viols of whatever size. 6 strings, 4 frets.
5. TREBLE VIOL, as used in England and Italy; label inside--Andreas
(?) Amati, Cremona, 1637. _Side view_, shews carved head and flat
back. 6 strings, 4 frets, ivory nut.
6. TENOR VIOL. English, late 17th century. _Front view_, shewing
sloping shoulders. 6 strings, 7 frets, plain head.
7. VIOL DA GAMBA BOW. Ancient shape. No screw. This shape in use later
than 1756.
8. VIOLONCELLO BOW. Modern shape, with screw.
_Bottom row, counting from left._
1. BASS VIOL, or VIOL DA GAMBA, or DIVISION VIOL. Italian, 1600.
Carved head, inlaid fingerboard, carved and inlaid tailpiece. 6
strings, 7 frets.
2. LUTE. Italian, 1580. Three plain holes in belly, obliquely.
Ornamental back. Flat head. Pegs turned with key from behind. 12
strings--viz., 1 single (treble), 4 doubles, 1 single, and 2 singles
off the fingerboard (basses). 10 frets.
3. ARCH LUTE. Italian, 17th century. 18 strings, 8 on lower neck, 10
on higher, off the fingerboard. The latter are 'basses,' and probably
half of them duplicates. 7 frets on neck, 5 more on belly.
INTRODUCTORY
A principal character of the works of a very great author is, that in
them each man can find that for which he seeks, and in a form which
includes his own view.
With Shakespeare, as one of the greatest of the great, this is
pre-eminently the case. One reader looks for simply dramatic interest,
another for natural philosophy, and a third for morals, and each is
more than satisfied with the treatment of his own special subject.
It is scarcely a matter of surprise, therefore, that the musical
student should look in Shakespeare for music, and find it treated of
from several points of view, completely and accurately.
This is the more satisfactory, as no subject in literature has been
treated with greater scorn for accuracy, or general lack of real
interest, than this of music.
This statement will admit of comparatively few exceptions, one of
which must here be mentioned.
The author of "John Inglesant," Mr Shorthouse, whether he "crammed"
his music or not, has in that book given a lively and quite accurate
picture of the art as practised about Charles I.'s time.
There is no need here to name the many well-known writers who have
spoken of music with a lofty disregard for facts and parade of
ignorance which, displayed in any other matter, would have brought on
them the just contempt of any reviewer.
The student of music in Shakespeare is bound to view the subject in
two different ways, the first purely historical, the second (so to
speak) psychological.
As for the first, the most superficial comparison of the plays alone,
with the records of the practice and social position of the musical
art in Elizabethan times, shews that Shakespeare is in every way a
trustworthy guide in these matters; while, as for the second view,
there are many most interesting passages which treat of music from the
emotional standpoint, and which clearly shew his thorough personal
appreciation of its higher and more spiritual qualities.
Hamlet tells us, and we believe, often without clearly understanding,
that players are _the abstracts and brief chronicles of the time_, and
that the end of playing, both at the first and now, was, and is, to
hold the mirror up to nature, and _to shew the very age and body of
the time, his form and pressure_.
The study of this one feature of the "age and body" of Shakespeare's
time, with the view of clearly grasping the extreme accuracy of the
"abstract and brief chronicle" to be found in his works, will surely
go some way to give definiteness and force to our ideas of
Shakespeare's magnificent grip of all other phases of thought and of
action.
The argument recommends itself--"If he is trustworthy in this subject,
he is trustworthy in all."
To a professional reader at all events, it argues very much indeed in
a writer's favour, that the "layman" has managed to write the simplest
sentence about a specialty, without some more or less serious blunder.
Finally, no Shakespeare student will deny that some general help is
necessary, when Schmidt's admirable Lexicon commits itself to such a
misleading statement as that a virginal is a kind of small pianoforte,
and when a very distinguished Shakespeare scholar has allowed a
definition of a viol as a six-stringed guitar to appear in print under
his name.
Out of thirty-seven plays of Shakespeare, there are no less than
thirty-two which contain interesting references to music and musical
matters _in the text itself_. There are also over three hundred stage
directions which are musical in their nature, and these occur in
thirty-six out of thirty-seven plays.
The musical references in the text are most commonly found in the
comedies, and are generally the occasion or instrument of
word-quibbling and witticisms; while the musical stage directions
belong chiefly to the tragedies, and are mostly of a military nature.
As it is indispensable that the student of Shakespeare and Music
should have a clear idea of the social status and influence of music
in Shakespearian times, here follows a short sketch of the history of
this subject, which the reader is requested to peruse with the
deliberate object of finding every detail confirmed in Shakespeare's
works.
MUSIC IN SOCIAL LIFE.
(_Temp., 16th and 17th centuries._)
Morley, "Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music," 1597, pp. 1
and 2. Here we read of a dinner-party, or "banket," at which the
conversation was entirely about music. Also--after supper--_according
to custom_--"parts" were handed round by the hostess. Philomathes has
to make many excuses as to his vocal inability, and finally is obliged
to confess that he cannot sing at all. At this the rest of the company
"wonder"--and some whisper to their neighbours, "How was he brought
up?" Phil. is ashamed--and goes to seek Gnorimus the music-master. The
master is surprised to see him--as Phil. has heretofore distinguished
himself by inveighing against music as a "corrupter of good manners,
and an allurement to vices." Phil.'s experience of the supper-party
has so far changed his views that he wishes as soon as may be to
change his character of Stoic for that of Pythagorean. Thereupon the
master begins to teach him from the very beginning, "as though he were
a child."
Then follows a long lesson--which is brought to an end by Philomathes
giving farewell to the master as thus--"Sir, I thanke you, and meane
so diligently to practise till our next meeting, that then I thinke I
shall be able to render you a full account of all which you have told
me, till the which time I wish you such contentment of mind and ease
of body as you desire to yourselfe (Master's health had been very bad
for long enough) or mothers use to wish to their children." The Master
replies--"I thanke you: and assure your selfe it will not be the
smallest part of my contentment to see my schollers go towardly
forward in their studies, which I doubt not but you will doe, if you
take but reasonable pains in practise."
Later on in the Third Part (p. 136) Phil.'s brother Polymathes comes
with him to Gnorimus for a lesson in Descant--_i.e._, the art of
extemporaneously adding a part to the written plainsong.[1] This
brother had had lessons formerly from a master who carried a plainsong
book in his pocket, and caused him to do the like; "and so walking in
the fields, hee would sing the plaine song, and cause me to sing the
descant, etc." Polymathes tells us also that his master had a friend,
a descanter himself, who used often to drop in--but "never came in my
maister's companie ... but they fell to contention.... What? (saith
the one), you keepe not time in your proportions: you sing them false
(saith the other), what proportion is this? (saith hee),
sesqui-_paltery_ (saith the other): nay (would the other say), you
sing you know not what, it shoulde seeme you came latelie from a
Barber's shop, where you had _Gregory Walker_ (derisive name for
'quadrant pavan,' 'which was most common 'mongst the Barbars and
Fidlers') or a _curranta_ plaide in the new proportions by them lately
found out, called sesqui-_blinda_, and sesqui-_harken-after_."
[Footnote 1: See Appendix.]
[These mocking terms, sesqui-_paltery_, sesqui-_blinda_, and
sesqui-_harken-after_, are perversions of names of "proportions" used
in the 16th century--as, sesqui-_altera_ (3 equal notes against 2).]
We find, on p. 208, that both Philomathes and Polymathes are young
University gentlemen--looking forward hereafter to be "admitted to the
handling of the weightie affaires of the common wealth."
The lessons end with their request to the master to give them "some
songes which may serve both to direct us in our compositions, and by
singing them recreate us after our more serious studies."
Thus we find that in Elizabeth's reign it was the "custom" for a
lady's guests to sing unaccompanied music from "parts," after supper;
and that inability to take "a part" was liable to remark from the rest
of the company, and indeed that such inability cast doubt on the
person having any title to education at all.
We find that one music master was accustomed to have his gentleman
pupils so constantly "in his company" that they would practise their
singing while "walking in the fields."
Finally--that part-singing from written notes, and also the extempore
singing of a second part (descant) to a written plainsong, was a
diversion of such young University gentlemen, and was looked on as a
proper form of recreation after hard reading.
In the 16th century music was considered an _essential_ part of a
clergyman's education. A letter from Sir John Harrington to Prince
Henry (brother of Charles I.) about Dr John Still, Bishop of Bath and
Wells in 1592, says that no one "could be admitted to _primam
tonsuram_, except he could first _bene le bene con bene can_, as they
called it, which is to read well, to conster [construe] well, and to
_sing well_, in which last he hath good judgment." [The three _bene's_
are of course _le-gere, con-struere, can-tare_.]
Also, according to Hawkins (History of Music, p. 367), the statutes of
Trinity College, Cambridge, founded by Henry VIII., make part of the
Examination of Candidates for Fellowships to be in "Quid in Cantando
possint"; indeed, _all members were supposed capable of singing a part
in choir service_.[2]
[Footnote 2: This statement of Hawkins' seems a little exaggerated. Mr
Aldis Wright tells me that the statutes provided for an examination in
singing for Candidates for Fellowships, and that ability gave a
candidate an advantage, in case of equality. Singing was not required
of all candidates, but the subject was considered on the fourth day of
the examination, along with the essay and verse composition.]
(Long before this, in 1463, Thomas Saintwix, _doctor in music_, was
elected Master of King's College, Cambridge.)
Accordingly, we find Henry VIII., who, as a younger brother, was
intended for the Church, and eventually for the See of Canterbury, was
a good practical musician. Erasmus says he composed offices for the
church. An anthem, "O Lord, the maker of all things," is ascribed to
him; and Hawkins gives a motet in three parts by the king, "Quam
pulchra es."
Chappell's Old English Popular Music gives a passage from a letter of
Pasqualigo the Ambassador-extraordinary, dated about 1515, which says
that Henry VIII. "plays well on the lute and virginals, sings from
book at sight," etc. Also in Vol. I. are given two part-songs by the
king, 'Pastyme with good companye' and 'Wherto shuld I expresse.'
A somewhat unclerical amusement of Henry VIII.'s is related by Sir
John Harrington (temp. James I.). An old monkish rhyme, "The Blacke
Saunctus, or Monkes Hymn to Saunte Satane," was set to music in a
canon of three parts by Harrington's father (who had married a natural
daughter of Henry VIII.); and King Henry was used "in pleasaunt moode
to sing it." For the music and words, see Hawkins, pp. 921 and 922.
Anne Boleyn was an enthusiastic musician, and, according to Hawkins,
"doted on the compositions of Jusquin and Mouton, and had collections
of them made for the private practice of herself and her maiden
companions."
It appears from the Diary of King Edward VI. that he was a musician,
as he mentions playing on the lute before the French Ambassador as one
of the several accomplishments which he displayed before that
gentleman, July 19th, 1551.
There is also a letter from Queen Catherine (of Arragon), the mother
of Queen Mary, in which she exhorts her "to use her virginals and
lute, if she has any."
As for Elizabeth, there is abundant evidence that she was a good
virginal player.
The best known MS. collection of virginal music (that in the
Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge) has at least always been known as
Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, and the following quaint story is
quoted by Hawkins from Melvil's Memoirs (Lond. 1752).
"The same day, after dinner, my Lord of Hunsdean drew me up to a quiet
gallery that I might hear some music (but he said he durst not avow
it), where I might hear the queen play upon the virginals. After I had
hearkened a while I took by [aside] the tapestry that hung before the
door of the chamber, and stood a pretty space, hearing her play
excellently well; but she left off immediately so soon as she turned
her about and saw me. She appeared to be surprised to see me, and came
forward, seeming to strike me with her hand, alledging she was not
used to play before men, but when she was solitary to shun
melancholy." [Queen Elizabeth's Virginal is in South Kensington
Museum.]
To go on with the Royal musicians (who are interesting as such,
because their habit _must have set the fashion of the day_), in James
I.'s reign we find that Prince Charles learnt the Viol da Gamba from
Coperario (_i.e._, John Cooper). Also Playford (temp. Charles II.)
says of Charles I. that the king "often appointed the service and
anthems himself" in the Royal Chapel; "and would play his part exactly
well on the bass-violl,"--_i.e._, the viol da gamba.
George Herbert, who was by birth a courtier, found in music "his
chiefest recreation," "and did himself compose many divine hymns and
anthems, which he set and sung to his lute or viol.... His love to
music was such, that he went usually twice every week ... to the
cathedral church in Salisbury; and at his return would say that his
time spent in prayer and cathedral music elevated his soul, and was
his heaven upon earth." But not only was the poet-priest a lover of
church music, for (Walton's Life goes on) "before his return thence to
Bemerton, he would usually _sing and play his part at an appointed
private music meeting_." This was fourteen years after Shakespeare's
death.
Anthony Wood, who was at Oxford University in 1651, gives a most
interesting account of the practice of chamber music for viols (and
even violins, which, by Charles II.'s time, had superseded the feebler
viols) in Oxford. In his Life, he mentions that "the gentlemen in
privat meetings, which A.W. frequented, play'd three, four, and five
Parts with Viols, as, Treble-Viol, Tenor, Counter-Tenor, and Bass,
with an Organ, Virginal, or Harpsicon joyn'd with them: and they
esteemed a Violin to be an Instrument only belonging to a common
Fidler, and could not endure that it should come among them, for feare
of making their Meetings to be vaine and fidling." Wood went to a
_weekly meeting_ of musicians in Oxford. Amongst those whom he names
as "performing their parts" are four Fellows of New College, a Fellow
of All Souls, who was "an admirable Lutenist," "Ralph Sheldon, Gent.,
a Rom. Catholick ... living in Halywell neare Oxon., admired for his
smooth and admirable way in playing on the Viol," and a Master of Arts
of Magdalen, who had a weekly meeting at his own college. Besides the
amateurs, there were eight or nine professional musicians who
frequented these meetings. This was in 1656, and in 1658 Wood gives
the names of over sixteen other persons, with whom he used to play and
sing, all of whom were Fellows of Colleges, Masters of Arts, or at
least members of the University. Amongst them was "Thom. Ken of New
Coll., a Junior" (afterwards Bishop Ken, one of the seven bishops who
were deprived at the Revolution), who could "sing his part." All the
rest played either viol, violin, organ, virginals, or harpsichord, or
were "songsters."
"These did frequent the Weekly Meetings, and _by the help of public
Masters of Musick_, who were mixed with them, they were much
improved."
There seems to have been little that was not pure enjoyment in these
meetings. Only two persons out of the thirty-two mentioned seem to
have had any undesirable quality--viz., Mr Low, organist of Christ
Church, who was "a _proud_ man," and "could not endure any common
Musitian to come to the meeting;" and "Nathan. Crew, M.A., Fellow of
Linc. Coll., a Violinist and Violist, _but alwaies played out of
Tune_." This last gentleman was afterwards Bishop of Durham.
Thus we find that in the 16th and 17th centuries a practical
acquaintance with music was a regular part of the education of both
sovereign, gentlemen of rank, and the higher middle class.
We find Henry VIII. composing church music, and at the same time
enjoying himself singing in the three-part canon composed by his
friend, a gentleman of rank.
We find that a Fellow of Trinity at the same time was expected to
sing "his part" in chapel as a matter of course. We find Edward VI.,
Mary, and Elizabeth to have all been capable players on lute or
virginals. We find that it was the merest qualification that an
Elizabethan bishop should be able to sing well; and that young
University gentlemen of birth thought it nothing out of the way to
learn all the mysteries of both prick-song (a _written_ part) and
descant (an _extempore_ counterpoint), and to solace their weary hours
by singing "in parts."
Immediately after Shakespeare's time, we find a courtier of James I.,
and the ill-fated Prince Charles himself, both enthusiasts in both
church and chamber music; and lastly, two years after the Regicide, we
find the University of Oxford to have been a perfect hotbed of musical
cultivation. Men who afterwards became Bishops, Archdeacons,
Prebendaries, besides sixteen Fellows of Colleges, and sundry
gentlemen of family, were not ashamed to practise chamber music and
singing to an extent which really has no parallel whatever nowadays.
There is plenty of evidence, though more indirect in kind, that the
lower classes were as enthusiastic about music as the higher. A large
number of passages in contemporary authors shows clearly that singing
in parts (especially of "catches") was a common amusement with
blacksmiths, colliers, cloth-workers, cobblers, tinkers, watchmen,
country parsons, and soldiers.
In _Damon and Pithias_, 1565, Grimme, the _collier_, sings "a bussing
[buzzing] base," and two of his friends, Jack and Will, "quiddel upon
it," _i.e._, they sing the tune and words, while he buzzes the burden.
Peele's _Old Wives Tale_, 1595, says, "This _smith_ leads a life as
merry as a king; Sirrah Frolic, I am sure you are not without some
_round_ or other; no doubt but Clunch [the smith] can _bear his
part_."
Beaumont and Fletcher's _Coxcomb_ has
"Where were the _watch_ the while? good sober gentlemen,
They were, like careful members of the city,
Drawing in diligent ale, and _singing catches_."
Also in B. and F.'s _Faithful Friends_--
"_Bell._--Shall's have a _catch_, my hearts?
_Calve._--Aye, good lieutenant.
_Black._--Methinks a _soldier_[3] should sing nothing else;
_catch, that catch may_ is all our life, you know."
[Footnote 3: Drayton (James I.'s reign) in his "Battle of Agincourt,"
l. 1199, has--"The common Souldiers free-mens _catches_ sing"--of the
French before the battle (_free_men is a corruption of _three_men).]
[In _Bonduca_, a play of B. and F's., altered for operatic setting by
Purcell in 1695, there is a catch in three parts, sung by the Roman
soldiers.]
In Sir William Davenant's (Davenant flourished 1635) comedy _The
Wits_, Snore, one of the characters, says--
"It must be late, for gossip Nock, the _nailman_,
Had catechized his maids, and _sung three catches
And a song_, ere we set forth."
Samuel Harsnet, in his _Declaration of Egregious Impostures_, 1603,
mentions a 'merry catch,' 'Now God be with old Simeon' (for which see
Rimbault's Rounds, Canons, and Catches of England), which he says was
sung by _tinkers_ 'as they sit by the fire, with a pot of good ale
between their legs.'
And in _The Merry Devill of Edmonton_, 1631, there is a comical story
of how Smug _the miller_ was _singing a catch_ with the _merry Parson_
in an alehouse, and how they 'tost' the words "_I'll ty my mare in thy
ground_," 'so long to and fro,' that Smug forgot he was singing a
catch, and began to quarrel with the Parson, 'thinking verily, he had
meant (as he said in his song) to _ty his mare in his ground_.'
Finally, in _Pammelia_, a collection of Rounds and Catches of 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 parts, edited by Thomas Ravenscroft, and
published in 1609, there is a curious preface, which states that
'Catches are so _generally affected_ ... because they are so consonant
to _all ordinary musical capacity_, being such, indeed, as all such
_whose love of musick exceeds their skill_, cannot but commend.' The
preface further asserts that the book is 'published only _to please
good company_.'
To go on to _instrumental_ music among the lower classes of
Elizabethan and Shakespearian times; there is an allusion in the above
quoted passage from Morley (1597) to the habit of playing on an
instrument in a barber's shop while waiting one's turn to be shaved.
This is also referred to in Ben Jonson's _Alchemist_ and _Silent
Woman_. In the latter play, Cutberd the barber has recommended a wife
to Morose. Morose finds that instead of a mute helpmate he has got one
who had 'a tongue with a tang,' and exclaims 'that cursed _barber_! I
have married his _cittern_ that is common to all men': meaning that as
the barber's cittern was always being played, so his wife was always
talking.
There is a poem of the 18th century which speaks of the old times,
'In former time 't hath been upbrayded thus,
That _barber's musick_ was most _barbarous_.'
However true that may have been--at all events it is certain that in
the 16th and 17th centuries it was customary to hear instrumental
music in a barber's shop, generally of a cittern, which had four
strings and frets, like a guitar, and was thought a vulgar
instrument.[4]
[Footnote 4: The Cittern of the barber's shop had four double strings
of wire, tuned thus--1st, E in 4th space of treble staff; 2nd, D a
tone lower; 3rd, G on 2nd line; 4th, B on 3rd line. The instrument had
a carved head. See _L.L.L._ V. ii., lines 600-603, of Holofernes'
head. Also the frontispiece, where the treble viol and viol-da-gamba
have carved heads, both human, but of different types. Fantastic
heads, as of dragons or gargoyles, were often put on these
instruments.]
Another use of instrumental music was to entertain the guests in a
tavern. A pamphlet called _The Actor's Remonstrance_, printed 1643,
speaks of the _decay_ of music in taverns, which followed the closing
of theatres in 1642, as follows:--"Our music, that was held so
delectable and precious [_i.e._, in Shakespeare's times], that _they
scorned to come to a tavern under twenty shillings_ salary _for two
hours_, now wander [_i.e._, 1643] with their instruments under their
cloaks--I mean, such as have any--into all houses of good fellowship,
saluting every room where there is company with, 'Will you have any
music, gentlemen?'"
Finally, in Gosson's "Short Apologie of the Schoole of Abuse," 1587,
we find that "London is so full of unprofitable pipers and fiddlers,
that a man can no sooner enter a tavern, than two or three cast of
them hang at his heels, to give him a dance before he depart." These
men sang ballads and catches as well. Also they played during dinner.
Lyly says--"Thou need no more send for a fidler to a feast, than a
beggar to a fair."
All this leads to the just conclusion, that if ever a country deserved
to be called 'musical,' that country was England, in the 16th and 17th
centuries. King and courtier, peasant and ploughman, each could 'take
his part,' with each music was a part of his daily life; while so far
from being above knowing the difference between a minim and a
crotchet, a gentleman would have been ashamed not to know it.
In this respect, at any rate, the 'good old days' were indeed better
than those that we now see. Even a _public-house song_ in Elizabeth's
day was a canon in three parts, a thing which could only be managed
'first time through' nowadays by the very first rank of professional
singers.
SHAKESPEARE PASSAGES
I
TECHNICAL TERMS AND INSTRUMENTS
We now proceed to consider some representative passages of Shakespeare
which deal with music.
These may be taken roughly in six divisions--viz. (1) Technical Terms
and Instruments, (2) Musical Education, (3) Songs and Singing, (4)
Serenades and other domestic 'Music,' (5) Dances and Dancing, (6)
Miscellaneous, including Shakespeare's account of the more spiritual
side of music.
To begin on the first division. There are many most interesting
passages which bristle with technical words; and these are liable to
be understood by the reader in a merely general way, with the result
that the point is wholly or partly missed. With a reasonable amount of
explanation, and a general caution to the student not to pass over
words or phrases that appear obscure, there is no reason why these
passages should not be understood by all in a much fuller light.
The following lines, though not in a play, are so full of musical
similes that it may be useful to take them at once.
_Lucrece_, line 1124.
"My _restless discord_ loves no _stops_ nor _rests_;
A woful hostess brooks not merry guests.
Relish your _nimble notes_ to pleasing ears;
Distress like _dumps_, when _time is kept_ with tears."
(Then to the nightingale)--
"Come, Philomel, that sing'st of ravishment,
Make thy sad grove in my dishevell'd hair:
As the dank earth weeps at thy languishment,
So I at each sad _strain_ will _strain_ a tear,
And with deep groans the _diapason_ bear;
For _burden_ wise I'll _hum_ on Tarquin still,
While thou on Tereus _descant'st_ better skill.
And while against a thorn thou _bear'st thy part_,
To keep thy sharp woes waking....
These means, as _frets_ upon an _instrument_,
Shall _tune_ our heart-_strings_ to true languishment."
Here Lucrece tells the birds to cease their joyous notes, and calls on
the nightingale to sing the song of Tereus, while she herself bears
the 'burden' with her groans.
The first line contains a quibble on 'rests' and 'restless' discord.
'Nimble notes' was used in the Shakespearian time as we should use the
term 'brilliant music.' Lucrece was in no humour for trills and runs,
but rather for Dumps, where she could keep slow time with her tears.
The Dumpe (from Swedish Dialect, _dumpa_, to dance awkwardly) was a
slow, mournful dance. [See Appendix.] There is another quibble in l.
1131, on _strain_. A 'strain' is the proper Elizabethan word for a
formal phrase of a musical composition. For instance, in a Pavan,
Morley (Introduction to Practical Music, 1597) says a 'straine' should
consist of 8, 12, or 16 semibreves (we should say 'bars' instead of
'semibreves') 'as they list, yet fewer then eight I have not seene in
any pauan.'
'Diapason' meant the interval of an octave. Here Lucrece says she will
'bear the diapason' with deep groans, _i.e._, 'hum' a 'burden' or
drone an octave lower than the nightingale's 'descant.' The earliest
'burden' known is that in the ancient Round 'Sumer is icumen in,' of
the 13th century. Here four voices sing the real music in canon to
these words--
'Sumer is icumen in, Lhudè sing Cuccu,
Groweth seed and bloweth mead and springth the wdè nu,
Sing Cuccu,
Awè bleteth after lomb, lhouth after calvè cu,
Bulluc sterteth, Buckè verteth, murie sing cuccu,
Cuccu, Cuccu,
Wel singès thu cuccu, ne swik thu naver nu.'--
while all the time two other voices of lower pitch sing a monotonous
refrain, 'Sing cuccu nu, Sing cuccu,' which they repeat _ad infinitum_
till the four who sing the Round are tired. This refrain is called Pes
(or 'foot'), and this is the kind of thing which Lucrece means by
'burden.' The word 'hum' may be considered technical, see the
Introduction, where '_buzzing_ bass' is referred to. The tune, 'Light
o' love' [see Appendix], as we know from _Much Ado_ III, iv, 41, used
to go _without_ a burden, and was considered a 'light' tune on that
account, see _Two Gent._ I, ii, 80.
'Descant,' in l. 1134, wants explaining. To 'descant' meant to sing or
play an _extempore_ second 'part' to a written melody. The point was
that it should be extempore; if written down it ceased to be true
descant, and was then called 'prick-song.' A rough example may be had
in the extempore bass or alto which some people still sing in church
instead of the melody. A more accurate example of descant would be
this--let A sing a hymn tune, say the Old 100th, and let B accompany
him _extempore_ with a separate melody within the bounds of harmony. B
is 'descanting' on the melody that A sings.[5]
[Footnote 5: Appendix, Ex. 1.]
The art of descant in Elizabeth's time corresponded closely with what
we call 'Strict Counterpoint' (_contra_, _punctus_, hence
'prick-song,' or 'written' descant).
The modern equivalent for 'bear a part' (l. 1135) is 'sing a part.'
[See also Sonnet VIII.] Any person of decent education could 'bear a
part' in those days, _i.e._, read at sight the treble, alto, tenor, or
bass 'part' of the work presented by the host for the diversion of his
guests. [See Introduction.]
L. 1140. 'Frets upon an instrument' can still be seen on the modern
mandoline, guitar, and banjo. In Shakespeare days, the viol, lute, and
cittern all had frets on the fingerboard, but they were then simply
bits of string tied round at the right places for the fingers, and
made fast with glue. Their use is referred to in the next line, to
'tune' the strings, _i.e._, to 'stop' the string accurately at each
semitone.
There is a quaint illustration of ll. 1135-6, about the nightingale
singing 'against a thorn' to keep her awake, in the words of a
favourite old part song of King Henry VIII., 'By a bank as I lay,'
where the poem has these lines on the nightingale--
'She syngeth in the thyke; and under her brest
A pricke, to kepe hur fro sleepe.'
In close connection with this is the conversation between Julia and
her maid Lucetta, in _Two Gent._ I, ii, 76-93, about the letter from
Proteus.
_Jul._ Some love of yours hath writ to you in rhyme.
_Luc._ That I might _sing_ it, madam, to a _tune_:
_Give me a note_: your ladyship can _set_.
_Jul._ As little by such toys as may be possible:
Best sing it to the tune of "Light o' love."
_Luc._ It is too heavy for so _light_ a tune.
_Jul._ _Heavy?_ belike, it hath some _burden_ then.
_Luc._ Ay, and melodious were it, would you sing it.
_Jul._ And why not you?
_Luc._ I cannot _reach so high_.
_Jul._ Let's see your song.--How now, minion!
_Luc._ _Keep tune_ there still, so you will _sing it out_;
And yet, methinks, I do not like this tune.
_Jul._ You do not?
_Luc._ No, madam, it is _too sharp_.
_Jul._ You, minion, are too saucy.
_Luc._ Nay, now you are _too flat_,
And _mar the concord_ with _too harsh a descant_:
There wanteth but a _mean_ to fill your song.
_Jul._ The _mean_ is _drown'd_ with your _unruly base_.
_Luc._ Indeed, I bid the _base_ for Proteus.
Perhaps it is sufficient to remark that many of the italicized words
above are still in ordinary use by musicians--_e.g._, to 'give the
note' in order to 'set' the pitch for singing; to 'keep in tune,' to
'sing out'; or one voice is 'drowned' by another, as the 'mean' (alto)
by the 'bass.' Once more we have quibbles on musical terms--Lucetta
says the 'tune,' _i.e._, Julia's testiness about Proteus' letter, is
'too sharp,' and that her chiding of herself is 'too flat,' meaning,
that neither is in 'concord' with the spirit of the love-letter.
Lucetta recommends the middle course, or 'mean' (alto voice, midway
between treble and bass), 'to _fill_ the song,' _i.e._, to perfect the
harmony. Finally, there is a punning reference (somewhat prophetic) by
Lucetta, to the 'base' conduct of Proteus, in forsaking Julia for
Silvia. Another play upon words should not be missed, viz., in ll. 78
and 79, where 'set' does double duty.
_Rom._ III, v, 25. Romeo and Juliet's parting at daybreak. The lark's
song suggests musical metaphors in Juliet's speech.
_Romeo._ How is't, my soul? let's talk, it is not day.
_Jul._ It is, it is; hie hence, be gone, away!
It is the _lark_ that sings so _out of tune_,
Straining _harsh discords_, and unpleasing _sharps_.
Some say, the lark makes _sweet division_;
_This_ doth not so, for she _divideth us_.
Juliet evidently agrees with Portia that 'nothing is good without
respect.' The lark heralds the dawn, so Romeo must leave her, _ergo_,
the lark sings 'out of tune,' his strains are full of 'discords' and
'sharps.' The last two lines contain an interesting allusion in the
word 'division,' besides the pun on 'she _divideth us_.'
