Chapter 6

The history of Serenades is as ancient as that of Songs. In the middle of the 15th century, Sebastian Brant, a lawyer, wrote in Dutch his 'Stultifera Navis,' or 'Ship of Fools,' a severe satire on things in general, and popular amusements in particular. The book was afterwards translated into Latin, and thence into English. Here are some of the verses that treat of Serenades in the year 1450.

'The furies fearful, sprong of the floudes of hell, Bereft _these vagabonds_ in their minds, so That by no meane can they abide ne dwell Within their houses, but out they nede must go; More wildly wandring then either bucke or doe. Some with their _harpes_, another with their _lute_, Another with his _bagpipe_, or a foolishe _flute_.

'Then measure they their _songes_ of melody _Before the doores of their lemman deare_; Howling with their foolishe songe and cry, So that their lemman may their great folly heare: 'But yet moreover these fooles are so unwise, That _in cold winter_ they use the same madness. When all the houses are lade with snowe and yse, O madmen amased, unstable, and witless! What pleasure take you in this your foolishness? What joy have ye to wander thus by night, Save that _ill doers alway hate the light_?'

Another verse explains that not only the foolish young men of _low_ birth were given to this practice, but also--

'States themselves therein abuse,' 'With _some yonge fooles of the spiritualtie_: The foolish _pipe_ without all gravitie Doth eche degree call to his frantic game: The darkness of night expelleth feare of shame.'

Brant had no great opinion of the music provided either. He describes their singing before their lady's window--

'One barketh, another bleateth like a shepe; Some rore, some _counter_, some their _ballads fayne_: Another from singing geveth himself to wepe; When his soveraigne lady hath of him disdayne.'

Finally--a Parthian shot--

'Standing in corners like as it were a spye, Whether that the wether be whot, colde, wet, or dry.'

Thus, one hundred years before Shakespeare was born, Serenades of voices and instruments were common, and in general practice by all classes of young men, and not only laymen, but also yonge fooles of the spiritualtie.

The instruments mentioned are such as were still in use in Shakespeare's time--viz., harp, lute, 'foolish' pipe, bagpipe, and 'foolish' flute, besides the several varieties of song, which evidently included both solo and part singing--'feigned' ballads for a single voice [ballads, that is, in the more refined 'keys' of 'Musica Ficta'], and 'Countering,' which implies that two voices at least took part.

The following passage is an example of this nocturnal serenading by a company of gentlemen.

_Two Gent._ III, ii, 83.

_Proteus_ (advises Thurio) 'Visit by night your lady's chamber window With some _sweet concert_: to their _instruments_ Tune a _deploring dump_:'

_Thu._ And thy advice this night I'll put in practice. Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver, Let us into the city presently, _To sort some gentlemen well skilled in music_.

Proteus advises Thurio to get a 'consort' (probably of viols) to play a 'dump' under Silvia's window. He goes to arrange for some of his friends to attend for this purpose. The serenade takes place in the next Act, where, in the 2nd scene, line 17, it is called 'evening music,' but does not include the 'dump,' for Thurio has 'a sonnet that will serve the turn,' so they sing 'Who is Silvia.'

Here is the passage, which is full of quibbles on musical terms.

_Two Gent._ IV, ii, 16.

_Proteus._ ... 'Now must we to her window, And give _some evening music to her ear_.'

L. 24.

_Thu._ ... Now, gentlemen, _Let's tune._

L. 28.

_Host_ (to Julia, in boy's clothes). I'll bring you where you shall _hear music_, and see the gentleman that you ask'd for.

_Jul._ But shall I _hear him speak_?

_Host._ Ay, that you shall.

_Jul._ _That will be music._

L. 54.

_Host._ How do you, man? (_i.e._, Julia) the _music likes you not_.

_Jul._ You mistake: the _musician_ (_i.e._, Proteus) _likes me not_.

_Host._ Why, my pretty youth?

_Jul._ He _plays false_, father.

