_Page_ 3.
Thomas Weelkes was organist of Winchester College in 1600, and of
Chichester Cathedral in 1608. His first collection, "Madrigals to three,
four, five, or six voices," was published in 1597. Here first appeared
the verses (fraudulently ascribed, in "The Passionate Pilgrim," 1599, to
Shakespeare), "My flocks feed not." In 1598 Weelkes published "Ballets
and Madrigals to five voices," which was followed in 1600 by "Madrigals
of five and six parts." Prefixed to the last-named work is the following
dedicatory epistle:--
"To the truly noble, virtuous, and honorable, my very good Lord Henry,
Lord Winsor, Baron of Bradenham.
My Lord, in the College at Winchester, where I live, I have heard
learned men say that some philosophers have mistaken the soul of man for
an harmony: let the precedent of their error be a privilege for mine. I
see not, if souls do not partly consist of music, how it should come to
pass that so noble a spirit as your's, so perfectly tuned to so
perpetual a _tenor_ of excellence as it is, should descend to the notice
of a quality lying single in so low a personage as myself. But in music
the _base_ part is no disgrace to the best ears' attendancy. I confess
my conscience is untoucht with any other arts, and I hope my confession
is unsuspected; many of us musicians think it as much praise to be
somewhat more than musicians as it is for gold to be somewhat more than
gold, and if _Jack Cade_ were alive, yet some of us might live, unless
we should think, as the artisans in the Universities of Poland and
Germany think, that the Latin tongue comes by reflection. I hope your
Lordship will pardon this presumption of mine; the rather, because I
know before Nobility I am to deal sincerely; and this small faculty of
mine, because it is alone in me, and without the assistance of other
more confident sciences, is the more to be favoured and the rather to be
received into your honour's protection; so shall I observe you with as
humble and as true an heart, as he whose knowledge is as large as the
world's creation, and as earnestly pray for you to the world's Creator.
Your Honor's in all humble service,
THOMAS WEELKES."
In 1608 appeared Weelkes' last work, "Airs or Fantastic Spirits for
three voices," a collection of lively and humorous ditties. Oliphant
writes:--"For originality of ideas, and ingenuity of construction in
part writing, (I allude more especially to his ballets,) Weelkes in my
opinion leaves all other composers of his time far behind." The verses
in Weelkes' song-books are never heavy or laboured; they are always
bright, cheerful, and arch.
_Page_ 3. Robert Jones was a famous performer on the lute. He had a
share in the management of the theatre in the Whitefriars (Collier's
"Annals of the Stage," i. 395). His works are of the highest rarity. The
delightful lyrics in Jones' song-books have escaped the notice of all
the editors of anthologies.
_Page_ 4. Thomas Morley, who was a pupil of William Byrd, was the author
of the first systematic treatise on music published in this country--"A
plain and easy Introduction to practical Music," 1597, quaintly set down
in form of a dialogue. The verses in his collections are mere airy
trifles, and hardly bear to be separated from the music.
"About the maypole new," &c., is a translation of some Italian lines,
beginning--
"Al suon d'una sampogn' e d'una citera,
Sopra l'herbette floride
Dansava Tirsi con l'amata Cloride," &c.
In Morley's "Canzonets to three Voices," 1593, we have the following
pleasant description of the preparations for a country wedding:--
"Arise, get up, my dear, make haste, begone thee:
Lo! where the bride, fair Daphne, tarries on thee.
Hark! O hark! yon merry maidens squealing
Spice-cakes, sops-in-wine are a-dealing.
Run, then run apace
And get a bride-lace
And gilt rosemary branch the while there yet is catching
And then hold fast for fear of old snatching.
Alas! my dear, why weep ye?
O fear not that, dear love, the next day keep we.
List, yon minstrels! hark how fine they firk it,
And how the maidens jerk it!
With Kate and Will,
Tom and Gill,
Now a skip,
Then a trip,
Finely fet aloft,
There again as oft;
Hey ho! blessed holiday!
All for Daphne's wedding day!"
_Page_ 9. John Wilbye is styled by Oliphant "the first of madrigal
writers." He published his "First Set of English Madrigals" in 1598, and
his "Second Set" in 1609. The Second Set was dedicated to the
unfortunate Lady Arabella Stuart. The composer concludes his dedicatory
epistle with the prayer, "I beseech the Almighty to make you in all the
passages of your life truly happy, as you are in the world's true
opinion, virtuous." In the very year when the epistle was written the
gifted patroness of art and learning was accused before the Privy
Council and ordered to be kept in close confinement. She made her
escape, but after a few hours was captured at sea in her flight to
Dunkirk, brought back to London, and committed to the Tower, where she
died of a broken heart in 1615. It is pleasant to think that the
song-book dedicated to her honour may have cheered her in the long hours
of solitude. The collection consists chiefly of love-lyrics; but such
verses as "Happy, O happy he," &c. (p. 37) and "Draw on, sweet Night"
(p. 21), must have been carefully cherished by the poor captive.