'Division' means roughly, a brilliant passage, of short notes, which
is founded essentially on a much simpler passage of longer notes. A
cant term for the old-fashioned variation (_e.g._, the variations of
the 'Harmonious Blacksmith') was 'Note-splitting,' which at once
explains itself, and the older word 'Division.' A very clear example
of Divisions may be found in 'Rejoice greatly' in the Messiah. The
long 'runs' on the second syllable of '_Rejoice_,' consisting of
several groups of four semiquavers, are simply 'division' or
'note-splittings' of the first note of each group.
The word, however, has a further use, namely, to play 'divisions' on a
viol-da-gamba. This was a favourite accomplishment of gentlemen in the
16th and 17th centuries. Sir Andrew Aguecheek numbered this amongst
his attainments, (see _Twelfth Night_ I, iii, 24); and readers of John
Inglesant will remember that 'Mr Inglesant, being pressed to oblige
the company, played a descant upon a ground bass in the Italian
manner.' Playing a descant on a ground bass meant playing extempore
'divisions' or variations, to the harmony of a 'ground bass' which
(with its proper chords) was repeated again and again by the
harpsichordist, until the viol player had exhausted his capacity to
produce further 'breakings' of the harmony.
In 1665 there was published an instruction book in this art, called
Chelys Minuritionum, _i.e._, the 'Tortoise-shell of Diminutions,'
hence (Chelys meaning a lyre, made of a tortoise-shell) 'The Division
Viol.' The book is by Christopher Sympson, a Royalist soldier, who was
a well-known viol-da-gamba player. The work is in three parts, the
third of which is devoted to the method of ordering division on a
ground.
To give his own words--
'Diminution or division to a ground, is the breaking either of the
bass or of any higher part that is applicable thereto. The manner of
expressing it is thus:--
'A ground, subject, or bass, call it what you please, is prick'd down
in two several papers; one for him who is to play the ground upon an
organ, harpsichord, or what other instrument may be apt for that
purpose; the other for him that plays upon the viol, who having the
said ground before his eyes as his theme or subject, plays such
variety of descant or division in concordance thereto as his skill and
present invention do then suggest unto him.'
[See the Appendix for an example by Sympson.]
Further on, he distinguishes between 'breaking the notes of the
_ground_' and 'descanting upon' the ground.
This phrase, 'breaking' notes, may be taken as a partial explanation
of several passages on Shakespeare, where 'broken music' is referred
to, although it is likely that a better account of this may be found
in the natural imperfection of the Lute, which, being a _pizzicato_
instrument (_i.e._, the strings were plucked, not played with a bow),
could not do more than indicate the harmony in 'broken' pieces, first
a bass note, then perhaps two notes at once, higher up in the scale,
the player relying on the hearer to piece the harmony together.
An entirely different explanation is that of Mr Chappell (in Aldis
Wright's Clarendon Press Edition of Henry V.), viz., that when a
'consort' of viols was imperfect, _i.e._, if one of the players was
absent, and an instrument of another kind, _e.g._, a flute, was
substituted, the music was thus said to be 'broken.' _Cf._ Matt.
Locke's 'Compositions for Broken and Whole Consorts,' 1672.
[Mr Aldis Wright has given me references to Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum,
III., 278, and Essay of Masque and Triumph, which show that 'Broken
Music' was understood to mean _any combination of instruments of
different kinds_. In Sylva Sylvarum Bacon mentions several 'consorts
of Instruments' which agree well together, _e.g._, 'the Irish Harp and
Base-Viol agree well: the Recorder and Stringed Music agree well:
Organs and the Voice agree well, etc. But the Virginals and the Lute
... agree not so well.' All these, and similar combinations, seem to
have been described as 'Broken Music.']
In point, see _Hen. V._ V, ii, 248, where Henry proposes to
Katherine.
_K. Hen._ Come, your answer in _broken music_; for thy
_voice is music_, and thy _English broken_; therefore, queen
of all, Katherine, _break_ thy mind to me in _broken_
English: wilt thou have me?
Also see _Troilus_ III, i, 52 and ff. (quoted further on).
An entirely separate use of 'break' is in the phrase 'broken time,'
which has the simple and obvious meaning that the notes do not receive
their due length and proportion. In this connection we will take the
passage of King Richard's speech in prison at Pontefract--when he
hears music without, performed by some friendly hands.
_Rich. II._ V, v, 41. King R. in prison.
_K. Rich._ _Music_ do I hear?
Ha, ha! _keep time_.--How sour sweet music is,
When _time is broke_, and no _proportion kept_!
So is it in the music of men's lives.
And here have I the _daintiness of ear_,
To check _time broke_ in a _disorder'd string_;
But, for the _concord_ of _my_ state and _time_,
Had not an _ear_ to hear my true _time broke_.
* * * * *
_This music mads me_: let it sound no more:
For though _it hath holp madmen_ to their wits,
In me, it seems, it will make wise men mad.
The simile is perfect, and the play upon 'time broke' admirable. In l.
45 Richard reflects on the sad contrast between his quick 'ear' for
'broken time' in music, and his slowness to hear the 'breaking' of his
_own_ 'state and time.' The 'disorder'd string' is himself, who has
been playing his part 'out of time' ('Disorder'd' simply means 'out of
its place'--_i.e._, as we now say, 'a bar wrong'), and this has
resulted in breaking the 'concord'--_i.e._, the harmony of the various
parts which compose the state.
A few words are necessary about 'Proportion.' This term was used in
Elizabethan times exactly as we now use 'Time.' The 'times' used in
modern music can practically be reduced to two--viz., Duple (two beats
to the bar) and Triple (three beats to the bar). But in Elizabeth's
day the table of various Proportions was a terribly elaborate thing.
Of course many of these 'Proportions' never really came into practical
use--but there was plenty of mystery left even after all deductions.
Morley (Introduction, 1597) gives Five kinds of proportions 'in most
common use'--viz., Dupla, Tripla, Quadrupla, Sesquialtera, and
Sesquitertia. The first three correspond to what we still call Duple,
Triple, and Quadruple Time--_i.e._, 2 in the bar, 3 in the bar, and 4
in the bar. ['Bars' were not in general use till the end of the 16th
century, but the principle was the same. The bars themselves are
merely a convenience.]
Sesquialtera is more complicated, and means 'three notes are sung to
two of the same kinde'; and 'Sesquitertia is when four notes are sung
to three of the same kinde.' 'But' (Morley adds), 'if a man would
ingulphe himselfe to learn to sing, and set down all them which
Franchinus Gaufurius [1496] hath set down in his booke De
Proportionibus Musicis, he should find it a matter not only hard but
almost impossible.'
Ornithoparcus, in his Micrologus (1535), gives us an idea of the way
this subject of proportion was treated by more 'learned' writers. He
says (1) that music considers only the proportion of inequality, (2)
that this is two-fold--viz., the greater and the lesser inequality.
(3) The greater inequality contains five proportions, namely,
multiplex, superparticular, superpartiens, multiplex superparticular,
and multiplex superpartiens.
This is more amusing than instructive, perhaps. The three last lines
of this passage refer to the various stories of real or pretended
cure of disease by the use of particular pieces of music. One of the
best known of these diseases is 'Tarantism,' or the frenzy produced by
the bite of the Tarantula, in Italy.
Kircher, a learned Jesuit (1601-1680), gives an account, in his
"Musurgia," of the cure of this madness by certain airs, by which the
patient is stimulated to dance violently. The perspiration thus
produced was said to effect a cure. In his "Phonurgia nova" (1673)
Kircher actually gives the notes of the tune by which one case was
cured.
In this connection, Kircher mentions King Saul's madness, which was
relieved by David's harp playing. This is certainly to the point, and
may well have been in Shakespeare's mind. [See George Herbert's poem,
'Doomsday,' verse 2.]
Our modern Tarantellas derive their name and characteristic speed from
the old Tarantula.
_Lear_ I, ii, 137. Edmund pretends not to see Edgar's entrance.
_Edmund (aside)._ Pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the
old comedy: my cue is villainous melancholy, with a _sigh
like Tom o' Bedlam_.--O! these eclipses do portend _these
divisions_. _Fa, sol, la, mi._
Songs like 'Tom o' Bedlam,' mad-songs they were called, were very
commonly sung in England in the 17th century. The tune and words of
the original 'Tom a Bedlam' are to be found in Chappell, Vol. I. p.
175. Its date is some time before 1626,[6] and verse 1 begins, 'From
the hagg and hungrie Goblin,' and the whole is as full of ejaculations
of 'Poor Tom' as Act III. of _Lear_.
[Footnote 6: Rimbault's preface to the Musical Antiquarian Society's
reprint of Purcell's opera, "Bonduca," says that Mad Tom was written
by Coperario in 1612, for the Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's
Inn, by Beaumont. This was, 'Forth from my sad and darksome sell.']
The last sentence has yet another play on the double meaning of
'divisions.' A few lines further on Edmund explains what kind of
'divisions' he expects to follow the eclipses--namely, 'between the
child and the parent ... dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in
state,' etc. But the very use of the word in the quoted lines brings
its musical meaning into his head, for he promptly carries off his
assumed blindness to Edgar's presence by humming over his 'fa, sol,
la, mi.' [Burney, Hist., Vol. III. p. 344, has a sensible observation
on this passage--that Edgar alludes to the unnatural division of
parent and child, etc., in this musical phrase, which contains the
augmented fourth, or _mi contra fa_, of which the old theorists used
to say 'diabolus est.']
Guido d'Arezzo (or Aretinus), in his Micrologus (about 1024), named
the six notes of the Hexachord (_e.g._, C, D, E, F, G, A), thus--Ut,
Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La. These were the first syllables of certain words
in the Hymn for the feast of St John Baptist, the words and tune of
which are in Hawkins, p. 163.
"UT queant laxis
RE-sonare fibris
MI-ra gestorum
FA-muli tuorum
SOL-ve polluti
LA-bii reatum, Sancte Joannes."
A rough translation of which is--
'That thy servants may be able with free hearts to sound
forth the wonders of thy deeds; release us, O Holy John,
from the guilt of a defiled lip.'
In the ancient tune of this verse, the notes assigned to the syllables
in capitals were successively those of the scale, C, D, E, F, G, A,
and these same syllables were still used in singing in the 16th
century. It was noticed, however, that the scale could be easily
expressed by fewer names, and accordingly we find Christopher Sympson
(1667) saying, in his 'Compendium,' that Ut and Re are 'superfluous,
and therefore laid aside by most Modern Teachers.' In his book, the
whole scale of _eight_ notes is named thus--Fa, Sol, La, Fa, Sol, La,
_mi_, Fa. A modern Tonic Solfaist would understand this arrangement
quite differently. C, D, E would be called Do (instead of Ut), Re, Mi;
then would follow F, G, A, under the names Fa, Sol, La; and the
'leading note' [top note but one] would be called Ti (instead of Si);
the octave C beginning once more with Do.
The reader will remember that the tonal relation of C, D, E is exactly
the same as that of the next three notes, F, G, A--viz., C--D, a tone;
D--E, a tone; and similarly with F--G, G--A. Therefore the two blocks
of three notes (which are separated by a _semi_-tone) might have the
same names--viz., Fa, sol, la. Thus we have the first _six_ notes of
the scale, Fa, sol, la, fa, sol, la. There only remains one note, the
'leading note,' the B; and this, in Sympson, is named _Mi_. So the
principal thing in the sol-fa-ing of a passage was to 'place the Mi,'
or, as we should now put it, to find 'what key' it is in. Thus, in the
key of C, Mi is in B: in G, Mi is in F sharp: in F, Mi is in E, and so
on, the remaining six notes being named Fa, sol, la, fa, sol, la, as
explained above.
Edmund's 'Fa, Sol, La, Mi,' therefore, corresponds to F, G, A, B; or
C, D, E, F sharp; or B flat, C, D, E, etc.; according to the pitch
taken by the singer.
In this connection see the following passage:--
_Shrew_ I, ii, 16.
_Petr._ 'Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll _wring_ it:
I'll try how you can _sol, fa_, and _sing it_.'
[He wrings GRUMIO by the ears.
Here is a pun on 'wring' and 'ring'; and 'sol-fa' is used as an
equivalent for 'sing.'
More important still is 'the gamut of Hortensio,' _Shrew_ III, i, 72.
[Gam-ut was the name of the Ut of lowest pitch, corresponding to the
low G on the first line of our present bass staff, and was marked
specially with a Greek Gamma, hence Gam-ut. The word became a synonym
for 'the Scale.']
In this passage the names of the notes are simply those to be found in
all instruction books of the 16th and 17th centuries.
'Gam-ut I am, the ground of all accord,
A-re, to plead Hortensio's passion;
B-mi, Bianca, take him for thy lord,
C-fa-ut, that loves with all affection:
D sol, re, one cliff, two notes have I:
E la, mi, show pity or I die.'
Here Hortensio puts in his love-verses under the guise of a
musicmaster's Gamut.
The lines may be taken separately as fantastic commentaries on the
syllables themselves, as well as having their ulterior meaning for
Bianca.
For instance, Gam-ut the _lowest_ note then recognised in the scale,
is called 'the _ground_ of all _accord_.' A-re, I suppose, represents
the lover's sigh 'to plead his passion.' B-mi, may be twisted into 'Be
mine,' by the light of the remaining words in the line; while 'D sol
re, one cliff, two notes have I' obviously refers to Hortensio's
disguise. The 'cliff' is what is now called a 'clef,' or 'key,'
because its position on the staff gave the 'key' to the position of
the semitones and tones on the various lines and spaces. The six notes
here mentioned are the G, A, B, C, D, E, in the bass staff. They could
only be written (as they are yet) in _one_ clef--namely, the F clef.
The expression 'two notes have I,' as applied to the D, means that, in
the key of G, D is called Sol; while in the key of C it would have the
name Re; just as Hortensio is Hortensio, and at the same time
masquerades as a singing-master.
It has been mentioned that the art of adding an extempore counterpoint
to a written melody was called 'descant.' The written melody itself
was called the 'Plain-song,' and hence the whole performance,
plainsong and descant together, came to be known by the term
'Plain-song,' as opposed to the performance of plainsong with a
_written_ descant; which was known as 'Prick-song.'
Morley gives us a clear idea that the extempore descant was often a
very unsatisfactory performance, at any rate when it was attempted to
add more than one extempore part at a time to the plainsong. As he
says--'For though they should all be moste excellent men ... it is
unpossible for them to be true one to another.' The following passage
will be more clear on this light.
_H. 5._ III, ii, 3. Fight at Harfleur.
_Nym._ Pray thee, corporal, stay: ... the humour of it is
too hot, that is the very _plain-song_ of it.
_Pistol._ _The plain-song is most just_, for humours do
abound.
* * * * *
L. 41.
_Boy_ (speaks of the 3 rogues).... They will steal anything,
and call it purchase. Bardolph _stole a lute-case_, bore it
twelve leagues, and _sold it for three half-pence_.
Falstaff's worthy body-guard are getting tired of hard knocks in
fight; Nym compares their late activity to a somewhat florid
'plain-song' [meaning an extempore descant, as explained above];
Pistol says it is a 'just' plainsong. A 'just' plainsong would mean
that the singer had managed his extempore descant 'without singing
eyther false chords or forbidden descant one to another.' Similarly,
there is little doubt that both Ancient and Corporal managed to take a
part in the skirmishings with as little damage as possible to their
sconces.
The speech of the boy at l. 41 hardly enrols Bardolph amongst music
lovers. At all events he stole a lute-case, and seems to have liked it
so much that he carried it 36 miles before his worser nature prevailed
on him to sell it for 1-1/2d.
The next quotation still concerns Jack Falstaff and his crew, all of
whom (and strictly in accordance with history) seem to have been sound
practical musicians. This time they are speaking, not of descant, but
of Prick-song. The chiefest virtue in the performance of Prick-song,
by which Falstaff and Nym probably understood both sacred and secular
part-music, is that a man should 'keep time,' religiously counting his
rests, 'one, two, three, and the third in your bosom,' and when he
begins to sing, that he should 'keep time, distance, and proportion,'
as Mercutio says Tybalt did in his fencing, see _Romeo_ II, iv, 20.
All this is thoroughly appreciated by Falstaff and his corporal in the
following lines:--
_Merry Wiv._ I, iii, 25.
_Falstaff_ (of Bardolph) ... his thefts were too open; his
filching was _like an unskilful singer_, he _kept not time_.
_Nym._ The good humour is to _steal at a minim's rest_.
['Minims' is a modern conjecture.]
The metaphor is of an anthem or madrigal, say in four parts. We will
suppose the Hostess of the 'Garter' is taking the _Cantus_, a tapster
the _Altus_, mine Host the _Tenor_, and Nym the _Bassus_. The three
former are all hard at work on their respective 'parts,' one in the
kitchen, another in the taproom, the third in familiar converse
outside the front door. But Nym has 'a minim rest,' and during that
short respite takes advantage of the absorbing occupations of the
other three 'singers' to lay hands on whatever portable property is
within his reach. 'A minim rest' is not much--but the point remains.
Any musician has had experience of what can be done during a short
'rest'--_e.g._, to resin his bow, or turn up the corners of the next
few pages of his music, light the gas, or find his place in another
book.
By an easy transition we pass to the following:--
_Pericles_ I, i, 81. Pericles addresses the daughter of King
Antiochus.
_Per._ You're a _fair viol_, and _your sense the strings_,
Who, _finger'd_ to make man his _lawful music_,
Would draw heaven down and all the gods to hearken;
But being _play'd upon before your time_,
Hell only danceth at so harsh a chime.
Pericles compares the lawful love of a wife with the performance of a
good viol player, the proper characteristics of which would be, 'in
tune,' and 'in time.' The comparison in l. 84 is of this girl's
lawless passion with the 'disorder'd' playing of a bad violist, who
has got 'out,' as we say; who is playing 'before his time,' thus
entirely spoiling the music, which becomes a dance for devils rather
than angels.
The viol was decidedly the most important stringed instrument played
with a bow that was in use in Elizabethan times. There were three
different sizes.
The reader will get a sufficiently accurate idea, both of the sizes
and the use of viols, if he will consider the treble viol to have
corresponded closely with our modern violin, the tenor viol to the
modern viola [which is also called Alto, Tenor, or Bratsche--_i.e._,
braccio, 'arm' fiddle], and the bass-viol, or viol-da-gamba [so called
because held between the knees], to the modern violoncello.
The principal difference from our modern stringed instruments was that
all the viols had _six_ strings, whereas now there is no 'fiddle' of
any sort with more than four. A secondary difference was, that all the
viol family had _frets_ on the fingerboard to mark out the notes,
whereas the finger-boards of all our modern instruments are smooth,
and the finger of the performer has to do without any help of that
kind.[7]
[Footnote 7: See Frontispiece.]
John Playford, in 1683, published his 'Introduction to the Skill of
Music,' which gives an account of the viols, and Thomas Mace, of
Cambridge, lay clerk of Trinity, in his 'Musick's Monument,' pub.
1676, gives full instructions how many viols and other instruments of
this kind are necessary. From these we learn that viols were always
kept in sets of six--two trebles, two tenors, and two basses--which
set was technically known as a 'Chest' of viols. Mace also says that
the treble viol had its strings just half the length of the bass viol,
and the tenor was of a medium size between these. Also he says that if
you add to these a couple of violins (which were then thought somewhat
vulgar, loud instruments) for jovial occasions, and a pair of 'lusty,
full-sized Theorboes,'[8] 'you have a ready entertainment for the
greatest prince in the world.'
[Footnote 8: Theorbo, a lute with a double neck; so called from
Tiorba, a mortar for pounding perfumes, referring to the basin-shaped
back of a lute.]
The tuning of the six strings on the _bass_-viol was, on the bass
staff, 1st string, or treble, D over the staff; 2nd or small mean, A
on the top line; 3rd or great mean, E in the third space; 4th or
counter-tenor, C in the second space; 5th or tenor, or gamut, G on the
first line; and the 6th or bass, low D, under the staff. On the most
complete viol there would be seven frets, arranged semitonally, so the
compass of the Bass Viol or Viol da Gamba would be about two octaves
and a half, from D under the bass staff to A on the second space of
the treble staff. [In South Kensington Museum is a Viol da Gamba with
no less than twelve frets still remaining. This would make the compass
nearly _three_ octaves.]
The tenor-viol had its top string tuned to G on the second line of the
treble staff; and the remaining five were the same in pitch as the top
five on the bass viol. The treble viol (as mentioned above) was tuned
exactly an octave above the bass.
The tone of the viols is very much like that of our modern bowed
instruments, the principal difference being that they are a little
feebler, and naturally more calm. The reason is that vigorous 'bowing'
is a risky thing on the viol, for, as there are _six_ strings on the
arc of the bridge, more care is required to avoid striking two or even
three at once than on the violin, which has only four.
The amateur of music would keep a 'Chest' of six Viols in his house,
and when his musical friends visited him, they would generally play
'Fancies' (or Fantasias) see _H. 4. B._ III, ii, 323, in several
parts, from two to the full six, according to the number of those
present. Amongst a great number of composers of this kind of music,
some very well known names are, John Jenkins, Chris. Sympson, William
Lawes, Coperario (John Cooper), and the Italian Monteverde. It was
common for the Organ or other keyed instrument to join with the viols
in these pieces, and thus fill out the chords of the 'consort,' as it
was called.
We still have one of the viol tribe left in our orchestra. The
double-bass (or viol-one) is lineal descendant of the Chest of viols.
Its shape, especially at the shoulders, is quite characteristic, and
elsewhere--_e.g._, the blunt curves of the waist, the outline of the
back, and even the shape of the bow.
The practice of playing extempore variations on the viol da gamba has
already been mentioned as one of the elegant accomplishments of a
gentleman in those days. The following two quotations therefore will
not require further remark.
_Tw._ I, iii, 24.
_Maria_ [of Sir Andrew Aguecheek] ... he's a very fool, and
a prodigal.
_Sir Toby._ Fie, that you'll say so! he _plays o' the
viol-de-gamboys_ ... and hath all the good gifts of nature.
_Richard II._ I, iii, 159. Banishment of Norfolk.
_Norfolk._ The language I have learn'd these forty years,
My native English, now I must forego;
And now my tongue's use is to me no more
Than an _unstringed viol_, or a _harp_;
Or like a _cunning instrument cas'd up_,
_Or_, being open, _put into his hands_
That knows _no touch to tune the harmony_.
The _violin_ family had only a precarious footing amongst musicians up
to 1650. After that time, the viols declined in favour, and so
rapidly, that at the very beginning of the 18th century, Dr Tudway of
Cambridge describes a chest of viols, in a letter to his son, with
such particularity, that it is clear they had entirely fallen out of
use by 1700. As the viol fell out of fashion, the violin took its
place, and has kept it ever since.
The violin family had come into general and fashionable use under the
patronage of the Court of Louis XIV., and thus the English nation,
true to their ancient habit of buying their 'doublet in Italy, round
hose in France, bonnet in Germany, and behaviour everywhere,' took up
the 'French fiddles,' and let their national Chest of viols go to the
wall.
This growing tendency to adopt French customs, even in music, is
referred to in the following:--
_Hen. VIII._ I, iii, 41. French manners in England.
_Lovell._ A _French song_, and a _fiddle_, has no fellow.
_Sands._ _The devil fiddle 'em!_ I am glad they're going,
For, sure, there's no converting of 'em: _now_,
An honest country lord, as I am, beaten
A long time out of _play_, may bring his _plain-song_,
And have an hour of hearing: and, by'r lady,
Held _current music_ too.
The only word here that has not already been fully explained is
'current music,' which I suppose to mean simply, that the old
accomplishments of which Lord Sands speaks would be still thought 'up
to date' and in the fashion.
Another instrument in common domestic use was the Recorder. This was a
kind of 'Beak-flute,' like a flageolet. Lord Bacon says it had a
conical bore, and six holes. So it had the general figure of a modern
Oboe, but was played with a 'whistle' mouthpiece instead of a reed.
The six holes may still be seen on any penny whistle, or the brass
flageolets in the music-shops.
The Recorder was known for its sweet tone. Poets used the word
'record' to signify the song of birds, especially of the nightingale.
Hawkins identifies it with the Fistula Dulcis, seu Anglica, and gives
two pictures which help to explain the next quotation.
In South Kensington Museum there is a Recorder[9] made of a dark
wood, which is nothing else but a big flageolet. Its length is 2 ft. 2
in., and its bore is that of the modern flageolet and old flute--viz.,
conical, but with the wide end nearest the player's mouth.
[Footnote 9: See Frontispiece.]
_Hamlet_ III, ii, 346. Enter Players with recorders.
_Ham._ O! the _recorders_: let me see one....
* * * * *
L. 351.
... Will you _play upon this pipe_?
_Guildenstern._ My lord, I cannot.
* * * * *
_Ham._ It is as easy as lying: govern these _ventages_ with
your _finger and thumb_, give it _breath_ with your mouth,
and it will discourse _most eloquent music_. Look you, these
are _the stops_.
_Guil._ But these cannot I command to any utterance of
_harmony_: I have not the skill.
_Ham._ Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of
_me_. You would _play upon me_: you would seem to _know my
stops_; ... you would _sound me_ from my _lowest note_ to
the _top of my compass_; and there is _much music_,
excellent voice, in _this little organ_ [the recorder], yet
cannot you make it _speak_. 'Sblood! do you think I am
_easier to be played on than a pipe_? Call me what
_instrument_ you will, though you can _fret_ me, you cannot
_play_ upon me.
The holes in a flute have always been called 'ventages,' because the
'wind' comes through them when the fingers are removed. They were
'governed' 'with the finger and thumb.' One of the illustrations from
Mersennus [b. 1588] shows a conical flute with four holes in front and
two at the back. These latter would, of course, be controlled by the
_thumbs_, while the others would occupy two fingers on each hand.
(Modern flageolets still keep a thumb hole at the back.) There were
other beaked flutes of the same period, of a better class, which had
several keys as well as the holes.
'The stops' referred to by Hamlet are merely the 'ventages.' The act
of covering a hole with the finger or thumb was called 'stopping'; and
further, one example of the Fistula Dulcis given by Mersennus has two
different holes for the lowest note, one on the right and the other on
the left, so that the instrument might be used either by a
right-handed or left-handed person. One of these two duplicate holes
was temporarily _stopped_ with wax. [The passing play upon 'fret' in
the last line should not be missed.]
In the next passage the meaning of stop as applied to Recorders is
punned on by Hippolyta, who carries on the play from Lysander's
horsebreaking metaphor.
_Mids._ V, i, 108. The Prologue speaks with all the punctuation
wrong.
_Theseus._ This fellow doth not _stand upon points_.
_Lysander._ He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he
knows not the _stop_....
_Hippolyta._ Indeed, he hath played on this prologue like a
_child on a recorder, a sound_, but _not in government_.
That is--the Prologue has misplaced all his _stops_--like a young
horse that refuses to _stop_--also like a child who has not learned to
_stop_ the holes on the flute _à bec_.
It is singular that the Virginal, which was the most popular of all
the keyed instruments, is nowhere directly named in Shakespeare. There
is, however, a reference to the action of the fingers on its keys in
the following.
_Winter's Tale_ I, ii, 125. Of _Hermione_, Queen of Leontes, King of
Sicilia, and _Polixenes_, King of Bohemia.
_Leon._ ---- still _virginalling_
Upon his palm?
The Virginal (generally known as 'a _pair_ of virginals') was most
commonly used by ladies for their private recreation, and from this
circumstance is supposed to derive its name. Queen Elizabeth was fond
of playing on it, but as it was in vogue before her time, there is no
need to connect the name with the Virgin Queen. (Elizabeth's own
Virginal is in South Kensington Museum.[10]) Its keyboard has four
octaves, and the case is square, like that of a very old pianoforte.
The strings of the virginal were plucked, by quills,[11] which were
secured to the 'jacks' [see Sonnet cxxviii.], which in turn were set
in motion by the keys. The strings were wire. The oldest country dance
known, the Sellenger's (St Leger's) Round, of Henry VIII.'s time, was
arranged by Byrd as a Virginal 'lesson' for 'Lady Nevell's booke.'
Another well-known Virginal Book, that at the Fitzwilliam Museum at
Cambridge, commonly known as 'Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book,' is
being published by Breitkopf & Härtel.
[Footnote 10: See Frontispiece.]
[Footnote 11: Plectra of leather were also in use, as well as those of
quill.]
The first music ever printed for the Virginals was 'Parthenia,'
published in London, 1611. This collection contains principally Pavans
and Galliards by Byrd, Bull, and Gibbons. The title 'Parthenia, or the
Maydenhead of the firste musicke,' etc., with a picture of a young
lady playing on the virginal, seems to confirm our explanation of the
name of this instrument.
Next to the viol, the lute[12] was the most popular stringed
instrument. It was used both as a Solo instrument on which to play
sprightly 'Ayres,' or as an accompaniment for the voice, or 'in
consort' with other instruments. Naturally, it figured frequently in
'serenading' especially when a love song had to be sung outside a
lady's window. The general shape of a Lute was that of a mandoline,
but about four times as big. Like the mandoline, it had a flat belly,
and a great basin-shaped back. But in every other respect it was
entirely different. It was used more in the fashion of a guitar, and
its strings (which were of gut) were plucked with the fingers.
[Footnote 12: See Frontispiece.]
Adrian Le Roy's book, published in Paris about 1570, says the six
strings were tuned as follows--1st (minikin), C in third space, treble
staff; 2nd (small mean), G on second line; 3rd (great mean), D under
the staff; 4th (counter-tenor), B flat over the bass staff; 5th
(tenor), F on fourth line; and 6th (base), C in second space.
Scipione Cerreto, however (Naples 1601), gives quite a different
account of the Italian Lute of eight strings, the tuning of which
seems to have extended the compass downwards to C under the bass
staff. Thomas Mace (Musicks Monument, 1676) tells of several
objections against the lute, the most noteworthy of which were--1st,
that it was a costly instrument to keep in repair; 2nd, that it was
out of fashion; and 3rd, that it _made young people grow awry_. Mace
refutes these calumnies, the last of which no doubt was set about on
account of the very awkward shape of the lute back, and the
considerable size of the instrument. Hawkins (Hist. of Music, pp. 730
and 731) gives two pieces for the lute by Mace, or, rather, the same
piece twice, first for one lute, then arranged for two. [Appendix.]
The five lower strings of the lute were 'doubled'--_i.e._, there were
two of each pitch, duplicates, which helped the tone of the chords by
'sympathetic' vibration. So there were really eleven strings, but only
six different pitches. There were eight frets on the fingerboard.
Other varieties were the Arch-Lute[13] and the Theorbo-Lute, both of
which had very long double necks, and a large number of strings. One
Archlute in South Kensington Museum has as many as 24, eleven of which
are duplications.
[Footnote 13: See Frontispiece.]
_H. 6. A._ I, iv, 92.
_Talbot_ (of Salisbury dying).
