Plays (P)

1. Cynthia’s Revels (1600)

P.1.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears

P.1.2/1‒2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Oh, that joy so soon should waste!

As part of the entertainments devised by the Nymphs and courtiers in Cynthia’s Revels, Hedon’s mistress, Philautia (nicknamed ‘Honour’) calls some music: accordingly, Hedon sings ‘Oh, that joy so soon should waste!’ (Q, 4.3.161‒72), which we are told is titled ‘The Kiss’. Jonson’s text supplies two important details. When asked for his verdict on the song Amorphus replies ‘A pretty air! In general, I like it well. But, in particular, your long “die” note did arride me most, but i>t was somewhat too long’ (Q, 4.3.175‒6). The ‘die note’ refers to the note to which the word ‘die’ in the last line is set: a rare technical comment from Jonson. He also tells us that both songs were accompanied on the fashionable ‘Lyra’, which Jonson describes as ‘an instrument that alone is able to infuse soul in the most melancholic and dull disposed creature upon earth’ (Q, 4.3.156‒7). ‘Lyra’ refers to the ‘lyra-viol’. The term can refer to a specific instrument (a viol slightly smaller than the consort bass), but it is perhaps best understood as a general characterisation of a repertoire and associated style of playing. A largely English phenomenon, the lyra-viol repertoire is large and varied and not particularly well understood. First developed in the late sixteenth century, it mounted a serious challenge to the lute as the amateur instrument of choice in the first decade of seventeenth century, and continued to be popular throughout much of the century. Like the lute, the music is generally notated in French tablature, a form of music notation different to many other instruments. Tablature indicates the finger positions on the fretboard of instruments such as the viol or lute; it is particularly useful for beginners as it negates the need for having to cope with the complexities of staff notation (tablature notation is, for example, still widely used by guitarists). Specifically, tablature indicates the point at which each string is to be stopped by the performer’s left hand in the form of letters (‘a’ indicates an open string, ‘b’ a string stopped at the first fret etc.) on a six-line grid representing the six strings of the viol. The approximate duration of the note is shown by rhythm signs above the music. Tablature was an important aspect of the lyra-viol as it enabled use of different tunings (the set intervals to which the six strings are tuned): almost 60 are known. Tablature does not give any information as to the names of the notes, nor their actual duration. Thus, a good deal of the information was inherent in the interpretation of performers. Solo and ensemble pieces comprise much of the lyra-viol repertoire, but there are a number of song accompaniments. The music is often characterized by chordal playing as well as pseudo-contrapuntal textures (similar to the lute repertoire). The combination of solo and chordal possibilities made the lyra-viol an ideal instrument for self-accompaniment.

Two unrelated settings of Hedon’s song are known: both for solo voice and unfigured bass. There is an early unattributed setting in Oxford, Christ Church, Mus. 439 (P.1.2/1 (Full score   , MIDI   )), which is likely to represent some form of the song as it was sung in the original play. Andrew Sabol (1960) attributed it to Nathaniel Giles, Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal 1597‒1634, though the attribution is purely circumstantial. The accompaniment in Mus. 439 is a bass line in staff notation, whereas lyra-viol music is generally notated in French tablature and is often chordal in texture. It is unclear whether the singer would have accompanied himself by improvising simple chords or whether the single-line bass was played. Neither approach would necessarily imply that this is not some version of the original setting. The Mus. 439 setting does includes a four-bar held note on the word ‘die’ in the final stanza, as described by Amorphus; it could have been exaggerated for more comic effect in performance. The repetitions and endless stream of musical devices (imitation, syncopations, rests, word-painting) are monotonous. The composer’s intention seems to have been a deliberate satire of Hedon’s pretensions, achieved through excessive word-repetitions and a convoluted vocal line: it is one of the earliest examples of such techniques on the English stage. The song could have been composed independently from the original performances, but the engagement with the dramatic context strongly suggests otherwise (cf. P.1.2/2 (Full score   , MIDI   )), and it is clear that a song with similar effects was called for by Jonson. As Linda Austern has noted (1992, 260), in its treatment of the varying line lengths the setting is anticipates the declamatory style popular later in the century, although the contrapuntal style of accompanying bass line is more typical of the sixteenth century. A significant textual variant is found in the opening line, which slightly rearranges the printed version but retains the same number of beats (there are also a number of minor variants throughout).

2. Poetaster (1601)

P.2.1/1‒2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   If I freely may discover

The song satirizing the supposedly reluctant musician: the performer who refuses to play when asked, but once started does not know when to stop. Hermogenes is introduced as a musician, but he repeatedly refuses to sing. Growing jealous of the interest in Hermogenes receives, Crispinus asks to be persuaded to perform. Suitably entreated, he sings ‘If I freely may discover’, a song composed by Hermogenes. Crispinus sings the first verse, and the reluctant Hermogenes sings the second only after becoming jealous of the praise bestowed on his companion.

   There are two, unrelated, settings; in both the two stanzas are given but only the first is underlaid. A contemporary setting (P.2.1/1) is found in ‘Giles Earle’s Book’ (London, British Library, Add. MS 24665), which dates from c. 1615. Next to ‘If I freely may discover’ is a setting of ‘The dark is my delight’ from Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan (1603‒4). The Dutch Courtesan and Cynthia’s Revels were both written for the same company of child actors, the Children of the Chapel or the Children of the Queen’s Revels. David Fuller (1977) has convincingly suggested that Giles Earle may have acquired a manuscript of music from the company when it disbanded, c. 1616. Indeed, the way in which the vocal melody enters halfway through the fourth bar is often indicative of a consort song setting, commonly associated with the children’s companies. The term ‘consort song’ describes a song (typically for a high voice) accompanied by a consort, or ensemble, of instruments, usually viols; they are usually in five parts. The setting is also notable for its use of simple devices of word-painting. The change to a dance-like triple time depicts the mistress ‘Light and humorous in her toying’; the melody rises at ‘building hopes’ and falls at ‘destroying’, and pauses to emphasize the word ‘Long’. The setting treats Jonson’s text using subtle rhythmic variety; the syllabic accentuation is varied through placement on strong beats (usually long notes) and syncopation. There is nothing to indicate that the song was accompanied in the play, although later Chloe’s song ‘Love is blind, and a wanton’ appears to have been accompanied by the viol discovered by Crispinus.

The second setting is by Henry Lawes (1596‒1662), and survives in two slightly different versions. The first, P.2.1/2(a) (Full score   , MIDI   ), is taken from Lawes’s autograph songbook (London, British Library, Add. MS 53723) and dates from the 1630s. The second version, P.2.1/2(b) (Full score   , MIDI   ), is found in John Gamble’s Commonplace Book (New York, New York Public Library, Drexel MS 4257) and was probably copied around the middle of the century. P.2.1/2(b) (Full score   , MIDI   ) is unattributed and does not include either triple-time section, and has different harmonies in several places. For example, it opens with a bar of tonic harmony, whereas P.2.1/2(a) (Full score   , MIDI   ) has a chord progression of V-I-(IV-)V. Both versions omit a (different) line of text from the second stanza. P.2.1/2(b) (Full score   , MIDI   ) is presumably either an early setting or a corrupt one that found its way to Gamble (who could also have reworked the setting). No revivals of the play are known. That aside, Lawes’s setting is typical of his play-song settings composed independently of stage performances; it pays close attention to the text but is divorced from the dramatic context.

3. Eastward Ho! (1605)

P.3.1 (Full score   , MIDI   ) Sleep, wayward thoughts

Gertrude’s snatch from John Dowland’s song ‘Sleep, wayward thoughts’ is the first of several such references to popular and ballad tunes throughout the play, which are often used to highlight her distressed state of mind. Dowland’s song was first printed as a four-voice partsong in The First Book of Songs and Ayres (1597). Jonson (accurately) quotes the penultimate line from the first stanza (here editorially set):

P.3.2/1‒2 When Samson was a tall young man (Tune: The Spanish Pavan)

P.3.3 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Mistress, since you so much desire

Gertrude’s second snatch is taken from Thomas Campion’s song ‘Mistress, since you so much desire’, printed in A Book of Ayres (1601). As with the earlier Dowland snatch (P.3.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )), the quotation is from the last lines of the first stanza (here editorially set):

P.3.4/1‒2   His head as white as milk (Tune: The Merry Milkmaids)

P.3.5   Now, Oh, now, I needs must part

Quicksilver begins with a slightly corrupt rendition of Dowland’s famous song ‘Now, oh now, I needs must part’, first printed (alongside ‘Sleep, wayward thoughts’) in The First Book of Songs and Ayres (1597). The play’s variation of the first two lines is not found in any of the surviving music sources, of which there are several (here editorially set):

The remaining four lines (beginning ‘What a grief . . .’) are not from Dowland’s song and are not known elsewhere; they do not follow the metre or rhyme of Dowland’s original verse so would require some licence in adapting them to the tune:

‘Now, Oh, now, I needs must part’ was also disseminated in an instrumental version, ‘The Frog Galliard’, of which there are several manuscript and printed sources. Peter Holman (1999, 77) has noted that this was one of four Dowland pieces that passed into the Dutch repertory of popular songs, perhaps from the repertoires of travelling English theatre companies.