_Host._ How? _out of tune on the strings_?

_Jul._ Not so; but yet _so false_, that he grieves my very _heart-strings_.

_Host._ You have a _quick ear_.

_Jul._ Ay; I would I were deaf! it makes me have a _slow heart_.

_Host._ I perceive, _you delight not in music_.

_Jul._ Not a whit, when it _jars_ so.

_Host._ Hark! what fine _change_ is in the music.

_Jul._ Ay, that _change_ (Proteus' unfaithfulness) is the spite.

_Host_ (misunderstanding again). You would have them _always_ play but _one thing_?

_Jul._ I would always have _one_ (Proteus) play but one thing.

L. 85.

_Silvia_ (from window). 'I thank you for your music, gentlemen.'

The next passage is of a serenade in the early morning. Cloten arranges for the musicians (who seem in this case to be professional players) to give two pieces, one instrumental, followed by a song.

_Cymbeline_ II, iii, 11. Cloten serenades Imogen.

_Cloten._ I would this _music would come_. I am advised to give her _music o' mornings_; they say, it will penetrate.

_Enter Musicians._

Come on: _tune_. If you can penetrate her with your _fingering_, so; we'll try with _tongue_ too: ... _First_, a very excellent good-conceited thing; _after_, a wonderful sweet air, with admirable rich words to it,--_and then_ let her consider.

[The musicians perform 'Hark! hark! the lark.']

So, get you gone. If this penetrate, I will consider your _music the better_; if it do not, it is a vice in _her ears_, which _horse-hairs_, and _calves'-guts_, ... can never amend.

In l. 14, 'fingering' and 'tongue' correspond to 'playing' and 'singing.' The first is to be a 'Fancy' for viols, 'a very excellent good-conceited thing'; the second is the 'wonderful sweet air,' Hark! hark! the lark.

'Good-conceited' means having many 'conceits.' These 'fancies' were always contrapuntal, and the various artificial contrivances, answering of points, imitations, and what not, are referred to under this title. The mention of 'horse-hairs and calves'-guts' makes it clear that the instruments in this 'morning music' were Viols.

Another 'evening music' is provided by Pericles, Prince of Tyre.

_Pericles_ II, v, 24. Pericles, a musician [his education had been 'in _arts_ and arms,' see II, iii, 82].

_Per._ All fortune to the good Simonides!

_Sim._ To you as much, sir! _I am beholding to you For your sweet music this last night_: I do Protest, my ears were never better fed With such _delightful pleasing harmony_.

_Per._ It is your grace's pleasure to commend, Not my desert.

_Sim._ Sir, _you are music's master_.

_Per._ The worst of all her scholars, my good lord.

The next quotation is also of 'morning music,' but with a different object--not a lady, but a soldier, and of a somewhat rough and ready kind, to judge by the Clown's critical remarks.

The passage seems to indicate the use of Bagpipes; for 'they speak in the _nose_' (see _Merchant_ IV, i, 48), and are called _wind_-instruments, and are mentioned under the name 'pipes' in the last two lines. Moreover, there is the remark of the Clown, represented here by stars, which is terribly appropriate to that instrument.

_Othello_ III, i. Cassio brings musicians to salute Othello.

_Cass._ Masters, _play here_; I will content your pains: Something that's brief; and bid "Good morrow, general."

[_Music._]

_Enter Clown._

_Clo._ Why, masters, _have your instruments been in Naples_, that they _speak i' the nose_ thus?

_1 Mus._ How, sir, how?

_Clo._ Are these, I pray you, called _wind_-instruments?

_1 Mus._ Ay, marry, are they, sir.

* * * * *

_Clo._ ... masters, here's money for you; and _the general so likes your music_, that _he desires you_, for love's sake, _to make no more noise with it_.

_1 Mus._ Well, sir, we will not.

_Clo._ If you have _any music that may not be heard_, to't again; but, as they say, to _hear_ music the general does not greatly care.

_1 Mus._ _We have none such_, sir.

