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.'