Chapter 9

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.

THE SOLDIER.

My occupation is The noble trade of kings The trial that decides The highest right of things.

Though Mars my master be, I do not Venus love, Nor honour Bacchus oft, Nor often swear by Jove.

Of speaking of myself I all occasion shun, And rather love to do, Than boast what I have done.

THE LAWYER.

The law my calling is; My robe, my tongue, my pen Wealth and opinion gain And make me judge of men.

The known dishonest cause, I never did defend Nor spun out suits in length, But wish'd and sought an end;

Nor counsel did bewray, Nor of both parties take, Nor ever took I fee For which I never spake.

THE PHYSICIAN.

I study to uphold The slippery state of man, Who dies when we have done The best and all we can.

From practice and from books I draw my learned skill, Not from the known receipt Or 'pothecary's bill.

The earth my faults doth hide, The world my cures doth see, What youth and time effects Is oft ascribed to me.

THE MERCHANT.

My trade doth everything To every land supply, Discovers unknown coasts, Strange countries doth ally.

I never did forestall, I never did engross, Nor custom did withdraw Though I return'd with loss.

I thrive by fair exchange, By selling and by buying, And not by Jewish use, Reprisal, fraud, or lying.

THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN.

Though strange outlandish spirits Praise towns and countries scorn, The country is my home, I dwell where I was born.

There profit and command With pleasure I partake, Yet do not hawks and dogs My sole companions make.

I rule, but not oppress; End quarrels, not maintain; See towns, but dwell not there To abridge my charge or train.

THE WIFE.

The first of all our sex Came from the side of man, I thither am return'd From whence our sex began.

I do not visit oft, Nor many when I do, I tell my mind to few And that in counsel too.

I seem not sick in health, Nor sullen but in sorrow; I care for somewhat else Than what to wear to-morrow.

THE WIDOW.

My dying husband knew How much his death would grieve me, And therefore left me wealth To comfort and relieve me.

Though I no more will have, I must not love disdain; Penelope her self Did suitors entertain.

And yet to draw on such As are of best esteem, Nor younger than I am Nor richer will I seem."

_Page_ 41. "I have house and land in Kent."--This admirable song has been frequently reprinted. Miss De Vaynes, in her very valuable "Kentish Garland" (i., 142), observes:--"We have met with no other song in the Kentish dialect except Jan Ploughshare's" (printed on p. 372, vol. i., of the "Garland"). Rimbault in his "Little Book of Songs and Ballads" (1851), gives the following lines from an old MS. (temp. Henry VIII.):--

"Joan, quoth John, when will this be? Tell me when wilt thou marry me, My corn and eke my calf and rents, My lands and all my tenements? Say, Joan, quoth John, what wilt thou do? I cannot come every day to woo?"

David Herd printed a fragment of a Scotch song that was founded on the English song:--

"I hae layen three herring a' sa't, Bonny lass, gin ze'll take me, tell me now, And I hae brew'n three pickles o' ma't And I cannae cum ilka day to woo. _To woo, to woo, to lilt and to woo, And I cannae cum ilka day to woo_.

I hae a wee ca'f that wad fain be a cow, Bonny lassie, gin ye'll take me, tell me now, I hae a wee gryce that wad fain be a sow, And I cannae cum ilka day to woo. _To woo, to woo, to lilt and to woo, And I cannae cum ilka day to woo_."

_Page_ 43. "I joy not in no earthly bliss."--These stanzas are usually printed with "My mind to me a kingdom is" (p. 78), and the whole poem has been attributed to Sir Edward Dyer.

_Page_ 47. "I weigh not Fortune's frown nor smile."--These lines (which seem to have been modelled on "I joy not in no earthly bliss") are by Joshua Sylvester.

In the second stanza, "I sound not at the news of wreck," _sound_ is an old form of _swoon_.

_Page_ 52. "If women could be fair."--This poem is ascribed to Edward, Earl of Oxford, in Rawlinson, MS. 85, fol. 16.

_Page_ 53. "In darkness let me dwell."--These lines are also found in Robert Dowland's "Musical Banquet," 1610, set to music by John Dowland.

_Page_ 57. "In the merry month of May."--First printed in "The Honorable Entertainment given to the Queen's Majesty in Progress at Elvetham in Hampshire, by the Right Honorable the Earl of Hertford," 1591, under the title of "The Ploughman's Song."

_Page_ 60. "It was the frog in the well."--There are several versions of this old ditty: the following is from Kirkpatrick Sharpe's "Ballad Book," 1824:--

"There lived a puddy in a well, And a merry mouse in a mill.

Puddy he'd a wooin ride, Sword and pistol by his side.

Puddy came to the mouse's wonne, 'Mistress mouse, are you within?'

'Yes, kind sir, I am within; Saftly do I sit and spin.'

'Madam, I am come to woo; Marriage I must have of you.'

'Marriage I will grant you nane, Until uncle Rotten he comes hame.'