'He beckons with his hand, and smiles on me,
As who should say, "When I am dead and gone,
Remember to avenge me on the French."--
Plantagenet, I will; and _like thee, Nero,
Play on the lute_, beholding the towns burn.'
_Hen. 4. A._ III, i, 206. Mortimer to Lady Mortimer.
_Mort._ ... for thy tongue
Makes Welsh as sweet as _ditties_ highly penn'd,
_Sung_ by a fair queen in a summer's bower,
With _ravishing division_, to her _lute_.
For 'ravishing division,' see the remarks on the third of the
foregoing passages, the speech of Juliet about the lark's song [p.
28].
The Lute leads us quite easily from Musical Instruments and Technical
Terms to the second division.
II
MUSICAL EDUCATION
The following passages give a lively picture of what a music-master
might have to put up with from young ladies of quality.
_Shrew._ II, i, 142. Re-enter HORTENSIO with his head broken.
_Bap._ How now, my friend? why dost thou look so pale?
_Hor._ For fear, I promise you, if I look pale.
_Bap._ What, will my daughter [Kate] prove a good musician?
_Hor._ I think, she'll sooner prove a soldier:
Iron may hold her, but never _lutes_.
_Bap._ Why, then thou canst not _break her_ to the lute?
_Hor._ Why, no, for _she hath broke the lute to me_.
I did but tell her she _mistook her frets_,
And bow'd her hand to _teach her fingering_,
When, with a most impatient, devilish spirit,
"_Frets_ call you these?" quoth she; "I'll _fume_ with them;"
And with that word she struck me on the head,
And _through the instrument my pate made way_;
And there I stood amazed for a while,
_As on a pillory, looking through the lute_,
While she did call me _rascal fiddler_,
And, _twangling Jack_, with twenty such vile terms,
As had she studied to misuse me so.
_Shrew_ II, i, 277.
_Bap._ Why, how now, daughter Katherine? in your _dumps_?
_Shrew._ Act III. i. Hortensio and Lucentio, the sham musical and
classical tutors, give a lesson to Bianca. They quarrel which is to
start first.
_Lucentio._ _Fiddler, forbear_: you grow too forward, sir.
* * * * *
_Hortensio._ But, wrangling pedant, _this is
The patroness of heavenly harmony_;
Then give me leave to have prerogative,
And _when in music we have spent an hour_,
Your lecture shall have leisure for as much.
_Luc._ Preposterous ass, that never read so far
To know the cause why music was ordained!
Was it not to refresh the mind of man,
_After his studies_, or his usual pain?
Then give me leave to read philosophy,
And _while I pause, serve in your harmony_.
Bianca settles the question, and orders Hortensio (l. 22):
Take you your instrument, _play you the whiles_;
His lecture will be done, _ere you have tun'd_.
_Hor._ You'll leave his lecture, when I am in tune?
_Luc._ _That will be never_: tune your instrument.
Lucentio now goes on with his 'classics'; further on--
_Hor._ [Returning]. Madam, _my instrument's in tune_.
_Bianca._ Let's hear. [_Hor._ plays.] O fie! the _treble jars_.
_Luc._ _Spit in the hole_, man, and tune again.
* * * * *
_Hor._ Madam, _'tis now in tune_.
_Luc._ All but the _base_.
_Hor._ _The base is right_; 'tis the _base knave that jars_.
Hortensio now takes his place, and addresses the classical Lucentio--
L. 58.
_Hor._ You may go walk, and give me leave awhile:
My _lessons_ make no music in _three parts_.
* * * * *
L. 63.
_Hor._ Madam, before you _touch_ the instrument,
To learn the _order of my fingering_,
I must begin with _rudiments_ of art;
To teach you _gamut_ in a briefer sort.
* * * * *
_Bianca._ Why, I am _past my gamut_ long ago.
_Hor._ Yet read the gamut of Hortensio.
The first of these three passages will be quite clear to the reader in
the light of the remarks on the lute already made. The second should
be read in connection with the name of the doleful dance above
mentioned, the Dump. [See Appendix.]
The third quotation contains interesting allusions to the
peculiarities of the lute. Lines 22-25 are very naturally accounted
for. The lute, having at least eleven strings, took a long time to get
into tune. Even our modern violins, with only four strings, want
constant attention in this respect; and the lute, therefore,
especially in the hands of an amateur, might well get a name for being
a troublesome instrument. The reference to the 'treble' and 'bass'
strings (_i.e._, the 1st and 6th) has been explained before. 'Spit in
the hole, man,' Lucentio's very rude advice to Hortensio, will direct
our attention to the variously shaped 'holes' which were made in the
belly of all stringed instruments to let out the sound. On the lute,
this hole was commonly a circular opening, not clearly cut out, but
fretted in a circle of small holes with a star in the middle. But this
was not the only way. A lute in South Kensington Museum has _three_
round holes, placed in an oblique line, nearly at the bottom of the
instrument.[14] The holes on the viol were generally in the form of
crescents, and were put one on each side of the bridge. On the modern
violins, as everybody has seen, they are in the shape of
[Illustration], and are known as '_f_' holes.
[Footnote 14: See Frontispiece.]
Line 59, about 'lessons in three parts,' is of interest. Primarily, it
is another form of 'Two's company, three is none'--but its musical
meaning is very plainly present. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was
very common to call the pieces of music in any volume for an
instrument by the name 'Lessons.' The first meaning, of course, was
that they were examples for the pupil in music, but the word was used
quite freely with the purely general signification of 'Pieces' or
'Movements.'
One more word deserves remark--viz., 'to touch,' in line 63. This is
used technically, and means strictly 'to play' on the instrument. The
word comes both in meaning and form from Ital., _toccare_.
_Toccata_ was a common word for a Prelude (often extempore), intended
as a kind of introduction to two or three more formal movements. The
Italian for a peal of bells is _tocco di campana_, and we have the
word in English under the form _tocsin_, an alarm bell. The
trumpet-call known as 'Tucket,' which occurs seven times in the stage
directions of six Shakespeare plays, and is also found once in the
text (_Henry V._ IV, ii, 35), also is derived from _toccare_.
Similarly with the German 'Tusch,' a flourish of trumpets and other
brass instruments, which may be heard under that name to the present
day.
The next passage confirms Morley's account of the high estimation in
which music was held as a part of a liberal education. Baptista
evidently considers 'good bringing up' to include 'music, instruments,
and poetry.' Moreover, the visiting master was to be well paid,--'to
cunning men I will be very kind.'
_Shrew_ I, i, 81.
_Bianca._ Sir to your pleasure humbly I subscribe:
My books, and _instruments_, shall be my company,
On them to look, and _practise by myself_.
* * * * *
_Baptista_ (To Hortensio and Gremio).
Go in, Bianca. [_Exit_ Bianca].
And for I know, she taketh most delight
In _music_, _instruments_, and _poetry_,
Schoolmasters will I keep within my house,
Fit to instruct her youth.--If you, Hortensio,
Or Signior Gremio, you, know any such,
Refer them hither; for _to cunning men
I will be very kind_, and liberal
To mine own children in _good bringing up_.
We find further on, in the same play, that to bring one's lady-love a
music master was thought a handsome compliment.
_Shrew_ I, ii, 170.
_Hortensio._ 'Tis well: and I have met a gentleman,
Hath promis'd me to help me to another,
_A fine musician to instruct our mistress_.
Moreover, in _Pericles_ IV, vi, 185, we find that Marina, daughter of
Prince Pericles, can '_sing_, weave, sew, and _dance_.' Also see V, i,
78, where Marina actually does sing, to rouse her father from his
melancholy.
III
SONGS AND SINGING
It is impossible here to give even an outline of the history of Songs
and Singing in England. The general statement must suffice that vocal
music, accompanied by viols and harps, with songs and catches, were
common in the year 1230 in France; and any reader of Chaucer and Gower
may see for himself that vocal music was flourishing in the 14th
century in England. The English Round or Catch, mentioned above,
'Sumer is icumen in,' is most probably of the 13th century, and that
alone would be sufficient to characterise the popular vocal music of
that day. This composition is advanced in every way, being very
melodious, and at the same time showing that vocal harmony (_i.e._,
singing in parts) was greatly appreciated.
To proceed to a time nearer the age with which we are concerned--in
Henry VII.'s reign, there were many songs written, some for voices
only, and some with instrumental accompaniment. Amongst the former
are two songs in three parts, the music by William Cornyshe, Junior,
which are given in Hawkins.
Skelton wrote the words of the first, 'Ah, beshrew you by my fay,'
which is very coarse in tone, as was frequently the case with him; and
the second one, 'Hoyday, jolly ruttekin,' is a satire on the drunken
habits of the Flemings who came over with Anne of Cleves. Mrs Page
(_Wiv._ II, i, 23) refers to these Dutchmen, where, after receiving
Falstaff's love-letter, she exclaims, 'what an unweighed behaviour
hath this _Flemish Drunkard_ picked (with the devil's name!) out of my
conversation, that he dares in this manner assay me?'
The following is a curious picture by 'Skelton, Laureate,' of an
ignorant singer, who appears to have been throwing mud at the poet.
Skelton gives us a sad account both of his morals and his music.
The 3rd verse begins--
With hey troly loly, lo whip here Jak,
Alumbek, sodyldym syllorym ben,
Curiously he can both _counter_ and knak,
Of Martin Swart, and all his merry men;
Lord, how Perkyn is proud of his Pohen,
But ask wher he findeth among his _monachords_
An holy-water-clark a ruler of lordes.
He cannot fynd it in _rule_ nor in _space_,
He _solfyth_ too haute, hys _trybyll_ is too high,
He braggyth of his byrth that borne was full base,
Hys musyk _withoute mesure, too sharp_, is _his 'my'_,
He trymmeth in his _tenor_ to _counter_ pardy,
His _descant_ is besy,[15] it is without a _mene_,
Too fat is his fantsy, his wyt is too lene.
He tumbryth on a _lewde lewte_, Rotybulle Joyse,
Rumbill downe, tumbill downe, hey go, now now,
He _fumblyth in his fyngering_ an ugly rude noise,
It seemyth the sobbyng of an old sow:
He wolde be made moch of, and he wyst how;
Well sped in spindels and tuning of travellys
A bungler, a brawler, a picker of quarrels.
Comely he clappyth a _payre of clavicordys_
He _whystelyth_ so swetely he maketh me to swet,
His _discant_ is dashed full of _discordes_,
A red angry man, but easy to intrete; etc.
[Footnote 15: 'Besy,' that is, 'busy,' meaning 'fussy,' a bad fault in
descant, as it is to this day in counterpoint.]
Further on we read--
For lordes and ladyes lerne at his scole,
He techyth them so wysely to _solf_ and to _fayne_,
That neither they sing wel _prike-song_ nor _plain_.
Skelton's main objection to this person is that he, being in reality
of very humble origin, presumed on his very doubtful musical abilities
to gain a footing amongst his betters. As he says, 'For Jak wold be a
Jentilman that late was a grome.'
Evidently 'Jak' had managed to make good his position as a fashionable
teacher of singing, in spite of the defects plainly mentioned in the
above verses. In the first verse, 'counter' is a musical term, here
used with the meaning of 'to embroider' the tale. 'Knack' is still
used in Yorkshire for 'affected talk.' 'Monachord' is the ancient
one-stringed fiddle called Tromba Marina, and is here used as a joke
on 'monachi' or 'holy water clarks.' In verse 2, '_rule_ and space' is
simply 'line and space,' _i.e._, on the musical staff. 'Solfyth too
haute' is 'Solfa's too high.' The 'my' which was 'too sharp' is the
Mi, the seventh note of the scale, mentioned above as the critical
point in Solfa. In verse 3, 'lewde lewte' means merely 'vulgar lute';
and 'Rotybulle Joyse' is the title of an old song. The 'payre of
clavicordys' is the clavichord, which in 1536 was a keyed instrument
of much the same kind as the virginals,[16] with about three and a
half octaves. It was used by nuns, and therefore had its strings
muffled with bits of cloth to deaden the sound.
[Footnote 16: It was the _German_ clavichord that had 'tangents' of
brass at the ends of the key levers. These tangents cut off the proper
length of the string, and made it sound at the same time. The Italians
called an instrument with a 'jack' action like the virginal by the
name clavichord.]
The last three lines quoted mention 'solfa' and 'fayne.' The latter is
'feigned' music, or Musica Ficta, which at this time was the art of
dislocating the 'Mi,' so as to change the key. It was seldom that more
than one flat was found in those days, and this would move the Mi from
_B_ to _E_, thus constituting 'fayned' music.
This account will give a general idea of the kind of songs and singing
that were to be found in 1500.
Popular songs, 'Rotybulle Joyse,' with a burden of 'Rumbill downe,
tumbill downe,' etc., accompanied by a 'lewde lewte'; clavichord
playing; solfaing; singing of both 'prick-' and 'plain-' song, with
Musica Ficta; besides the delectable art of 'whysteling'; seem to have
been matters in ordinary practice at the beginning of the 16th
century. Add to these the songs in three parts, with rounds or catches
for several voices, and we have no mean list of musicianly
accomplishments, which the men of Shakespeare's day might inherit.
In Shakespeare, besides the songs most commonly known (some of which
are by earlier authors), there are allusions to many kinds of vocal
music, and scraps of the actual words of old songs--some with
accompaniment, some without; a duet; a trio; a chorus; not to mention
several rounds, either quoted or alluded to.
It will be useful here to refer to a few of these less known examples.
_L.L.L._ I, ii, 106. The Ballad of 'The King and the Beggar.' Moth
says "The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages
since; but I think now 'tis not to be found; or, if it were, it would
neither serve for the writing, nor the tune."
_Id._ III, i, 2. Moth begins a song 'Concolinel,' which Armado calls a
'sweet air.'
Various snatches of ballads, ancient and modern--_e.g._,
(_a_) By Falstaff. _H. 4. B._ II, iv, 32, 'When Arthur first in court
began,' 'And was a worthy king.'
(_b_) By Master Silence. _H. 4. B._ V, iii, 18. 'Do nothing but eat,
and make good cheer,' etc.; 'Be merry, be merry, my wife has all,'
etc.; 'A cup of wine, that's brisk and fine,' etc. 'Fill the cup, and
let it come,' etc.; 'Do me right, And dub me knight,' etc.; 'and Robin
Hood, Scarlet, and John.'
(_c_) By Benedick, _Much Ado_ V, ii, 23. 'The god of love.'
(_d_) The old tune 'Light o' love' [see Appendix], the original words
of which are unknown. _Much Ado_ III, iv, 41, 'Clap us into "Light o'
love;" that goes without a burden; do you sing it, and I'll dance it.'
Here is one verse of 'A very proper Dittie,' to the tune of "Lightie
Love" (date 1570).
"By force I am fixed my fancie to write,
Ingratitude willeth me not to refrain:
Then blame me not, Ladies, although I indite
What lighty love now amongst you doth rayne,
Your traces in places, with outward allurements,
Dothe moove my endevour to be the more playne:
Your nicyngs and tycings, with sundrie procurements,
To publish your lightie love doth me constraine."
There were several songs of the 16th century that went to this tune.
See also Shakespeare, _Gent._ I, ii, 80, and Fletcher, _Two Noble
Kinsmen_ V, ii, 54.
(_e_) Song by Parson Evans, _Wiv._ III, i, 18; 'To shallow rivers,'
for words of which see Marlowe's 'Come live with me,' printed in the
'Passionate Pilgrim,' Part xx. [see tunes in Appendix]. Sir Hugh is in
a state of nervous excitement, and the word 'rivers' brings 'Babylon'
into his head, so he goes on mixing up a portion of the version of Ps.
cxxxvii. with Marlowe.
(_f_) By Sir Toby. _Tw. Nt._ II, iii, 79, 85, 102. Peg-a-Ramsey,
'Three merry men be we,' 'There dwelt a man in Babylon,' 'O! the
twelfth day of December,' 'Farewell, dear heart.' [For tunes, see
Appendix].
(_g_) _As You Like It_ II, v. Song with Chorus, 'Under the greenwood
tree,' 2nd verse '_all together here_.'
(_h_) By Pandarus, _Troil._ III, i, 116. Song, 'Love, love, nothing
but love,' accompanied on an 'instrument' by the singer himself.
(_i_) Another, _Id._ IV, iv, 14, 'O heart, heavy heart.'
(_j_) _Lear_ I, iv, 168, two verses sung by the Fool, 'Fools had ne'er
less grace in a year.'
(_k_) Ballads by Autolycus, _Winter's Tale_ IV, ii, 1, 15. 'When
daffodils,' 'But shall I go mourn for that.' _Id._ sc. ii. end, 'Jog
on' [see Appendix]; _Id._ sc. iii. 198, 'Whoop, do me no harm, good
man' [Appendix]; _Id._ l. 219, 'Lawn, as white as driven snow'; _Id._
l. 262, Ballad of the 'Usurer's wife,' to a 'very doleful tune'; _Id._
l. 275, Ballad of a Fish, 'very pitiful'; _Id._ l. 297, A song _in
three parts_, to the tune of 'Two maids wooing a man,' "Get you hence,
for I must go"; _Id._ l. 319, Song, 'Will you buy any tape' (_cf._ The
round by Jenkins, b. 1592, 'Come, pretty maidens,' see Rimbault's
Rounds, Canons, and Catches).
(_l_) Duet by King Cymbeline's two sons; Funeral Song over Imogen,
_Cymb._ IV, ii, 258, 'Fear no more the heat of the sun.'
(_m_) Stephano's 'scurvy tunes,' _Temp._ II, ii, 41, 'I shall no more
to sea,' 'The master, the swabber,' etc. [Appendix]. _Id._ l. 175,
Caliban's Song, 'Farewell, master,' etc.
(_n_) Song accompanied by lute. _H._ 8. III, i. 'Orpheus.'
Besides these there are allusions to the names of various popular
tunes and catches, of which the music is still to be had. Amongst
these are--
'The Hunt is up' [Appendix]. See _Rom. and Jul._ III, v, 34. Juliet
says of the lark's song, 'that voice doth us affray, Hunting thee
hence with _hunts-up_ to the day.' Any rousing morning song, even a
love-song, was called a _hunts-up_. The tune of this song was also
sung (in 1584) to 'O sweete Olyver, leave me not behind the,' but
altering the time to 4 in a bar. See _As You Like It_ III, iii, 95.
'Heart's ease' [Appendix], the words of which are not known. Tune
before 1560. See _Romeo_ IV, v, 100.
_Id._, 'My heart is full of woe.'
_Id._ l. 125. 'When griping grief' [Appendix], by Richard Edwards,
gentleman of Queen Elizabeth's Chapel, printed in the 'Paradyse of
daynty Devises' (printed 1577). Hawkins gives four verses, the first
of which is here quoted by Shakespeare, but with several variations--
'_Where_ griping grief the hart _would_ wound,
And doleful domps the mind oppresse,
_There_ Musick with her silver sound
_Is wont with spede to give_ redresse;
Of troubled minds, for every sore,
Swete Musick hath a salve in store.'
The last verse is charming--
'Oh heavenly gift, that turnes the minde,
Like as the sterne doth rule the ship,
Of musick whom the Gods assignde,
To comfort man whom cares would nip;
Sith thou both man and beast doest move,
What wise man then will thee reprove.'
'Green Sleeves' [Appendix].
_Wiv._ II, i, 60.
_Mrs Ford._ ... I would have sworn his disposition
[Falstaff's] would have gone to the truth of his words; but
they do _no more adhere_ and _keep place_ together, than the
_Hundredth Psalm_ to the _tune of 'Green Sleeves_.'
Also see _Wiv._ V, v, 20. The tune is given in its most complete form
by Chappell, and is probably of Henry VIII.'s time. The ballad was
published in 1580, with title, 'A new Northerne dittye of the Ladye
Greene Sleeves.' Verse 1 is as follows:--
"Alas my love, you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously,
And I have lovèd you so long,
Delighting in your company.
Greensleeves was all my joy,
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
And who but my Lady Greensleeves."
The 'Hundredth Psalm' (All people that on earth do dwell) will only
adhere and keep place with the tune of Green Sleeves to a certain
extent. If the reader will try to sing it to the tune in the Appendix,
he will find that in the first half he is led into several false
accents; while the second half is quite unmanageable without altering
the notes. There is, however, a form of the tune in Hawkins which is
much further off 'the truth of the words,' for it has exactly the
right quantity of _notes_, but the _accents_ are all as wrong as
possible, thus--
[Transcriber's Note: In the passage below, "u" represents a breve and
"-" a macron.]
- u - u - u -
_All_ peo-_ple_ that _on_ earth _do_
u u u u u u - u -
_Dwell_ sing to _the_ Lord with _cheer_ful _voice_.
It may be that this form of 'Green Sleeves' was known better than the
older one in Shakespeare's day.
'Carman's whistle' [Appendix].
_H. 4. B._ III, ii, 320. Falstaff soliloquises on Shallow's lies
concerning his wild youth.
_Fal._ He (Shallow) came ever in the rearward of the
fashion, and _sung those tunes_ ... that he heard the
_carmen whistle_, and sware--they were his _fancies_, or his
_goodnights_.... The _case of a treble hautboy_ was a
mansion for him, a court.
The Carman's Whistle was a popular Elizabethan tune, and was arranged
as a virginal lesson by Byrd. This arrangement can be had most readily
in Litolff's publication, 'Les maîtres du Clavecin.'
The 'fancies' referred to above are the 'Fantazies' already remarked
on (chest of viols); and the 'Goodnights' are songs _in memoriam_, or
dirges.
'Fortune my foe.' [Appendix]. _Merry Wives_ III, iii, 62. _Falstaff_
(to Mrs Ford). 'I see what thou wert, if _Fortune thy foe_ were not,
Nature thy friend.' This old tune is at latest of Elizabeth's time,
and was sung to the ancient ballad of "Titus Andronicus." The first
verse of 'Fortune my foe' is as follows:--
"Fortune my foe, why dost thou frown on me?
And will thy favour never better be?
Wilt thou, I say, for ever breed my pain,
And wilt thou not restore my joyes again?"
'Ophelia's Songs.' _Hamlet_ IV, v. [Appendix]. 'How should I your
true love know'; 'Good morrow, 'tis St Valentine's day'; 'They bore
him barefaste'; 'Bonny sweet Robin'; 'And will he not come again.'
The one line of 'Bonny sweet Robin' is all that remains of the song,
except the title, which is also the first line--viz., 'My Robin is to
the greenwood gone.' The line Shakespeare gives would be the last. One
tune to it is at any rate older than 1597.
Lastly, there are the old catches, 'Hold thy peace,' sung by Toby, Sir
Andrew, and Feste in _Twelfth Night_ II, iii; 'Jack boy, ho boy, news,
The cat is in the well,' etc., referred to by Grumio in _Shrew_ IV, i,
42; besides 'Flout 'em and scout em,' sung by Stephano, Trinculo, and
Caliban in _Tempest_ III, ii; and 'What shall he have that killed the
deer,' for the foresters in _As You Like It_ IV, ii, 5. The original
music of the first two, probably much earlier than Shakespeare, is in
the Appendix. A Round for four voices by John Hilton (flourished 1600)
to 'What shall he have,' is probably the first setting, and may be
seen in Rimbault, p. 19. Purcell (1675) set 'Flout 'em' as a catch for
three voices, which is in Caulfield's Collection of Shakespeare Vocal
Music, 1864. These last two are poor specimens of Catches, so they are
not printed here. [The proper reading of 'Flout 'em,' in the 4tos and
1st Fol. is 'Flout 'em and _cout_ 'em! and _skowt_ 'em, and flout
'em! Thought is free.']
The following passage contains a large quantity of the history of
songs in the 16th century, and is one of the most important to be
found in Shakespeare. Autolycus sells ballads 'of all sizes' among his
wares; the country folk, Mopsa, Dorcas, and the Clown, buy them, and
afterwards sing them; and the rustic servant distinctly prefers the
pedlar's vocalisation to their accustomed 'tabor and pipe,' or even to
the 'bagpipe.'
_Winter's Tale_ IV, iii, 181.
_Servant._ O master! if you did but hear the _pedlar_ at the
door, you would _never dance again after a tabor and pipe_;
no, the _bagpipe_ could not move you. He _sings several
tunes_ faster than you'll tell money; he utters them as he
had _eaten ballads_, and all men's ears grew to his tunes.
_Clown._ He could never come better: he shall come in. _I
love a ballad_ but even too well; if it be doleful matter,
merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung
lamentably.
_Serv._ He hath _songs_, for man or woman, _of all
sizes_.... He has the prettiest _love-songs_ for maids; so
without bawdry, which is strange; with such _delicate
burdens_ of "dildos" and "fadings," "jump her and thump
her"; ... "_Whoop, do me no harm, good man._"
L. 212.
_Clo._ Pr'ythee, bring him in, and let him _approach
singing_.
_Perdita._ Forewarn him, that he use _no scurrilous words_
in 's tunes.
L. 259.
_Clo._ [to Autolycus]. What hast here? _ballads_?
_Mopsa._ 'Pray now, buy some: I love a _ballad in print_, o'
life, for _then we are sure they are true_.
_Autolycus._ Here's one to a _very doleful tune_ ... [of a
usurer's wife].
L. 273.
_Clo._ Come on, lay it by: and let's first see _more
ballads_....
_Aut._ Here's _another ballad, of a fish_, that ... sung
this ballad against the hard hearts of maids: ... the ballad
is _very pitiful_, and as true.
L. 285.
_Clo._ Lay it by too: another.
_Aut._ This is a _merry ballad_, but a _very pretty_ one.
_Mop._ Let's have some merry ones.
_Aut._ Why, this is a passing merry one, and _goes to the
tune of_ "Two maids wooing a man," there's scarce a maid
westward but she sings it: _'tis in request_, I can tell
you.
_Mop._ We can _both_ sing it: if _thou'lt bear a part_
[_i.e._, Autolycus], thou shalt hear; 'tis in _three parts_.
_Dorcas._ We had the _tune_ on't a month ago.
_Aut._ _I can bear my part_; you must know, _'tis my
occupation_: have at it with you.
[They sing 'Get you hence,' in three parts.]
_Clo._ We'll have the song out anon _by ourselves_.
L. 328.
_Servant._ Master, there is _three_ carters, _three_
shepherds, _three_ neat herds, _three_ swine herds, that
have made themselves all _men of hair_: they call themselves
_Saltiers_; and they have a _dance_, which the wenches say
is a _gallimaufry_ of gambols, because they are not in't....
* * * * *
L. 609.
_Aut._ _My clown_ (who wants but something to be a
reasonable man) grew so in love with the wenches' _song_,
that he would not stir his pettitoes, _till he had both tune
and words_.
The tabor and pipe, in the servant's first speech, were common popular
instruments. The tabor, of course, was a small drum, which was used as
accompaniment to the pipe, a small whistle with three holes, but with
a compass of 18 notes. (See Frontispiece.) In its curiously
disproportionate compass, it may be compared to the modern 'Picco'
pipe of the music shops. Mersennus (middle of 17th century) mentions
an Englishman, John Price, who was an accomplished player. It is
played on by Ariel, see a subsequent quotation from _The Tempest_ III,
ii, 126 and 152. Also _Much Ado_ II, iii, 13; and the tabor alone, in
_Twelfth Night_ III, i.
The Bagpipe[17] was very similar to the instruments of that name which
still exist. At the present moment there are four kinds in
use--Highland Scotch, Lowland Scotch, Northumbrian, and Irish. The
last has bellows instead of a 'bag,' but in other ways they are very
much alike. They all have 'drones,' which sound a particular note or
notes continually, while the tune is played on the 'chanter.'
Shakespeare himself tells us of another variety--viz., the
Lincolnshire bagpipe, in _Hen. 4. A._ I, ii, 76, where Falstaff
compares his low spirits to the melancholy 'drone of a Lincolnshire
bagpipe.'[18]
[Footnote 17: The Bagpipe appears on a coin of Nero. Also there is a
figure of an _angel_ playing it, in a crosier given by William of
Wykeham to New Coll., Oxon., in 1403.]
[Footnote 18: What is a 'woollen bagpipe'? See _Merchant_ IV, i, 55.]
The servant's second speech refers to the character of the words of
the popular ballads, which were too often coarse and even indecent.
'Love-songs' are quite a large class, frequently referred to. For
instance, _Two Gent._ II, i, 15.
_Val._ Why, how know you that I am in love?
_Speed._ Marry by these special marks.
First, you have learn'd ...
_To relish a love song_, like a robin-redbreast;
_Rom._ II, iv, 15.
_Mercutio._ 'Alas, poor Romeo! he is already dead;
... run thorough the ear _with a love-song_.'
besides the passage from _Twelfth Nt._ II, iii, quoted further on,
where Feste offers Sir Toby and Sir Andrew their choice between 'a
love-song, or a song of good life.'
The 'delicate burdens,' 'dildos and fadings,' 'jump her and thump
her,' are to be found in examples of the period. A Round of Matt.
White, 'The Courtier scorns the country clowns' (date about 1600) has
for its third and last line 'With a fading, fading, fading, fading,'
etc. 'Whoop, do me no harm' has already been spoken of.
In l. 214 of the _Winter's Tale_ passage, Perdita again takes
precaution against Autolycus using 'scurrilous words.'
From l. 285 to l. 327, the passage refers to a very interesting
department of 16th century singing--viz., the habit of performing
songs in three vocal parts. The singers were called Threeman-songmen,
and the songs themselves 'Threeman songs,' or 'Freemen's Songs.'
[_Freemen_ is simply a corruption of _Threemen_. Mr Aldis Wright tells
me it is analogous to _Thills_ or _Fills_, for the shafts of a waggon.
Rimbault, in the preface to 'Rounds, Canons, and Catches,' is highly
indignant with Ritson's 'inconceivably strange notion' that Freemen is
only a form of Threemen. Rimbault's reason was that 'Deuteromelia'
(1609) does contain Freemen's Songs in _four_ parts. Mr Aldis Wright
also gives me the expression '_six_-men's song,' from Percy's
Reliques, also these definitions, which will all go to settle the
matter: Florio, Italian Dictionary, 1611; _Strambotti_, country
gigges, rounds, catches, virelaies or _threemen's songs_; _Cantarini_,
such as sing _threemen's songs_; _Berlingozzo_.... Also a drunken or
_threemen's song_.
Cotgrave, French Dict. 1611; Virelay. m. A virelay, round, _free_mans
song].
Giraldus Cambrensis says that singing in parts was indigenous to the
parts beyond the Humber, and on the borders of Yorkshire. Threeman
singing may still be heard (not as an exotic), in Wales and the West
of England. This last is referred to in the above passage, 'There's
scarce a maid westward but she sings it'--viz., the song in three
parts.
