Shakespeare and Music Part 18

_1 Mus._ Why "Heart's ease?"

_Peter._ O, musicians, because my _heart itself_ plays--"My heart is full of woe." O! play me some _merry dump_, to comfort me.

_2 Mus._ Not a _dump_ we: 'tis no time to play now.

_Peter._ Then will I lay the serving creature's dagger on your pate. I will carry no _crotchets_: I'll _re_ you, I'll _fa_ you. Do you _note_ me?

_1. Mus._ An you _re_ us, and _fa_ us, you _note_ US.

_2. Mus._ Pray you, put up your dagger, and put out your wit.

_Peter._ Then have at you with my wit.... Answer me like men:

_When griping grief the heart doth wound, And_ DOLEFUL DUMPS _the mind oppress, Then music with her silver sound--_

Why "silver sound"? why "music with her _silver_ sound"?

what say you, Simon _Catling_?

_1 Mus._ Marry, sir, because silver hath a _sweet sound_.

_Peter._ Pretty!--what say _you_, Hugh _Rebeck_?

_2 Mus._ I say--"silver sound" because musicians _sound for silver_.

_Peter._ Pretty too!--what say _you_, James _Soundpost_?

_3 Mus._ 'Faith, I know not what to _say_.

_Peter._ O! I cry you mercy; you are the _singer_: I will _say_ for you. It is--"music with her silver sound," because musicians have no _gold_ for sounding:--

Then music with her _silver sound_ With speedy help doth lend redress.

[_Exit._

_1 Mus._ What a pestilent knave is this same!

_2 Mus._ Hang him, Jack! [Peter's names evidently all wrong.] Come, we'll in here; tarry for the mourners, _and stay dinner_.

[_Exeunt._]

The Hay, Hey, or Raye, seems to be mentioned only once--viz., in _Love's Labour's Lost_, in the account of the preparations for the Pageant of the Worthies. Constable Dull proposes to accompany the dancing of the hay with a tabor, which may be taken as the common practice. Holofernes says Dull's idea is 'most dull,' like himself.

The Hay was a Round country-dance--_i.e._, the performers stood in a circle to begin with, and then (in the words of an old direction quoted in Stainer and Barrett's Dict.) 'wind round _handing_ in pa.s.sing until you come to your places.' See the note on Arbeau's Orchesographie for the steps and tune of the Haye.

Hawkins says (Hist. 705) that in an old comedy called the Rehearsal, the Earth, the Sun, and Moon are made to dance the Hey to the tune of Trenchmore, which is referred to in the above-quoted pa.s.sage from Selden, as a lively and even boisterous dance.

_L.L.L._ V, i, 148. Schoolmaster Holofernes & Co. arranging the Pageant of the Nine Worthies.

_Dull._ I'll make one in a _dance_, or so; or I will _play_ _On the tabor_ to the Worthies, and let them _dance the hay_.

_Hol._ _Most dull_, honest Dull.

The Morrice Dance, or Morris, was very popular in England and other countries in the 16th century.

Relics of it may still be seen in country places at certain times of the year. The very meagre celebrations of May Day, which can be seen in London even now, are a survival of the ancient customs with which the Morrice-Dance was always a.s.sociated. Hawkins gives this account of the Morris; "there are few country places in this kingdom where it is not known; it is a dance of young men in their shirts, with bells at their feet, and ribbons of various colours tied round their arms, and slung across their shoulders. Some writers, Shakespeare in particular, mention a Hobby-horse and a Maid Marian, as necessary in this recreation. Sir William Temple speaks of a pamphlet in the library of the Earl of Leicester, which gave an account of a set of morrice-dancers in King James's reign, composed of ten men or twelve men, for the ambiguity of his expression renders it impossible to say which of the two numbers is meant, who went about the country: that they danced a Maid Marian, with a tabor and pipe, and that their ages one with another made up twelve hundred years."