_Clo._ Then _put up your pipes in your bag_, for I'll away. Go; vanish into air, away!

Pandarus appears to be a capital musician. In the following we find him questioning a musical servant of Priam's palace about some instrumental music which is going on within, 'at the request of Paris.' The servant amuses himself by giving 'cross' answers to Pandarus' crooked questions, and in the process gets out two or three musical jokes--_e.g._, '_partly_ know,' 'music _in parts_,' '_wholly_, sir.' Further on, Paris also plays on the term 'broken' music.

_Troilus and Cressida_ III, i, 19.

_Pandarus._ What music is this?

_Servant._ I do but _partly_ know, sir; it is _music in parts_.

_Pandarus._ Know you the _musicians_?

_Serv._ _Wholly_, sir.

_Pan._ Who play they to?

_Serv._ To the hearers, sir.

_Pan._ At whose pleasure, friend?

_Serv._ At mine, sir, and _theirs that love music_.

* * * * *

L. 52.

_Pan._ Fair prince, here is _good broken music_.

_Paris._ _You_ have _broke_ it, cousin; and, by my life, you shall make it whole again: you shall _piece_ it out with a _piece_ of your performance. [To _Helen_] Nell, he [_Pandarus_] is _full of harmony_.

* * * * *

L. 95.

_Pan._ ... Come, _give me an instrument_. [And at Helen's request, Pandarus sings, 'Love, love, nothing but love.']

The custom of having instrumental music in taverns has already been referred to in the Introduction, near the end, where we learn that the charge for playing before the guests was twenty shillings for two hours in Shakespeare's time; also that a man could hardly go into a public house of entertainment without being followed by two or three itinerant musicians, who would either sing or play for his pleasure, while he was at dinner. Accordingly, we find Sir John Falstaff enjoying such a performance at the Boar's Head, Eastcheap.

_H. 4. B._ II, iv, 10.

_1 Drawer._ Why then, cover, and set them down: and see if thou canst find out _Sneak's noise_; Mistress Tearsheet would fain have _some music_. (After supper, in a cooler room.)

_Id._ l. 227.

_Page._ The _music_ is come, sir.

_Falstaff._ Let them _play_.---- _Play_, sirs.

_Id._ l. 380.

_Fal._ _Pay the musicians_, sirrah.

The term 'Sneak's noise' is most interesting. 'Noise' means a company of musicians, and Mr Sneak was the gentleman who gave his name to the particular band of instrumentalists who favoured the Boar's Head.

Milton uses the word, in this sense, in the poem 'At a Solemn Music,' where the 'saintly shout' of the seraphic choir, with 'loud uplifted angel-trumpets,' 'immortal harps of golden wires,' and the singing of psalms and hymns, are collectively called 'that melodious _noise_.' Also in his Hymn on the Nativity, verse ix., he has 'stringèd _noise_'--_i.e._, band of stringed instruments. The Prayer-book Version (Great Bible) of the Psalms, which was made in 1540, has the word in Ps. lxxxi. 1, 'Make a cheerful _noise_ unto the God of Jacob,' and this in the next verses is said to consist of various musical instruments--_e.g._, the tabret, harp, lute, and trumpet. Also in the Authorised Version of 1611, Ps. xxxiii. 3, 'play skilfully with a loud _noise_,' which was the instrumental accompaniment to a 'new song.' The same word is used in several other places, with the meaning of 'music'--_e.g._, Pss. lxvi. 1; xcv. 1, 2; xcviii. 4, 6; c. 1; where 'to make a joyful noise' is represented in the original by the same verb, except in one of the two cases in Ps. xcviii. 4.

The word was still in use in 1680, when Dr Plot was present at the annual Bull-running held by the Minstrels of Tutbury, one of the features of which festivity was a banquet, with 'a Noise of musicians playing to them.'

The reputed cure of the Tarantula's bite by music has already been mentioned. The next three examples are of somewhat similar cases.