P.3.6 (Full score   , MIDI   )   O hone, hone, o no nera (Tune: Franklin is fled away)

P.3.7/1‒2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   In Cheapside famous for gold and plate (Tune: Labandala Shot)

4. Volpone (1606)

P.4.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Come, my Celia, let us prove

The song’s AABCC structure is a variation on the AABA form often found in popular tunes of the period: lines 165‒8 (bars 1‒13; A) and 169‒72 (bars 14‒26; A) are sung to the same music, lines 173‒8 (bars 27‒41; B) and 179‒82 (bars 42‒57; C) are used to introduce new music. Ferrabosco’s setting omits the final quatrain (lines 235‒9). The rhyme scheme of the quatrain suggests that it is intended to be a continuation of Volpone’s song: it could be sung to the same music as the first quatrain, as the following editorial setting demonstrates:

5. Epicene (1609)

P.5.1/1‒2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Still to be neat, still to be dressed

The only song in the play, ‘Still to be neat, still to be dressed’ (1.1.71‒82) is sung by Clerimont’s page at Truewit’s behest, reflecting contemporary practice where servants are introduced to sing for their masters or betters. On a practical level, it may indicate that the actor playing Clerimont was not a singer. Clerimont composed the song on the subject of his dislike of his mistress’s elaborate dressing and make-up. The boy also sings at 1.1.17. In the 1620 quarto Jonson gives the first line of ‘Still to be neat, still to be dressed’; no text is given in the folio. It is ambiguous as to whether the boy sings the whole song or only part of it at 1.1.17.

6. Catiline His Conspiracy (1611)

P.6.1/1‒2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   It is decreed. Nor shall thy fate, O Rome

The two settings of Catiline’s opening soliloquy (1.1.73‒97) found among the music manuscripts of the diarist Samuel Pepys (1633‒1703) represent the earliest musical settings of Jonson’s blank verse. P.6.1/2 (Full score   , MIDI   ) was composed by the Italian Cesare Morelli. P.6.1/1 (Full score   , MIDI   ) was mostly composed by Pepys himself. From his diary, we know quite a lot about how and when the setting came about; it is worth recounting in detail.

Three days after finishing the setting, Pepys began teaching it to Elizabeth Knipp. ‘After dinner, I to teach her my new Recitative of It is decreed – of which she learnt a good part; and I do well like it, and believe shall be well pleased when she hath it all, and that it will be found an agreeable thing’ (7.369). Pepys had thus far only composed the vocal line; it was not until 10 December that he began ‘setting of a Base to It is Decreed’ (7.403). But he evidently had trouble fitting the harmonic accompaniment to his vocal line, and so enlisted the help of a friend. On 19 December 1666 Pepys

met Mr. Hingston the Organist (my old acquaintance) in the Court, and I took him to the Dogg tavern and got him to set me a bass to my It is decreed, which I think will go well; but he commends the song, not knowing the words, but says the ayre [i.e. melody] is good, and believes the words are plainly expressed. He is of my mind, against having of eights unnecessarily in composition. This did all please me mightily (7.414).

John Hingeston (c. 1606‒83) was a court musician, composer, and teacher, who became organist to Oliver Cromwell in 1654. The reference to ‘eights’ has been interpreted as referring to leaps of an octave in the vocal line (Emslie, 1955) or (more likely) as indicating that Hingeston found consecutive octaves between Pepys’s vocal and bass lines (Bridge, 1903).

Pepys was clearly proud of the setting. After dinner on Christmas Day he began to teach his ‘wife and [Ms] Barker my song, It is decreed – which pleases me mightily, as now I have Mr. Hinxton’s bass’ (7.420). On 28 January 1666/7 Pepys sent for Mary Mercer ‘and began to teach her It is decreed’ (8.35). (Mercer was an attractive seventeen-year-old servant employed by Pepys from September 1664. She is described by Pepys as playing ‘pretty well upon the Harpsicon [harpsichord], but only ordinary tunes; but hath a good hand. Sings a little, but hath a good voyce and eare’ (5.226); she remained in the household until the end of the diary.) The next day Pepys was ‘teaching my girl Barker part of my song It is decreed, which she will sing prettily’ (8.36). Pepys writes nothing more of the song until 7 January 1667/8: ‘I walked . . . in the garden a while, and to sing with Mercer there a little; and so home with her and taught her a little of my It is decreed, which I have a mind to have her learn to sing, and she will do it well’ (9.14). The following day he taught Mercer ‘more of It is decreed, and to sing other songs’ (9.16). It seems, however, that Pepys was unimpressed by the ladies’ attempts at his setting. On 24 March 1667/8 he began ‘to prick out [i.e. write out] my song, It is decreed, intending to have it ready to give Mr. [Henry] Harris on Thursday, when we meet for him to sing, believing that he will do it more right then a woman that sings better, unless it were Knipp – which I cannot have opportunity to teach it to’ (9.131). He finished ‘pricking out’ the song three days later. Harris, a versatile performer and good friend of Pepys, was an actor in the Duke’s Company from 1661‒81; he was presumably a tenor.

The diary contains no further reference to the setting, though Pepys kept it for over a decade. Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library MS 2951 – our source of P.6.1/1 (Full score   , MIDI   ) – was compiled by Pepys’s household musician Cesare Morelli (fl. late 1660s‒86), who began copying and arranging music for Pepys in 1679. It was presumably at this point that the simple part for five-course guitar was added by Morelli. The setting is for a bass-range voice: the songs in MS 2951 were ‘adjusted to the particular compass’ of Pepys’s voice. Combined with the fact that the first singers of his setting were women, this suggests that Pepys’s setting of ‘It is decreed’ was originally for a treble-range voice and transposed down to suit Pepys’s (bass) voice. Morelli also composed his own setting of the Catiline soliloquy (P.6.1/2 (Full score   , MIDI   )), which dates from c. 1680. Pepys seems to have selected his favourite texts for Morelli to set. An obvious example of this is the ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy, which Pepys learned by heart on 13 November 1664: he later had Morelli set the verse to in a quasi-recitative style (see Emslie, 1957: includes transcription).

Both settings of ‘It is decreed’ are similar in style; Morelli was understandably influenced by his employer. Pepys’s approach to setting the words can be understood in the context of his rapprochement of other kinds of vocal music of which ‘I understood not the words, and with the rests that the words are set, there is no sense nor understanding in them though they be English, which makes me weary of singing in that manner, it being but a worse sort of instrumental musick’ (9 February 1667/8). Although Pepys called his setting ‘recitative’ it is perhaps better described as a declamatory air: every syllable gets a separate note, and the harmony is quite simple and slow-moving. In declamatory airs the main aim was to have the words heard clearly, so that they could be understood, much as if they were spoken. Thus we find little repetition (as the auditor was expected to be able to comprehend the words immediately). An early example of this kind of song is ‘Ariadne’ by Henry Lawes (composed c. 1648). Pepys was a great admirer of Lawes, and especially of ‘Ariadne’. On 19 November 1665 he wrote that he went ‘alone by water to Erith, all the way with my song-book singing of Mr. Law[e]s’s long recitative Song in the beginning of his book [i.e. Ayres and Dialogues (1653), which contains the only printed setting of ‘Ariadne’]’ (Diary, 6.303). Pepys’s use of blank verse as a song lyric represents another aspect of this vogue for declamatory songs. His description of ‘Ariadne’ as ‘recitative’ also gives us further understanding of his use of the term.

7. Bartholomew Fair (1614)

P.7.1/1‒2   My masters and friends, and good people draw near

8. The Devil Is an Ass (1616)

P.8.1(a‒e) (Full score   , MIDI   )   Have you seen but a white lily grow

It is unclear whether ‘Have you seen but a white lily grow’ is the same song that Manly sang earlier in the scene (2.6) from a piece of paper given to him by Wittipol. Wittipol’s comment that the words of the song will ‘go unto the air you love so well’ (2.6.13) implies that the melody of Manly’s song was well known. ‘Have you seen’ was one of Jonson’s most popular lyrics and probably his most famous lyric after ‘Drink to me only with thine eyes’ (N.2.2/1‒6). In the Devil Is an Ass, Jonson gives a second verse. These two stanzas were prefaced by another and included in The Underwood as the poem ‘See, the chariot at hand here of Love’ (Und.2.4), of which there is a single setting (N.3.2 (Full score   , MIDI   )). It is unclear whether the extra stanza was known before 1616. Of the three stanzas printed in The Underwood, the third (beginning ‘Have you seen . . .’) is the most attractive for a musical setting, with its prominent vowel sounds, alliteration, and flowing textual melody. The song is well represented in contemporary song manuscripts, eight in total (plus a lost setting). None include any of the other stanzas.