[Temple's own words are quite clear--viz., that there were _ten_ men who danced; a Maid Marian (makes eleven); and a man to play the tabor and pipe (makes twelve).]

The name Morrice means Moorish dance, or Morisco. Perhaps it was called so from being accompanied by the tabor, for Drums of all sorts are distinctly Eastern instruments.

Two tunes, one a Moresca by Monteverde, 1608, and the other an English Morris, 1650, are given in the Appendix. Also see Note on 'Orchesographie' for a Morisque.

The first of the two following pa.s.sages connects the morris with May Day; the second with Whitsuntide, which is in May as often as not.

_All's Well_ II, ii, 20.

_Countess._ Will your answer serve fit to all questions?

_Clown._ As fit as ... a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a _morris_ for _May-day_....

_H. 5._ II, iv, 23.

_Dauphin._ And let us do it with no show of fear; No, with no more, than if we heard that England Were busied with a _Whitsun morris-dance_;

The Pavan has been mentioned before, as the dance in Duple time which preceded the Galliard which was in a triple rhythm. It was a stately dance, with a stately name, for the derivation is most probably from _Pavo_, a peac.o.c.k, with a reference, no doubt, to the majestic strut and gay feathers of that bird. It was _de rigueur_ for gentlemen to dance the Pavan in cap and sword; for lawyers to wear their gowns, princes their mantles; and ladies to take part in the fullest of full dress, the long trains of their gowns being supposed to correspond in appearance and movement to the peac.o.c.k's tail.

The only Pavan mentioned by Shakespeare is the _Pa.s.sy-measures pavin_, otherwise known as Pa.s.sing-measures-pavin, or Pa.s.sameso, or _Pa.s.s e mezzo_, which last is the earliest form of the word.

Praetorius (_b._ 1571), however, says the Pa.s.se mezzo is so called because it has only _half as many steps_ as a Galliard. Thus the name is inverted, mezzo Pa.s.so. Hawkins helps to confuse the matter by explaining that the Galliard has _five bars or steps_ in the first strain, and that the Pa.s.samezzo has just half that number, and thus gets its name. No Galliard ever had an uneven number of bars in any of its strains, so this account is difficult to reconcile.

However, Pa.s.s e mezzo, 'step and a half,' is the most trustworthy form of the name, and the Note on the Orchesographie of Arbeau (1588) makes all quite clear.

The Pa.s.samezzo (or pa.s.sy-measures pavin) tune in the Appendix has a similar construction to the ordinary pavan, the form of which has been explained earlier in this section--_i.e._, it consists of regular 'strains,' which in their turn contain a certain _even_ number of semibreves, or 'bars.' In the case given, the strains consist of _eight_ bars each. This must be borne in mind, in connection with Sir Toby's drunken fancy about the surgeon, in the following pa.s.sage:--

_Tw._ V, i, 197.

_Sir To._ [Drunk, and with a b.l.o.o.d.y c.o.xcomb]--Sot, didst see d.i.c.k surgeon, sot?

_Clo._ O! he's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; his eyes were _set at eight_ i' the morning.

_Sir To._ Then he's a rogue, and a _pa.s.sy-measures pavin_.

Toby being only moderately sober, naturally feels indignant at the doctor's indiscretions in the same kind; and, quite as naturally, the Clown's remark about the latter's eyes brings this fantastic comparison into his head. The doctor's eyes were set _at eight_, and so is a Pavan set 'at eight.' It is easy to see Sir Toby's musical gifts a.s.serting themselves, confused recollections reeling across his brain, of that old rule in Morley about the right number of semibreves in a strain, 'fewer then _eight_ I have not seen in any _Pavan_.'

'Also in this you must cast your musicke by _foure_: ... no matter how manie _foures_ you put in your straine.' Bull's Pavan, 'St Thomas Wake,' has two strains of _sixteen_ bars each--_i.e._, two 'eights.'

[Appendix.]

The last pa.s.sage given here shows clearly that the Lavolta and Coranto were considered exotic in England in Shakespeare's time.