Shakespeare is strictly historical in making a pedlar, and two country
lasses, capable of 'bearing a part' in a composition of this sort.
The company of 'men of hair,' calling themselves 'Saltiers,' may
derive their name from the dance, 'Saltarello.' Gallimaufry is
'Galimathias,' a muddle, or hotch potch. (See _Merry Wives_ II, i,
115).
The threemansong men are more particularly described in _Winter's
Tale_ IV, ii, 41.
_Clown._ She hath made me four-and-twenty nosegays for the
_shearers; three-man song-men all, and very good ones_, but
they are _most of them means and bases_; but _one Puritan_
amongst them, and he _sings psalms to hornpipes_.
These musical harvesters square closely with the account given in the
Introduction, of music amongst the lower classes. Here were 24 good
glee singers, with the single defect that their tenors were very weak,
'most of them means [altos] and basses.' The Puritan was most
accommodating, and his singing the words of psalms to the tune of the
hornpipe would tend to shew that the Old Adam was not all put away as
yet. His compromise with his conscience reminds one of the old stories
(all too true) of church singers in the 15th and 16th centuries, who
would sing the by no means respectable words of popular comic ditties
to the solemn strains of the mass 'l'homme armé,' or whatever
well-known melody the music happened to be constructed on.
An example of a threemansong will be found in the Appendix, 'We be
soldiers three.'
Shakespeare also alludes to _sacred_ part-music. Falstaff, by his own
account, was a notable singer of Anthems, in which holy service he had
lost his voice; he was familiar with members of the celebrated choir
of St George's Chapel at Windsor; and was not above practising the
metrical Psalmody in his sadder moments.
_H. 4. B._ I, ii, 182.
_Chief Justice._ Is not your _voice broken_, your wind
short, your chin double, your wit single, and every part
about you blasted with antiquity, and will you yet call
yourself young? Fie, fie, fie, Sir John!
_Falstaff._ My lord.... For my _voice_, I have _lost it
with_ hollaing, and _singing of anthems_.
_H. 4. B._ II, i, 88.
_Hostess._ Thou didst swear to me ... upon Wednesday in
Wheeson week, when the prince broke thy head for liking his
father to a _singing-man of Windsor_.
_Hen. 4. A._ II, iv, 137. Falstaff laments the degeneracy of the
times.
_Fal._ There live not three good men unhanged in England,
and one of them is fat, and grows old; God help the while! a
bad world, I say. _I would I were a weaver; I could sing
psalms or anything._
This last sentence connects curiously with Sir John Oldcastle, the
leader of the Lollards, who were noted for their psalm singing, which
indeed gave them the name. These Flemish Protestants, who had fled
from the persecutions in their own country, were mostly _woollen_
manufacturers, and were distinguished for their love of Psalmody,
throughout the western counties, where they settled. Hence the
allusion to 'weavers' and 'Psalms.' But according to the Epilogue of
_Hen. 4. B._, 'Oldcastle died a martyr, and _this is not the man_.'
Falstaff knew well what a Ballad was too--as the following shews:--
_Hen. 4. A._ II, ii, 43.
_Fal._ (to Hal.). Go hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent
garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I have not
_ballads made on you all_, and _sung to filthy tunes_, let a
cup of sack be my poison.
Two other worthy knights claim our attention in the next quotation,
which contains many interesting allusions. _Inter alia_; Sir Toby
gives Feste sixpence to sing a song; Sir Andrew follows it up with a
'testril.' The Clown then sings them 'O mistress mine.' [For the
original music see Prof. Bridge's 'Shakespeare Songs,' Novello, a
collection which every reader of Shakespeare ought to have. Price 2s.
6d.] Then, at Sir Toby's suggestion, they all three sing a catch, or,
in his own words, 'draw _three_ souls out of _one_ weaver,' an
allusion to the _three_ vocal parts which are evolved from the _one_
melody of the catch, as well as a sly reference to 'weavers' singing
catches. (See Introduction.) They sing 'Thou knave,' for which see the
Appendix. It is not a good catch, but sounds humorous if done smartly,
and perhaps its very roughness suits the circumstances. Next, after
Maria's entrance, Toby either quotes the titles, or sings odd lines of
four old songs [Appendix]; and when Malvolio comes in, furious with
the noise they are making in the middle of the night, he applies
precisely those epithets to their proceedings that our histories lead
us to expect--_e.g._, 'gabbling like _tinkers_,' '_alehouse_,'
squeaking out your '_cozier's_ catches' ['cozier' is 'cobbler']. Sir
Toby's puns on 'keep time' in ll. 94 and 115 ought not to be missed.
To 'keep time' is almost the only virtue a catch singer _must_ have.
_Tw._ II, iii, 18.
_Sir To._ Welcome, ass. Now _let's have a catch_.
_Sir And._ By my troth, the fool has an _excellent breast_.
I had rather than forty shillings I had such a leg, and so
_sweet a breath to sing_, as the fool has.
L. 30.
_Sir And._ Now, _a song_.
_Sir To._ Come on; there is _sixpence_ for you; let's have
_a song_.
_Sir And._ There's a _testril_ of me too; if one knight give
a----
_Clown._ Would you have a _love-song_, or a _song of good
life_?
_Sir To._ A love-song, a love-song.
_Sir And._ Ay, ay; I care not for good life.
[_Clown_ sings 'O mistress mine.']
_Sir And._ A mellifluous voice, as I am true knight.
_Sir To._ A contagious breath.
_Sir And._ Very sweet and contagious, i'faith.
_Sir To._ To _hear by the nose_, it is _dulcet in
contagion_. But shall we make the welkin dance indeed? Shall
we rouse the night-owl in a _catch_, that will _draw three
souls out of one weaver_? Shall we do that?
_Sir And._ An you love me, let's do't: I am _dog at a
catch_.
_Clo._ By'r lady, sir, and _some dogs_ will _catch well_.
_Sir And._ Most certain. Let our _catch_ be, "Thou Knave."
_Clo._ "Hold thy peace, thou knave," knight? I shall be
constrained to _call thee knave_, knight.
_Sir And._ 'Tis not the first time I have constrained one to
call me knave. _Begin_, fool: it begins, "_Hold thy peace_."
_Clo._ I shall never begin, if I hold my peace.
_Sir And._ Good, i'faith. Come, begin.
[_They sing a catch._]
_Enter_ MARIA.
_Mar._ What a caterwauling do you keep here!
* * * * *
_Sir To._ My lady's a Cataian; we are politicians;
Malvolio's a Peg-a-Ramsey, and "_Three merry men be we_."...
_Tilly-valley_, lady! [_Sings._] "There dwelt a man in
Babylon, lady, lady!"
* * * * *
_Sir To._ [_Sings._] "O! the twelfth day of December."----
_Mar._ For the love o'God, peace!
_Enter_ MALVOLIO.
_Mal._ My masters, are you mad? or what are you? Have you no
wit, manners, nor honesty, but to _gabble like tinkers_ at
this time of night? Do ye make an _alehouse_ of my lady's
house, that ye squeak out your _cozier's catches_ without
any mitigation or remorse of voice? Is there no respect of
place, persons, or _time_ in you?
_Sir To._ _We did keep time, sir, in our catches._ Sneck up!
L. 103-114, another song, "Farewell, dear heart" [Appendix].
It is perhaps necessary to explain the nature of a Catch, or Round,
more clearly. The two names were interchangeable in the 16th and 17th
centuries. It was not till quite modern times that 'Catch' implied a
necessary quibble in the words, deliberately arranged by the writer.
First, a Catch or Round of the best type of Elizabethan times
consisted of _one melody_, generally perfectly continuous. Secondly,
the said melody was always divisible into a certain number of _equal
sections_, varying from three to six, or even eight; and as many
sections as there were, so many voices were necessary. Thirdly, each
of these equal sections was deliberately arranged so as to make
_Harmony_ with every other.
Here are the words of a Round of the 17th century, which is divisible
into three equal sections, and therefore is sung by three voices.
1. 'Cuckoo! Hark! how he sings to us.
2. Good news the cuckoo brings to us;
3. Spring is here, says the cuckoo.'
Now, the way for three persons, A, B, and C, to sing this Catch or
Round, is as follows:--
A begins [see above, line 69, '_Begin_, fool'] line 1, and immediately
proceeds to line 2; at this very instant, B in his turn begins line 1,
and acts similarly. When A has reached the first syllable in line 3,
and B is at 'Good' in line 2, it is time for C also to begin at line
1. As soon as A has finished line 3, he begins again; and so on with
the others--'round' and 'round' till they are tired of 'catching' each
other up.
Thus when they are all three fairly set going, their _one_ melody
produces _three part_ harmony, and the catchers have drawn 'three
souls out of one weaver.'
The principle in all other Catches or Rounds is exactly the same,
however great the number of parts.
In the following we have another case of catch-singing. The original
music of 'Flout 'em' has not come down to us.
_Tempest_ III, ii, 122.
_Stephano._ Come on, Trinculo, _let us sing_.
[They sing a _catch_, 'Flout 'em and scout 'em.']
_Caliban._ That's not the tune. [Very likely, as they
were tipsy.]
[ARIEL _plays the tune on a tabor and pipe_.]
_Ste._ What is this same?
_Trin._ This is the _tune of our catch_, played by the
picture of Nobody.
* * * * *
L. 136.
_Cal._ Be not afeard; the isle is _full of noises_,
_Sounds_, and _sweet airs_, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand _twangling instruments_
Will hum about mine ears; and sometime _voices_, &c.
_Ste._ This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I
_shall have my music for nothing_.
L. 152.
I would, I could _see_ this taborer: [Ariel] he _lays it
on_.
Also _Id._ III, ii, 119.
Stephano, like most of the scamps in Shakespeare, is a good musician.
He leads the catch, appreciates Ariel's tabor playing (l. 152), and is
overjoyed to think that he will have all his music 'for nothing' (l.
145) in the magical isle.
Finally, in the _Taming of the Shrew_, we have the title of another
old catch, of which the music has survived--viz., 'Jack, boy.'
_Shrew_ IV, i, 42.
_Curtis._ Therefore, good Grumio, the _news_.
_Grumio._ Why, "_Jack, boy! ho, boy!_" and as much _news_ as
thou wilt.
The words of this catch, which takes four voices, are--
'Jack, boy, ho! boy, news;
The cat is in the well,
Let us ring now for her knell,
Ding, dong, ding, dong, bell.'
The music [see Appendix], like that of so many other catches, is
anonymous, and is of some date long before Shakespeare.
_As You_ V, iii, 7.
_Touchstone._ By my troth, well met. Come, sit, sit, and a
_song_.
_2 Page._ We are for you; sit i' the middle.
_1 Page._ Shall we _clap into 't roundly, without hawking,
or spitting_, or _saying we are hoarse_, which are the _only
prologues to a bad voice_?
_2 Page._ I' faith, i' faith; and _both in a tune_, like two
gipsies on a horse.
[Song follows, 'It was a lover.' Could be sung as a _two_-part
madrigal quite easily. See Bridge's 'Shakespeare Songs,' for Morley's
original setting.]
_Touch._ Truly, young gentlemen, though there was no great
matter in the ditty, yet the _note_ was very _untuneable_.
_1 Page._ You are deceived, sir; _we kept time_; we _lost
not our time_.
_Touch._ By my troth, _yes_; I count it but _time lost_ to
hear such a foolish song. God be wi' you; and _God mend your
voices_. Come, Audrey.
The First Page's speech at l. 9. is most humorously appropriate. 'Both
in a tune, like two gipsies on a horse,' is a quaint description of a
duet. There is yet another pun on 'lost time' in ll. 36-8.
Jaques' cynicism comes out even in his limited dealings with music.
_As You_ IV, ii, 5.
_Jaques._ Have you no _song_, forester, for this purpose?
_2 Lord._ Yes, sir.
_Jaq._ Sing it; _'tis no matter how it be in tune, so it
make noise enough_.
Song follows, 'What shall he have, that kill'd the deer,' Rimbault, p.
19. Music by Hilton, date about 1600, probably the original setting, a
Round for four foresters.
This section will conclude with two quotations about singing of a more
serious turn.
_Tw._ II, iv, 1.
_Duke._ _Give me some music._--Now, good morrow, friends.
Now, good Cesario, but that _piece of song_,
That _old and antique song_, we heard last night;
Methought, it did relieve my passion much,
More than _light airs_, ...
Come; but _one verse_.
_Curio._ He is not here, so please your lordship, that
should sing it.
_Duke._ Who was it?
_Cur._ Feste, the jester, my lord: ...
_Duke._ Seek him out, and _play the tune the while_.
L. 20.
[To Cesario]--How dost thou like _this tune_?
_Viola._ _It gives a very echo_ to the seat
Where love is thron'd.
L. 43.
_Duke._ Mark it, Cesario; _it is old, and plain_;
[_Clown_ sings 'Come away, death.']
L. 67.
_Duke._ There's for thy pains.
_Clo._ _No pains, sir; I take pleasure in singing, sir._
_Duke._ I'll pay thy pleasure then.
'Light airs' in line 5 means 'vain fiddling jigs'--_i.e._, lively
instrumental music. Lines 20-22 and 43 are worth remembering for many
reasons.
The next and last passage requires no remark, except that 'organ pipe
of frailty' means simply the voice of the dying king.
_King John_ V, vii, 10. Death of K. John.
_Prince Henry._ Doth he still rage?
_Pembroke._ He is more patient
Than when you left him: _even now he sung_.
_P. Hen._ _O vanity of sickness!..._
... 'Tis _strange that death should sing_.
I am the _cygnet_ to this pale faint _swan_,
Who _chants a doleful hymn_ to his own death,
And, from the _organ-pipe of frailty_, sings
His soul and body to their lasting rest.
IV
SERENADES AND 'MUSIC'
The history of Serenades is as ancient as that of Songs. In the middle
of the 15th century, Sebastian Brant, a lawyer, wrote in Dutch his
'Stultifera Navis,' or 'Ship of Fools,' a severe satire on things in
general, and popular amusements in particular. The book was afterwards
translated into Latin, and thence into English. Here are some of the
verses that treat of Serenades in the year 1450.
'The furies fearful, sprong of the floudes of hell,
Bereft _these vagabonds_ in their minds, so
That by no meane can they abide ne dwell
Within their houses, but out they nede must go;
More wildly wandring then either bucke or doe.
Some with their _harpes_, another with their _lute_,
Another with his _bagpipe_, or a foolishe _flute_.
'Then measure they their _songes_ of melody
_Before the doores of their lemman deare_;
Howling with their foolishe songe and cry,
So that their lemman may their great folly heare:
'But yet moreover these fooles are so unwise,
That _in cold winter_ they use the same madness.
When all the houses are lade with snowe and yse,
O madmen amased, unstable, and witless!
What pleasure take you in this your foolishness?
What joy have ye to wander thus by night,
Save that _ill doers alway hate the light_?'
Another verse explains that not only the foolish young men of _low_
birth were given to this practice, but also--
'States themselves therein abuse,'
'With _some yonge fooles of the spiritualtie_:
The foolish _pipe_ without all gravitie
Doth eche degree call to his frantic game:
The darkness of night expelleth feare of shame.'
Brant had no great opinion of the music provided either. He describes
their singing before their lady's window--
'One barketh, another bleateth like a shepe;
Some rore, some _counter_, some their _ballads fayne_:
Another from singing geveth himself to wepe;
When his soveraigne lady hath of him disdayne.'
Finally--a Parthian shot--
'Standing in corners like as it were a spye,
Whether that the wether be whot, colde, wet, or dry.'
Thus, one hundred years before Shakespeare was born, Serenades of
voices and instruments were common, and in general practice by all
classes of young men, and not only laymen, but also yonge fooles of
the spiritualtie.
The instruments mentioned are such as were still in use in
Shakespeare's time--viz., harp, lute, 'foolish' pipe, bagpipe, and
'foolish' flute, besides the several varieties of song, which
evidently included both solo and part singing--'feigned' ballads for a
single voice [ballads, that is, in the more refined 'keys' of 'Musica
Ficta'], and 'Countering,' which implies that two voices at least took
part.
The following passage is an example of this nocturnal serenading by a
company of gentlemen.
_Two Gent._ III, ii, 83.
_Proteus_ (advises Thurio)
'Visit by night your lady's chamber window
With some _sweet concert_: to their _instruments_
Tune a _deploring dump_:'
_Thu._ And thy advice this night I'll put in practice.
Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,
Let us into the city presently,
_To sort some gentlemen well skilled in music_.
Proteus advises Thurio to get a 'consort' (probably of viols) to play
a 'dump' under Silvia's window. He goes to arrange for some of his
friends to attend for this purpose. The serenade takes place in the
next Act, where, in the 2nd scene, line 17, it is called 'evening
music,' but does not include the 'dump,' for Thurio has 'a sonnet that
will serve the turn,' so they sing 'Who is Silvia.'
Here is the passage, which is full of quibbles on musical terms.
_Two Gent._ IV, ii, 16.
_Proteus._ ... 'Now must we to her window,
And give _some evening music to her ear_.'
L. 24.
_Thu._ ... Now, gentlemen,
_Let's tune._
L. 28.
_Host_ (to Julia, in boy's clothes). I'll bring you where
you shall _hear music_, and see the gentleman that you ask'd
for.
_Jul._ But shall I _hear him speak_?
_Host._ Ay, that you shall.
_Jul._ _That will be music._
L. 54.
_Host._ How do you, man? (_i.e._, Julia) the _music likes
you not_.
_Jul._ You mistake: the _musician_ (_i.e._, Proteus) _likes
me not_.
_Host._ Why, my pretty youth?
_Jul._ He _plays false_, father.
_Host._ How? _out of tune on the strings_?
_Jul._ Not so; but yet _so false_, that he grieves my very
_heart-strings_.
_Host._ You have a _quick ear_.
_Jul._ Ay; I would I were deaf! it makes me have a _slow
heart_.
_Host._ I perceive, _you delight not in music_.
_Jul._ Not a whit, when it _jars_ so.
_Host._ Hark! what fine _change_ is in the music.
_Jul._ Ay, that _change_ (Proteus' unfaithfulness) is the
spite.
_Host_ (misunderstanding again). You would have them
_always_ play but _one thing_?
_Jul._ I would always have _one_ (Proteus) play but one
thing.
L. 85.
_Silvia_ (from window). 'I thank you for your music,
gentlemen.'
The next passage is of a serenade in the early morning. Cloten
arranges for the musicians (who seem in this case to be professional
players) to give two pieces, one instrumental, followed by a song.
_Cymbeline_ II, iii, 11. Cloten serenades Imogen.
_Cloten._ I would this _music would come_. I am advised to
give her _music o' mornings_; they say, it will penetrate.
_Enter Musicians._
Come on: _tune_. If you can penetrate her with your
_fingering_, so; we'll try with _tongue_ too: ... _First_, a
very excellent good-conceited thing; _after_, a wonderful
sweet air, with admirable rich words to it,--_and then_ let
her consider.
[The musicians perform 'Hark! hark! the lark.']
So, get you gone. If this penetrate, I will consider your
_music the better_; if it do not, it is a vice in _her
ears_, which _horse-hairs_, and _calves'-guts_, ... can
never amend.
In l. 14, 'fingering' and 'tongue' correspond to 'playing' and
'singing.' The first is to be a 'Fancy' for viols, 'a very excellent
good-conceited thing'; the second is the 'wonderful sweet air,' Hark!
hark! the lark.
'Good-conceited' means having many 'conceits.' These 'fancies' were
always contrapuntal, and the various artificial contrivances,
answering of points, imitations, and what not, are referred to under
this title. The mention of 'horse-hairs and calves'-guts' makes it
clear that the instruments in this 'morning music' were Viols.
Another 'evening music' is provided by Pericles, Prince of Tyre.
_Pericles_ II, v, 24. Pericles, a musician [his education had been 'in
_arts_ and arms,' see II, iii, 82].
_Per._ All fortune to the good Simonides!
_Sim._ To you as much, sir! _I am beholding to you
For your sweet music this last night_: I do
Protest, my ears were never better fed
With such _delightful pleasing harmony_.
_Per._ It is your grace's pleasure to commend,
Not my desert.
_Sim._ Sir, _you are music's master_.
_Per._ The worst of all her scholars, my good lord.
The next quotation is also of 'morning music,' but with a different
object--not a lady, but a soldier, and of a somewhat rough and ready
kind, to judge by the Clown's critical remarks.
The passage seems to indicate the use of Bagpipes; for 'they speak
in the _nose_' (see _Merchant_ IV, i, 48), and are called
_wind_-instruments, and are mentioned under the name 'pipes' in the
last two lines. Moreover, there is the remark of the Clown,
represented here by stars, which is terribly appropriate to that
instrument.
_Othello_ III, i. Cassio brings musicians to salute Othello.
_Cass._ Masters, _play here_; I will content your pains:
Something that's brief; and bid "Good morrow, general."
[_Music._]
_Enter Clown._
_Clo._ Why, masters, _have your instruments been in Naples_,
that they _speak i' the nose_ thus?
_1 Mus._ How, sir, how?
_Clo._ Are these, I pray you, called _wind_-instruments?
_1 Mus._ Ay, marry, are they, sir.
* * * * *
_Clo._ ... masters, here's money for you; and _the general
so likes your music_, that _he desires you_, for love's
sake, _to make no more noise with it_.
_1 Mus._ Well, sir, we will not.
_Clo._ If you have _any music that may not be heard_, to't
again; but, as they say, to _hear_ music the general does
not greatly care.
_1 Mus._ _We have none such_, sir.
_Clo._ Then _put up your pipes in your bag_, for I'll away.
Go; vanish into air, away!
Pandarus appears to be a capital musician. In the following we find
him questioning a musical servant of Priam's palace about some
instrumental music which is going on within, 'at the request of
Paris.' The servant amuses himself by giving 'cross' answers to
Pandarus' crooked questions, and in the process gets out two or three
musical jokes--_e.g._, '_partly_ know,' 'music _in parts_,' '_wholly_,
sir.' Further on, Paris also plays on the term 'broken' music.
_Troilus and Cressida_ III, i, 19.
_Pandarus._ What music is this?
_Servant._ I do but _partly_ know, sir; it is _music in
parts_.
_Pandarus._ Know you the _musicians_?
_Serv._ _Wholly_, sir.
_Pan._ Who play they to?
_Serv._ To the hearers, sir.
_Pan._ At whose pleasure, friend?
_Serv._ At mine, sir, and _theirs that love music_.
* * * * *
L. 52.
_Pan._ Fair prince, here is _good broken music_.
_Paris._ _You_ have _broke_ it, cousin; and, by my life, you
shall make it whole again: you shall _piece_ it out with a
_piece_ of your performance. [To _Helen_] Nell, he
[_Pandarus_] is _full of harmony_.
* * * * *
L. 95.
_Pan._ ... Come, _give me an instrument_. [And at Helen's
request, Pandarus sings, 'Love, love, nothing but love.']
The custom of having instrumental music in taverns has already been
referred to in the Introduction, near the end, where we learn that the
charge for playing before the guests was twenty shillings for two
hours in Shakespeare's time; also that a man could hardly go into a
public house of entertainment without being followed by two or three
itinerant musicians, who would either sing or play for his pleasure,
while he was at dinner. Accordingly, we find Sir John Falstaff
enjoying such a performance at the Boar's Head, Eastcheap.
_H. 4. B._ II, iv, 10.
_1 Drawer._ Why then, cover, and set them down: and see if
thou canst find out _Sneak's noise_; Mistress Tearsheet
would fain have _some music_. (After supper, in a cooler
room.)
_Id._ l. 227.
_Page._ The _music_ is come, sir.
_Falstaff._ Let them _play_.---- _Play_, sirs.
_Id._ l. 380.
_Fal._ _Pay the musicians_, sirrah.
The term 'Sneak's noise' is most interesting. 'Noise' means a company
of musicians, and Mr Sneak was the gentleman who gave his name to the
particular band of instrumentalists who favoured the Boar's Head.
Milton uses the word, in this sense, in the poem 'At a Solemn Music,'
where the 'saintly shout' of the seraphic choir, with 'loud uplifted
angel-trumpets,' 'immortal harps of golden wires,' and the singing of
psalms and hymns, are collectively called 'that melodious _noise_.'
Also in his Hymn on the Nativity, verse ix., he has 'stringèd
_noise_'--_i.e._, band of stringed instruments. The Prayer-book
Version (Great Bible) of the Psalms, which was made in 1540, has the
word in Ps. lxxxi. 1, 'Make a cheerful _noise_ unto the God of
Jacob,' and this in the next verses is said to consist of various
musical instruments--_e.g._, the tabret, harp, lute, and trumpet. Also
in the Authorised Version of 1611, Ps. xxxiii. 3, 'play skilfully with
a loud _noise_,' which was the instrumental accompaniment to a 'new
song.' The same word is used in several other places, with the meaning
of 'music'--_e.g._, Pss. lxvi. 1; xcv. 1, 2; xcviii. 4, 6; c. 1; where
'to make a joyful noise' is represented in the original by the same
verb, except in one of the two cases in Ps. xcviii. 4.
The word was still in use in 1680, when Dr Plot was present at the
annual Bull-running held by the Minstrels of Tutbury, one of the
features of which festivity was a banquet, with 'a Noise of musicians
playing to them.'
The reputed cure of the Tarantula's bite by music has already been
mentioned. The next three examples are of somewhat similar cases.
In the first, Henry IV. in sickness asks for music; the second is an
account of Cerimon's attempt to rouse the half-drowned Thaisa with at
least partial assistance from music; while the third represents
Prospero using a solemn air to remove the magic spell which he had
cast on Alonso and his other enemies.
_H. 4. B._ IV, iv, 133. K. Hen. on his sick-bed.
_K. Hen._ Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends;
Unless some _dull and favourable hand_
Will _whisper music_ to my wearied spirit.
_Warwick._ Call for the _music_ in the other room.
_Pericles_ III, ii, 87. Cerimon's house at Ephesus. Thaisa, cast up by
the sea, is brought to life by his directions.
_Cerimon._ Well said, well said; the fire and the cloths.
The _rough and woful music_ that we have,
_Cause it to sound_, beseech you.
The vial once more;--how thou stirr'st, thou block!--
_The music there!_ I pray you, give her air.
_Tempest_ V, i, 51. Prospero employs music to disenchant Alonso,
Antonio, etc.
_Pro._ ... and, _when I have required
Some heavenly music_ (which even now I do),
_To work mine end upon their senses_....
L. 58.
_A solemn air_; and the _best comforter
To an unsettled fancy_, cure thy brains.
Next we have two examples of 'Music at Home.' In the case of the Duke
in Twelfth Night, it is 'concerted' music, and the players seem to be
performing such a quaint old piece as 'The Lord of Salisbury his
Pavin,' by Gibbons, in _Parthenia_, the last 'strain' of which has
just such a 'dying fall' as is mentioned in line 4. [See the remarks
on the passage from _Lucrece_ in Section I. on the _technical_ meaning
of 'strain.']
_Twelfth Night_ I, i.
_Duke._ If _music_ be the _food of love_, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.--
_That strain again!_ it had a _dying fall_:
O! it came o'er my ear like the _sweet sound_
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour.--Enough! no more:
'Tis not so sweet now, as it was before.
Brutus' musical establishment is on a smaller scale than the Duke's.
He keeps a 'good boy,' who can sing to his own accompaniment on the
lute, and is such a willing servant as to perform when almost overcome
by sleep.
_Julius Cæsar_ IV, iii, 256. Brutus and his servant Lucius.
_Bru._ Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful.
Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile,
And _touch_ thy _instrument_ a _strain_ or two?
_Luc._ Ay, my lord, an't please you.
_Bru._ It does, my boy.
I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing.
* * * * *
[Boy sings to lute.]
_Bru._ This is a _sleepy tune_: [Boy drops off]--O murderous slumber!
Lay'st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy,
_That plays thee music_?--Gentle knave, good night;
I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee.
If thou dost nod, thou _break'st thy instrument:
I'll take it from thee_; and, good boy, good night.--
[Ghost of Cæsar appears.]
L. 290.
_Bru._ Boy!--Lucius!--Varro! Claudius! sirs, awake!--Claudius!
_Luc._ [asleep]. _The strings_, my lord, _are false_.
_Bru._ He thinks he still is _at his instrument_.
In _Henry VIII._ III, i is a case of the same kind.
_Queen Catherine._ Take thy _lute_, wench: my soul grows sad with
troubles:
_Sing, and disperse them_, if thou canst. Leave working.
[Song. 'Orpheus.']
The next passage brings us to another class of music--viz., dirges,
funeral songs, or 'good-nights.' [See _H. 4. B._ III, ii, 322]. In
_Cymbeline_ IV, ii, 184, Cadwal (Arviragus) sounds an 'ingenious
instrument' to signify Imogen's death. Polydore (Guiderius) says they
had not used it since their mother died. The song, or more properly,
duet, which they sing directly after, in memory of Imogen, may be
taken in this connection. Unfortunately there seems to be no musical
setting of 'Fear no more the heat o' the sun' any older than 1740.
In the following quotation 'dirges' are mentioned by name.
_Rom._ IV, iv, 21.
_Capulet._ ... "Good faith! 'tis day:
The county [Count Paris] will be here _with music_ straight."
Sc. v. 84.
_Cap._ All things, that we ordained festival,
Turn from their office to black funeral:
Our _instruments_ to _melancholy bells_;
Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast;
Our _solemn hymns_ to _sullen dirges_ change.
In close connection with these funeral songs is the passage in _Hen.
VIII._ IV, ii, 77, where Queen Katherine, sick, requests her
gentleman-usher to get the musicians to play a favourite piece of this
class--
... Good Griffith,
Cause the musicians play me _that sad note
I named my knell_, whilst I sit meditating
On that celestial harmony I go to.
[She sleeps, then, waking from the vision--]
... Bid the music leave,
They are harsh and heavy to me.
It would be of great interest if it were possible to identify Queen
Katherine's 'Knell.'
There is an old song, given in Chappell's Popular Music, 'O Death,
rock me to sleep,' which might be the very one, for both music and
words are singularly appropriate. The Refrain is as follows:--
'Tole on thou passing bell
Ringe out my dolefull _knell_
Let thy sound my death tell,
For I must die,
There is no remedye.'
The song is most plaintive, and has a very striking feature in the
shape of a real independent accompaniment, which keeps up a continual
figure of three descending notes, like the bells of a village church.