'Uncle Rotten's now come hame; Fy! gar busk the bride alang.'

Lord Rotten sat at the head o' the table, Because he was baith stout and able.

Wha is't that sits next the wa', But Lady Mouse, baith jimp and sma'?

What is't that sits next the bride, But the sola puddy wi' his yellow side?

Syne came the deuk, but and the drake; The deuk took puddy, and garred him squaik.

Then cam in the carl cat, Wi' a fiddle on his back. 'Want ye ony music here?'

The puddy he swam doun the brook; The drake he catched him in his fluke.

The cat he pu'd Lord Rotten doun; The kittens they did claw his croun.

But Lady Mouse, baith jimp and sma', Crept into a hole beneath the wa'; 'Squeak!' quoth she, 'I'm weel awa.'"

Doubtless Ravenscroft's version is more ancient. A ballad entitled "A most strange weddinge of the frogge and the mouse" was licensed for printing in 1580.

_Page_ 65. "Lady, when I behold."--Gracefully Paraphrased from an Italian original:--

"Quand' io miro le rose, Ch'in voi natura pose; E quelle che v' ha l'arte Nel vago seno sparte; Non so conoscer poi Se voi le rose, o sian le rose in voi."

_Page_ 66. John Danyel is supposed to have been a brother of Samuel Daniel, the poet. He took his degree of Bachelor of Music in 1604. "At the commencement of the reign of Charles the First he was one of the Court Musicians, and his name occurs among the 'Musicians for the Lutes and Voices' in a privy seal, dated December 20th, 1625, exempting the musicians belonging to the Court from the payment of subsidies" (Rimbault).

_Page_ 68. "Then all at once _for our town_ cries."--"I should imagine," says Oliphant, "that there was occasionally a sort of friendly contention in the sports between neighbouring villages; which idea is rather corroborated by a passage from an old play called the 'Vow-breaker' by Samson, 1636: 'Let the major play the hobby-horse an' he will; I hope _our Town lads_ cannot want a hobby-horse.'" In an old play. "The Country Girl," (first printed in 1647), attributed to that shadowy personage Antony Brewer, we have an allusion to this pleasant form of rivalry:--

"_Abraham._ Sister Gillian,--I have the rarest news for you.

_Gillian._ For me? 'tis well. And what news have you got, sir?

_Abr._ Skipping news, lipping news, tripping news.

_Gil._ How! dancing, brother Abram, dancing?

_Abr._ Prancing, advancing, dancing. Nay, 'tis a match, a match upon a wager.

_Gil._ A match. Who be they?

_Abr._ Why all the wenches of _our town_ Edmonton, and all the mad wenches of Waltham.

_Gil._ A match, and leave me out! When, when is't, brother?

_Abr._ Marry, e'en this morning:--they are now going to't helter-skelter. [_A treble plays within_.

_Gil._ And leave me out! where, brother, where?

_Abr._ Why there, Sister Gillian; there, at our own door almost,--on the green there, close by the may-pole. Hark! you may hear them hither." (Sig. D.)

The stage-direction at the entrance of the dancers runs thus:--"Enter six country wenches, all red petticoats, white stitch'd bodies, in their smock-sleeves, the fiddler before them, and Gillian with her tippet up in the midst of them dancing."

_Page_ 73. "It was the purest light of heaven" &c.--I am reminded of a fine passage in Drayton's "Barons' Wars," canto VI.:--

"Looking upon proud Phaeton wrapped in fire, The gentle queen did much bewail his fall; But Mortimer commended his desire To lose one poor life or to govern all. 'What though,' quoth he, 'he madly did aspire And his great mind made him proud Fortune's thrall? Yet, in despight when she her worst had done, _He perish'd in the chariot of the sun_.'"

_Page_ 74. "The Bellman's Song."--In "Robin Goodfellow; his mad pranks and merry jests," 1628, we have another specimen of a Bellman's Song:--

"Sometimes would he go like a bellman in the night, and with many pretty verses delight the ears of those that waked at his bell-ringing: his verses were these:--

Maids in your smocks, Look well to your locks, And your tinder-box, Your wheels and your rocks, Your hens and your cocks, Your cows and your ox, And beware of the fox. When the bellman knocks Put out your fire and candle-light, So they shall not you affright. May you dream of your delights, In your sleeps see pleasing sights! Good rest to all, both old and young: The bellman now hath done his song.

Then would he go laughing _Ho ho ho!_ as his use was."

_Page_ 77. "That kisses were the _seals of love_."--Every reader will recall

"But my kisses bring again, bring again. _Seals of love_ but sealed in vain, sealed in vain."

(The first stanza is found among the poems of Sir Philip Sidney.)

_Page_ 80. "My prime of youth."--This song is also set to music in Richard Alison's "Hour's Recreation," 1606, and Michael Este's "Madrigals of three, four, and five parts," 1604. It is printed in "Reliquiae: Wottonianae" as "By Chidick Tychborn, being young and then in the tower, the night before his execution." Chidiock Tychbourne of Southampton was executed with Ballard and Babington in 1586.