‘Have you seen’ was popular enough to inspire others, for example: Sir John Suckling’s ‘Hast thou seen the down in th’air’, in The Sad One (c. 1637‒40); William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle’s ‘Have you felt the wool of Beaver’ in The Variety (1639); and James Shirley’s ‘Would you know what’s soft’ (1646). Perhaps the clearest example of its popularity is, however, the tradition of parodic verses, the most popular of which began ‘Have you seen a black-headed maggot’. One such verse is given in block text with the setting in Los Angeles, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, MS C6967M4 (P.8.1(d) (Full score   , MIDI   )). It is typical of the parodies commonly found in manuscript copies of the poem. An editorial setting has been provided with the Textual Commentary entry for P.8.1(d) (Full score   , MIDI   ).

9. The Sad Shepherd (1641)

P.9.1/1‒2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Though I am young and cannot tell

There are two known settings of the text. The first (P.9.1/1 (Full score   , MIDI   )) is by John Wilson (1595‒1674) and survives in his songbook, Bodleian Library, MS Mus.b.1. Typical of Wilson, the harmonies are often clumsy; once one is familiar with his oeuvre, it is difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt that the consecutive fifths and octaves in bars 28‒31 were used for effect. The second setting is by Nicholas Lanier (1588‒1666). Evidently popular, it was printed in seven books between 1652 and 1673, in two-, three- (P.9.1/2(a) (Full score   , MIDI   )), and four-part versions (P.9.1/2(b) (Full score   , MIDI   )). The main melodic part is the same in each of the versions, and John Playford may have been responsible for compiling the four-part (and perhaps the three-part) arrangement. In his setting, Lanier attempts to convey the essential theme of love and death in Jonson’s text by emphasising the words ‘young’, ‘tell’, ‘love’, ‘death’ and ‘well’: these words are all placed on an accented beat and given a relatively long note value.

It is unlikely that either setting was intended for use in the performances of the play. The text of Karolin’s song survives in several contemporary manuscript miscellanies and may have been written by Jonson before the rest of The Sad Shepherd, but of course that need not imply that either of the two surviving settings dates from this time. It should be noted that the two surviving settings are found in sources that date from over a decade after Jonson’s death. The most likely scenario is that Wilson and Lanier set the text independently as an isolated poem. Whether or not this was before 1637 is debatable.

MASQUES AND ENTERTAINMENTS (M)

1. A Private Entertainment at Highgate (1604)

M.1.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )   See, see, oh, see, who here is come a-maying!

2. The Masque of Blackness (1605)

M.2.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Come away, come away

‘Come away, come away’, sung by a ‘tenor voice’, is the first of three songs sung after the main masque dance (of the twelve daughters of Oceanus) and before the revels. It was the only song from the masque to be included in Ferrabosco II’s Ayres (1609). The setting is likely to represent some form of the song as it was originally heard; however, it is unclear whether the lute and bass viol parts given in the print were used in the original performance or later additions for a domestic market. Oxford, Christ Church, Mus. 439 includes a concordance for the song evidently derived from the print or some closely related source, but transposed up a fourth, bringing it beyond the usual tenor range, suggesting use by someone with a high (female?) range, g'-g" (though, of course, it could have been sung down the octave).

3. Hymenaei (1606)

M.3.1‒4 (Full score   , MIDI   )   (M.3.1) Essex Antic Masque; (M.3.2) The First of my Lord of Essex; (M.3.3) The Second [of my Lord of Essex]; (M.3.4) The Third [of my Lord of Essex]

The masque text offers a description of the choreography at several points. The following stage directions are given for the antimasque dance: ‘Here, out of a microcosm, or globe (figuring Man), with a kind of contentious music, issued forth the first masque of eight men, whose names in order as they were then marshalled, by couples, I have heraldry enough to set down . . . . These represented the four humours and four affections , all gloriously attired, distinguished only by their several ensigns and colours; and, dancing out on the stage, in their return at the end of their dance drew all their swords, offered to encompass the altar and disturb the ceremonies’ (89‒99). M.3.1 (Full score   , MIDI   ) is typical of antimasque dances in general, with its changing time-signatures and shifts from major-minor tonalities (bars 1‒13, 7‒14, and 15‒26). This contrasts with the rather stately main masque dances (M.3.2‒4). In the first set dance of the main masque the dancers forming significant patterns and letters: ‘Here they danced forth a most neat and curious measure, full of subtlety and device, which was so excellently performed as it seemed to take away that spirit from the invention which the inventor gave to it, and left it doubtful whether the forms flowed more perfectly from the author’s brain or their feet. The strains were all notably different, some of them formed into letters, very signifying to the name of the bridegroom, and ended in manner of a chain, linking hands’ (275‒80).

4. The Masque of Beauty (1608)

M.4.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )   So beauty on the waters stood

‘So beauty on the waters stood’ is the first of a sequence of songs from the masque printed in Ferrabosco’s Ayres (1609). It was sung by ‘a loud tenor’ in celebration of the sixteen lady masquers, including the Queen, as they came ashore to dance their first masque dance. The masquers formed a diamond, in which shape the masquers remained for the duration of the song. This figure dance was directed by Thomas Giles (the choreographer), who played Thames welcoming the Nymphs to Britain.

M.4.2(a‒b) (Full score   , MIDI   )   If all these Cupids now were blind

Following M.4.1 (Full score   , MIDI   ) the masquers perform the second masque dance, after which they come into the hall to dance with the audience. Jonson’s libretto tells us that these revels were ‘intermitted with song’ to offer the dancers ‘respite’. This suggests that the songs ‘If all these Cupids now were blind’ (M.4.2 (Full score   , MIDI   )), ‘It was no policy of court’ (M.4.3 (Full score   , MIDI   )), and ‘Yes, were the loves or false, or straying’ (M.4.4 (Full score   , MIDI   )) were sung in succession, in answer to one another. Each of the songs is in the same ABB form. ‘If all these Cupids . . .’ and ‘It was no policy of court’ were sung by a treble voice (presumably one of the echoes). ‘If all these Cupids . . .’ is the most tuneful of the three. The regular phrases combine well with the flexible vocal line and solid harmonies (some ambiguity is introduced by the juxtaposition of major and minor versions of the tonic chord). The song playfully proposes the wounding of Venus by blind cupids. Ferrabosco uses stock word-painting devices to bring out some of the text: for example, the melisma on ‘wanton’ (bars 4‒5) and the falling sequence on ‘each one wound’ (bars 16‒20). More subtle is the opening phrase, which outlines a diminished fourth (b¨'-f©') on the words ‘Cupids’ and ‘blind’. The overall vocal range is a ninth, d'-e¨". Unlike many of Ferrabosco’s other songs the melodic apex is heard quite early in the song, and is heard twice in quick succession (bars 8 and 9) lessening its impact, perhaps acknowledging that this is the first of a musical trilogy.

The three songs were printed as a single entity in Ferrabosco’s Ayres where they carry subtitles of ‘First part’ etc. They are also found in Oxford, Christ Church, Mus. 439, where they are in the same order, although ‘If all the ages of the earth’ from The Masque of Queens (M.6.5 (Full score   , MIDI   )) is found between the second and third songs. Mus. 439 omits the end of ‘If all these Cupids . . .’ from mid-way through bar 33. In the Christ Church Library Online Music Catalogue, John Milsom notes that a leaf appears to be missing after p. 96, which would explain the omission (directs are given for the next notes at the end of p. 96). However, little information is actually lost: from this point the song returns to mid-way through bar 24 and ends on bar 28. An abstracted page is not obvious: the manuscript was bound in the late seventeenth century and several pages are now mounted on guards. More significant in the Mus. 439 version,M.4.2(b) (Full score   , MIDI   ), is the inclusion of several ornament signs which offer an indication of how such songs were realized in performance. M.4.2(a) (Full score   , MIDI   ) presents the Ayres version, with the ornamented Mus. 439 version given in M.4.2(b) (Full score   , MIDI   ). The ornaments are mostly brief and apply to a single note, known as ‘graces’; extended embellishments of the melody (divisions) are reserved for cadences. At the end of the piece two roulades have been notated by the copyist, an attempt to capture in notation what was an improvisatory technique. Realization of the ornaments does not obscure the basic melodic shape of the song or the relationship of the music and word, which was important in masques.

We can reasonably assume that the printed setting reflects to some degree what was heard in the masque performance. However, as with all of the masque songs in Ayres, the lute part may well have been added by Ferrabosco specifically for the publication. The original masque performance is likely to have included some vocal ornaments similar to those found in Mus. 439. Singers in court masques were professionals well capable of performing difficult material; improvisation was expected.