Hawkins gives the poem, with certain variations, and two extra verses
at the beginning, the first commencing--
'Defiléd is my name full sore,
Through cruel spite and false report.'
and he says the verses are thought to have been written by Anne
Boleyn. Hawkins also gives music (in four parts) to the first two
verses, by Robt. Johnson, a contemporary of Shakespeare's. The music
of the song in Chappell is much older than that; indeed, it is very
possibly of Hen. VIII.'s time.
V
DANCES AND DANCING
The history of Dances is the history of the transition from pure vocal
music to pure instrumental music. In the Dances of the 16th century,
we have the germs of the modern 'Sonata' Form; and in the association
of certain of them we have the first attempt at a sequence of
different 'movements,' which finally resulted in the Sonata itself.
The Elizabethan Dances, especially the Pavan, shew us this development
just at the point where instrumental music was dividing itself from
vocal.
_All the ancient dances were originally sung._ In Grove's Dictionary,
Vol. ii. p. 676, there is given the music of a _Pavan_, in four vocal
parts, with the words sung [copied from Arbeau's Orchésographie,
1588]. Morley (Practical Music, 1597) mentions _Ballete_, as being
'songs which being sung to a dittie may likewise be danced.' Again, he
speaks of 'a kind of songs ... called Justinianas ... all written in
the _Bergamasca_ language.' See _Mids. Nt. Dream_ V, ii, 30, where
Bottom is not so very inaccurate after all in asking Duke Theseus to
'_hear_ a Bergomask dance between two of our company.' The same author
also gives '_Passamesos_ with a dittie [_i.e._, sung],' and
distinguishes between these aforesaid and 'those kinds which they make
_without_ ditties.' [Passamesos are Passing-measures--or
Passamezzo--Pavans, see _Twelfth Nt._ V, i, 200.]
Hence it appears that in Elizabeth's reign some dances were sung, and
others were simply played.
Morley goes on to instance two particular dances which were commonly
associated together--viz., _Pavans_ and _Galliards_. [_Tw._ V, i, 200,
I, iii, 127, etc., _H. 5._ I, ii, 252], the first of which he says is
for 'grave' dancing, having three 'strains,' each containing 8, 12, or
16 semibreves (two beats in a bar), which are each repeated; and that
this _Pavan_ is usually followed by a _Galliard_, 'a kind of music
made out of the other' [see Bull's Pavan and Galliard, 'St Thomas
Wake,' in _Parthenia_] in _triple_ time, 'a lighter and more stirring
dance than the _Pavan_, and consisting of the same number of
straines.'
The next passage from Morley is very interesting when compared with
the stage direction in _Timon_ I, ii, 131, where a _masque_ of
_Ladies_ as _Amazons_ enter the banquetting hall at Timon's house,
with _lutes_ in their hands, _dancing and playing_. This stage
direction corresponds closely with Morley's account, 'the Italians
make their _galliards_ (which they tearm _salta relly_) plain'
[_i.e._, alone; not as an appendage to the Pavan, as in England], 'and
frame ditties to them, which in their _mascaradoes_ they sing and
dance, and manie times without any instruments at all, but instead of
instruments they have _Curtisans disguised_ in men's apparell, who
sing _and daunce_ to their own songes.'
The 'French _bransle_,' he says, is like the Alman (Allemagne of Bach,
etc.)--_i.e._, it 'containeth the time of eight, and most commonly in
short notes.' This is the Brawl, see _L.L.L._ III, i, 9, and was one
of several tunes to which the Country Dance was danced, whether in a
ring, or 'at length,' like our 'Sir Roger.'
He says that the '_voltes_ and _courantes_' also are 'like unto this,'
but are 'danced after sundrie fashions' [he means, with different
steps, but occupying the same rhythmical time, so that the same tune
would do], 'the _volte_ rising and leaping, the _courant_ travising
and running, in which measure also our Countrey dance is made, though
it be danced after _another form_ than any of the former.'
'All these be made in _straines_, either two or three.' See _Tw._ I,
i, 4, 'that _strain_ again,' or _Julius Cæsar_ IV, iii, 258, 'touch
thy instrument a _strain_ or two.'
Christopher Sympson, the royalist soldier (1667), confirms Morley's
statements as to the constitution and use of these dances. See his
'Compendium,' p. 116, where he expressly states that pure instrumental
music, 'made only to delight the ear,' is merely a development from
Dances.
He speaks of the association of Pavan and Galliard as being 'in
course.' He spells the latter _Giliard_, and says that it is
'according to its name' [see Skeat, Etym. Dict., Spanish, gallardo (ll
= ly), pleasant, gay, lively] 'of a loftly and frolick movement.'
Immediately afterwards, however, Sympson seems to forget his own
remarks, for he says the name is derived from Gallia, 'the country
whence it came.'
On page 117 he speaks of _Corants_, _Sarabands_, _Jiggs_, _Country
Dances_, etc., as 'things so common in each one's ears' that he 'need
not enlarge his Discourse' to them.
There is a capital bit of patriotism on page 118, which deserves
quoting, first, because at the time it was entirely justifiable;
secondly, because it shews us that in 1667, instrumental music had at
last decidedly parted company with vocal part-writing, and had an
independent existence. 'You need not seek Outlandish Authors,
especially for Instrumental _Music_; no Nation (in my opinion) being
equal to the _English_ in that way; as well for their excellent as
their various and numerous Consorts, of 3, 4, 5, and 6 Parts, made
properly [on purpose] for Instruments, of all which (as I said)
_Fancies_ are the chief.' For 'Consort,' see _Two Gent._ III, ii, 83;
and for 'Fancies,' _Hen. IV. B._ III, ii, 323.
Hawkins (1776) does not add much of interest to the above account of
the Elizabethan dances, except (p. 704) that there is no authority for
a Jigg having generally a pointed (_i.e._, dotted) note at the
beginning of every bar. There is, however, a 'Jegge' given in Stainer
and Barrett's Dict. of Musical Terms, dated 1678, where the 'pointed'
note is quite characteristic. This may be a more modern feature, for
an undoubtedly ancient Jig--viz., Dr Bull's 'King's Hunting Jigg,' not
only has no dotted note, but is in common time, without even a
tendency towards the rhythm of triplets. [Also see Appendix,
'Cobbler's Jig.' 1622.]
Here is a most entertaining quotation from Selden,[19] dealing with
fashionable court dances in Elizabeth's reign, and shewing how things
had gone from bad to worse in respect of dignity and state in dancing,
under the Stuarts.
[Footnote 19: Selden's Table Talk, article 'King of England,' § 7.]
'The court of England is much alter'd. At a solemn dancing,
_first_ you had the _grave measures_, _then_ the _Corantoes_
and the _Galliards_, and _this_ kept up _with ceremony_; and
_at length_ to Trenchmore, and the Cushion dance: _Then_ all
the company dances, lord and groom, lady and kitchen-maid,
_no distinction_. So in our court in queen _Elizabeth's_
time, _gravity and state_ were kept up. In king _James's_
time things were _pretty well_. But _in king Charles's
time_, there has been nothing but Trenchmore and the
Cushion-dance, _omnium gatherum, tolly polly, hoite cum
toite_.'
There are very many passages of interest, containing references to
Dances. The first one here given is an instance (in Shakespeare's very
text) of singing a dance and dancing to it at the same time. Here the
_Brawl_, and _Canary_, the first in alphabetical order, are coupled
together.
_L.L.L._ III, i, 9.
_Moth._ Master, will you win your love with a _French
brawl_?
_Arm._ How meanest thou? _brawling in French_?
_Moth._ No, my complete master; but to _jig off a tune_ at
the tongue's end, _canary to it_ with your feet, ... _sigh a
note_, and _sing a note_.'
Two other examples of dancing to one's own singing are, _Mids._ V, ii,
25 and _Wiv._ V, v, 93.
The _Brawl_ was written in quick four-in-a-bar time. There are several
well-known tunes to it. [See Note on Arbeau's 'Orchésographie.' 1588.]
The derivation of the name is from the French, _bransle_, a totter,
swing, shake, etc., or perhaps from Old French _Brandeler_, to wag,
shake, swing. Skeat thinks the original dance may have been a _sword_
dance, and with this he connects the word Brandish.[20] It was danced,
sometimes in a ring, holding hands, and sometimes 'at length.'
[Footnote 20: This hardly seems a necessary theory. See the Note on
'Orchésographie,' where the 'swinging' movement is fully accounted
for.]
The _Canary_ (or Canaries) was in 6/8 time, and was a lively dance.
[Stainer and Barrett's Dict. gives one by Delaborde in 4/4 time.]
There are many examples by Lully and other Frenchmen of the 17th
century. One of Lully's, in Lajarte's 'Airs à Danser,' dates 1666.
There is no history of the name. Skeat says it is so called from the
Canary Islands. Hawkins does not attempt to account for the title, but
cunningly infers that it is of English origin because it has _not_ got
a foreign name. Also he mentions that Purcell wrote a Canaries for his
Opera of Dioclesian, 1690. [See Note on 'Orchésographie.']
The Canary is also alluded to in two other places, where the lively
character of the dance is clear. Mr Ford puns on 'wine,' 'pipe,' and
'canary.' Of course _he_ means _whine_, _pipe_ (for dancing to), and
the _Canary_ that he meant Falstaff to dance.
_Wiv._ III, ii, 83.
_Host._ Farewell, my hearts. I will to my honest knight
Falstaff, and drink _canary_ with him.
_Ford._ [_aside_] I think, I shall drink in _pipe-wine_
first with him; I'll make him _dance_.
And next, Lafeu connects the canary with 'spritely fire and motion.'
_All's Well_ II, i, 74.
_Lafeu._ ... I have seen a medicine
That's able to breathe life into a stone,
Quicken a rock, and make you _dance canary_
With spritely fire and motion.
There are two specially important passages which mention several
dances at one time, so as to give some prominence to their special
characteristics--viz., _Much Ado_ II, i, 68, and _Twelfth Nt._ I, iii,
118.
The budget of dances here named includes--
1. Cinque-pace, or Sinkapace. 2. Coranto, or Courante. 3. Galliard. 4.
Jig (Scotch). 5. Measure.
_Much Ado_ II, i, 68.
_Beatrice._ The fault will be in the _music_, cousin, if you
be not woo'd _in good time_: if the prince be too important
[importunate], tell him, there is _measure_ in everything,
and so _dance_ out the answer. For hear me, Hero; wooing,
wedding, and repenting, is as a _Scotch jig_, a _measure_,
and a _cinque-pace_: the first suit is _hot and hasty_, like
a _Scotch jig_, and full as fantastical; the wedding,
_mannerly modest_, as a _measure_, full of _state and
ancientry_; and then comes repentance, and with his bad legs
falls into the _cinque-pace faster and faster_ till he sink
into his grave.
_Tw._ I, iii, 118.
_Sir To._ What is thy excellence in a _galliard_, knight?
_Sir And._ 'Faith, I can _cut a caper_.
* * * * *
L. 123.
_Sir To._ Wherefore are these things hid?... why dost thou
not _go to church in a galliard_, and _come home in a
coranto_? My very _walk_ should be a _jig_: ...
_sink-a-pace_. What dost thou mean? is it a world to hide
virtues in? I did think, by the excellent constitution of
thy leg, it was formed under the _star of a galliard_.
To take these five dances in order--
1. Cinquepace is the name of the original Galliard. Praetorius (b.
1571) says a Galliard has _five_ steps, and is therefore called
_Cinque_ Pas. These five steps are described in the Orchésographie,
1588. See the Note on that work for the explanation of the steps of
this and other Shakespeare dances.
Beatrice's description seems to connect the cinquepace with the
tottering and uncertain steps of old age. 'Repentance,' she says,
'with his _bad legs_ falls into the cinquepace faster and faster, till
he _sink_ into his grave.'
2. Coranto is the Italian form of our Country dance. The Country dance
is original in England, but under different foreign names has been
called French or Italian. It means simply 'country' or 'rustic' dance.
Skeat is entirely opposed to the derivation from _Contra_ danza, with
a supposed reference to two opposite lines of partners; and in this he
is confirmed by Shakespeare, _Tempest_ IV, i, 138, 'country footing.'
The old English name was 'current traverse,' and Morley (1597) speaks
of the Courant step as 'travising and running,' which would appear to
connect the Italian word with _curro_. Sir John Davies (1570-1626), in
his poem 'Orchestra,' identifies Rounds, Corantos, measures, and some
other dances with Country Dances. That is, whatever the rhythm or
speed of the actual tune used, these variously named Country Dances
could be performed to it. Sir Roger de Coverly, our typical English
Country Dance, is in _form_ almost the same as the Brawl, Coranto,
Galliard, or measure. A Courant by Frescobaldi (1591-1640) is in
triple time. As for its 'step,' Davies says it is 'on a triple dactile
foot,' 'close by the ground with sliding passages.' According to Sir
Toby, it would be a quicker and gayer dance than the Galliard, for he
compares the walk to church to the latter; but the more lighthearted
journey back to dinner he likens to the Coranto. The Jig would be even
faster, for Sir Andrew's 'very walk,' that is, his _week-day_ gait,
was to be 'a jig.'
3. The Galliard, in accordance with its derivation, is properly
described in _H. 5._ I, ii, 252, as a '_nimble_' galliard. This was
extremely popular, both as a virginal piece and for dancing. There is
quite a long list of Galliards by various composers, in Qu.
Elizabeth's Virginal Book. There are several in _Parthenia_ (1611) by
Byrde, Bull, and Gibbons. They are always in triple time, and consist
of either two or three strains of an even number of bars.
Sir Toby seems to connect a Galliard with somewhat violent 'capers.'
He remarks on the 'excellent constitution' of Sir Andrew's leg, 'it
was formed under the star of a galliard.' Sir Andrew complacently
replies, 'Ay, 'tis strong,' upon which Sir Toby proposes to the
foolish knight to give an example of his powers; 'Let me see thee
_caper_. Ha! _higher_.' This capering or 'sault majeur' was also a
feature of the 'high lavolt' [La Volta] mentioned in _Troilus_ IV, iv,
84, concerning which Sir John Davies says--
'An anapaest is all their music's song,
Whose first two feet are short, and third is long.'
Also he calls the lavolte 'a lofty jumping.' Morley (1597) speaks of
the Volte, and says it is characterised by 'rising and leaping,' and
is of the same 'measure' as a coranto. These statements do not all
agree with the 'Orchésographie.'
4. Jigg [later Gigue, and Jig]. The name comes from Giga (Geige), a
sort of fiddle in use during the 12th and 13th centuries. The oldest
jigs are Scottish, and were 'round dances' for a large number of
people. As for the time of the Jig tunes, those of the 18th century
were certainly written in a triple rhythm, like 3/8, 6/4 or 12/8. The
Jegge of 1678, mentioned above, is in quick 6/4 time. But 'The
Cobbler's Jig' [Appendix], 1622, and a Jigg by Matthew Locke, dated
1672, in his 'Compositions for Broken and Whole Consorts of 2, 3, 4,
5, and 6 parts,' are very decidedly in quick 4/4 time, and have no
such characteristics as a 'dotted note' anywhere about them. Moreover,
Bull's 'The King's Hunting Jigg,' is also in quick 4/4 time, with a
similar absence of dotted notes. This last example is probably earlier
than 1600. At any rate it was a lively dance, as we can learn from
Hamlet.
_Hamlet_ II, ii, 504. The _1st Player_ recites a speech.
_Polonius._ This is _too long_.
_Hamlet._ It shall to the barber's, with your
beard.--Pr'ythee (to the _1st Player_), say on: _he's for a
jig, ... or he sleeps_.
5. Measure. Beatrice, in the quoted passage from _Much Ado About
Nothing_, gives a capital idea of the relative speed of the Scotch jig
and the Measure. The jig, she says, is like the lover's wooing, hot,
hasty, and fantastical; the measure, however, is like the Wedding,
mannerly modest, full of state and ancientry.
The term Measure certainly seems to have been used to signify a
particularly staid and formal dance. Selden (see above), at least,
puts 'grave Measures' at the sober beginning of his list, and so goes
on, by easy descent, through the more spirited Coranto, and tolerably
lively Galliard, to the lower depths of the Cushion-Dance, which were
reached towards the close of the evening, when the grave and reverend
Elders may be supposed to have gone to bed.
But, besides this, the word appears to have been used generically,
meaning merely 'a dance.' It was certainly applied to the Passamezzo,
_and to other country dances_. In _H. 8._ I, iv, 104, King Henry
says--
... 'I have half a dozen healths
To drink to these fair ladies, and a _measure_
To lead 'em once again.'
The next passage uses the word for a pun.
_As You_ V, iv, 178.
_Duke Senior._ _Play Music!_ and you brides and bridegrooms all,
With _measure_ heap'd in joy, to the _measures_ fall.
L. 192.
_Jaques._ ... So, to your pleasures;
I am for other than for _dancing measures_.
A similar play upon the word is in _Richard II._ III, iv, 6, where the
queen asks her ladies to propose some sport to drive away care.
_1 Lady._ Madam, we'll dance.
_Queen._ My legs can keep no _measure_ in delight,
When my poor heart no _measure_ keeps in grief:
Therefore, no dancing, girl.
See especially the following, which holds a whole string of quibbles.
_L.L.L._ V, ii, 184. Masked ball.
_King of Navarre._ Say to her, we have _measur'd_ many miles,
To tread a _measure_ with her on this grass.
_Boyet_ (to the ladies). They say, that they have _measur'd_ many
a mile,
To tread a _measure_ with you on this grass.
_Rosaline._ It is not so. Ask them how many inches
Is in one mile: if they have _measur'd_ many,
The _measure_ then of one is easily told.
_Boyet._ If, to come hither, you have _measur'd_ miles,
And many miles, the princess bids you tell,
How many inches do fill up one mile.
_Biron._ Tell her, we _measure_ them by weary _steps_.
And l. 209, _measure_.
Another dance that is frequently referred to is the Dump, the slow and
mournful character of which has already been explained in the notes on
_Lucrece_ 1127. As a serenade it is named in the _Two Gent._ III, ii,
83. The nature of the steps of this dance is not certainly known. Two
features, however, may be guessed at--viz., a tapping of the foot at
certain places, which may be inferred from the possible connection of
the word with 'Thump'; and secondly, an alternation of a slow sliding
step, interspersed with dead pauses, and a quicker movement, succeeded
again by the slow step. These last seem to be indicated by the music
of 'My Lady Carey's Dump,' part of which is given in the Appendix. The
character of the Dump has given us the modern expression of 'in the
dumps'--_i.e._, sulky; and this is also used commonly in Shakespeare.
In the next passage, Peter, Capulet's servant, speaks ironically of a
'merry' dump, and quotes verse 1 of Richard Edwards' song, 'When
griping grief.' For an account of that song see Section III., about
Songs and Singing. In Peter's quotation, the dumps are 'doleful.'
The quibbles on 'silver sound,' 'sweet sound,' 'sound for silver,' 'no
_gold_ for sounding,' are further examples of Shakespeare's fondness
for joking on musical matters. Peter's reply to the Third Musician,
'You are the singer; I will _say_ for you,' may be a just reflection
on Mr James Soundpost's lack of words, or perhaps indicates that the
pronunciation of singers even in that musical age was no better than
it is now.
The improvised names of the musicians are pointed enough; Simon
'Catling,' referring to the material of his viol strings; Hugh
'Rebeck,' the rebeck being the ancient English fiddle with three
strings. The 'smalé' Ribible, which Absolon, the parish clerk in
Chaucer, used to play 'songés' on, is supposed to be the same
instrument; and finally, James 'Soundpost,' which wants no explaining.
The final remark of Musician 2 is delicious, 'tarry for the mourners,
and stay dinner.'
_Rom._ IV, v, 96. After Juliet's apparent death.
_Exeunt Capulet, Lady C., Paris, etc._
_1 Musician._ 'Faith, we may _put up our pipes_, and be gone.
_Nurse._ Honest good fellows, ah! _put up, put up_;
For well you know, this is a pitiful _case_.
_1 Mus._ Ay, by my troth, the _case_ may be amended.
(See _H. 5._ III, ii, 42, about Bardolph and the lute case.)
_Enter Peter._
_Peter._ Musicians, O, musicians! "Heart's ease, Heart's
ease": O! an you will have me live, play "Heart's ease."
_1 Mus._ Why "Heart's ease?"
_Peter._ O, musicians, because my _heart itself_ plays--"My
heart is full of woe." O! play me some _merry dump_, to
comfort me.
_2 Mus._ Not a _dump_ we: 'tis no time to play now.
* * * * *
_Peter._ Then will I lay the serving creature's dagger on
your pate. I will carry no _crotchets_: I'll _re_ you, I'll
_fa_ you. Do you _note_ me?
_1. Mus._ An you _re_ us, and _fa_ us, you _note_ US.
_2. Mus._ Pray you, put up your dagger, and put out your
wit.
_Peter._ Then have at you with my wit.... Answer me like
men:
_When griping grief the heart doth wound,
And_ DOLEFUL DUMPS _the mind oppress,
Then music with her silver sound--_
Why "silver sound"? why "music with her _silver_ sound"?
what say you, Simon _Catling_?
_1 Mus._ Marry, sir, because silver hath a _sweet sound_.
_Peter._ Pretty!--what say _you_, Hugh _Rebeck_?
_2 Mus._ I say--"silver sound" because musicians _sound for
silver_.
_Peter._ Pretty too!--what say _you_, James _Soundpost_?
_3 Mus._ 'Faith, I know not what to _say_.
_Peter._ O! I cry you mercy; you are the _singer_: I will
_say_ for you. It is--"music with her silver sound," because
musicians have no _gold_ for sounding:--
Then music with her _silver sound_
With speedy help doth lend redress.
[_Exit._
_1 Mus._ What a pestilent knave is this same!
_2 Mus._ Hang him, Jack! [Peter's names evidently all
wrong.] Come, we'll in here; tarry for the mourners, _and
stay dinner_.
[_Exeunt._]
The Hay, Hey, or Raye, seems to be mentioned only once--viz., in
_Love's Labour's Lost_, in the account of the preparations for the
Pageant of the Worthies. Constable Dull proposes to accompany the
dancing of the hay with a tabor, which may be taken as the common
practice. Holofernes says Dull's idea is 'most dull,' like himself.
The Hay was a Round country-dance--_i.e._, the performers stood in a
circle to begin with, and then (in the words of an old direction
quoted in Stainer and Barrett's Dict.) 'wind round _handing_ in
passing until you come to your places.' See the note on Arbeau's
Orchésographie for the steps and tune of the Haye.
Hawkins says (Hist. 705) that in an old comedy called the Rehearsal,
the Earth, the Sun, and Moon are made to dance the Hey to the tune of
Trenchmore, which is referred to in the above-quoted passage from
Selden, as a lively and even boisterous dance.
_L.L.L._ V, i, 148. Schoolmaster Holofernes & Co. arranging the
Pageant of the Nine Worthies.
_Dull._ I'll make one in a _dance_, or so; or I will _play_
_On the tabor_ to the Worthies, and let them _dance the hay_.
_Hol._ _Most dull_, honest Dull.
The Morrice Dance, or Morris, was very popular in England and other
countries in the 16th century.
Relics of it may still be seen in country places at certain times of
the year. The very meagre celebrations of May Day, which can be seen
in London even now, are a survival of the ancient customs with which
the Morrice-Dance was always associated. Hawkins gives this account of
the Morris; "there are few country places in this kingdom where it is
not known; it is a dance of young men in their shirts, with bells at
their feet, and ribbons of various colours tied round their arms, and
slung across their shoulders. Some writers, Shakespeare in particular,
mention a Hobby-horse and a Maid Marian, as necessary in this
recreation. Sir William Temple speaks of a pamphlet in the library of
the Earl of Leicester, which gave an account of a set of
morrice-dancers in King James's reign, composed of ten men or twelve
men, for the ambiguity of his expression renders it impossible to say
which of the two numbers is meant, who went about the country: that
they danced a Maid Marian, with a tabor and pipe, and that their ages
one with another made up twelve hundred years."
[Temple's own words are quite clear--viz., that there were _ten_ men
who danced; a Maid Marian (makes eleven); and a man to play the tabor
and pipe (makes twelve).]
The name Morrice means Moorish dance, or Morisco. Perhaps it was
called so from being accompanied by the tabor, for Drums of all sorts
are distinctly Eastern instruments.
Two tunes, one a Moresca by Monteverde, 1608, and the other an English
Morris, 1650, are given in the Appendix. Also see Note on
'Orchésographie' for a Morisque.
The first of the two following passages connects the morris with May
Day; the second with Whitsuntide, which is in May as often as not.
_All's Well_ II, ii, 20.
_Countess._ Will your answer serve fit to all questions?
_Clown._ As fit as ... a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a
_morris_ for _May-day_....
_H. 5._ II, iv, 23.
_Dauphin._ And let us do it with no show of fear;
No, with no more, than if we heard that England
Were busied with a _Whitsun morris-dance_;
The Pavan has been mentioned before, as the dance in Duple time which
preceded the Galliard which was in a triple rhythm. It was a stately
dance, with a stately name, for the derivation is most probably from
_Pavo_, a peacock, with a reference, no doubt, to the majestic strut
and gay feathers of that bird. It was _de rigueur_ for gentlemen to
dance the Pavan in cap and sword; for lawyers to wear their gowns,
princes their mantles; and ladies to take part in the fullest of full
dress, the long trains of their gowns being supposed to correspond in
appearance and movement to the peacock's tail.
The only Pavan mentioned by Shakespeare is the _Passy-measures pavin_,
otherwise known as Passing-measures-pavin, or Passameso, or _Pass e
mezzo_, which last is the earliest form of the word.
Praetorius (_b._ 1571), however, says the Passe mezzo is so called
because it has only _half as many steps_ as a Galliard. Thus the name
is inverted, mezzo Passo. Hawkins helps to confuse the matter by
explaining that the Galliard has _five bars or steps_ in the first
strain, and that the Passamezzo has just half that number, and thus
gets its name. No Galliard ever had an uneven number of bars in any of
its strains, so this account is difficult to reconcile.
However, Pass e mezzo, 'step and a half,' is the most trustworthy form
of the name, and the Note on the Orchésographie of Arbeau (1588) makes
all quite clear.
The Passamezzo (or passy-measures pavin) tune in the Appendix has a
similar construction to the ordinary pavan, the form of which has been
explained earlier in this section--_i.e._, it consists of regular
'strains,' which in their turn contain a certain _even_ number of
semibreves, or 'bars.' In the case given, the strains consist of
_eight_ bars each. This must be borne in mind, in connection with Sir
Toby's drunken fancy about the surgeon, in the following passage:--
_Tw._ V, i, 197.
_Sir To._ [Drunk, and with a bloody coxcomb]--Sot, didst see
Dick surgeon, sot?
_Clo._ O! he's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; his eyes were
_set at eight_ i' the morning.
_Sir To._ Then he's a rogue, and a _passy-measures pavin_.
Toby being only moderately sober, naturally feels indignant at the
doctor's indiscretions in the same kind; and, quite as naturally, the
Clown's remark about the latter's eyes brings this fantastic
comparison into his head. The doctor's eyes were set _at eight_, and
so is a Pavan set 'at eight.' It is easy to see Sir Toby's musical
gifts asserting themselves, confused recollections reeling across his
brain, of that old rule in Morley about the right number of semibreves
in a strain, 'fewer then _eight_ I have not seen in any _Pavan_.'
'Also in this you must cast your musicke by _foure_: ... no matter how
manie _foures_ you put in your straine.' Bull's Pavan, 'St Thomas
Wake,' has two strains of _sixteen_ bars each--_i.e._, two 'eights.'
[Appendix.]
The last passage given here shows clearly that the Lavolta and Coranto
were considered exotic in England in Shakespeare's time.
The French ladies here recommend their runaway husbands and brothers
to cross the Channel and try to earn a living by teaching French
dances to the stately English. Probably the "English dancing-schools"
in those days would think the solemn walk of the Pavan quite as lively
an amusement as good society could allow. There are other passages too
which show that Shakespeare (or his characters) had a fine 'insular'
feeling against these 'newfangled' fashions from France.
_H. 5._ III, v, 32.
_Bourbon_ (Speaks of the mocking French ladies).
They bid us to the _English dancing-schools_,
And teach _lavoltas high_, and _swift corantos_;
Saying, our grace is only in our heels,
And that we are most lofty runaways.
NOTE ON ARBEAU'S 'ORCHÉSOGRAPHIE,' 1588.
This interesting book on the Art of Dancing was published at Mâcon
[Transcriber's Note: corrected from Maçon] in 1588. [The date on the
title page is 1589.] The author was Jehan Tabourot, but his real name
does not appear in the work, being anagrammatised into Thoinot Arbeau;
and under the guise of Arbeau he is best known.
The treatise is written (like Morley's Introduction to Practical
Music) in the form of Dialogue between Master (Arbeau) and Pupil
(Capriol); and gives a most clear description of all the fashionable
dances of the time, as far as words can do it; dance tunes in music
type; and incidentally, many instructions as to the manners of good
society.
As much light is thrown upon the dances which are mentioned in
Shakespeare by this book, some of the principal descriptions will be
given here, with the proper music.
On p. 25, Capriol (the Pupil) asks his Master (Arbeau) to describe the
steps of the 'basse' dance. This was the 'danse par bas, ou sans
sauter,' which was of the 15th century, was in triple time, and
contained three parts, A, basse dance; B, Retour de la basse dance;
C, Tordion. This 3rd part, or tordion, 'n'est aultre chose qu'une
gaillarde _par terre_'; _i.e._, the Tordion of a Basse dance was
simply a Galliard _par terre_, without the leaping or 'Sault majeur.'
Before Arbeau answers his pupil, he gives him some preliminary
instruction as to the etiquette of the ball room. He says--'In the
first place ... you should choose some virtuous damsel whose
appearance pleases you (telle que bon vous semblera), take off your
hat or cap in your left hand, and tender her your right hand to lead
her out to dance. She, being modest and well brought up, will give you
her left hand, and rise to follow you. Then conduct her to the end of
the room, face each the other, and tell the band to play a basse
dance. For if you do not, they may inadvertently play some other kind
of dance. And when they begin to play, you begin to dance.'
_Capriol._ If the lady should refuse, I should feel dreadfully
ashamed.
_Arbeau._ A properly educated young lady NEVER refuses one who does
her the honour to lead her out to the dance. If she does, she is
accounted foolish (sotte), for if she doesn't want to dance, what is
she sitting there for amongst the rest?
The Master then gives his pupil an account of the basse dance, the 1st
and 2nd parts of which are composed of various arrangements of the
following movements--
1. La révérence, marked with a big R.
2. Le branle (_not_ the dance of that name), marked with b.
3. Deux simples, marked ss.
4. Le double, marked d.
5. La reprise, marked with a little r.
The 'chanson'--_i.e._, the dance tune, was played on the flute, and
accompanied by the 'tabourin' or drum, which beats all the time. Every
'bar' of the music is called either a 'battement' of the drum, or a
'mesure' of the chanson.