_Page_ 80. "My sweetest Lesbia."--The first stanza is an elegant paraphrase from Catullus, though the last line fails to render the rhythmical sweetness long-drawn-out of "Nox est perpetua una dormienda."

_Page_ 81. "My Thoughts are winged with Hopes."--This piece is also found in "England's Helicon." A MS. copy, in a commonplace book found at Hamburg, is signed "W. S." I have frequently met with these initials in volumes of MS. poetry of the early part of the seventeenth century. The following pretty verses in Add. MS. 21, 433, fol. 158, are subscribed "W. S.":--

"O when will Cupid show such art To strike two lovers with one dart? I'm ice to him or he to me; Two hearts alike there seldom be.

If ten thousand meet together, Scarce one face is like another: If scarce two faces can agree, Two hearts alike there seldom be."

There is not the slightest ground for identifying "W. S." with Shakespeare. Mr. Linton ("Rare Poems," p. 255) conjectures that "My Thoughts are winged with Hopes"--which has the heading "To Cynthia" in "England's Helicon"--may be by Raleigh.

_Page_ 83. "Now each creature."--The first stanza of "An Ode" by Samuel Daniel, originally printed in the 1592 edition of "Delia."

"Now God be with old Simeon."--Here is another round from "Pammelia":--

"Come drink to me, And I to thee. And then shall we Full well agree.

I've loved the jolly tankard, Full seven winters and more; I loved it so long That I went upon the score.

Who loveth not the tankard, He is no honest man; And he is no right soldier, That loveth not the can.

Tap the cannikin, troll the cannikin, Toss the cannikin, turn the cannikin! Hold now, good son, and fill us a fresh can, That we may quaff it round from man to man."

Good honest verse, but ill-suited to these degenerate, tea-drinking days.

_Page_ 85. "Now I see thy looks were feigned."--First printed in "The Ph[oe]nix Nest," 1593, subscribed "T. L. Gent," _i.e._ Thomas Lodge, one of the most brilliant of Elizabethan lyrists.

_Page_ 87. "Shall we play barley-break."--The fullest description of the rustic game of barley-break is to be found in the first book of Sidney's "Arcadia."

_Page_ 87. "Now let her change." This song is also set to Music in Robert Jones' "Ultimum Vale" (1608).

_Page_ 89. "Now what is love" &c.--This poem originally appeared in "The Ph[oe]nix Nest," 1593; it is also printed (in form of a dialogue) in "England's Helicon," 1600, and Davison's "Poetical Rhapsody," 1602. It is ascribed to Raleigh in a MS. list of Davison's. See Canon Hannah's edition of Raleigh's poems.

_Page_ 93. "Oft have I mused."--This poem was printed in Davison's "Poetical Rhapsody," 1602.

_Page_ 96. "Our country-swains in the morris-dance."--In Morley's "Madrigals to Four Voices," 1594, there is a lively description of the morris-dance:--

"Ho! who comes here with bag-piping and drumming? O, 'tis I see the morris-dance a coming. Come, ladies, out, O come, come quickly, And see about how trim they dance and trickly: Hey! there again: hark! how the bells they shake it! Now _for our town_! once there, now for our town and take it: Soft awhile, not away so fast, they melt them! Piper be hang'd, knave! look, the dancers swelt them. Out, there, stand out!--you come too far (I say) in-- There give the hobby-horse more room to play in!"

"I woo with tears and _ne'er the near_."--_Ne'er the near_ (a proverbial expression) = Never the nigher.

_Page_ 107. "When they came home Sis _floted_ cream."--I suppose the meaning is that Sis skimmed the cream from the milk. Halliwell (_Arch. Dict._) gives "Flotten-milk. Same as Flet-mitte" and "flet-mitte" is a north-country term for skimmed milk.

"Since first I saw."--This exquisite song is also found in "The Golden Garland of Princely Delights," 1620.

_Page_ 114. "Sweet Love, my only treasure."--Printed in Davison's "Poetical Rhapsody," 1602, where it is subscribed with the mysterious initials "A. W."

_Page_ 115. "Sweet, stay awhile."--I suspect that this stanza does not really belong to Donne's "Break of day;" it is not found in MS. copies of Donne's poems, nor in any edition prior to that of 1669. Probably Donne's verses were written as a companion-piece to the present poem.

_Page_ 120. "Yet merrily sings little Robin."--The loveliest of all verses in praise of Robin Redbreast are in Chapman's "Tears of Peace," 1609:--

"Whose face _the bird_ hid _that loves humans best, That hath the bugle eyes and rosy breast, And is the yellow autumn's nightingale_."

_Page_ 120. "The love of change."--This is the first stanza of a poem which is printed entire (in six stanzas) in Davison's "Poetical Rhapsody," 1602.

_Page_ 121. "The lowest trees have tops."--Printed in Davison's "Poetical Rhapsody" with the signature "Incerto."