M.4.3 (Full score   , MIDI   )   It was no policy of court

The song provides an abrupt change in mood from M.4.2 (Full score   , MIDI   ). The strong opening gestures, larger leaps of the vocal line, and greater variety of phrasing contribute a more serious tone. ‘It was no policy of court’ is certainly more interesting harmonically than M.4.2 (Full score   , MIDI   ), which it was presumably intended to parallel. However, the close juxtaposition of minor and major tonics in the opening is quite unusual and may simply represent an error in printing. This and the previous song share several characteristics: they have the same formal structure (AAB), are sung by trebles, and make use of sequences and motif. The overall vocal range is an eleventh, d'-g". Unlike M.4.2 (Full score   , MIDI   ), the melodic climax is saved until almost the end of the song. It is gradually reached, by stepwise motion, in bar 23 (on ‘men’), emphasized by the approach from the leading tone at the top of the octave and by the rest which immediately follows. It is worth noting that Ferrabosco’s setting gives the opening line as ‘It was no policy of court’; Jonson’s text gives ‘polity’, though the meaning is the same (see Beauty, 279n.).

M.4.4 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Yes, were the Loves or false, or straying

M.4.5 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Had those that dwell in error foul

5. The Haddington Masque (1608)

M.5.1/1‒2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Beauties, have you seen a toy

There is nothing in Jonson’s masque text to suggest that the ten stanzas (63‒122) recited by the three Graces after being commanded by Venus to search for Cupid among the lady spectators, were sung; however, the AABBCC rhyme scheme does lend itself easily to musical treatment. There are two late settings. The first setting is by Henry Lawes (1596‒1662), who set several song texts by Jonson; it is found in two- and three-part versions. The three-part version, M.5.1/1(a) (Full score   , MIDI   ), was printed in Lawes’s Second Book of Ayres and Dialogues (1655): the copy in London, British Library, Add. MS 11608 is closely related and seems to have been derived from the print (or some related source). A two-part version of the same setting,M.5.1/1(b) (Full score   , MIDI   ), is found in Lawes’s autograph songbook, London, British Library, Add. 53723. The autograph version comes immediately before Lawes’s songs for Milton’s Comus, which are dated October 1634 in the manuscript. This strongly suggests that this setting of ‘Beauties, have you seen a toy’ was composed slightly earlier. The setting is also found in John Gamble’s songbook (New York, New York Public Library, Drexel MS 4257), and a slightly modified version was printed in Playford’s Treasury of Music (1669). There is little difference between the two- and three-part versions: the main melody is the same (with some slight differences), and the bass part is more ornamented in the three-part setting. The bass is given greater freedom in the three-part setting to allow for the text. There are also several variants in the bass of the 1669 version. It should be noted that this is not one of Lawes’s better compositions.

M.5.2(a‒b) (Full score   , MIDI   )   Why stays the bridegroom to invade

‘Why stays the bridegroom to invade’ is the fifth of seven stanzas in the epithalamion that ends the masque. This is the only one of the eight songs from Jonson’s masques found in Ayres (1609) that appears to have been substantially rearranged for publication (notwithstanding the possibility that the lute part was newly composed for the publication). According to the masque text, although each of the verses was ‘sung in pieces between the dances’ giving the effect of several songs, it ‘was made to be read an entire poem’ (277‒9). Jonson goes on to note that there were four dances, two choreographed by Jerome Herne, two by Thomas Giles: ‘After the song they came forth, descending in an oblique motion from the zodiac, and danced their first dance. Then, music interposed (but varied with voices, only keeping the same chorus) they danced their second dance. So after, their third and fourth dances, which were all full of elegancy and curious device . . . . The tunes were Master Alfonso Ferrabosco’s (279‒84). It is not clear whether this means that Ferrabosco composed the dance tunes as well as the song tunes. Nor is it clear how many of the stanzas of the epithalamion were sung in the masque: the fact that only four dances are mentioned seems to imply that there were only five ‘songs’. Each of the sung stanzas would presumably have been set to the same music; each stanza contains the same number of feet. The reference to the music being ‘varied with voices, only keeping the same chorus’ (280‒1) suggests that each of the stanzas was distributed among different singers. Each stanza concludes with the line ‘Shine, Hesperus, shine forth, thou wishèd star’. This is omitted from Ferrabosco’s printed setting (M.5.2(a) (Full score   , MIDI   )) and was apparently sung by a full chorus (which may also have sung the last verses, thus emphatically ending the masque). Only one stanza would have been necessary for publication. The chorus too would have been superfluous in a volume of solo songs aimed at the amateur domestic market. Thus the fact that only one stanza was included in Ayres cannot be taken as evidence that it was the only one sung in the masque.

A concordance apparently derived from the print (or some closely related source), but lacking the lute part, is found in Oxford, Christ Church, Mus. 439, a version containing many written-out vocal ornaments (M.5.2(b) (Full score   , MIDI   )). Almost half of the notes in the printed version carry an ornament in Mus. 439, from graces (ornaments on a single note) to extended divisions (ornaments on several notes) at cadences (bars 5‒6, 10‒11, 15‒16, 23‒4).

6. The Masque of Queens (1609)

M.6.1(a‒b)   The First Witches’ Dance

We do not know who composed the instrumental music for The Masque of Queens; however, five dances (two antimasque, three main masque) are commonly attributed to the masque. Such attributions are difficult to apply with any certainty, though there is a reasonable amount of circumstantial evidence.

these witches, with a kind of hollow and infernal music, came forth from thence. First one, then two, and three, and more, till their number increased to eleven, all differently attired: some with rats on their heads, some on their shoulders, others with ointment pots at their girdles; all with spindles, timbrels, rattles, or other venefical instruments, making a confused noise, with strange gestures . . . . These eleven witches beginning to dance – which is an usual ceremony at their convents, or meetings, where sometimes also they are vizarded and masked – on the sudden one of them missed their chief, and interrupted the rest with this speech . . . (19‒30)

As Peter Walls notes, these instruments were chosen because of their iconographic association with the occult; mostly percussive and rustic, they would have had no place in the cultured main masque. Whatever the orchestration, a five-part arrangement can be assumed, although wind instruments may have combined with violins. The arrangement could easily have been layered with the percussion of the antimasquers.

M.6.2   The Second Witches’ Dance

At which, with a strange and sudden music they [the witches] fell into a magical dance, full of preposterous change and gesticulation, but most applying to their property: who at their meetings, do all things contrary to the custom of men, dancing back to back and hip to hip, their hands joined, and making their circles backward to the left hand, with strange fantastic motions of their heads and bodies. All which were excellently imitated by the maker of the dance, Master Jerome Herne . . . . In the heat of their dance, on the sudden, was heard a sound of loud [i.e. wind] (313‒22).

M.6.3 (Full score   , MIDI   ) Almande: The First of the Queen’s Masque

An arrangement of M.6.3 (Full score   , MIDI   ) for solo lute is printed in Robert Dowland’s Variety of Lute-Lessons (1610) with the title ‘The first of the Queenes Maskes’. It is one of four dances in the volume to carry a titular reference to the ‘Queens maske’ (M.6.1 (Full score   , MIDI   ),M.6.3 (Full score   , MIDI   ),M.6.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ),M.6.6 (Full score   , MIDI   )), which seems to imply The Masque of Queens staged in the previous year: see notes for M.6.1 (Full score   , MIDI   ). The lute arrangement was probably compiled by John Dowland.

In addition to the lute settings published by Dowland, consort versions are known for all three dances conjectured as the main masque dances. The first (M.6.3 (Full score   , MIDI   )) is found in Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Mus. 734, and may well be the one actually used in the masque. Jonson’s text tells us that ‘The first [dance] was to the cornetts, the second to the violins’ (609‒10). The Mus. 734 setting is in six parts, now lacking the tenor (here editorially reconstructed). Two-treble, six-part scorings were typical of the royal wind band in the early seventeenth century; the violin band used a single-treble, five-part scoring. We know that Ferrabosco composed most of the music for the masque. M.6.3 (Full score   , MIDI   ) is unattributed in the sources, although other pieces in the same sequence in Mus. 734 are attributed to composers (including Ferrabosco) who had connections to the royal wind band. The previous piece in Mus. 734 may also be by Ferrabosco, since the two dances form a pair. Perhaps it was also used in the masque as part of the ‘loud music’.

M.6.4 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Brand: The Second of the Queen’s Masque

M.6.5 (Full score   , MIDI   )   If all the ages of the earth

The song is also found (lacking the lute part) in Oxford, Christ Church, Mus. 439. As with the other Ayres concordances, it appears to be derived from the 1609 printed edition or some closely related source. However, in the print the vocal part is notated in a c3 clef and has a typical tenor range (g-a'); the Mus. 439 setting is notated in the treble (g2) clef resulting in a treble range (g'-a"), an octave above the print. The same type of transposition is also found in ‘Come away, come away’ from The Masque of Blackness (M.2.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )). It implies that the compiler of Mus. 439 had in mind a treble-range singer (although it could have been sung an octave lower). The fact that Jonson’s text calls for a tenor further implies that the manuscript copy is the arrangement, not Ayres.