Now Arbeau explains the steps and time of each of the above five
movements.
1. R. This takes four bars. Begin with left foot forward, and in doing
the révérence, half turn your body and face towards the Damoiselle,
and cast on her 'un gracieux regard.'
2. b.[21] Also takes four bars. Keep the feet joined together, then
for the 1st bar, swing the body gently to the left side; 2nd bar,
swing to the right, while gazing modestly upon 'les assistants;' 3rd
bar, swing again to the left; and for the 4th bar, swing to the right
side, looking on the Damoiselle with an 'oeillade defrobée, doulcement
et discretement.'
[Footnote 21: The branle (not the dance, but as used here) is called
_Congedium_ by Anthoine Arena. Arbeau thinks because the dancer
appears about to take leave of his partner--_i.e._, _prendre congé_.
See Hen. VIII., IV. ii. l. 82, stage direction, 'congee.']
3. ss. 1st bar, left foot forward; 2nd bar, bring right foot up to the
said left foot; 3rd bar, advance the right foot; 4th bar, join the
left foot to the said right foot; et ainsi sera parfaict le mouvement
des deux simples.
N.B.--Always suit the length of your steps to the size of the room,
and the convenience of the Damoiselle, who cannot with modesty take
such big steps as you can.
4. d. 1st bar, advance left foot; and, advance right foot; 3rd,
advance left foot; 4th, join right to left. For _two_ doubles (dd) do
it over again, but contrariwise, beginning with the Right foot. For
_three_ doubles (ddd), the form of the third will be, 1st bar, advance
left foot; 2nd, advance right foot; 3rd, advance left foot; 4th, 'puis
tumberà pieds joincts comme a estè faict au premier double.' And thus
(he carefully adds) the three doubles are achieved in 12 'battements
et mesures du tabourin.'
5. The Reprise (r) is commonly found before the branle (b), and
sometimes before the double (d) [see the Memoires]. In it you have to
cultivate a certain movement of the knees, or feet, or 'les artoils
seullement,' as if your feet were shaking under you. 1st bar, 'les
artoils' of the right foot; 2nd bar, do.; 3rd bar, of the left foot;
4th, of the right foot again.
The _Memoire_ of the movements of the basse dance--_i.e._, its first
Part, is--
R b ss d r | d r b ss ddd r d r b | ss d r b C.
The C means the 'congé,' or 'leave' which you must take of the
Damoiselle, salute her, and keep hold of her hand, and lead her back
to where you began, in order to dance the Second Part--namely, the
Retour de la basse dance, the _Memoire_ for which is--
b | d r b ss ddd r d r b | C.
[The nine movements enclosed between the upright lines, are the same
in both parts].
Capriol now remarks that he has been counting up, and finds that the
music of the _basse dance_ proper (part 1) has 20 'fours' (vingt
quaternions), and the _retour_ (part 2) has 12 'fours.'
Arbeau then describes the Tordion, which is Part 3 of the basse dance.
He says it is still in triple time, but 'plus legiere et concitée,'
and does not consist of 'simples, doubles, reprises,' etc., like the
first and second parts, but is danced almost exactly as a Galliard,
except that it is _par terre_--_i.e._, without any capers, and low on
the ground, with a quick and light step; whereas the Galliard is
danced _high_, with a slower and weightier 'mesure.'
He gives the following tune, which will fit to _any_ of the
innumerable diversities of Galliard. If played fast, it is a Tordion,
if slower, a Galliard. [There are, of course, no bars in the
original.]
TORDION OR GALLIARD (CINQUEPACE).
[Music]
Here are the Steps of the Galliard, consisting of five movements of
the feet, and the caper, or 'sault majeur.' The five steps give the
Galliard the name of Cinque pas.
1. Greve gaulche. ['Greve' is explained as a 'coup de pied.']
2. Greve droicte.
3. " gaulche.
4. " droicte.
5. Sault majeur.
6. Posture gaulche.
1, 2, 3, 4, 6 are the 'Cinq' pas, and 5 is the characteristic leap or
caper.
The next six minims are danced to the Revers, which is just the same,
except that the words 'right' and 'left' (_droicte_ and _gaulche_)
change places all the way down. Then repeat till the tune is finished.
Arbeau gives several other varieties of Galliard, and another very
good tune for it, called
'ANTHOINETTE.' GALLIARD.
[Music]
The 'sault majeur' in this tune would come in the middle of the
semibreves in the first strain; at the 'dot' of the dotted minims in
the 2nd and 3rd strains; or, again, in the middle of the semibreves in
the same strains.
Of the Pavan [commonly danced before the Basse-dance], Arbeau says it
is very easy, consisting only of 'two simples and a double' advancing,
and again 'two simples and a double' retiring. It is (as we already
know) in Binary measure, and the careful Capriol once more joins in
with his calculations of time, saying that he makes the Pavan 8
measures [semibreves] 'en marchant,' and 8 measures 'desmarchant.'
The master now gives particular instructions about the form and manner
of dancing the Pavan. Noblemen dance these pavans and basse-dances
'belles et graves,' with cap and sword; others in long robes,
'marchants honnestement, avec une gravité posée.' And the damoiselles
with an humble countenance, 'les yeulx baissez, regardans quelquefois
les assistans avec une pudeur virginale.' Kings, princes, and
'Seigneurs graves,' in dancing the pavan on great occasions, wear
their 'grands manteaux, et robes de parade.' Also, Queens, Princesses,
and Ladies accompanying them, have their robes 'abaissées et
trainans,' 'quelquefois portées par demoiselles.' The Pavan on these
occasions is called LE GRAND BAL, and the music is provided, not by
simple flute and drum, but by 'haulbois et saquebouttes,' and they
continue the tune until the dancers have made the circuit of the
'salle' twice or thrice.
Besides this state dancing of pavans, this dance was used in
Mascarade, when triumphal chariots of gods and goddesses enter, or of
emperors and kings 'plains de maiesté.'
On p. 29 ff, Arbeau gives the vocal Pavan for four voices, 'Belle qui
tiens ma vie,' which is quoted in Grove. The proper drum
accompaniment, continued throughout the 32 bars (2/2) is--[Music] etc.
He also gives seven more verses of words to it, and says if you do not
wish to dance, you can play or sing it. Moreover, he adds, that the
drum is not a necessity, but is good to keep the time equal; and that
for dancing you may use violins, spinets, flutes, both traverse and 'à
neuf trous' (nine-holed flute--_i.e._, a flageolet), hautboys, and, in
fact, 'all sorts of instruments'; or you may sing instead.
Arbeau's account of the Passemeze, or Passy-measures-pavin of
Shakespeare, is very simple. He says that the instrumentalists
increase the speed of the _pavan_ every time they play it through, and
by the time it has reached the moderate speed of a _basse-dance_, it
is no longer called Pavan, but Passemeze.
Besides the State Pavan, and the Passamezzo Pavan, there is the
'Pavane d'Espagne,' which has some similarity to the Canaries.
Arbeau says that some consider the name Canaries to be that of a dance
in use in those islands. But he thinks it more likely to have
originated in a Ballet in a Mascarade, where the dancers were clad as
kings and queens 'de Mauritanie,' as savages, with various coloured
feathers. He says it is danced by a gentleman and a lady, from
opposite ends of the room, each advancing and then retiring in turn.
The steps and tune are as follows--
CANARIES.
[Music]
1. Tappement du pied gauche, causant pied en l'air droit.
2. Marque talon droit (right heel).
3. Marque pied droit.
4. Tappement du pied droit, causant pied en l'air gauche.
5. Marque talon gauche (left heel).
6. Marque pied gauche.
7-12 are the same again.
Then for the 2nd half, instead of the 'tappements' at the minims, you
should make 'une greve fort haulte, rabaissée en tappement de pied
trainé en derrier, comme si on marchoit dessus un crachat, ou qu'on
voulust tuer une araignée.' (Make a very high step, but instead of
tapping the foot, scrape it backwards, as if you were treading on
spittle, or wanted to kill a spider.)
Arbeau gives 17 different kinds of Branle (Brawl of Shakespeare)
before coming to the Branle des Sabots, which is danced, 2 beats in a
bar, four steps to the right, then four to the left, like the branle
doubles; then two simples (see above), and three taps of the foot, and
Repeat.
BRANLE DES SABOTS, p. 88.
[Music]
{ 1. Pied gaulche largy (left foot forward).
_Double_ { 2. " droit approché (right foot up to the left).
_gaulche._ { 3. Pied gaulche largy.
{ 4. Pieds joincts (join feet).
{ 5-8 are the same, 'right' and 'left' changing
{ places, forming a 'double _droit_.'
_Simple_ { { 9. P.g. largy.
_gauche._ { { 10. Pieds joincts.
{
_Simple_ { { 11. P.d. largy.
_droit._ { { 12. Pieds joincts.
_a._ Tappement du pied droit.
_b._ Do.
_c._ Do.
There is only one step to each Semibreve, so the tune must have been
played fast.
On p. 64 Arbeau treats of the Lavolta ('high lavolt' of Shakespeare),
which he says is a kind of galliard well known in Provence. One
feature was that you had to keep turning round.
_Capriol_ does not agree with these whirlings, for he immediately
says--'Ces vertigues et tornoiements de cerveau me fascheroient.'
AIR D'UNE VOLTE. [LA VOLTA.]
[Music]
1. Petit pas, en saultant sur le gaulche, pour faire pied en
l'air droit.
2. Plus grand pas du droit.
3. Sault majeur.
4. Posture en pieds joincts; etc., all over again every two
bars.
The sault majeur of the 'high lavolt' comes at the _semibreves_ in
this tune.
On p. 67 he gives the Courante--
COURANTE.
[Music]
The movements are--
1, 2, simple gauche; 3, 4, simple droit; and 5-8, a 'double à gauche.'
These terms have already been explained.
One of the many Bransles is the 'Branle de la Haye,' the Hay of
Shakespeare. Arbeau says--first the dancers dance alone, each
separately; then together _so as to interlace_, 'et font _la haye_ les
uns parmy les aultres.' That is, during each batch of 4 steps, the
dancers _change places_ one with another, so that if there are three
dancers, A, B, C, in the first 4 steps, B and A change places, and
make B, A, C; in the next 4 steps, C and A change places, and make B,
C, A, etc.
Here is the tune and the formula of steps--
THE HAYE.
[Music]
Beginning at the 1st complete bar, and reckoning one step to each
semibreve--1. Deux simples (ss). 2. Double (d). 3. ss. 4. d. 5. ss.
6. d. 7. ss. 8. d.
The Morisque, which may at all events be compared with the little we
know of the Shakespearian Morris dance, seems to have been very
violent exercise for the heels (talon). Arbeau mentions that it is bad
for the gout. The reader will notice that there is a separate movement
for each crotchet in the following tune.
MORISQUE.
[Music]
1. Frappe talon droit (strike right heel).
2. " gaulche (left).
3. " " d.
4. " " g.
5. Frappe talons (perhaps 'strike heels together').
6. Soupir (slight pause).
Repeat, then the second half--1-4, 5-8, 9-12, are same as 1-4, ending
with 5, 6, as in the 1st half.
No wonder it was bad for the gout!
VI
MISCELLANEOUS, INCLUDING PYTHAGOREANISM AND SHAKESPEARE'S ACCOUNT OF
THE MORE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF MUSIC
A well-known passage in _Twelfth Night_ gives us the Opinion of
Pythagoras 'concerning wild-fowl.'
The Opinion of Pythagoras 'concerning Music' is at least equally
interesting, and is appropriated and assimilated by Shakespeare. The
particular branch of the Pythagorean system with which we are
concerned, is that which treats of the Music of the Spheres. Besides
the two passages here quoted, there are others dealing with this
subject--_e.g._,
_Ant._ V, ii, 84, 'the tunèd spheres'; _Twelf._ III, i, 115, 'music
from the spheres'; _Per._ V, i, 226, 'The music of the spheres.'
'This, Pythagoras, first of all the Greeks [560 B.C.] conceived in his
mind; and understood that the spheres sounded something concordant,
because of the necessity of proportion, which never forsakes celestial
beings.'[22]
[Footnote 22: Hist. of Philos., by Thomas Stanley, edit. 1701.]
'Pythagoras, by musical proportion, calleth that a tone, by how much
the moon is distant from the earth: from the moon to Mercury the half
of that space, and from Mercury to Venus almost as much; from Venus to
the Sun, sesquiple [_i.e._, half as much more as a tone]; from the Sun
to Mars, a tone, that is as far as the moon is from the earth: from
Mars to Jupiter, half, and from Jupiter to Saturn, half, and thence to
the zodiac, sesquiple.'
'Thus there are made _seven tones_, which they call a _diapason_
harmony, that is, an _universal concent_, in which Saturn moves in the
Doric mood, Jupiter in the Phrygian, and in the rest the like.'
'Those sounds which the seven planets, and the sphere of fixed stars,
and that which is above us, termed by them Antichton [opposite the
earth], make, Pythagoras affirmed to be the Nine Muses; but the
composition and symphony ... he named Mnemosyne [Memory, the Mother of
the Muses].'
Censorinus, a Roman Grammarian, B.C. 238, in his book De Die Natali,
says--
'To these things we may add what Pythagoras taught, namely, that the
whole world was constructed according to musical ratio, and that the
seven planets ... have a rhythmical motion and distances adapted to
musical intervals, and emit sounds, every one different in proportion
to its height [Saturn was said to be the highest, as it is the
farthest away, and was supposed to give the gravest note of the
heavenly Diapason, which note was therefore called Hypate, or
'highest'], which sounds are so concordant as to produce a most sweet
melody, though _inaudible to us by reason of the greatness of the
sounds_, which the narrow passages of our ears are not capable of
admitting.'
These extracts fairly represent the ancient opinion about the Music of
the spheres. There was a strong tendency last century to revive the
notion, and even to our modern ideas, with our Copernican astronomy,
there remains at least the possibility of drawing fantastical
analogies between the proportionate distances of the planets and the
proportionate vibration numbers of the partial tones in a musically
vibrating string or pipe.
The idea of the musical Chorus or dance of the heavenly bodies was
perfectly familiar to all writers in the 16th and 17th centuries. An
excellent example is in Paradise Lost, Book V., in the twelve lines
beginning 'So spake the Omnipotent.' Even finer is the 13th verse of
the Nativity Hymn.
'Ring out, ye crystal spheres,
Once bless our human ears,
If ye have power to touch our senses so;
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time,
And let the bass of heaven's deep organ blow;
And, with your nine-fold harmony,
Make up full concert to the angelic symphony.'
No one could help thinking of the text in Job xxxviii. 7, 'When the
morning stars sang together,' in this connection, and Milton naturally
refers to it in the previous verse.
Here follow the two Shakespeare extracts. The second one is full of
beauty of every kind, but the Pythagoreanism is in the last six lines,
with Shakespeare's own view about _why_ we cannot hear the heavenly
music.
_As You Like It_ II, vii, 5.
_Duke Senior_ [of Jaques].
If he, _compact of jars_, grow musical,
We shall have shortly _discord in the spheres_.
_Merchant_ V, i, 51.
_Lor._ My friend Stephano, signify, I pray you,
Within the house, your mistress [Portia] is at hand;
And _bring your music forth into the air_.
[_Exit_ STEPHANO.
(Lorenzo and Jessica alone.)
_Lor._ How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here we will sit, and _let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night,
Become the touches of sweet harmony_.
* * * * *
L. 60.
There's not the _smallest orb_, which thou behold'st,
_But in his motion like an angel sings_,
Still _quiring_ to the young-ey'd cherubims;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But, _whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it_.
This is finer than Pythagoras.
The next three passages are concerned with the 'fantasie' of Music.
Jaques gives an opinion in a general form--viz., that the musician's
'melancholy' is 'fantastical'; Mariana and the Duke speak of a certain
_doubleness_ that may be noticed in the action of music on the mind.
Jessica is 'never merry' when she hears sweet music: Lorenzo descants
on the evident effects of music on even hardened natures; while
Portia and Nerissa preach a neat little sermon on the text 'Nothing is
good without respect,' with musical illustrations of the powerful
influence of time and place--_e.g._, the silence of night, makes the
music sound sweeter than by day; the crow sings as well as the lark,
if the circumstances favour the crow, or if the lark is not present to
give immediate comparison; and even the nightingale's song is no
better than the wren's, 'by day, when every goose is cackling.'
_As You_ IV, i, 13.
_Jaques._ I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is
emulation; nor the _musician's_, which is _fantastical_,
etc.
_Measure for Measure_ IV, i, 12. Enter Duke, disguised as a friar
(after Song).
_Mariana._ I cry you mercy, sir; and well could wish
You had not found me here _so musical_:
Let me excuse me, and believe me so,
My _mirth it much displeased_, but _pleas'd my woe_.
_Duke._ 'Tis good: though _music oft hath such a charm,
To make bad good, and good provoke to harm_.
_Merchant_ V, i, 66. Enter musicians.
_Lor._ Come ho! and wake Diana with a _hymn_:
With sweetest _touches_ pierce your mistress' ear,
And draw her home _with music_.
[Music.
_Jessica._ I am _never merry when I hear sweet music_.
_Lor._ The reason is, _your spirits are attentive_.
For ... _colts_,
* * * * *
_If they but hear_ perchance _a trumpet_ sound,
Or any _air of music touch their ears_,
You shall perceive them make a _mutual stand_,
Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze.
_By the sweet power of music_: therefore, the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods:
Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage,
But _music for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no music in himself_,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
_Let no such man be trusted._--Mark the music.
L. 97. Portia and Nerissa.
_Por._ ... _Music! hark!_
_Ner._ It is your music, madam, _of the house._
_Por._ Nothing is good, I see, without respect.
Methinks, _it sounds much sweeter than by day_.
_Ner._ _Silence_ bestows that virtue on it, madam.
_Por._ The _crow_ doth sing as sweetly as the _lark,
When neither is attended_; and I think,
The _nightingale_, if she should sing _by day_,
When every goose is cackling, _would be thought
No better a musician than the wren_.
How many things _by season_ season'd are
To their right praise, and true perfection.
Here is an example of a superstitious meaning attaching to supposed
mysterious music.
There are very few cases of this kind in Shakespeare--_i.e._, where
the music of the stage is an integral part of the drama.
_Antony and Cleop._ IV, iii, 12. Music of hautboys under the stage.
_4 Soldier._ ... Peace, what noise?
_1 Sold._ List, list!
_2 Sold._ Hark!
_1 Sold._ Music in the air.
_3 Sold._ Under the earth.
_4 Sold._ It signs well, does it not?
_3 Sold._ No.
_1 Sold._ Peace, I say!
What should this mean?
_2 Sold._ 'Tis the god Hercules, whom Antony lov'd,
Now leaves him.
A very usual popular amusement was the Masque, which would consist of
a public procession with decorated cars containing the characters,
accompanied by hobby horses, tumblers, and open air music. This is
referred to in the next passage, where Theseus speaks of the masque
as an 'abridgement' for the evening, that is, an entertainment to
shorten the hours. The lamentable play of Pyramus and Thisbe follows,
which, it will be noticed, has some of the main features of a masque.
_Mid's Night's Dream_ V, i, 39.
_Theseus._ Say, what abridgment have you for this evening?
_What masque, what music?_...
* * * * *
[Reads from the paper]
"A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus,
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth."
Merry and tragical! Tedious and brief!
That is, hot ice, and wonderous strange snow.
How shall we find the _concord of this discord_?
In the _Merchant of Venice_, Shylock mentions the procession of a
masque through the streets, forbidding Jessica to look out of the
window at these 'Christian fools with varnished faces.' The music
accompanying the procession is named--viz., drum and fife.
_Merchant_ II, v, 22.
_Lancelot._ 'You shall see a _masque_' ...
_Shylock._ What! are there _masques_?
Hear you me, Jessica.
Lock up my doors; and _when you hear the drum_,
And the _vile squeaking of the wryneck'd fife_,
Clamber not you up to the casements then,
Nor thrust your head into the public street
To gaze on _Christian fools with varnish'd faces_.
The 'vile squeaking of the wryneck'd fife' is of some musical
interest. The adjective 'wryneck'd' refers, not to the instrument
itself, which was straight, but to the player, whose head has to be
slightly twisted round to get at the mouthpiece. Mersennus (b. 1588)
says that the Fife is the same as the Tibia Helvetica, which was
simply a small edition of the Flauto Traverso, or German Flute. That
is, the Fife of those days was much the same as the modern Fife of the
cheaper kind, with the usual six holes, and a big hole near the
stopped end, where the breath was applied. The instrument was
therefore held _across_ [traverso] the face of the player, whose head
would be turned sideways, and hence comes Shylock's description of it
as the 'wryneck'd' fife.
In _Much Ado_, Benedick draws a distinction between the Drum and Fife
and the Tabor and Pipe. The former (see _Othello_ III. iii. 353) were
of a decided military cast; whereas the latter were more associated
with May Day entertainments, bull-baitings, and out-of-door amusements
generally. The Tabor was a little drum, the Pipe (as explained before,
in Section III., about Autolycus) a tiny whistle with only three
holes. The two were played simultaneously by one person.
_Much Ado_ II, iii, 13. Benedick, of Claudio in love.
_Ben._ I have known, when there was no _music_ with him but
the _drum and the fife_; and now had he rather hear the
_tabor and the pipe_: ... but till all graces be in one
woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. Rich she shall
be, that's certain; wise, or I'll none; ... of good
discourse, an _excellent musician_, and her hair shall be of
what colour it please God.
Besides these more civilised 'pipes,' the country-man's pipe of
cornstalk is mentioned by Titania, in _Mids._ II. ii. 8. This was
really a 'reed,' not a whistle of any kind.
The tabor leads one on to the Tabourine, which was the full-sized
military drum, corresponding to the modern side-drum. See _Troil._ IV,
v, 275. 'Beat loud the tabourines,' and _Antony_ IV, viii, 37, 'our
rattling tabourines.'
The drum supplied the great proportion of military music in those
days, besides having its importance as a means of signalling orders to
the troops. This is dealt with more fully in the chapter on Stage
Directions.
Parolles' sham anxiety about a lost drum is mentioned fourteen or
fifteen times in _All's Well_ III. v. and vi.; and IV. i. Parolles
earns his nickname of 'Tom Drum,' in Act V. iii. 320.
The following is an interesting passage of a more serious kind--
_K. John_ V, ii, 164.
_Lewis_ [Dauphin.]
Strike up the _drums_! and let the tongue of war
Plead for our interest, and our being here.
_Bastard._ Indeed, your _drums_, being _beaten_, will cry out;
And so shall you, being _beaten_. Do but start
An _echo_ with the clamour of thy drum,
And even at hand a _drum_ is ready brac'd,
That shall reverberate all as loud as thine;
_Sound_ but _another_, and another shall,
As loud as thine, _rattle the welkin's ear_,
And mock the deep-mouth'd thunder.
An entirely different use of the Drum is alluded to by Parolles, in
his slanderous evidence against Captain Dumain.
_All's Well_ IV, iii, 262.
_1 Soldier._ What say you to his expertness in war?
_Parolles._ 'Faith, sir, he has _led the drum before the
English tragedians_, ... and more of his soldiership I know
not.
There are several occasions in Shakespeare when _trumpets_ are sounded
to herald the approach of play-actors, but _drums_ are not mentioned
in this connection except here. Rimbault's Preface to Purcell's Opera
'Bonduca' (Musical Antiquarian Society) says that a Play was always
introduced by the trumpet sounding three times, after which the
Prologue entered. Dekker, referring to the list of _errata_ in his
'Satiromastix,' 1602, says--"Instead of the trumpets sounding thrice
before the play begin, it shall not be amiss for him that will read,
first to behold this short Comedy of Errors."
VII
ON THE USE OF THE MUSICAL STAGE DIRECTIONS
_With references to the same Words as they occur in the Text_
_Alarum, Alarums_ (of Drums), occurs as a stage direction about 72
times in fourteen of the historical plays, always in connection with
battle. It is found alone, as above, about 45 times, sometimes
qualified--_e.g._, Loud alarum, Low alarum, Short alarum, Alarum
within. _Alarums and Excursions_ occurs about 21 times, always in
fight. ['Excursions' merely means 'parties of men running about;' see
the stage direction _H. 6. A._ IV, vi. 'Excursions, _wherein_ Talbot's
son is hemmed about;' also _Id._ I, v, where the direction has
'Alarum. _Skirmishings_,' instead of the usual 'excursions.']
A few special cases are--Alarum _with thunder and lightning_, _H. 6.
A._ I, iv, 97; _Flourish and Alarums_, used by Rich. III. to drown the
reproaches of Q. Eliz., etc.; Alarum and _chambers_ [cannon] _go off_,
_H. 5._ Act iii. line 33 of the chorus, and again _Id._ end of scene
1; Alarum _and cry within_, 'Fly, fly, fly,' _Jul. Cæs._ V, v; Alarum
afar off, _as at a sea fight_, _Ant._ IV, x.
Out of the 72 cases in the stage directions, 70 mean a call to battle
by _drums_. There are only two exceptions, where the Alarum is
identified with trumpets, _H. 6. B._ II, iii, 92, and _Troil._ IV, v,
112, 117.
Skeat gives the original of the term as 'all'arme' (Ital.) a war cry
of the time of the Crusades. For the _form_ of the word, he compares
_arum_ (arm) and _koren_ (corn).
_'Alarum' in the text._
The word is used 13 times in the text of Shakespeare; and in 6 of
these it refers to _drums_, as in the stage directions _H. 6. A._ I,
ii, 18, I, iv, 99, II, i, 42; _R. 3._ I, i, 7; _Cor._ II, ii, 76; _H.
5._ IV, vi, 35.
But in two of the remaining examples, alarum is distinctly said to be
_trumpets_, _H. 6. B._ II, iii, 93 and V, ii, 3; while other more
extended meanings are found--_e.g._, in _Venus and Adonis_, l. 700,
where it refers to the noise of the dogs hunting the hare; in
_Macbeth_ II, iii, 75 and V, v, 51, where alarum is used of a Bell;
also in _Lucrece_, 433, of Tarquin's 'drumming heart' 'giving the hot
charge,' and _Othello_ II, iii, 27, of Desdemona's voice, which Iago
says is 'an alarum to love.'
_Flourish_, either simply in this form, or 'Flourish of Trumpets' (six
times) or 'Flourish of Cornets' (twice), occurs about 68 times in
seventeen plays.
Out of these, it is used some 22 times for the entrance or exit of a
King or Queen; 12 times for the entrance or exit of a distinguished
person not a king; 10 times in the public welcome of a Queen or great
general; 7 times it marks the end of a scene; 6 times heralds a
victorious force; twice announces the proclamation of a King; twice
signalises the entrance or exit of Senate or Tribunes; and twice gives
warning of the approach of Play-actors [See Section VI., at end], or
the commencement of a Play. [Players in Hamlet, and Pyramus and Thisbe
in _Mids. Nt._].
Some solitary uses are where Rich. III. orders a Flourish to drown the
reproaches of Qu. Eliz. and the Duchess of York; the occasion of the
betrothal of H. V. and Katherine of France; and the public welcome of
the three Ladies in Coriolanus. The last is _A Flourish with drums and
trumpets_, which occurs several times. In Grove's Dictionary (under
'Fanfare') is given a seven bar Flourish which is believed to be of
Charles II.'s time, and is still used at the opening of Parliament.
[Appendix.]
'Flourish' in the text is only found twice. In _Richard III._ IV, iv,
149, 'A flourish, trumpets!--strike alarum, drums!' we have a clear
definition of the two terms mentioned; and in _Merchant_ III, ii, 49,
'even as the flourish when true subjects bow To a new-crowned
monarch;' a reference to the principal use of the Flourish, which was
to signify the presence of Royal persons.
_Trumpets_, _A trumpet sounds_, _Trumpet sounded within_, _Drums and
trumpets_, _Flourish of Trumpets_ (6 times).
One or other of the above occurs some 51 times in twenty-two plays,
either alone, or in connection with Sennet, discharge of cannon, etc.
On 18 of these occasions it announces the entrance or presence of a
King or Royal personage; 13 times it figures as part of the
proceedings in Duels; 10 times signifies the entrance or exit of
principal persons, not royal, great generals, etc.; 3 times precedes a
public procession, with Royal persons in it; twice it is connected
with the advent of Royal Heralds; and once with the arrival of Players
(_Shrew_, Prologue. See also Flourish).
Thus 'Trumpets' divides the honours with 'Flourish' as the mark of
Royalty.
Examples of the use of the term in the text are numerous, and are
found in most of the plays. They are not generally of very special
interest.
_Music, Music plays, Music within._
This direction is found 41 times in twenty-two plays, half of which
are comedies.
In 8 cases we have _Music_ during a speech or dream of one of the
characters; 7 times as the symphony or the accompaniment to a Song; 7
times in Wedding processions or Pageants; 6 times for Dancing; and 5
times during a banquet.
To give a just idea of the amount of Stage Music considered necessary
in or near Shakespeare's time, there must be added to the above, all
the stage directions in other terms--_e.g._, _Hautboys_, which is
found about 14 times.
Here are a few relics of Stage Music before Shakespeare's day.
The playing of the minstrels is frequently mentioned in the old
Miracle Plays, and the instruments used were the horn, pipe, tabret,
and flute. In the Prologue to the Miracle Play, Childermas Day, 1512,
the minstrels are requested to 'do their diligence,' and at the end of
the Play to 'geve us a daunce.'
In Richard Edwards's _Damon and Pithias_ [Transcriber's Note:
'Pithias' is correct for the title of this play], acted in 1565,
there is a stage direction. "Here Pythias sings and the regalles
play." Also, when Pythias is carried to prison, "the regalls play a
mourning song." Thus the Regal, a tiny organ that could be easily
carried about, was considered a proper instrument for the stage. In
the old Comedy, Gammer Gurton's Needle, 1566, mention is made by one
of the characters of the music between the acts--
"Into the town will I, my friendes to visit there,
And hither straight again to see the end of this gere;
_In the meantime, fellowes, pype up your fidles_: I say take them,
And let your friends hear such mirth as ye can make them."
