Shakespeare and Music Part 8

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 const.i.tuting '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 'p.r.i.c.k-' 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 sc.r.a.ps 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 s.n.a.t.c.hes 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 Bened.i.c.k, _Much Ado_ V, ii, 23. 'The G.o.d 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, Ingrat.i.tude 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 n.o.ble 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 'Pa.s.sionate 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.

cx.x.xvii. with Marlowe.

(_f_) By Sir Toby. _Tw. Nt._ II, iii, 79, 85, 102. Peg-a-Ramsey, 'Three merry men be we,' 'There dwelt a man in Babylon,' 'O! the twelfth day of December,' 'Farewell, dear heart.' [For tunes, see Appendix].

(_g_) _As You Like It_ II, v. Song with Chorus, 'Under the greenwood tree,' 2nd verse '_all together here_.'

(_h_) By Pandarus, _Troil._ III, i, 116. Song, 'Love, love, nothing but love,' accompanied on an 'instrument' by the singer himself.

(_i_) Another, _Id._ IV, iv, 14, 'O heart, heavy heart.'

(_j_) _Lear_ I, iv, 168, two verses sung by the Fool, 'Fools had ne'er less grace in a year.'

(_k_) Ballads by Autolycus, _Winter's Tale_ IV, ii, 1, 15. 'When daffodils,' 'But shall I go mourn for that.' _Id._ sc. ii. end, 'Jog on' [see Appendix]; _Id._ sc. iii. 198, 'Whoop, do me no harm, good man' [Appendix]; _Id._ l. 219, 'Lawn, as white as driven snow'; _Id._ l. 262, Ballad of the 'Usurer's wife,' to a 'very doleful tune'; _Id._ l. 275, Ballad of a Fish, 'very pitiful'; _Id._ l. 297, A song _in three parts_, to the tune of 'Two maids wooing a man,' "Get you hence, for I must go"; _Id._ l. 319, Song, 'Will you buy any tape' (_cf._ The round by Jenkins, b. 1592, 'Come, pretty maidens,' see Rimbault's Rounds, Canons, and Catches).

(_l_) Duet by King Cymbeline's two sons; Funeral Song over Imogen, _Cymb._ IV, ii, 258, 'Fear no more the heat of the sun.'

(_m_) Stephano's 'scurvy tunes,' _Temp._ II, ii, 41, 'I shall no more to sea,' 'The master, the swabber,' etc. [Appendix]. _Id._ l. 175, Caliban's Song, 'Farewell, master,' etc.

(_n_) Song accompanied by lute. _H._ 8. III, i. 'Orpheus.'

Besides these there are allusions to the names of various popular tunes and catches, of which the music is still to be had. Amongst these are--

'The Hunt is up' [Appendix]. See _Rom. and Jul._ III, v, 34. Juliet says of the lark's song, 'that voice doth us affray, Hunting thee hence with _hunts-up_ to the day.' Any rousing morning song, even a love-song, was called a _hunts-up_. The tune of this song was also sung (in 1584) to 'O sweete Olyver, leave me not behind the,' but altering the time to 4 in a bar. See _As You Like It_ III, iii, 95.

'Heart's ease' [Appendix], the words of which are not known. Tune before 1560. See _Romeo_ IV, v, 100.

_Id._, 'My heart is full of woe.'

_Id._ l. 125. 'When griping grief' [Appendix], by Richard Edwards, gentleman of Queen Elizabeth's Chapel, printed in the 'Paradyse of daynty Devises' (printed 1577). Hawkins gives four verses, the first of which is here quoted by Shakespeare, but with several variations--

'_Where_ griping grief the hart _would_ wound, And doleful domps the mind oppresse, _There_ Musick with her silver sound _Is wont with spede to give_ redresse; Of troubled minds, for every sore, Swete Musick hath a salve in store.'

The last verse is charming--

'Oh heavenly gift, that turnes the minde, Like as the sterne doth rule the ship, Of musick whom the G.o.ds a.s.signde, To comfort man whom cares would nip; Sith thou both man and beast doest move, What wise man then will thee reprove.'

'Green Sleeves' [Appendix].

_Wiv._ II, i, 60.

_Mrs Ford._ ... I would have sworn his disposition [Falstaff's] would have gone to the truth of his words; but they do _no more adhere_ and _keep place_ together, than the _Hundredth Psalm_ to the _tune of 'Green Sleeves_.'

Also see _Wiv._ V, v, 20. The tune is given in its most complete form by Chappell, and is probably of Henry VIII.'s time. The ballad was published in 1580, with t.i.tle, 'A new Northerne dittye of the Ladye Greene Sleeves.' Verse 1 is as follows:--

"Alas my love, you do me wrong To cast me off discourteously, And I have loved you so long, Delighting in your company.

Greensleeves was all my joy, Greensleeves was my delight, Greensleeves was my heart of gold, And who but my Lady Greensleeves."

The 'Hundredth Psalm' (All people that on earth do dwell) will only adhere and keep place with the tune of Green Sleeves to a certain extent. If the reader will try to sing it to the tune in the Appendix, he will find that in the first half he is led into several false accents; while the second half is quite unmanageable without altering the notes. There is, however, a form of the tune in Hawkins which is much further off 'the truth of the words,' for it has exactly the right quant.i.ty of _notes_, but the _accents_ are all as wrong as possible, thus--

[Transcriber's Note: In the pa.s.sage below, "u" represents a breve and "-" a macron.]

- u - u - u - _All_ peo-_ple_ that _on_ earth _do_

u u u u u u - u - _Dwell_ sing to _the_ Lord with _cheer_ful _voice_.

It may be that this form of 'Green Sleeves' was known better than the older one in Shakespeare's day.

'Carman's whistle' [Appendix].

_H. 4. B._ III, ii, 320. Falstaff soliloquises on Shallow's lies concerning his wild youth.

_Fal._ He (Shallow) came ever in the rearward of the fashion, and _sung those tunes_ ... that he heard the _carmen whistle_, and sware--they were his _fancies_, or his _goodnights_.... The _case of a treble hautboy_ was a mansion for him, a court.

The Carman's Whistle was a popular Elizabethan tune, and was arranged as a virginal lesson by Byrd. This arrangement can be had most readily in Litolff's publication, 'Les maitres du Clavecin.'