M.6.6(a‒b)   The Last of the Queen’s Masque

See also notes for M.6.3‒4 (Full score   , MIDI   ). M.6.6(a) (Full score   , MIDI   ) is the last in a series of four dances for solo lute printed in Robert Dowland’s Variety of Lute-Lessons (1610) to carry a titular reference to the ‘Queens maske’ (M.6.1 (Full score   , MIDI   ),M.6.3 (Full score   , MIDI   ), M.6.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ), M.6.6 (Full score   , MIDI   )), which seems to imply The Masque of Queens staged in the previous year: see notes for M.6.1 (Full score   , MIDI   ). If the dance can be attributed to Queens, Robert Johnson or Alfonso Ferrabosco II may be suggested as the composer. The printed arrangement for solo lute was probably compiled by John Dowland.

M.6.6 (Full score   , MIDI   ) presumably came after the song ‘When all the ages of the earth’ (M.6.5 (Full score   , MIDI   )): ‘After it succeeded their third dance, than which a more numerous composition could not be seen: graphically disposed into letters, and honouring the name of the most sweet and ingenious Prince, Charles, Duke of York’ (621‒3). No consort version is known. A second arrangement for solo lute is found in London, Royal Academy of Music, Library, MS 603,M.6.6(b) (Full score   , MIDI   ). Both arrangements include significantly different divisions, highlighting the improvisational and individual nature of such arrangements.

APPENDIX: Eighteenth-century glee

M.6.7 (Full score   , MIDI   )A   The Witches’ Song

25 May 1799: Concert for the Princess of Wales at Blackheath. Singers: Eliot (Boy Soprano), Thomas Carter (Alto), Jonathan Nield (Tenor), Robert Leete (Bass), and James Bartleman (Bass)

24 March 1803: Harmonists’ Society, Ladies Anniversary Vocal Concert

28 March 1805: Harmonists’ Society, Ladies Anniversary Vocal Concert

19 January 1810: Harmonists’ Society, Ladies Anniversary Vocal Concert

Easter 1810: Mr Vaughan’s benefit concert

7. Oberon (1611)

M.7.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Catch: ‘Buzz’, quoth the blue fly

A catch is a type of round or canon, where the voices (commonly three or four) each enter in turn, a line apart: i.e. voice 1 sings line 1 unaccompanied and when voice 1 begins line 2, voice 2 begins line 1, and so on. After each voice has sung through the catch, it goes back to the start, and so on as desired. Following modern editorial convention, Nelham’s catch has been printed here in score. Although most catches were presumably composed in score, to save space it was most common for them to be disseminated (in manuscripts and prints) in the form of a single continuous melody, with the point of new entries indicted by a sign. Both sources for Nelham’s catch give it as a single melody. Voice numbers in bold after the staves indicate where the part continues. The final note has been editorially marked with a fermata.

The catch was sung by four satyrs who are directed to ‘strike a charm’ into the ears of the sleeping Sylvans. The only known seventeenth-century setting is by Edmund Nelham (d. 1646), and was not published until 1667. Despite the late date of the surviving sources, the catch may well have been used – or derived from that used – in the masque. It is certainly more stylistically representative of the early seventeenth century than to the Restoration. The earliest reference to Nelham is his admission to the Chapel Royal in 1616, where he served as a bass chorister until 1642. Almost thirty songs and catches are attributed to him, though this is not among his best. Nelham’s setting of the satyrs’ catch also contains two extra lines of text not found in Jonson’s original: ‘You have a thing above your knee, I think it is as black as black may be’. It is unclear whether these lines had anything to do with the original masque and were excised by Jonson in the printed libretto. They are not part of the first catch but can be performed after it, with voice 4 becoming voice 1 of the second catch.

M.7.2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   The Satyrs’ Masque

Following the Satyrs’ song ‘Now my cunning lady, Moon’ (for which no music survives) the stage direction reads: ‘The song ended, they fell suddenly into an antic dance, full of gesture and swift motion, and continued it till the crowing of the cock; at which they were interrupted by Silenus’ (205‒6). The dance was described in a contemporary Spanish account as a wild dance ‘with appropriate music’ and ‘a thousand sudden movements and strange gestures, affording great pleasure’ (Masque Archive, Oberon, 4). Typical of antimasque dances, the choreography was full of wild gesticulation and movement.

What seems likely to be the original dance survives in tune and bass format in London, British Library, Add. MS 10444, where it is unattributed but titled ‘The Satyres Masque’. A four-part consort version was published in Thomas Simpson’s last collection, Taffle-Consort (Hamburg, 1621). Like William Brade, Simpson (1582‒c. 1628) was an expatriate English musician who spent much of his life working in mainland Europe. The consort version is untitled but attributed to Robert Johnson (d. 1633). We can be reasonably certain that this dance was from Oberon. While Jonson’s text does not identify his musical collaborators, payment records do survive for the masque which reveals that Robert Johnson and Alfonso Ferrabosco II composed the music: Johnson was paid for ‘making Daunces’, Ferrabosco for the songs. The records also show that Thomas Giles, Jerome Herne, and Monsieur [Nicolas] Confesse choreographed the dances. Simpson’s arrangement of ‘The Satyrs’ Dance’ is in an up-to-date two-treble four-part scoring; he presumably added the second treble and the tenor-range inner part. In the masque, the dance would most likely have been performed by the violin band which used a five-part, single treble scoring. Robert Johnson is likely to have composed the dances in two parts, tune and bass, much as they survive in Add. 10444. Thomas Lupo was paid for ‘settinge them to the violins’, i.e. supplying the three inner parts. The Pells Records for the masque list the ‘xvi other instruments for the Satires & faeries as one’ (Masque Archive, Oberon, 7). The instruments are not specified although a combination of string band perhaps with some wind and percussion instruments for M.7.1 (Full score   , MIDI   ) seems plausible.

M.7.3   The Fairies’ Masque

M.7.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ), 6, 8   (M.7.4) Almande (The First of the Prince’s Masque); (M.7.6) Almande (The Second of the Prince’s Masque); (M.7.8) (Full score   , MIDI   )   Almande (The Third of the Prince’s Masque)

Payment records tell us that the main dances – ‘the Princes Dance’ – in Oberon were accompanied by twenty lutes, supplied by Robert Johnson, himself one of the court lutenists (Masque Archive, Oberon, 7). ‘Princes Dance’ is, however, relatively common title in masque music sources. In one of the main sources, London, British Library, Add. MS 10444, there are four groups of three dances bearing such a title. In a similar manner to ‘The Fairies’ Dance’ (M.7.3), these dances were intended as a contrast to the (musical) chaos of the antimasque ‘Satyrs’ Dance’ (M.7.2 (Full score   , MIDI   )): the main masque dances were intended to represent (musical) order. Each of these dances could be said to meet this need, although they are somewhat uneven in quality. The Princes’ dances are chosen for this edition because (1) they can be attributed to Robert Johnson, whom we know composed the dances for Oberon; (2) the titles in several sources imply a connection to a masque presented by Prince Henry (see also notes on individual pieces); (3) they are found in consort arrangements; (4) they were popular, and are found in several sources and arrangements. Above all, they are musically the pick of the bunch.

M.7.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ),M.7.6 (Full score   , MIDI   ), andM.7.8 (Full score   , MIDI   ) are found (in sequence) in tune and bass format in Add. 10444, and in five-part consort arrangements in William Brade’s Neue Ausserlesene liebliche Banden (1617). M.7.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ) andM.7.6 (Full score   , MIDI   ) are also found in six-part versions (lacking the tenor) in Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Mus. 734. The six-part settings indicate performance by a wind consort; Mus. 734 is an important repository of the repertoire of the Jacobean court wind band. However, main dances of masques were normally played by a five-part violin band. Thus, the versions printed by Brade are more likely to be an accurate reflection of how they were heard in the masque. The appearance of two of the main masque pieces among the repertoire of the court wind band may indicate that they were played by the wind band at the start of the masque (before the entry music). Unlike the antimasque and main masque dances, the pre-masque wind music, entry and exit music, and the revels dances would not have been specifically composed for the entertainment; instead they would have been drawn from the consort repertoire.

M.7.4(a‒b) (Full score   , MIDI   )   Almande (The First of the Prince’s Masque)

   As with M.7.6 (Full score   , MIDI   ), the outer parts of M.7.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ) are also found in Add. 10444. The versions in Add. 10444 and in Brade’s collection are in C major, whereas those in Mus. 734 are in F major. Apart from this, the differences between the versions are minimal and mostly consist of octave transpositions and minor rhythmic deviations (e.g. the Add. 10444 versions tend to have dotted rhythms in place of straight crotchets and quavers). It seems likely that the two-part versions represent an earlier stage in the compositional history of the pieces and that the versions found in Mus. 734 are arrangements for six-part wind band. The process of arrangement presumably necessitated the change of key and octave transpositions to suit better the instrument ranges.