In Gascoyne's _Jocasta_, 1566, each act is preceded by a dumb show,
accompanied by "viols, cythren, bandores, flutes, cornets, trumpets,
drums, fifes, and still-pipes." In Anthony Munday's comedy _The Two
Italian Gentlemen_ (about 1584), the different kinds of music to be
played after each act are mentioned--_e.g._, 'a pleasant galliard,' 'a
solemn dump,' or 'a pleasant Allemayne.' A little later, Marston, in
his _Sophonisba_, 1606, goes into considerable detail as to the music
between the Acts; after Act I., 'the cornets and organs playing loud
full music'; after Act II., 'organs mixed with recorders'; after Act
III., 'organs, viols, and voices'; after Act IV., 'a base lute and a
treble viol'; and in the course of Act V., 'infernall music plays
softly.' Fiddles, flutes, and hautboys are mentioned by other
dramatists as instruments in use at the theatre at this time.
Rimbault's Introduction to Purcell's opera 'Bonduca' gives the names
of twenty-six Masques and Plays produced between 1586 and 1642 (when
the theatres were closed), all of which contained important music.
Amongst them are Jane Shore, by Henry Lacy, 1586, with music by
William Byrd; seven masques by Ben Jonson, dating 1600-1621, four of
which had music by Ferrabosco; a masque by Beaumont (1612) with music
by Coperario; a play Valentinian, by Beaumont and Fletcher (1617) set
by Robt. Johnson; The Triumphs of Peace by Shirley (1633), with music
by William Lawes and Simon Ives; several other masques, set by Henry
Lawes, who did the music to Milton's _Comus_ (1634), etc. The list
also includes Shakespeare's _Tempest_, with Robt. Johnson's music, two
numbers of which, viz., 'Full fathom five,' and 'Where the bee sucks,'
are printed in Bridge's Shakespeare's Songs, with date 1612.
_Retreat_, or _A Retreat sounded_, generally with Alarum, or
Excursions, or with both.
_Retreat_ by itself occurs only three times, but in company with
Alarums and [or] Excursions may be found in 16 other places. The whole
19 cases occur in eleven plays.
The word explains itself. The actual notes of a Retreat of
Shakespeare's time are not known.
In the text it has the same meaning.
_H. 6. A._ II, ii, 3. 'Here sound retreat, and cease our hot pursuit.'
_H. 6. B._ IV, viii, 4. 'Dare any be so bold to sound retreat or
parley, when I command them kill'?
_H. 4. A._ V, iv, 159. 'The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours.'
_H. 5._ III, ii, 89. _Macmorris_, 'the work ish give over, the trumpet
sound the retreat.'
_March, Dead March._
There are 18 marches provided for altogether; 4 are Dead Marches; 3
National--viz., English, French, and Danish; and 11 ordinary military
marches.
Probably all are identified with _Drums_, without any other
instruments. For the three national marches, see _H. 6. A._ III, iii,
30 and 33 [Transcriber's Note: Added missing scene number], and
_Hamlet_ III, ii, 91.
Hawkins gives (Hist., p. 229) the text of a Royal Warrant of Charles
I., ordering the revival of the ancient 'march of this our English
nation, so famous in all the honourable achievements and glorious wars
of this our kingdome in forraigne parts [being by the approbation of
strangers themselves confest and acknowledged the best of all
marches].' The warrant goes on to say that this ancient war march of
England 'was, through the negligence and carelessness of drummers, and
by long discontinuance, so altered and changed from the ancient
gravitie and majestie thereof, as it was in danger utterly to have
bene lost and forgotten.' It appears that 'our late deare brother
prince Henry' had taken steps to have the old march restored, at
Greenwich, in 1610; 'In confirmation whereof' the warrant orders all
English or Welsh drummers to 'observe the same,' whether at home or
abroad, 'without any addition or alteration whatever.' 'Given at our
palace of Westminster, the seventh day of February, in the seventh
yeare of our raigne, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland.'
Then follows the march, expressed both in musical notes and
onomatopoetic words. It consists of a Voluntary, and then seven lines
of 'The March,' each of which ends with a 'pause.' The first line is
given thus--Pou tou Pou tou [fermata symbol over next word] poung. The
next three lines are very similar. Line 5 is more elaborate, and the
last two lines run as follows:--
_R R R R_ [fermata symbol over next word] poung.
_R R R_ pou _R R_ pou tou pou _R_ tou pou _R_ [fermata symbol
over next word] poung potang.
See the appendix for the translation into musical notes, which is
given in the warrant itself, but the accuracy of which is
questionable.
It seems pretty clear that this ancient march of England is of a
period long anterior to the warrant of Charles I. Several passages of
that document point to this. At any rate, it was so old as to have
almost dropped out of knowledge in 1610.
Hawkins gives an interesting note, in which he mentions that the
characteristic of the old English march of the foot was 'dignity and
gravity,' in which it differed greatly from that of the French, which
is given by Mersennus (_b._ 1588) as 'brisk and alert.'
There is a curious story of a conversation between Marshal Biron, a
French general, and Sir Roger Williams, a gallant Low-country soldier
of Elizabeth's time. The marshal observed that the English march
_being beaten by the drum_, was slow, heavy, and sluggish. 'That may
be true,' answered Sir Roger, 'but slow as it is, it has traversed
your master's country from one end to the other.'
The references in Shakespeare all go to confirm the opinion that the
March was played by drums alone--_e.g._, _H. 6. C._ I, ii, 69, where
the stage direction is _A march afar off_, which is immediately
followed by 'I hear their _drums_.' Again, in the same play, Act IV.,
sc. vii. line 50, '_Drummer_, strike up, and let us _march_ away. [_A
march begun._]
_Hautboys._ This is an important musical term, and occurs about
fourteen times in eight plays. It always implies a certain special
importance in the music, and is generally connected with a Royal
banquet, masque, or procession. In six cases, at least, the direction
has some special qualification--_e.g._, Hautboys playing _loud_ music;
_A lofty strain or two_ to the hautboys; Trumpets and hautboys
sounded, and drums beaten _all together_. In _Ant._ IV, iii, 12,
Hautboys supply the supposed ominous 'music in the air.'
The term is closely connected with 'Music,' the remarks on which apply
equally to the present case. (See above, on 'Music,' and the music of
16th century plays).
Not long after Shakespeare's time, orchestral music for the theatre
consisted of stringed instruments only (_i.e._, the violin family,
violins, violas, violoncellos, and the sole surviving 'viol,' the
double-bass) with harpsichord, for general use; while in the more
important pieces, hautboys, and sometimes flutes as well, were added,
playing, as a rule, with the 1st and 2nd violin parts. This, at any
rate, is the case in Purcell's operas. (Purcell died 1695). Thus the
word Hautboys represented very nearly the climax of power to 17th
century ears. Anything beyond this was supplied by the addition of
trumpets, though this was rare; while Drums were very occasionally
used.
The stage direction in Shakespeare may be taken to mean--'Let the
hautboys be added to the usual band of strings.' In the last of the
above examples, _Coriol._ V, iv, 50, we have the extreme limit of
power of this time provided for--viz., trumpets _and_ hautboys _and_
drums, _all together_. It is interesting to notice the wording of
Menenius's description of this stage music. 'The trumpets, sackbuts,
psalteries, and fifes, Tabors and cymbals.' The 'sackbut' was merely
our modern slide trombone, while the rest of these instruments were in
common use in the 16th century, except the Psaltery, which Kircher (b.
1601) says is the same as the Nebel of the Bible. The picture he gives
is remarkably like the dulcimers which may be seen and heard outside
public-houses to this very day, _i.e._, a small hollow chest, with the
strings stretched across it. An instrument of this kind could be
played with the fingers, like a harp, or with a plectrum, like a
zither, or with two little knob-sticks, like the dulcimer. Mersennus
(b. 1588) also identifies the Psaltery with the Dulcimer.
In the text, the Hautboy is only named once, in _H. 4. B_ III, ii,
332, near the end of Falstaff's soliloquy, on old men and lying, where
he says that Shallow was such a withered little wretch that _the case
of a treble hautboy_ was a mansion for him, a court.
The 'treble' hautboy corresponds with our modern instrument, and was
the smallest in size of the hautboy tribe, of which only two now
survive--viz., the Oboe proper, and its cousin, which is a fifth lower
in pitch, and correspondingly larger, and which has curiously picked
up the name of Corno Inglese, Cor Anglais, or English Horn. None the
less it is the Alto Hautboy. The tenor and bass of the family have not
survived. Hautboys in four parts were the backbone of the French
regimental bands in Lully's time--_i.e._, about 1670. [Appendix.]
The spelling of the word in the old editions of Shakespeare is
'hoeboy,' which is very like the modern German Hoboe.
_Sennet._ This is a rare direction, and is found only nine times in
eight plays, as against sixty-eight 'Flourishes' and fifty-one
'Trumpets.' The notes of a sennet are unknown. Three times it marks
the entrance or exit of a Parliament, three times is used in a Royal
or quasi-royal procession, and the remaining cases are royal, or near
it.
In the 1st Folio of Hen. V., the word is spelt _senet_, but in later
ones, _Sonet_, as if the former were a misprint. In Marlowe's Faustus
(published 1604), Act iii. sc. i., we find '_sound a sonnet_' [enter
Pope, Cardinal, etc.]. Also the French Cavalry of 1636 used trumpet
calls named _Sonneries_. These seem to point to a derivation of the
word from _sonare_, and thus the spelling ought to be _sonnet_, not
_sennet_.
But other forms are found--Synnet, Signet, Signate, which may be
proper derivatives of _signum_, and thus make this trumpet call 'a
signal,' instead of 'a sounding'; or (which is as likely) may be
corruptions, perhaps of the somewhat featureless form 'Synnet,' caused
by a misunderstanding of the original misspelling 'senet.'
In the text of Shakespeare the word does not occur.
_Cornets_, or _Flourish Cornets_ (only twice).
This is also rare, occurring only eight times in four plays. One case
only is in war, the others being all connected with Royal or triumphal
processions.
The term is by no means synonymous with Trumpets. The Cornet was an
entirely different instrument, and the use of it accordingly is very
much more limited in these stage directions. There were two
instruments called Cornet, the one with a reed, a coarse sort of Oboe
which was nearly obsolete in the 17th century; the other, with which
we are concerned, a sort of Horn (hence its name), with a cup
mouthpiece, and finger holes for the intermediate notes of the scale.
Hawkins gives pictures of a treble, a tenor, and a bass cornet, copied
from Mersennus, who remarks that the sounds of the cornet are
vehement, _but_ that those who are skilful, such as Quiclet, the royal
cornetist (_i.e._, of France, 1648) are able so to soften and modulate
them, that nothing can be more sweet.
Many people now living will remember the Serpent, a large, black,
curly instrument, of thin wood covered with leather, which helped to
play the loud bass in oratorios, within the last fifty years. This
Serpent was a true Cornet in every respect. It may now commonly be
seen in Exhibitions, Museums, and curiosity shops, for it has been
entirely superseded by the Bass Tuba and the Euphonium.
In the text the word Cornet does not occur.
_Tucket._ Rare, only _seven_ times in six different plays. This is one
of the several trumpet calls we have noticed. It seems to have been a
French term, _toquet_, or _doquet_, and this is defined by Littré, as
_quatrième partie de trompette d'une fanfare de cavalerie_--that is,
the name 'toquet' was applied to the fourth trumpet in a cavalry
fanfare. Mr Aldis Wright, in his Clarendon Press Edition of Hen. V.,
gives Markham, quoted by Grose in 'Military Antiquities,' which
explains 'Tucket' as a trumpet signal, which, 'being heard simply of
itself without addition, commands nothing but _marching after the
leader_.' Certainly in Shakespeare it seems to be used as a _personal_
trumpet call--_e.g._, _Merchant_ V, i, 121, Lorenzo says to Portia,
'Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet--'_i.e._, the 'tucket
sounded' which is indicated in the stage direction. Other cases of
the use of the Tucket are quite similar--for instance, the return of
Bertram, Count of Rousillon, from war; the arrival of Goneril
(_Cornwall._ What trumpet's that? _Regan._ I know't, my sister's:) or
the embassy of Æneas. Once it is used to herald Cupid and the masked
Amazons, in _Timon_; and twice at the entrance of Montjoy, the French
Herald, in _Hen. V._
The derivation of the word from _toccare_, and its connection with
_tocco di campana_, _tocsin_, and _tusch_, have already been explained
in the notes on Hortensio's music lesson to Bianca. (See Sec. II.)
In the Appendix is given an Italian Tucket of 1638, and a French one
of 1643.
In the text the word is only found once--viz., _H. 5._ IV, ii, 35,
where the Constable of France orders the trumpets to 'sound the
tucket-sonance, and the note to mount,' which fits in with Markham's
definition, for the passage appears to recognise the tucket as in some
sort a _preparatory_ signal.
It is perhaps worth noting, that of the seven tuckets in the stage
directions, only one, Goneril's, is supposed to be an English one. In
the single instance just given of its use in the text, it is a
_French_ general who uses the word. Perhaps this may be regarded as
confirming the view of its foreign origin.
_Parley_, or _Trumpets sound a parley_, either alone, or with
_Retreat_. This call is named in the stage directions 7 times in five
plays, viz.--_H. 6. A._ _three_ times; _H. 6. B._ once; _R. II._ once;
_H. 4. A._ once; and _H. 5._ once. It means either a trumpet call
announcing an _embassy_ from one party to the other, or for
_cessation_ of hostilities during the fight itself. Of course the name
is derived from _parler_, with a reference to the proposed 'pow-wow'
of the opposing forces.
The notes of a parley do not appear to exist.
[Perhaps a little light may be got out of the symphony to Purcell's
duet in King Arthur, 'Sound a Parley ye fair.']
In the text, the word is used several times. In three cases, _John_
II, i, 205, 226 [Transcriber's Note: Added missing scene number] and
_H. 5._ III, iii, 2, 'the parle' means the conference of the parties
itself, not the trumpet call summoning them. In the rest, 'parle' or
'parley' simply means the sound of the trumpet, as explained above.
_H. 6. B._ IV, viii, 4; _R. 2._ I, i, 192, III, iii, 33; _H. 6. C._ V,
i, 16; _Othello_ II, iii, 23.
_Horns_, or _Horns wind a peal_, or _Horns winded_.
This is very rare. Seven times in only four plays, one of which is the
doubtful _Titus Andronicus_.
Three times it is used of hunting horns, _Titus_ II, ii, and _Id._ l.
10, and in the Induction of the _Taming of the Shrew_; twice as a part
of Lear's lessened state, _Lear_ I, iii and I, iv; once announcing the
Post from England, _H. 6. C._ III, iii; and once blown by Talbot as a
military signal at the forcing of Auvergne Castle gates, _H. 6. A._
II, iii.
The 'peal' of horns referred to in _Titus_ II, ii, 10 is a technical
term in forestry for a particular set of notes on the horn. Méhul
(1763-1817), in his overture 'Le jeune Henri,' introduces several old
French hunting fanfares, which perhaps may give an idea of what was
meant by 'Horns wind a peal.' [See Appendix.] Also in Purcell's 'Dido
and Eneas,' No. 16 (date 1675), in the scene between the Sorceress and
the two witches who are plotting the destruction of 'Elissa,' at the
words 'Hark! the cry comes on apace,' the violins give an imitation of
a hunting call.
The only instance of the use of the word 'peal' in the text is in the
same passage, _Titus_ II, ii, 5, where Titus tells his hunters to
'ring a hunter's peal.' Here we have a last example of punning on a
technical term of music.
APPENDIX
1. Example of Descant [_Lucrece_, 1134] from Morley, 1597 (see
Introduction, p. 6 and p. 24).
[Music]
If the lower part was added _extempore_, it was called Descant, but if
written down as here, it was called Prick-song, because 'pricked'
down. The Plain-song is perhaps more often found in a lower part, the
Descant being higher. From the position of the added part, the above
example is called 'bass' descant.
2. Divisions on a Ground Bass for viol-da-gamba, by Christopher
Sympson, 1665, see p. 28. _Rom._ III, v, 25.
[Music]
The 'Ground' itself is in large notes, the necessary chords (which
were _never_ written down) are indicated in small notes. This the
Organist or Harpsichordist plays again and again, as often as
necessary.
Here is a Division for the Viol, such as the player would produce
_extempore_, with the above Ground before him.
Division No. 1.
[Music]
Division No. 3 (more elaborate).
[Music]
3. Example of Sol-Fa, 16th and 17th centuries, see p. 35. _Lear_ I,
ii, 137.
[Music: Fa sol la fa sol la MI fa fa sol la fa sol la MI fa etc.]
The augmented fourths formed by the notes fa and mi, marked with x,
are the _mi contra fa_, which _diabolus est_, or 'is the _divider_,'
see p. 36.
Solmisation of the six notes of the Hexachord, 11th century, see p.
37. _Shrew_ III, i, 72.
[Music: (Natural Hexachord) Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La
(Hard Hexachord) Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La]
The six notes from F, with B _flat_, were called the 'Soft' Hexachord.
4. Lesson for the Lute, by Thomas Mace, b. 1613, from Musick's
Monument, 1676, see p. 55. _Shrew_ III, i, 58.
[Music: "My Mistress."]
_Cf._ p. 30, on 'Broken' music.
5. Tune of Light o' Love, original words not known, but date before
1570, p. 70. _Much Ado_ V, iv, 41, etc.
[Music]
6. Parson Hugh's song, 'To Shallow Rivers,' tune anonymous, date
probably 16th century, p. 71. _Merry Wives_ III, i, 18.
[Music:
To shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals;
There will we make our beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies.
When as I sat in Babylon,
And a thousand vagram posies.]
7. 'Come Live with Me,' tune printed 1612, but probably much older.
See p. 71. Marlowe's 'Passionate Pilgrim,' XX., or _Merry Wives_ III,
i, 18.
[Music:
Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
And all the craggy mountain yields.]
8. Peg-a-Ramsey, p. 71. _Tw. Nt._ II, iii, 76.
[Music: Sir Toby]
9. 'Three Merry Men be We,' p. 71. _Tw. Nt._ II, iii, 76. Words from
Peele's 'Old Wives Tale,' 1595, where it is sung. Music from J.
Playford, 1650 _circ._, but may be older.
[Music: Sir Toby
Three merry men, and three merry men, and three merry men be we,
I in the wood and thou on the ground,
And Jack sleeps in the tree.]
10. 'There Dwelt a Man in Babylon,' p. 71. _Tw. Nt._ II, iii, 80.
Music anon., but most probably later than Shakespeare's time.
[Music: Sir Toby
_slow_
Til-ly val-ley, Lady!
_lively_
There dwelt a man in Bab-y-lon, in Bab-y-lon, in Bab-y-lon,
There dwelt a man in Bab-y-lon,
Lady! Lady! Lady!]
Here is one verse of the 'Ballad of Constant Susanna,' to which Toby
refers.
'There dwelt a man in Babylon
Of reputation great by fame;
He took to wife a faire woman,
Susanna she was callde by name.
A woman faire and vertuous,
Lady, lady!
Why should we not of her learn thus
To live godly?'
11. 'Farewell, Dear Heart,' p. 72. _Tw. Nt._ II, iii, 102.
[Music:
Toby
Farewell dear heart, since I must needs be gone,
Clown
His eyes do shew his days are almost done.
Toby
But I will never, never, never die!
Clown
Oh there, Sir Toby, there, oh there you lie.]
This can hardly be the original tune to "Corydon's Farewell to
Phillis," from parts of the first and second verses of which the above
words are quoted. See Percy's "Reliques," Vol. I.
12. Here are two relics of music for the Clown in _Tw. Nt._ IV, ii,
probably of the same period as the above.
[Music: Clown
Hey, Robin, jolly Robin,
Tell me how thy lady does,
Hey, Robin, jolly Robin, tell me how thy lady does.
I'm gone, Sir, and anon, Sir,
I'll be with you again, Sir.]
For the rest of the words of 'A Robyn, Jolly Robyn,' see Percy's
Reliques, Vol. I. p. 148.
13. 'Whoop, do me no harm, good man,' p. 72. _Winter's Tale_ IV, iii,
198. The rest of the words unknown, but several ballads printed in
latter part of 16th century go to this tune--
[Music: Autolycus [Whoop, do me no harm, good man.]]
14. Stephano's 'scurvey tunes,' _Tempest_ II, ii, 41, see p. 73. "As
sung by Mr Bannister" [1667].
[Music: Stephano
I shall no more to sea, to sea,
Here shall I die a-shore.
The master, the swabber, the bosun, and I,
The gunner, and his mate,
Lov'd Mall, Meg, Marian, and Margery,
But none of us car'd for Kate;
For she had a tongue with a tang,
Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang,
Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang.]
15. 'Jog On,' p. 72, _Winter's Tale_ IV, ii, 125. Two more stanzas
were first printed 1661, see Chappell, Vol. I. 160. The tune is from
the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book), where
it has the name
_Hanskin._
[Music: Autolycus
Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,
And merrily hent the stile-a:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a.]
16. 'The Hunt is up,' see p. 73, and _Rom. and Jul._ III, v, 34. The
tune is at least as old as 1537, when John Hogon was proceeded against
for singing it with certain political words.
[Music:
The hunt is up, the hunt is up, and it is well-nigh day;
And Harry our king is gone hunt-ing to bring his deer to bay.]
Grove [see under Ballad] gives quite another tune, to which 'Chevy
Chase' also was sung.
The tune here printed was also sung (1584) to 'O sweete Olyver, leave
me not behind the,' but altered to four in a bar. See _As You_ III,
iii, 95, where a verse is given which will easily fit to the music.
17. 'Heart's Ease,' p. 73. _Rom._ IV, v, 100. Words not known. Tune
before 1560.
[Music]
18. 'Where Griping Grief,' p. 73, _Rom._ IV, v, 125, by Rich. Edwards,
poet and composer, 1577.
[Music:
Where griping grief the hart would wound, and dol-ful domps the
mind op-presse,
There Musick with her sil-ver sound is wont with spede to give
re-dresse;
Of troubled minds, for e-ve-ry sore,
Swete Mus-ick hath a salve in store.]
19. 'Green Sleeves,' see p. 74, and _Wiv._ II, i, 60, etc. The tune is
probably of Henry VIII.'s time.
[Music:
Alas, my love you do me wrong to cast me off dis-courteously,
And I have lov-ed you so long, de-lighting in your company,
Greensleeves was all my joy, Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold, and who but my Lady Greensleeves.]
20. 'Carman's Whistle,' p. 76, _H. 4. B._ III, ii, 320. Tune as given
by Byrd, who wrote variations on it before 1591.
[Music]
21. 'Fortune my Foe,' p. 76, _Merry Wiv._ III, iii, 62. This old tune
is, at latest, of Elizabeth's day, and most likely much older. The
words here set are given in Burney, and the harmony is by Byrd, who
wrote variations on it for Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book.
[Music:
Ye noble minds, and famous martiall wights,
That in de-fence of native country fights,
Give eare to me, that ten yeeres fought for Rome,
Yet reapt disgrace at my returning home.]
The above words are the first verse of 'Titus Andronicus's Complaint,'
which Burney says was originally written to this tune. The ballad is
given in full in Percy's Reliques, Vol. I. p. 180.
22. Ophelia's Songs, p. 76, _Hamlet_ IV, v.
[Music: I.
(_a_) How should I your true love know from a-noth-er one?
By his cockle hat and staff,
And his san-dal shoon.
(_b_) He is dead and gone lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass green turf,
At his heels a stone.
(_c_) White his shroud as the mountain snow,
Larded with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the grave did go,
With true love showers.]
This is certainly old, early 16th century. The tune has a striking
likeness to 'Walsingham,' which is the first piece in the Fitzwilliam
Virginal Book. See Percy's Reliques, Vol. II. p. 75. But the date of
the next is not so certain, though probably it is of Shakespeare's
time.
[Music: II.
(_a_) Good morrow, 'tis St Valentine's day
All in the morn betime,
And I a maid at your window
To be your Valen-tine.
(_b_) For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.]
The next two are of the same period as I.
[Music: III.
They bore him bare-faste on the bier;
And in his grave rain'd many a tear.]
[Music: IV.
(_a_) And will he not come a-gain?
And will he not come a-gain?
No, no, he is dead,
Go to thy death bed;
He never will come a-gain.
(_b_) His beard as white as snow,
All flax-en was his poll;
He's gone, he's gone,
And we cast away moan;
God ha' mer-cy on his soul!]
L. 184, 'Bonny sweet Robin.' With the exception of this _one line_,
and _the title_, 'My Robin is to the greenwood gone,' nothing remains
of this song, but the following tune, which is of some date before
1597.
[Music: V.
My Robin is to the greenwood gone.
For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.]
23. Catches, of 16th century, prob. long anterior to Shakespeare.
I. 'Hold thy peace,' see p. 77, _Tw. Nt._ II, iii. For _three_ voices,
Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Feste the clown, who begins the catch. The
second man follows when the first has arrived at [segno symbol]. For
the explanation see p. 90.
[Music:
Hold thy peace, and I prithee hold thy peace,
[segno symbol] Thou knave,
Hold thy peace thou knave,
Thou knave.]
'Thou knave' will be heard _nine_ times for every once the whole tune
is sung by one of the voices.
II. 'Jack boy, ho boy, news,' see p. 92, and _Shrew_ IV, i, 42. This
is very old, prob. quite early 16th century (see Introduction).
For _four_ voices. The second man comes in at [segno symbol], as
before.
[Music:
Jack, boy, ho! boy, news;
[segno symbol] The cat is in the well,
Let us ring now for her knell,
Ding, dong, ding, dong, bell.]
24. Threeman songs (corrupted into 'Freeman,' see p. 83). These were
entirely different from Catches. A Threeman song is merely (as a rule)
a song with _three parts_,--_e.g._, two trebles and a tenor, etc.
_Winter's Tale_ IV, ii, 41, and IV, iii, 285-327.
Here is a Threeman song, published in 1609, but probably much older
than that.
[Music:
V.1. Wee be souldiers three,
Pardonez moy je vous en prie:
Late-ly come forth of the low coun-try,
With nev-er a penny of mony.
V.2. Here good fellow, I drinke to thee,
Pardonez moy je vous en prie:
To all good fel-lowes wher-ever they be,
With nev-er a penny of mony.]
There are two more verses of the same sort.
25. 'Canst thou not hit it,' _L.L.L._ IV, i, 125. No more words known,
except this one verse.
The tune is mentioned as a dance in an Elizabethan play, and is
alluded to in an old ballad 'Arthur a Bradley.'
[Music:
Thou can'st not hit it, hit it, hit it,
Thou can'st not hit it, my good man,
An' I cannot, cannot, cannot,
An' I cannot, an-o-ther can.]
26. Dances. [Also see Note on Arbeau's Orchésographie.]
(_a._) Pavan and Galliard, 'St Thomas Wake,' by Dr Bull, from
Parthenia, printed 1611. (Bull was born 1563.) See p. 114.
Pavan [if played quick became Passamezzo. _Tw._ V, i, 200].
[Music]
Galliard St Thomas Wake, the _same music_ but in triple time. _Tw._ I,
viii, 127, _H. 5._ I, ii, 252.
[Music: Galliard, or Cinquepace.]
(_b._) 1. Part of a 'Passamezzo,' date 1581. (See Note on Arbeau's
Orchésographie.) _Tw._ V, i, 200. See p. 135.
[Music: Passe mezzo, or Measure (_As You_ V, iv, 178, etc.)]
(_b._) 2. The first 'strain' of a German Pavan for the Lute, dating
1562.
[Music]
(_c._) An English 'Haye,' or 'Raye,' or 'Round,' date 1678. See p.
131, _L.L.L._ V, i, 148.
For a French 'Haye,' see Note on Arbeau's Orchésographie. Tune only
given [see Stainer and Barrett's Dict. of Musical Terms].
[Music]
It will be noticed that the steps of the Haye, as given in
'Orchésographie,' can be adapted to this tune. The dotted minim value
of this corresponds with the semibreve value of the other.
(_d._) 1. The King's Hunting Jigg, by Dr Bull (1563-1628). See p. 117.
_Hamlet_ II, ii, 504, etc.
[Music]
(_d._) 2. The Cobbler's Jig. 1622. See p. 125.
[Music]
(_e._) 1. An English Morris, 1650, see p. 132. _All's Well_ II, ii,
20, etc.
[Music]
(_e._) 2. Italian Moresca, by Claudio Monteverde, from his opera
'Orfeo,' 1608. This at all events must have had a different step to
the Morisque of Arbeau. (See Note on the 'Orchésographie.')
This dance is certainly in triple rhythm, so the common-time sign
probably indicates it should be played fast enough to give the effect
of two beats to the bar.
[Music]
(_f._) Part of 'My Ladye Carey's Dumpe,' _circa_ 1600. See p. 127.
_Two Gent._ III, ii, 83, etc.
[Music]
Then return to [repeat symbol]. This is about _one third_ of it. The
last strain of all is the first here printed, but in _four_ parts, and
with extraordinary harmony, the E's being carefully marked [natural
symbol].
_N.B._--For Cinquepace, Canaries, Brawl, Lavolt, Courante, Haye,
Morisque, _see the Note on_ 'Orchésographie.'
27. Musical Stage Directions. See p. 165, and ff.
(_a._) Flourish, believed to be of Charles II.'s time. See p. 167.
[Music: Eight Trumpets.]
(_b._) The Ancient English Drum March, revived in 1610. See p. 172.
_H. 6. A._ III, iii, 30.
[Music: THE VOLUNTARY.]
[Music: THE MARCH.]
(_c._) Military March of the French 'Gardes de la Marine,' written by
Lully, 1670. For _Hautboys_ in four parts. See p. 172. Cf. _H. 6. A._
III, iii, 33.
[Music: Batterie de Tambour.]
[Music: Air des Hautbois.]
(_d._) A 'sonnerie' of French Cavalry, 1636 (Louis XIII.). See p. 178.
I connect this with 'sennet.'
[Music: Boute-selle (_i.e._, 'to horse').]
(_e._) Tucket, p. 180. _H. 5._ IV, ii, 35.
[Music: 1. An Italian Tucket, date 1638.]
[Music: 2. French Tucket, 1643.]
(_f._) 1. Old French hunting fanfare. Perhaps may be connected with
'Horns wind a Peal.' _Titus_ II, ii, 10. See p. 183.
[Music: _Four_ Horns.]
(_f._) 2. The imitation (by violins) of a hunting call in Purcell's
'Dido and Æneas,' 1675. See p. 183.
[Music]
INDEX.
ACCURATE knowledge of Shakespeare, 2, 3.
Actors preceded by drums, 163;
by trumpets, 164, 167, 168.
_Actor's Remonstrance_, The, 19.
Aguecheek, Sir Andrew, a musician, 29.
'Alas, my love,' 194.
Alarum, 165, 166.
_All's Well_, 120, 133, 163, 205.
Alman, a dance, 115, 170.
Amateurs, 17th cent., 13, 14, 47.