_Page_ 9. "April is in my mistress' face."--Compare Robert Greene's
verses in "Perimedes, the Blacksmith," 1588:--
"Fair is my love, for April in her face,
Her lovely breasts September claims his part,
And lordly July in her eyes takes place:
But cold December dwelleth in her heart:
Blest be the months that set my thoughts on fire,
Accurs'd that month that hindereth my desire!"
_Page_ 11. "The Urchins' Dance" is from the anonymous play "The Maid's
Metamorphosis," 1600. In the same play are the following dainty
verses;--
"_1 Fairy._ I do come about the copse
Leaping upon flowers' tops;
Then I get upon a fly,
She carries me above the sky,
And trip and go!
_2 Fairy._ When a dew-drop falleth down
And doth light upon my crown,
Then I shake my head and skip
And about I trip.
_3 Fairy._ When I feel a girl a-sleep,
Underneath her frock I peep,
There to sport, and there I play;
Then I bite her like a flea,
And about I skip."
Thomas Ravenscroft, compiler of the "Brief Discourse," won his spurs at
a very early age. He took his degree of Bachelor of Music before he had
reached his fifteenth year, as we learn from some commendatory verses
prefixed to the "Brief Discourse;"--
"Non vidit tria lustra puer, quin arte probatus,
Vita laudatus, sumpsit in arte gradum."
He was twenty-two when he published the "Brief Discourse" in 1614: but
in 1611 be had published "Melismata, musical fancies fitting the court,
city, and country humours," and he edited two collections that appeared
in 1609--"Pammelia" and "Deuteromelia." "Pammelia" is the earliest
English printed collection of Catches, Rounds, and Canons; both words
and music were for the most part older than the date of publication.
"Deuteromelia" was intended as a continuation of "Pammelia."
_Page_ 12. Robert Dowland, editor of "A Musical Banquet," was a son of
John Dowland; he succeeded his father as one of the Court musicians in
1626, and was alive in 1641.
_Page_ 16. Thomas Ford, when he published his "Music of sundry kinds,"
1607, was a musician in the suite of Prince Henry. At the accession of
Charles I. he was appointed one of his musicians, and he died in
1648--the year before his royal patron was beheaded.
_Page_ 23. "Little lawn then serve[d] the Pawn."--The Pawn was a
corridor, serving as a bazaar, in the Royal Exchange (Gresham's).
_Page_ 24. "Farewell, false Love, the oracle of lies."--"J. C." in
"Alcilia," 1595, writes:--
"Love is honey mixed with gall,
A thraldom free, a freedom thrall;
A bitter sweet, a pleasant sour,
Got in a year, lost in an hour;
A peaceful war, a warlike peace,
Whose wealth brings want, whose want increase;
Full long pursuit and little gain,
Uncertain pleasure, certain pain;
Regard of neither right nor wrong,
For short delights repentance long.
Love is the sickness of the thought,
Conceit of pleasure dearly bought;
A restless passion of the mind,
A labyrinth of arrows blind:
A sugared poison, fair deceit,
A bait for fools, a furious heat;
A chilling cold, a wondrous passion,
Exceeding man's imagination;
Which none can tell in whole or part,
But only he that feels the smart."
Robert Greene has a somewhat similar description of Love ("What thing is
Love? it is a power divine," &c.) in "Menaphon," 1589.
_Page_ 28. "Fond wanton youths."--This piece is also printed in "The
Golden Garland of Princely Delights," 1620, where it is headed "Of the
Inconveniences by Marriage," and is directed to be sung to the tune of
"When Troy town."
_Page_ 29, l. 22. "Their _longings_ must not be beguiled."--The original
gives "Their _laughings_" (which is unintelligible).
_Page_ 31. It was at Wanstead House, a seat of the Earl of Leicester,
that Sidney wrote his masque the "Lady of the May" in honour of Queen
Elizabeth's visit in 1578. "Was Raleigh retired there," writes Mr. W.
J. Linton (_Rare Poems_, p. 257), "during some season of her
displeasure? There is a look of him about this song, not unlike the
lines to Cynthia; and what mistress but Majesty should appoint his place
of retirement?
'Wanstead, my Mistress saith this is the doom.'"
The two lines that close each stanza are from a song in Sidney's
"Arcadia."
_Page_ 37. "Who, known to all, unknown to himself dies." From Seneca's
"Thyestes:"--
"qui notus nimis omnibus
Ignotus moritur sibi."
_Page_ 39. "How many things."--I have given four of John Maynard's
"Twelve Wonders of the World" (cf. pp. 44-5, 69); and, if I am not
mistaken, the reader will like to see the remaining eight. There is much
freshness and piquancy in these quaint old rhymes, which were written by
no less a poet than Sir John Davies.
"THE DIVINE.
My calling is Divine,
And I from God am sent;
I will no chop-church be,
Nor pay my patron rent,
Nor yield to sacrilege;
But like the kind true mother,
Rather will lose all the child
Than part it with another.
Much wealth I will not seek,
Nor worldly masters serve,
So to grow rich and fat
While my poor flock doth starve.