M.7.5 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Nay, nay, You must not stay

‘Nay, nay, You must not stay’ (310‒19) is sung between the first and second masque dances. Only one setting, for voice and unfigured bass, survives. It is attributed to Alfonso Ferrabosco – who composed the songs for the masque – and is likely to represent a version of that used in the masque. However, we know from payment records that the main masque songs were accompanied by an ensemble of twenty lutes led by Robert Johnson. The setting exemplifies the lighter songs found in masques, which are stylistically and structurally based on contemporary dances, such as the alman or galliard (rather than the declamatory ayres, based on lute songs). ‘Nay, nay, You must not stay’ is essentially a light-hearted alman with regular phrasing and a tuneful melody, which reflects the purpose of the text: to spur the masquers on to greater efforts in their second dance. Typical of his masque songs, Ferrabosco divides the text into two sections. The first section (bars 1‒12) comprises the irregular line lengths and metre of lines 310‒15, in which the short melodic phrases are linked and overlap. The last four lines of the poem are more regular, which allows the second section of Ferrabosco’s setting (bars 13‒21) to also be more regular (i.e. primarily two-bar phrases, each beginning on the first beat of the bar). The overall vocal range, d-g', indicates a tenor-range voice. The highest note occurs twice. Its first occurrence (bar 10) is emphasized by scalar motion building to the leading tone, the long dotted-minim, and by the leap away from it. The second occurrence (bar 19) comes towards the end of the song and is set in greater relief by leaps both to and away from it.

M.7.6(a‒b) (Full score   , MIDI   )   Almande (The Second of the Prince’s Masque)

See notes for M.7.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ). Two full consort versions are known. William Brade’s Neue Ausserlesene liebliche Banden (1617) retains the five-part single-treble scoring used by the court violin band, M.7.6(a) (Full score   , MIDI   ), though the inner parts were presumably Brade’s own, added to a tune and bass outline such as is found in London, British Library, Add. MS 10444. The second full consort version (M.7.6(b) (Full score   , MIDI   )) is in six-parts; the tenor part is lost and has been here reconstructed editorially. In the early seventeenth century, the royal wind consort used this kind of six-part, two-treble, scoring. Thus, it too is unlikely to represent how the piece sounded in the masque. Although clearly not as popular as M.7.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ), four solo arrangements of the piece are known. Although unattributed in all sources, it can be tentatively ascribed to Robert Johnson through its connection to M.7.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ).

M.7.7 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Gentle knights

Ferrabosco divides the text into two sections, reflected in the ABB' structure (bars 1‒16, 17‒32, and 33‒47). The overall melodic range is a thirteenth, B¨-g', with the full (tenor) range utilized. The highest note of the range is reserved for emphasising words such as ‘bright’ and ‘fairies’. Of Ferrabosco’s masque songs, only ‘How near to good’ (Love Freed From Ignorance and Folly;M.8.3 (Full score   , MIDI   )) has a wider vocal range. The A section is declamatory in style (the slow-moving bass, the use of wide melodic intervals, the general adherence to speech patterns, and the lack of word-painting devices). The frequent rests in the vocal line allow the voice to resonate, making the song particularly suited to performance in a large room such as the Whitehall Banqueting Hall. The A section is built around the opening three-note motif (repeated notes, ascending leap). The juxtaposition of major and minor tonics (G) in the opening phrase (cf. bars 2 and 5) creates a modal ambiguity typical of Ferrabosco. The second melodic phrase (bars 7ff.) is clearly related to the opening, with the rising major sixth now expanded to an octave (and a move from tonic to mediant tonality). As the masquers withdraw the music gathers pace and begins to take on something of the character of a dance song. The vocal line becomes more elaborate in the B sections, with frequent quaver melismas especially towards the end. However, they do not clutter the texture or obscure the sense of the text: in the original performance the singer may well have added further embellishments. In the B section Ferrabosco expands the melodic and harmonic scope (e.g. note the passing reference to the relative major, E¨, in bars 17‒18). The B section is characterized by smoother melodic lines, which are often decorated by rather graceful short melismas using a scalar idea. Here Ferrabosco seems to be filling in the wide leaps of the A section providing an effortless contrast. The three-note motif of the opening is referenced towards the end of the section, at bars 30‒1. The B section is then heard again in a varied repeat. This formal idea works well in this song, providing a reprise of the more elaborate vocal line while at the same time allowing Ferrabosco to incorporate more melismas building to a real sense of climax. The climax is achieved through the overall motion of the melodic line rather than by the common technique of emphasising the highest note of the range; the highest note is heard five times (bars 15, 23, 31, 39 and 44). The final phrase brings the setting to an emphatic conclusion, by spanning a twelfth – almost the entire range of the song – from the top of the range right down to the lowest. In the reprise the last line of the text is given a more elaborate treatment.

M.7.8 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Almande (The Third of the Prince’s Masque)

See notes for M.7.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ). M.7.8 (Full score   , MIDI   ) survives in tune and bass format in London, British Library, Add. MS 10444 and in a five-part consort arrangement in William Brade’s Neue Ausserlesene liebliche Banden (1617). Although clearly not as popular as M.7.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ), two solo arrangements of the piece are known. It is unattributed in all sources, but can be tentatively ascribed to Robert Johnson through its connection to M.7.4 (Full score   , MIDI   ).

8. Love Freed From Ignorance and Folly (1611)

M.8.1   The Fools’ Masque

As with many masque dances, it is only the name that tenuously connects M.8.1 to Love Freed. The difficulty in assigning dances on this basis is aptly demonstrated by Andrew Sabol’s conjecture that if the title were taken as singular it could refer to the dance of the She-Fool in Beaumont’s Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray’s Inn (1613), but if plural it could refer to the follies in Love Freed (1982, 573). The dance comes at the culmination of the antimasque, where ‘The FOLLIES dance, which were twelve she-fools’ (209). Whether the actual dance used, this setting is certainly typical of the type of dance required. It is unique to London, British Library, Add. MS 10444, and so survives only in two parts, tune and bass. The final strain is highly corrupt. It does not seem plausible that this was done deliberately, as a musically foolish characterization. Although the payment records show that Thomas Lupo was paid £5 for ‘setting the dances to the violens’ (i.e. for arranging the dances and compiling the inner parts) there are no records of payments relating to their composition (Masque Archive, Love Freed, 4). The dances for the masque were choreographed by Nicolas Confesse and Monsieur Bochan. Confesse was also known as a composer though any attribution of this dance to him is pure conjecture.

M.8.2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Oh, what a fault, nay, what a sin

‘Oh, what a fault, nay what a sin’ is sung by the First Priest and a chorus after the first dance by the masquers and just before the revels. In Jonson’s masque text the song is set as a question and answer between the priest and the chorus. The sole surviving setting (for voice and unfigured bass) only has the first ‘question’, lines 338‒42. Payment records show that there were a dozen musicians that sang and played in the role of priests, which gives some indication as to the size of the chorus. We also know from payment records that the songs were composed by Alfonso Ferrabosco II (who received £20) and that the songs were set ‘to the lutes’ by Robert Johnson (Masque Archive, Love Freed, 4). This means that Johnson was responsible for compiling lute accompaniments for the masque songs. We know that in Oberon the main masque songs were accompanied by an ensemble of twenty lutes. Payment records for Love Freed show that twelve lutenists were supplied, they presumably all played in an ensemble accompanying the songs.

   Only one setting of the song text survives, in Oxford, Bodleian, Tenbury MS 1018. The chorus is excluded: a common feature of masque song dissemination. The setting is unattributed, although it is in a sequence of songs by Ferrabosco and is typical of his style. Accompaniment notwithstanding, we can be reasonably sure that the setting reflects a version of the song as sung in the masque. In common with Ferrabosco’s earlier masque songs, each of the surviving songs from Love Freed use declamatory devices within an essentially tuneful framework. As with many of Ferrabosco’s masque songs, the song is divided into two sections: A (bars 1‒11) and B (12‒23). The (treble) vocal range is an octave, g' to g". The opening of the song is quasi-declamatory, with the opening motif heard slightly modified at the start of the second phrase (cf. the opening of ‘Gentle knights’ from Oberon; M.7.7 (Full score   , MIDI   )). In the opening phrase the words ‘Oh’ and ‘nay’ are initially emphasized with long notes, but are really building to ‘fault’ and ‘sin’. Ferrabosco’s also follows the subtle change from iambic to trochaic metre in the third line (‘So much beauty’, bars 7ff.). The question with which the stanza concludes – ‘Could the world with all her cost’ – is emphasized through reiteration and by making the start of the second statement the melodic climax (bars 16‒17).

M.8.3 (Full score   , MIDI   )   How near to good is what is fair!

APPENDIX: Possibly associated song

M.8.4A (Full score   , MIDI   ) Senses by unjust force banish’d

‘Senses by unjust’ is similar in style to the two known songs from the masque (M.8.2‒3 (Full score   , MIDI   )). The (tenor) range is c to g'. The structure is bipartite. The A section (bars 1‒13) begins with imitation between the two opening melodic phrases (cf. bars 1‒2 and 6‒7), with the second phrase briefly highlighting the dominant (D major). The B section begins with a rhythmic gesture recalling the opening bars but contrasts the gentle leaps of the opening with a steady ascent to the melodic climax on g', used as the apex of a melodic curve on ‘Treasure’ (bar 16).