'And will he not come again,' 77, 197.
Anthems, practised by Falstaff, 85.
'Anthoinette,' galliard tune, 143.
_Antony and Cleopatra_, 152, 159, 162, 166, 175.
Arbeau, see 'Orchésographie.'
Arch-Lute, 56, and frontispiece.
Arena, Anthoine, 139.
_As you like it_, 72, 73, 77, 93, 94, 126, 155, 157, 193, 203.
Autolycus's songs, 72, 191, 192.
'Ayres' for lute, 55, 187.
BACON, _Masque and Triumph_, 31.
Bacon, _Sylva Sylvarum_, 31.
on the Recorder, 31, 50.
Bagpipe, 78, 81, 96, 98, 102.
Ballads, 20, 70 ff, 86, 97, 98, 200.
Ballad of Constant Susanna, 189.
Ballete, combined dance and song, 113.
Ball-room etiquette (1588), 138, 139, 140, 144.
Bannister, Mr, 191.
Bandore, sort of lute, 170.
'Banket,' 16th cent., 5.
Barber's shop, music in, 7, 18, 19.
Bars, invention of, 34.
Base (bass), quibbles on, 27, 60.
Bass descant, 185.
Basse dance, 137-141.
Beaumont, Gray's Inn Masque, 36, 171.
Beaumont and Fletcher, _Coxcomb_, 16.
Beaumont and Fletcher, _Valentinian_, 171.
Beak-flute, 50, 52.
'Bear his part', 16, 22, 79, 80.
Play his part, 12.
Sing his part, 14.
'Bene's,' the three, 8.
Bergamasca, 114.
Blacke Saunctus, 10.
Boleyn, Anne, 10.
_Bonduca_, catch in, 17.
'Bonny sweet Robin,' 77, 196, 197, 198.
'Boute-selle', 210.
Bow, viol, 48, and frontispiece.
Branle, Le, dance step, 139.
Bransle, dance (brawl), 115, 147-148 (tune and steps), 149.
Brant, 'Ship of Fools,' 96.
Brawl, dance, 115, 118, 119, (derivation), 123, 208.
Breast, _i.e._ voice, 88.
Bridge, Dr J.F., Shakespeare Songs, 87, 93, 171.
Broken music, 30-32, 103, 104, 125, 187.
Broken time, 32, 33.
Bull, Dr John, 54, 114, 117, 124, 125, 136, 201, 205.
Burden, 22, 23, 24, 26, 69, 78, 82.
Burden, 'Light o' love' without a, 24, 26, 71.
Burney, 36, 195, 196.
Bussing base, 16, 24.
'But shall I go mourn,' 72.
Byrd, William, 54, 76, 124, 171, 195.
'By a bank,' 26.
CANARY, dance, 118, 119, 120, 146 (tune and steps), 208.
Canaries, see Canary.
Cannon, on stage, 165, 168.
Canon, 10, 20.
'Canst thou not hit it,' 200.
Caper, to, in a galliard, 121, 124, 138, 143.
Carey's Dump, My Lady, 128, 207.
'Carman's whistle,' 76, 195.
Catch, 16, 17, 18, 20, 65, 69, 77, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 198, 199.
Caulfield, Collection of Shakespeare music, 77.
Censorinus, on music of Spheres, 153, 154.
Cerreto, Scipione, see Lute, 55.
Chamber music, 12-14, 15, 47.
Chappell, 9, 31, 36, 74, 111, 192.
Charles I., 11, 12.
music in time of, 2.
Chaucer, 65, 129.
_Chelys Minuritionum_, 29, 30.
'Chest' of viols, 45-49.
Chorus, or dance, of heavenly bodies, 154-6.
Christopher Sympson, see Sympson.
Cinquepace, 121, 122, 142 (tune and steps), 202, 208.
Cittern, in barber's shop, 18, 19, 170.
Cittern, carved head of, 19.
Clavichord, 67, 68.
Clergy and Music, 8, 9, 13, 15.
'Cliff' (clef), 40.
Cobbler's Jig, The, 118, 125, 205.
Comedies, Music in the, 4, 169.
'Come live with me,' 188.
Compendium, Sympson's, 116, 117.
Compositions by Henry VIII., 9.
_Comus_, Milton's, 171.
'Conceits,' 101.
Concolinel, 70.
Concord, 27, 32.
Congee, or Congedium, 139.
Consorts, 'broken' and 'whole,' 31, 48, 55, 125.
Consort, of viols, 31, 98, 117.
Coperario (J. Cooper), 12, 36, 47, 171.
Coranto, dance, 115, 116, 118, 121, 122 (derivation), 123, 124, 126,
136, 149-150 (tune and steps).
_Coriolanus_, 166, 167, 176.
Cornet, 170, 179, 180, and x.
Cornet playing, 17th cent., 179.
Cornyshe, W., 66.
Corydon's Farewell to Phillis, 190.
Cotgrave, on 'freeman's songs,' 83.
'Counter,' to, 66, 68, 97, 98.
Country Dance, 115, 116, 122, 123, 126.
Courante, 208.
Curranta (courante, coranto), 7.
Cushion dance, 118, 126.
Cymbals, 176.
_Cymbeline_, 73, 100, 109, 110.
_Damon and Pithias_, 16.
Dances, 16th cent., 137-151.
Dance music, 139, 144, 145, 200, 201 ff.
Dances in Shakespeare, 113 ff.
Dances, sung, 113, 115, 118, 119, 145.
Dancing, time of Elizabeth, James I. and Charles I., 118.
Dances of 16th cent., origin of Sonata form, 113.
Dancing Schools, English, 136.
Dancing, to tabor and pipe, 78, 120, and frontispiece.
Davenant, _The Wits_, 17.
Davies, Sir John, on dances, 123, 124.
_Declaration of Egregious Impostures_, 17.
Dekker, _Satiromastix_, 164.
Delaborde, 119.
Descant, 6, 8, 22, 23, 25, 27, 29, 41, 42, 67, 68, 185.
Descanters, contention of, 6.
Descant on a "ground," 29, 30.
_Deuteromelia_, Ravencroft's, 83.
'Diabolus est,' 37, 186.
Diapason, 22, 23, 153, 154.
Diminution, see Division.
Dinner party, 16th cent., 5.
Dinner, music during, at taverns, 20,
after supper, 105.
Dirge, 109, 110, 111.
Discord, 'restless,' 22, 23,
'harsh,' 28.
Division, 28-30, 35, 36, 57, 185, 186.
Division, quibbles on, 28, 35, 36, 186.
Division viol, 29, 30.
Doquet, see Tucket.
Drayton, _Battle of Agincourt_, 16.
Drone, 23.
Drum, in dancing, 139, 145.
and fife, 160-162.
military, 162, 163, 172-175.
Drums, in theatre band, 176.
Drum March, 172-175, 208.
Dulcimer, 176, 177.
Dump, dance, 22, 23, 59, 61, 98, 127, 128 (derivation), 130, 170, 207.
quibble on, 22, 130.
Dupla, 33, 34.
EAR, musical, 32, 100.
Edward VI., 10.
Edwards, Richard, 73, 128, 169, 193.
Elizabeth, Queen, 10, 11, 15, 53.
Elizabethan public-house song, 17, 20.
Elizabethan times, music in, 2, 4-8, 16, 113, 114 (dances) ff.
Erasmus, 9.
'Evening music,' 99, 101.
'Excursions,' 165.
FALSTAFF and his crew, musicians, 41-43, 76, 85.
'Fancies,' for viols, 47, 76, 101, 117.
'Farewell, dear heart,' 72, 89, 190.
'Farewell, master,' Caliban's Song, 73.
_Faustus_, Marlowe's, 178.
'Fayned' music, 67, 69, 97, 98.
'Fear no more the heat of the sun,' 73, 110.
Fellowships at Cambridge, musical qualification for, 8, 9.
Ferrabosco, 171.
Fiddle, 49, 124.
Fidler, 'common,' 'rascal,' 13, 59.
Fidlers, 7.
Fidles, 170, 171.
Fife, 160-162, 176.
Fingering, on lute, 58, 60,
on viol, 44, 101.
'Fish,' ballad of a, 72, 79.
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (known as Qu. Elizabeth's) 11, 54, 123, 192,
195, 196.
Flageolet, see Recorder.
Flats, 27, 69.
'Flemish Drunkards,' 66, 199.
Florio, on threemen's songs, 83.
Flourish, 165, 167-8, 178, 179 (of cornets), 208.
'Flout 'em and scout 'em,' 77, 78, 91.
Flute, 31, 96, 98, 145, 169, 170, 171, 176.
'Fools had ne'er less grace,' 72.
'Fortune my Foe,' 76, 195.
Freemen, see Threemen.
French dancing, 136-151.
'French fiddles,' 49.
French march, 209.
Frescobaldi, 123.
Fret, quibbles on, 51, 58.
Frets, 19, 25, 45, 46, 56, 58.
GALLIARD, 114 (follows Pavan), 115, 116 (derivation), 121, 122, 123,
124, 126, 134, 138 (par terre), 142 (tune and steps), 148, 170, 201, 202.
Gallimaufry, 80, 84.
_Gammer Gurton's Needle_, comedy, 170.
Gam-ut, 39, 40, 60.
Gaufurius, 34.
Gentlemen and music, 5-8, 10, 12, 13-15, 20, 29, 47, 49, 50, 97, 98, 101.
'Get you hence,' 72.
Gibbons, Orlando, 54, 108, 124.
Giraldus Cambrensis, 83.
Gnorimus, master, 5, 6.
'Good morrow, 'tis St Valentine's day,' 77, 196.
Goodnights (dirges), 76, 109, 110.
Gosson, _Schoole of Abuse_, 20.
Gout, morisque bad for the, 151.
Gower, 65.
Grand Bal, Le, 144.
'Green Sleeves,' 74, 75, 194.
'Gregory Walker,' 7.
Ground Bass, 29, 30, 185.
Grove's Dictionary of Music, 113, 145, 192.
Guido d'Arezzo, 37.
_Hamlet_, 50-52, 76, 77, 125, 167, 172, 196-198, 205.
Hanskin, 192.
'Harmonious Blacksmith,' 28.
Harp, 65, 96, 98.
Harp, Irish, 31.
Harpsichord, 29, 30, 176, 185.
Harpsicon, 13.
Harsnet, on catches, 17.
Harrington, Sir John, 8, 10.
Hautboys, stage direction, 169, 175, 176, 209.
Hautboys, 144, 145, 159, 171, 176, 177, 209.
Hautboy, case of a treble, 76, 177.
Hay, dance, 131, 150 (tune and steps), 204, 205, 208.
'Heart's Ease,' 73, 129, 193.
'He is dead and gone,' 196.
Henry, Prince, brother of Charles I., 8, 173.
_Henry IV., Part I_, 81, 172, 182.
_Henry IV., Part II_, 70, 76, 105, 107, 109, 117, 177, 195.
_Henry V._, 31, 32, 41, 63, 114, 123, 129, 133, 136, 165, 166, 167,
172, 178, 180, 181, 182, 202, 210.
_Henry VI., Part I_, 56, 165, 166, 172, 182, 183, 208, 209.
_Henry VI., Part II_, 166, 172, 182.
_Henry VI., Part III_, 175, 182, 183.
Henry VII., Singing in time of, 65-69.
Henry VIII., a musician, 9, 10, 14, 26.
_Henry VIII._, 49, 73, 109, 110, 126, 139.
Herbert, George, 12.
Hexachord, 37, 187.
'Hey, Robin, jolly Robin,' 190.
Hilton, John, 77.
History of music in Shakespeare, 2, 3.
'Hold thy peace,' 77, 198.
Holofernes' head, 19.
Horn, 169.
Horns, stage direction, 182, 183, 211.
'How should I your true love know,' 77, 196.
Hugh, Parson, 187.
Hum, to, a burden, 22, 23, 24.
'Hundredth Psalm,' 75.
Hunsdean, Lord, 11.
'Hunt is up, The,' 73, 192.
Hunts-up, 73.
'I SHALL no more to sea,' 73, 191.
'I'm gone, Sir, and anon, Sir,' 190.
_Inglesant, John_, Mr Shorthouse's, 2, 29.
Instrumental Music, amongst lower classes, 18-20,
amongst higher classes, 9-15,
in barber's shop, 18, 19,
in taverns, 19, 20.
Instrumental music, descended from Vocal Dances, 113, 116, 117.
Instrumental music, England supreme in, 117.
_Introduction_, Morley's, 4-7, 8, 18, 23, 185.
Irish Harp, 31.
'It was a lover and his lass,' 93.
Ives, Simon, 171.
'JACK boy, ho boy,' 77, 92, 199.
Jacks, 54, 68.
James I., music in time of, 11.
Jaques, a hater of music, 93, 94.
Jenkins, John, 47, 72.
Jig, dance, 116-118, 121, 123, 124, 125.
Jig, The Cobbler's, 205.
Jigg, The King's Hunting, 205.
_Jocasta_, by Gascoyne, 170.
'Jog on,' 72, 192.
Johnson, Robt., 112, 171.
_John, King_, 95, 163, 182.
Jonson, _Alchemist_, _Silent Woman_, 18,
Masques by, 171.
_Julius Cæsar_, 108, 166.
Jusquin (Josquin des Prés, died 1521), 10.
KEN, Bishop, 13.
'King and the Beggar,' Ballad of the, 70.
King's Coll., Camb., Master of, in 1463, 9.
King's Hunting Jig, The, 117, 125, 205.
Kircher, 176.
'Knell,' Qu. Katherine's, 110-112.
'L'HOMME armé,' 85.
Lacy, Henry, _Jane Shore_, 171.
Lark, out of tune, 28.
Lavolt, 208.
Lavolta, dance, 115, 124, 136, 148, 149 (tune and steps).
Lawes, Henry, 171.
Lawes, William, 47, 171.
'Lawn, as white as,' 72.
_Lear_, 35, 36, 72, 181, 183, 186.
Le Roy, Adrian, see Lute, 55.
'Lesson,' _i.e._ a piece of music, 54, 60, 62, 76.
'Lesson' for the Lute, 187.
Lessons in music, 5, 6, 58-60, 62-64.
'Light o' love,' 24, 26, 70, 71, 187.
Locke, Matt., 31, 125.
Lollards, 86.
Love song, 55, 78, 81, 82, 88, 96.
'Love, love, nothing but love,' 72.
_Love's Labour's Lost_, 19, 70, 115, 118, 119, 131, 200, 204.
Lower classes, music amongst, 15-20.
_Lucrece_, 22-26, 127, 166, 185.
Lully, 119, 209.
Lute, 9, 10, 12, 30, 31, 55-61, 67, 68, 69, 73, 96, 98, 108, 109, 171.
Lute, objections to, in 17th cent., 56, 61.
Pavan for, 204.
tuning of, 55, 60, 61.
Lute-case, 41, 42, 129.
Lutenist, 13.
Lyly, on music at feasts, 20.
_Macbeth_, 166.
Mace, Thomas, 45, 46, 55, 56, 187
Mad Songs, 36.
Madness and Music, 32, 35, 64, 107.
March, military and national, 172-175, 208, 209.
Marlowe, 188.
Mary, Queen, 10.
Mascaradoes, music in, 115, 145.
Masque, 115, 145, 159-161, 171.
_Masque and Triumph_, Bacon's Essay on, 31.
May day customs, 132, 133, 161.
Mean, 27, 67, 84.
Measure, stately dance, 121, 123, 125-127, 203.
_Measure for Measure_, 157.
Méhul, 'Le Jeune Henri,' 183, 211.
Melvil's _Memoirs_, 11.
Melancholy of musicians, 156, 157.
Memoria Technica for step dance, 141.
_Merchant of Venice_, 81, 102, 155, 157, 160, 168, 180.
_Merry Devill of Edmonton_, The, 17.
_Merry Wives of Windsor_, 43, 71, 74, 76, 119, 120, 188, 194, 195.
Mersennus, 52, 80, 161, 174, 177, 179.
Metaphors, musical, in Shakespeare, see Quibbles.
_Mi Contra Fa_, 186.
_Mi_, to place the, 38, 69.
_Micrologus_, Guido's, 37.
_Micrologus_, Ornithoparcus's, 34.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, 52, 114, 119, 160, 162, 167.
Military music, 162, 208, 209.
Milton, 105, 155, 171.
Minim rest, 43.
Miracle Play, 1512, music in, 169.
Monochord, 66, 68.
Monteverde, 47, 133, 206.
Moresca, Morisque, see Morris.
Morley, Thomas, 'Introduction,' 4-8, 18, 23, 33, 34, 41,
song, 93,
dances, 113-116, 122, 124, 136,
descant, 185.
'Morning Music,' 100, 101, 102.
Morris, dance, 132, 133, 151 (tune and steps), 205, 206, 208.
Mouton, middle 16th cent., 10.
_Much Ado_, 24, 70, 71, 81, 121, 125, 161, 162, 187.
Music at home, 107-109.
and disease, 106, 107.
and Manners, 5-8, 49, 67, 68.
Music and madness, 32, 35, 64, 107.
Music-masters, 5, 6, 14, 40, 58-60, 62-64, 66-68.
'Music of men's lives,' 32.
'Music,' stage direction, 169-171, 175, 208.
Music, in time of Charles I, 2, 47.
Music, two views of in Shakespeare, 2.
Music, Lessons in the fields, 6.
Music at University, 7-9, 12-14.
Music in barber's shop, 18, 19.
Music in taverns, decay of, 19, 20.
Music, lesson, of an hour, 59.
Musica Ficta, 69, 98.
Musical England, 20, 25, 47, 53, 54, 55.
Musical 'at home,' 16th cent., 5.
Musicians, Royal, 9-12.
_Musick's Monument_, 45, 46, 56, 187.
'My heart is full of woe,' 73, 130.
'My Mistress,' for Lute, 187.
'My Robin is to the greenwood gone,' 198.
NATIVITY HYMN, Milton's, 155.
Nebel, see Psaltery.
Nevell's, Lady, Virginal Book, 54.
Nightingale, descants, 22, 23.
kept awake with thorn, 22, 26.
Nimble notes, 22, 23.
Noise, _i.e._ concerted music, 105, 106.
'Note-splitting,' 28.
Note, to give a, 26, 27.
'O DEATH, rock me to sleep,' 111, 112.
'O heart, heavy heart,' 72.
'O mistress mine,' 87.
'O sweete Olyver,' 73, 193.
'O! the twelfth day of December,' 72, 89.
_Old Wives' Tale_, Peele's, 16, 189.
Oldcastle, Sir John, 86.
Ominous music, 159.
Ophelia's songs, 76, 77, 196-198.
'Orchésographie,' Arbeau's, 113, 119, 120, 122, 124, 137-151, 205, 206.
_Orchestra_, poem by Sir John Davies, 123.
Organ, in chamber music, 13, 30, 31, 48, 170 (on stage), 185.
Ornithoparcus, 34.
'Orpheus with his lute,' 73.
_Othello_, 102, 161, 166, 182.
Oxford, music at, 12-15.
PAGEANT of the Nine Worthies, 131.
_Pammelia_, Ravenscroft's, 17, 18.
Pandarus's songs, 72.
Pandarus, a musician and singer, 103, 104.
_Paradise Lost_, 155.
_Paradyse of daynty Devises_, 73, 74.
Parley, 182.
_Parthenia_, 54, 108, 114, 123, 201.
Part-songs by Henry VIII., 9.
Parts, vocal, 5, 7, 24, 25, 65, 72, 79, 80;
instrumental, 103.
Passamezzo, _see_ Pavan.
Passamezzo Pavan (Passy-measures), 114, 126, 134, 145, 201, 203.
Pasqualigo, letter of, 9.
_Passionate Pilgrim_, 71, 188.
Pavan, dance, 108, 113 (for voices), 114, 116 (with Galliard), 134-136,
144-146, 201-204.
Pavan, mode of dancing, 134, 144.
Pavan, 'quadrant,' 7.
Pavan, 'strains' of a, 23, 114, 135, 136, 144.
Pavane d'Espagne, _see_ Canaries, 146.
Peal of horns, to wind a; _see_ Horns, 211.
Peele, _Old Wives' Tale_, 16, 189.
'Peg-a-Ramsey,' 71, 89, 188.
Percy's Reliques, 83, 190, 196.
_Pericles_, 44, 64, 101, 107, 152.
Pes, or burden, 24.
Philomel, 22.
Pipe, with tabor, _see_ frontispiece, 78, 80, 81, 97, 98, 161, 162, 169.
Pipes, 129;
of cornstalk, 162.
Pipers and fiddlers, unprofitable, 20.
Pizzicato, 30.
_Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music_, 4-8, 23, 113-116.
Plain song, 6, 8, 41, 42, 50, 67, 69, 185.
Plain song book, 6.
'Play his part,' _see_ 'Bear,' 12.
Playford, John, 12, 45, 189.
Plays of Shakespeare with references to music, 4, _et passim_.
Plays, introduced by trumpets, 164.
Plays with music, 1586 to 1642, 171.
Popular Music, Old English, Chappell's, 9.
Praetorius, 122, 134.
Price, John, 80.
Prick-song, 15, 25, 41, 67, 69, 185.
Professional musicians, 17th cent., 13, 14, 130.
Proportion, 6, 7, 32, 33, 34;
153, Pythagoras on musical.
Psalmody, metrical, 85, 86.
Psaltery, 176.
Psychology of music in Shakespeare, 2, 152-158.
Public-house song, Elizabethan, 17, 20.
Punctus, _see_ Prick-song.
Puns, _see_ Quibbles.
Pupil and master, 5, 6, 7, 58-60, 62-64.
Purcell, _Bonduca_, 17, 36, 171.
operas, 176, 182, 183, 211.
Purcell, catch, 77.
canaries, 120.
Puritan, sings psalms to hornpipes, 84.
_Pyramus and Thisbe_, a masque, 160, 167.
Pythagoras, on music of spheres, 152-156.
QUADRANT Pavan, 7.
Quadrupla, 33, 34.
Quibbles, verbal, on musical terms, 4, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 32, 36,
39, 40, 43, 44, 51, 53, 60, 76, 87, 88, 89, 93, 99, 103, 104, 120, 121,
122, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 135, 163, 183.
Quiddle, to, 16.
RAYE, _see_ Hay.
Rebeck, 129.
'Record,' use of the word, 50.
Recorder, 31, 50-53, 170, and frontispiece.
Regals, a small organ, on stage, 170.
_Rehearsal, The_, (comedy), 131.
Rests, 22, 23.
Retreat, stage direction, 171, 172.
Ribible, 129.
_Richard II._, 32, 48, 127, 182.
_Richard III._, 166, 167, 168.
Rimbault; Mus. Antiq. Soc., 36, 171.
Rimbault's '_Rounds, Canons, and Catches_', 17, 72, 83, 94.
_Romeo and Juliet_, 43, 73, 110, 129, 185, 192, 193.
Rotybulle Joyse, 67, 68, 69.
Round, dance, 123, 125, _see_ Hay.
Round (catch), 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 69, 72, 91, 94.
Royal musicians, 9-12.
SACKBUT, 144, 176.
Salary of musicians in taverns, 19, 104.
Salary for a singer, 86, 87, 88.
Saltarello, dance, 84, 115.
Saltiers, company of dancers, 80, 84.
Saraband, dance, 116.
_Satiromastix_, by Dekker, 164.
Sault majeur, in galliard, 124, 138, 143, _see_ Caper.
Sault majeur, in lavolte, 149.
Scale, notation of, 37-40.
Scamps in Shakespeare, mostly musicians, 92,
_see_ Falstaff, Stephano, Pandarus, Toby, Autolycus.
Scotch Jig, 125.
'Scurvey tunes,' 191.
Selden, on dances, 118, 126.
Sellenger's Round, 54.
Sennet, 168, 178 (derivation), 210.
Serenades, 55, 96 ff, 128.
Serpent, 179, 180.
Sesquialtera, 7, 33, 34.
Sesquitertia, 33, 34.
'Set,' to, (of pitch), 26, 27.
quibble on, 27.
Shakespeare, trustworthy in musical matters, 1, 2, 3.
Shakespeare, passages on music classified, 21.
Sharps, 26, 27, 28.
_Ship of Fools_, Brant's, 96.
Shirley, _Triumphs of Peace_, 171.
Shorthouse, Mr J.H., 2.
_Shrew, Taming of the_, 39, 40, 58-60, 63, 64, 92, 168, 183, 187, 199.
Sight-singing, 7, 9, 25.
Silence's songs, 70.
'Sing his part,' see 'Bear,' 14, 15.
Singers' excuses, 93.
Singing, amongst lower classes, 15-18, 66-69, 78-80, 83, 84.
Singing, amongst higher classes, 5-9, 12, 13-15.
Singing, 13th and 14th cent., 65.
Singing, 15th and 16th cent., 66-69, 97, 98.
Singing-man of Windsor, 85.
Sinkapace, see Cinquepace.
Sir Roger de Coverly, dance, 115, 123.
Skelton, 66, 67.
'Sneak's noise,' 105, 106.
Social Life, music in, 4 ff.
Sol-Fa, 35-40, 67, 68, 130, 186.
Solmisation, 187.
Songs, mentioned or quoted in Shakespeare, 69 ff.
Sonneries, French trumpet calls, 178, 210.
_Sonnet VIII_, 25.
_Sonnet CXXVIII_, 54.
_Sophonisba_, by Marston, 170.
Spheres, Music of the, 152-156.
Spinet, 145, and frontispiece.
St Thomas Wake, Pavan and Galliard, 136, 201-203.
Stage Directions, musical, 4, 159, 165 ff, 169-171, etc.
Stanley, Thos., Hist. of Philos., 152.
Stephano's songs, 73, 191.
Steps, of dances, 122, 124, 139.
Stop, to, of strings, etc., 22, 26, 51, 52, 53.
Strain, technical meaning of, 23, 108, 114, 116, 124, 135, 136.
Strain, quibble on, 22, 23.
'Sumer is icumen in,' 23, 24, 65.
Supper, music after, 5, 105.
Swan-song, 95.
_Sylva Sylvarum_, Bacon's, 31.
Sympson, Christopher, 29, 30, 37, 38, 47, 116, 117, 185.
TABOR and Pipe, 78, 80, 81, 91, 92, 131, 133, 139, 161, 162, 176, and
frontispiece.
Tabourin and Flutte, 139.
Tabourine, military drum, 162, 209.
Tabourot, Jehan, see Arbeau, 137.
Tangents, of clavichord, 68.
Tarantella, 35.
Tarantism, 35, 106.
Taverns, Music in, 19, 20, 104, 105.
Technical terms, musical, 21 ff.
_Tempest_, 73, 77, 81, 91, 92, 107, 122, 171, 191.
Temple, Sir W., 132, 133.
Tereus, 23.
Text, music in Shakespeare's, 4.
'The God of Love,' 70.
'The hunt is up,' 192.
'The master, the swabber,' 73, 191.
Theatres, closed, 19.
Theatres, music at, 175-177.
Theorbo, lute, 46, 56.
'There dwelt a man in Babylon,' 71, 89, 189.
'They bore him barefaste,' 77, 197.
'Thou knave,' 87, 88, 89, 198.
Threemen songs, 16, 66, 69, 79, 82, 83, 84, 85, 199.
'Three merry men,' 71, 89, 188.
Thunder and lightning, on stage, 165.
Time, _see_ Proportion.
Time, to keep, 22, 23, 32, 42, 43, 44, 87.
_Timon of Athens_, 115, 181.
Titus Andronicus, ballad of, 76, 196.
_Titus Andronicus_, 183, 211.
'To shallow rivers,' 71, 187.
Toby Belch's, Sir, songs, 71, 72, 188, 190, 198.
Toccata, 62, 181.
Tocco di campana, 62.
Tocsin, 62.
'Tom o' Bedlam,' 35, 36.
Tordion, dance, 138, 141, 142.
'Touch,' to, an instrument, 49, 62, 108.
Tragedies, Music in the, 4, 165, 169.
Trenchmore, or Frenchmore, a dance, 118, 131.
Trinity Coll., Camb., Statutes of, 8, 9.
Tripla, 33, 34.
_Troilus and Cressida_, 32, 72, 103, 104, 124, 162, 166.
Trumpets, in the theatre band, 176.
Trumpets, stage direction, 168, 169, 175, 178.
Tucket, 62, 63, 180-182, 210, 211.
Tudway, Dr, 49.
Tune, to keep in, 22, 26, 27, 28, 100.
Tusch, 63.
_Twelfth Night_, 29, 48, 71, 72, 77, 81, 88, 89, 94, 95, 108, 114, 121,
135, 152, 188-190, 198, 201, 202, 203.
_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, 24, 26, 71, 81, 98, 99, 100, 117, 128, 207.
_Two Italian Gentlemen_, comedy by Munday, 170.
'Two maids wooing a man,' 72, 79.
_Two Noble Kinsmen_, 71.
'UNDER the greenwood tree,' 72.
University, music at, 16th and 17th cent, 7, 8, 9, 12-14.
'Usurer's wife, The,' ballad, 72, 79.
Ut, Re, Mi, 37-40, 187.
VARIATIONS, 28, 29, 48, 195.
Ventages, 51.
_Venus and Adonis_, 166.
Viol, treble, tenor, bass, 12, 13, 19, 31, 45, 46, 47, 171, and
frontispiece.
Viols, 11-14, 19, 44-49, 61, 65, 98, 101, 170.
Viols, tuning of, 46, 47.
Viol da Gamba, 11, 12, 19, 29, 30, 45, 46, 47, 48.
Viol da Gamba, divisions on the, 29, 30, 186.
Violin, 45, 49, 62, 145, 176.
Violin, thought vulgar, 13, 46, 59.
Violone, double-bass, 48, 176.
Virginal, 10, 11, 13, 31, 53, 54, 68, 76, 123.
Virginal, Qu. Elizabeth's, 11, 53, and frontispiece.
Virginal Book, _see_ Fitzwilliam _and_ Lady Nevell.
Volta, Volte, _see_ Lavolta.
'WALSINGHAM,' 196.
Weavers, and singing, 86, 87, 88.
'Wee be souldiers three,' 199.
'What shall he have,' 77, 94.
'When Arthur first,' 70.
'When daffodils,' 72.
'When griping grief,' 73, 128, 130, 193.
'White his shroud,' 196.
'Whoop, do me no harm,' 72, 78, 190.
'Will you buy any tape,' 72.
Windsor, St George's Chapel Choir, 85.
_Winter's Tale_, 53, 72, 78, 80, 190, 192, 199.
Wood, Anthony, 12, 13.
Wright, Mr W. Aldis, 9, 31, 83.
YE noble minds, 195.
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