9. The Vision of Delight (1617)

M.9.1(a‒b) (Full score   , MIDI   )   I was not wearier where I lay

10. Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue (1618) and For the Honour of Wales (1618)

M.10.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )      The Goats’ Masque

No vocal music survives from Please Reconciled to Virtue or from its revised outing as For the Honour of Wales. We can, however, conjecture as to some of the instrumental music. A candidate for ‘The Goats’ Masque’ from For the Honour of Wales is found in London, British Library, Add. MS 10444, where it is followed by three ‘Prince’s Dances’ (see also notes for M.10.2‒4). As ever, we can only posit a tentative association with the masque, based primarily on the titles in Add. 10444 and by the position of the dances within the manuscript (which appear to have been compiled in a roughly chronological order). The argument is circular, though in the absence of any better alternatives or other known masques of the period involving princes and goats the tentative association should perhaps be allowed stand.

The ‘Goats’ Masque’ was part of the revised antimasque in which characterizations of the Welsh replaced the pygmies. The antimasque is introduced by Jenkin, who tells us that the ‘Welse goat is an excellent dancer by birth’ (275): the comic dance of goats soon follows. The multi-strain dance is fairly typical of antimasque dances, with its often angular melody line, changing time-signatures, and harmonic shifts.

M.10.2‒4   (M.10.2) The First of the Prince’s Masques; (M.10.3) The Second [of the Prince’s Masques]; (M.10.4) The Third [of the Prince’s Masques]

A partial concordance for M.10.3 (first two bars only) is also found as no. 8 of William Brade’s Newe ausserlesene liebliche Branden (Hamburg, 1617), ‘Des jungen Prinzen Intrada’ (‘The young Prince’s Intrada’; Thomas, 1974, no. 40), where it is transposed down a tone. Intradas are instrumental pieces, typically found for ensemble; in terms of function they were used to accompany an entrance, to being festivities, or at the start of a suite. The two pieces with which it evidently forms a suite in Brade’s collection are not connected to the M.10.2 or M.10.4 settings from Add. 10444, nor do the titles particularly relate to this masque (though Brade’s titles often differ to those found in English sources). No. 7 is titled ‘Der Königinnen Intrada’ (‘The Queens’ Intrada’; Thomas, 1974, no. 5), no. 9 ‘Intrada der Jungen Princessinnen’ (‘Intrada of the young princes’; Thomas, 1974, no. 6). Although ‘The Goats’ Masque’ was a new addition for the revised performance, the main masque dances are likely to have been the same for both versions of the masque. The (partial) appearance of the M.10.3 in Brade’s collection obviously precedes the performances of the masque. It serves to demonstrate how such masque dances were composed from stock melodic patterns.

11. News from the New World Discovered in the Moon (1620)

M.11.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )      The Birds’ Dance

The only potential candidate to have survived from News from the New World is the antimasque dance of Volatees (Jonson’s bird-like creatures from the moon). The (tune and bass) setting is unique to London, British Library, Add. MS 10444, where it is titled ‘The Birds Dance’. The association of this particular dance to News from the New World is tenuously based primarily on the titles in Add. 10444 and by the position of the dances within the manuscript (which appears to have been compiled in a roughly chronological order). In terms of general style, M.11.1 (Full score   , MIDI   ) is certainly typical of antimasque dances; its full effect would, as ever, been realized through the choreography rather than through the music alone.

12. The Gypsies Metamorphosed (1621)

M.12.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )      The Gypsies’ Masque

A tune and bass setting is found in London, British Library, Add. MS 10444 titled ‘The Gypsies’ Masque’; the connection with the masque is tentative and relies solely on this titular association. The setting was popular, and also survives in arrangements for lute and for keyboard.

Two dances are called for in the antimasque. The first, at the entrance of the Captain, is introduced by the Jackman with a call to ‘Give me my guittarra’ (48), which is followed by the Jackman’s song ‘From the Famous Peak of Derby’ (M.12.2 (Full score   , MIDI   )). The ‘Second Dance’ (188) is divided into six strains each interspersed with dialogue and songs. This apparently unique treatment of individual strains as single entities seems to call for a dance with six strains. There are multi-strain dances in Add. 10444 but only one carries a titular reference to gypsies. It only has five strains (rather than six), but of course any one of the strains could have been repeated or indeed could have been omitted in the process of dissemination. Nevertheless, such arguments are of course rather circular; the suggested association remains tentative.

M.12.2 (Full score   , MIDI   )      From the famous peak of Derby

M.12.3 (Full score   , MIDI   )      To the old, long life and treasure

In a similar manner to ‘From the famous peak of Derby’, the setting plays with the basic pulse by employing syncopation at the end of the first two phrases on the words ‘treasure’ and ‘pleasure’. The brief setting (only 8 bars) is typical of many popular tunes of the period, with primarily stepwise movement and simple underlying harmonies (although the range – a tenth, d′-f′′ – is wider than one would normally expect in the popular repertoire, highlighting the song’s artifice as a representation of a popular idiom).

A three-voice catch setting of the text by Samuel Webbe (1740‒1816), an associate of R. J. S. Stevens, survives in London, British Library, Add. MS 31806, where it is dated 1774 (M.12.6A (Full score   , MIDI   )). Webbe is generally considered to be the most important composer of the glee; his lifetime almost perfectly covers the rise, development and decline of the genre. He began his association with the Noblemen’s and Gentlemen’s Catch and Glee Club (generally known as the Catch Club) by at least 1766, the year in which he won his first annual prize medal. The club awarded these annual medals to encourage new compositions. In 1771 he was elected a Privileged Member of the club, and succeeded Thomas Warren as secretary of the club in 1784, a post he held until 1812. This Jonson song is one of several hundred catches, canons, rounds, and glees composed by Webbe. Typical of many of his lighter three-voice catches, it was also one of his prize-winning ones, taking the Prize Medal in 1774.

M.12.4 (Full score   , MIDI   )      Why, this is a sport

M.12.3 (Full score   , MIDI   ) is for treble (by implication, the Jackman) and bass (the Patrico) voices, with unfigured bass. This further indicates removal from the masque context, as in performance the role of the Jackman would presumably have been sung by a tenor-range singer (though of course the treble clef music could be transposed down the octave). The setting follows the equal distribution of the text among the two singers, established in Jonson’s text. The harmonic bass line of the chorus section is lacking. In the manuscript the song is written on two staves only (to save space because the voices alternate), the implication being that the bass of the final section where both voices come together would essentially have doubled the bass voice.

M.12.5/1‒2   Cock Lorel would needs have the devil his guest (Tune: An old man is a bed full of bones)

13. The Masque of Augurs (1622)

M.13.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )   The Bears’ Dance

One of the many tune and bass settings in London, British Library, Add. MS 10444 is titled ‘The Beares Dance’. The connection with antimasque of The Masque of Augurs is tentative and relies solely on this titular association. The antimasque consists of several antimasques-within-an-antimasque occasioned by the various characters from the area of St Katherine’s. One is performed by bears, as the bearward John Urson sings ‘Though it may seem rude’ (M.13.2 (Full score   , MIDI   )). Jonson’s masque text does not explicitly call for a dance by the bears. However, before the entry of ‘John Urson with his bears, singing’ (124) Notch describes the antimasque: ‘we have borrowed three very bears, that . . . are well bred, and can dance to present the sign, and the bearward to stand for the signpost’ (103‒5). Slug adds, ‘Very sufficient bears . . . and can dance at first sight and play their own tunes, if need be. Urson offers to play them with any city dancers christened, for a ground measure’ (107‒10). This strongly suggests that the bears entered dancing, perhaps to this tune.

M.13.2/1‒2   Though it may seem rude

M.13.3 (Full score   , MIDI   )      Do not expect to hear of all

‘Do not expect to hear of all’ is sung by Apollo to the King after the revels. The vocal music for Augurs was composed by Alonso Ferrabosco and Nicholas Lanier, whom Jonson described as ‘that excellent pair of kinsmen’ in the quarto text. The only surviving setting of M.13.3 (Full score   , MIDI   ) is attributed to Lanier, and seems likely to represent some form of the song as it was heard in the masque. The setting does not include the final three lines of Jonson’s text, which were presumably sung by a chorus in the masque.

14. Time Vindicated to Himself and to his Honours (1623)

M.14.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )      Half Hannikin

15. The Fortunate Isles and their Union (1625)

M.15.1/1‒2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Come, noble nymphs, and do not hide

‘Come, noble nymphs, and do not hide’ is the final song of the main masque and is directly followed by the revels. Two settings are known, neither of which can be firmly attributed to performances of the masque. M.15.1/2 (Full score   , MIDI   ) was printed in John Playford’s Select Ayres and Dialogues (1659; reprinted in The Treasury of Music , 1669), where it is attributed to William Webb. In the masque text the song is shared among three singers, Proteus, Saron, and Portunus. Webb chose to reflect this division of labour by changing the time-signature at the entry of each singer, from duple to triple and back to duple. This only applies to the first stanza; the division falls differently in the subsequent stanzas. The setting does nothing to distinguish the ‘chorus’ ending. There is some question as to whether the setting could have been used in an original performance of the masque. The earliest records of Webb (c. 1600‒57) show him playing theorbo in James Shirley’s elaborate Inns of Court masque The Triumph of Peace (1634). However, Ian Spink (1986) has argued that several other songs by Webb are found in manuscripts that date from around the time of Neptune’s Triumph (early 1624). Moreover, in the prints the song is suggestively headed ‘At a Masque, to invite the Ladies to a Dance’ (though with no more specific reference to the masque or indeed to Jonson).

16 . The King’s Entertainment at Welbeck (1633)

M.16.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )      What softer sounds are these

The only known setting of ‘What softer sounds are these’ is by William Lawes (1602‒45). His setting only includes lines 3‒16, and has some minor deviations from the masque text, most notably in the last line, where ‘our great, good King’ has been changed to ‘our Royal King’. Otherwise the most notable deviation is in the distribution of the parts. In the masque text the song is described as ‘a dialogue between the Passions, doubt and love, [accompanied by the] Chorus of Affections, joy, delight, [and] jollity’. Doubt and Love share the first eight lines, Joy, Delight, and Jollity lines 9‒14, with ‘All’ singing the final couplet. Lawes retains the dialogue format, even citing the characters as ‘Joy’ and ‘Delight’. Notwithstanding the character changes, Lawes follows the distribution of the voices in the masque text for line 3‒11. Thereafter he takes some licence but does introduce a chorus for the final couplet.

NON-DRAMATIC VERSE (N)

1. Epigrams (1616)

N.1.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )      Underneath this stone doth lie

See also notes for M.6.7 (Full score   , MIDI   )A. The glee is found in one of the autograph manuscript collections of Richard John Samuel Stevens (1757‒1837), Glasgow, Euing Music Library, MS R.d.94. According to a note in the manuscript (and in his manuscript ‘Recollections’), the glee was composed in 1782, though this, the only known source, was copied a decade or so later. Stevens set only four lines from Jonson’s original poem, ‘Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H.’. The first line he took directly from Jonson; the remaining lines are more or less loosely derived. The ‘Recollections’ give no further information other than the year of composition. The short setting is a charming and effective piece. After a homophonic opening, Stevens introduces an imitative texture for the second line, as well as an expressive diminished seventh chord in bar 6, and the leap of an augmented fifth in the Tenor 2 of the next bar: all presumably intended to reflect the introduction of death. In the next line of text, he represents the word ‘vigour’ through the dotted rhythms, before reintroducing a simple imitative texture for the final line (note the reintroduction of the diminished seventh interval in bar 14, above the longer-range chromatically rising bass line). Stevens unsuccessfully submitted the glee to the Catch Club for consideration of a Prize Medal, at the end of 1782.

2. The Forest (1616)

N.2.1/1‒6 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Drink to me only with thine eyes

Probably Jonson’s most enduring and famous lyric, ‘Drink to me only with thine eyes’ has been a popular English song text since the early eighteenth century. The first two lines of the poem even made their way into visual culture, for example, the hand-coloured etching by Richard Newton (1777‒98) depicting a caricature of a seated man and woman, with her holding up a glass and him smiling (1797).

The range of settings included in this edition demonstrates the popularity of this lyric throughout the eighteenth century, though one wonders what the exact catalyst was. No doubt further versions could be uncovered if an exhaustive and systematic search were undertaken (this is regrettably beyond the scope of the current edition). The song text is found in various collections from the mid‒1750s onwards, such as The Muses Delight: An Accurate Collection of English and Italian Songs, Cantatas and Duetts (Liverpool, 1754).

2. The Underwood (1641)

N.3.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Hear me, O God!

The ‘four-note pavan’ is one of Ferrabosco’s most famous works. The ‘four-note’ title arises from the motif heard throughout the uppermost part. Field and Pinto have convincingly shown that Jonson’s words were associated with the pavan by c. 1616 and that several early manuscript copies of the consort song – the earliest sources of the poem – contain several significant differences to the text printed in The Underwood. If Jonson’s text is sung in full the music must be played right through twice (internal repeats of strains being optional: ||:A|B|C:||), whereas the instrumental version would have each strain repeated in turn (||:A:||B:||C:||).

N.3.2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   See, the chariot at hand here of Love

See also P.8.1(a‒e) (Full score   , MIDI   ). ‘See, the chariot at hand here of Love’ (which contains the more famous stanza beginning ‘Have you seen but a white lily grow’), found in New York, New York Public Library, Drexel MS 4257, is the only musical setting of Jonson’s poem to give the three stanzas which appear in The Underwood (24.1‒30). The first stanza is underlain; stanzas 2 and 3 are given in block text. Drexel 4257 was compiled by John Gamble (d. 1687), who had worked in the King’s Company before the closure of the theatres in the early 1640s. The date 1659 is found at the start of the manuscript, although it was presumably in use for several years either side of this. Many of the songs were composed in the 1630s and 1640s and several others contain topical political references to events in the Commonwealth and early Restoration periods. This rather uninspired setting may be Gamble’s own. It includes no vocal embellishments like those found in the earlier settings of the third stanza (see The Devil Is an Ass;P.8.1 (Full score   , MIDI   )); the lack of vocal ornaments is typical of the mid-century vogue towards declamatory settings with an emphasis on the text.

Whoever the composer, he does not seem to have used the 1641 printing of Jonson’s text as a source. There are several telling variants between the two texts, especially in the two stanzas given in the play text, The Devil Is an Ass, published in 1631. Of course, the possibility remains that the composer altered Jonson’s text to suit his own tastes or needs, something Gamble was prone to doing; he could also have been working from memory. For example, the Drexel 4257 version alters the metre of line 17 from nine to eight syllables, but does so without changing the meaning or rhyme scheme. Similar alterations of beats in the poetic text are found throughout the setting. Based on the compositional style and the position of the song in the manuscript, a terminus post quem of c. 1641 seems appropriate for the setting.

N.3.3 (Full score   , MIDI   )   For Love’s sake, kiss me once again

N.3.4/1‒2 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Come, with our voices let us war

N.3.5 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Do but consider this small dust

N.3.6 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Or scorn or pity on me take

Judging from its position in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Mus.b.1, John Wilson’s setting of Jonson’s poem ‘The Dream’ was probably composed in the 1650s. There are only minor variations in the spelling and syntax between the setting and the printed text, suggesting that Jonson’s printed text (or some related source) may have been Wilson’s source. The setting is fairly typical of Wilson’s solo songs: a tuneful melody, but set within an often awkward (even clumsy) tonal language. The Phrygian cadence (rising tone against a falling semitone) in bar 3 is typical of his cadential approach with a descending melodic line. Ian Spink rightly noted that ‘Too often Wilson puts his trust in a bass which moves by step, ascending or descending, chromatic or diatonic, leaving the upper part to shift as well as it can’ (1986, 109): a trait clearly evident in this song. Some touches work well, such as the clashing false relation in bar 10 (b¨ in the bass against the bª in the melody) emphasising the word ‘surpris’d’. In general the setting is musically unremarkable, but typical of the style of declamatory airs prevalent towards the middle of the century.

N.3.7 (Full score   , MIDI   )   Come, let us here enjoy the shade

N.3.7 (Full score   , MIDI   ) is the only setting of Jonson’s lyrics by Thomas Ford. Ford was appointed as one of Prince Henry’s musicians in 1611 and went on to serve his brother Charles, first as Prince of Wales and then as King. He served in Charles I’s ‘Lutes, Viols, and Voices’ – an elite group of musicians who worked in the innermost parts of the court – between 1625 and the disbandment of the court in 1642; he died in 1648. Ford was a competent if uninspiring composer. His collection of lyra-viol music published in 1607 includes some imaginative and idiomatic pieces; however, his secular vocal music is not of particularly high quality, particularly when compared to Robert Johnson or to Henry Lawes’s better works, for example. Regrettably this setting is not among Ford’s best work; it is quite unremarkable.

Ford does not follow Jonson’s division of characters exactly. No characters are designated in the manuscript, but it is clear that the Lover and the Mistress are taken by the Countertenor and Alto, respectively and that the role of Arbiter is taken by the Bassus. Ford interpreted the last two lines of his stanza (11‒12) as a duet between the lovers beginning in sweet-sounding thirds to contrast the low register of the bass. The partbooks into which the setting was copied – Oxford, Christ Church, Mus. 736‒8 – were compiled during the 1630s, although the setting is likely to have been composed earlier than this. There is little to suggest when exactly this was, although in terms of style it is unlikely to be much later than c. 1625. The setting thus represents an early source for Jonson’s text, although there are no significant textual variants. A large number of similar three-part songs by Ford, secular and sacred, survive in manuscripts, the most important of which are Mus. 736‒8. The continuo partbook has been lost from the set, and is here reconstructed editorially. Some concordances for Mus. 736‒8 with surviving continuo book are found in Winchester College MS 153, a set of Elizabethan partbooks into which ten of Ford’s partsongs were later entered (see Forney, 1999); ‘Come, let us here enjoy the shade’ is not among them.