In the first, Henry IV. in sickness asks for music; the second is an account of Cerimon's attempt to rouse the half-drowned Thaisa with at least partial assistance from music; while the third represents Prospero using a solemn air to remove the magic spell which he had cast on Alonso and his other enemies.

_H. 4. B._ IV, iv, 133. K. Hen. on his sick-bed.

_K. Hen._ Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends; Unless some _dull and favourable hand_ Will _whisper music_ to my wearied spirit.

_Warwick._ Call for the _music_ in the other room.

_Pericles_ III, ii, 87. Cerimon's house at Ephesus. Thaisa, cast up by the sea, is brought to life by his directions.

_Cerimon._ Well said, well said; the fire and the cloths. The _rough and woful music_ that we have, _Cause it to sound_, beseech you. The vial once more;--how thou stirr'st, thou block!-- _The music there!_ I pray you, give her air.

_Tempest_ V, i, 51. Prospero employs music to disenchant Alonso, Antonio, etc.

_Pro._ ... and, _when I have required Some heavenly music_ (which even now I do), _To work mine end upon their senses_....

L. 58.

_A solemn air_; and the _best comforter To an unsettled fancy_, cure thy brains.

Next we have two examples of 'Music at Home.' In the case of the Duke in Twelfth Night, it is 'concerted' music, and the players seem to be performing such a quaint old piece as 'The Lord of Salisbury his Pavin,' by Gibbons, in _Parthenia_, the last 'strain' of which has just such a 'dying fall' as is mentioned in line 4. [See the remarks on the passage from _Lucrece_ in Section I. on the _technical_ meaning of 'strain.']

_Twelfth Night_ I, i.

_Duke._ If _music_ be the _food of love_, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.-- _That strain again!_ it had a _dying fall_: O! it came o'er my ear like the _sweet sound_ That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour.--Enough! no more: 'Tis not so sweet now, as it was before.

Brutus' musical establishment is on a smaller scale than the Duke's. He keeps a 'good boy,' who can sing to his own accompaniment on the lute, and is such a willing servant as to perform when almost overcome by sleep.

_Julius Cæsar_ IV, iii, 256. Brutus and his servant Lucius.

_Bru._ Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful. Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile, And _touch_ thy _instrument_ a _strain_ or two?

_Luc._ Ay, my lord, an't please you.

_Bru._ It does, my boy. I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing.

* * * * *

[Boy sings to lute.]

_Bru._ This is a _sleepy tune_: [Boy drops off]--O murderous slumber! Lay'st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy, _That plays thee music_?--Gentle knave, good night; I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee. If thou dost nod, thou _break'st thy instrument: I'll take it from thee_; and, good boy, good night.--

[Ghost of Cæsar appears.]

L. 290.

_Bru._ Boy!--Lucius!--Varro! Claudius! sirs, awake!--Claudius!

_Luc._ [asleep]. _The strings_, my lord, _are false_.

_Bru._ He thinks he still is _at his instrument_.

In _Henry VIII._ III, i is a case of the same kind.

_Queen Catherine._ Take thy _lute_, wench: my soul grows sad with troubles: _Sing, and disperse them_, if thou canst. Leave working.

[Song. 'Orpheus.']

The next passage brings us to another class of music--viz., dirges, funeral songs, or 'good-nights.' [See _H. 4. B._ III, ii, 322]. In _Cymbeline_ IV, ii, 184, Cadwal (Arviragus) sounds an 'ingenious instrument' to signify Imogen's death. Polydore (Guiderius) says they had not used it since their mother died. The song, or more properly, duet, which they sing directly after, in memory of Imogen, may be taken in this connection. Unfortunately there seems to be no musical setting of 'Fear no more the heat o' the sun' any older than 1740.

In the following quotation 'dirges' are mentioned by name.

_Rom._ IV, iv, 21.

_Capulet._ ... "Good faith! 'tis day: The county [Count Paris] will be here _with music_ straight."

Sc. v. 84.

_Cap._ All things, that we ordained festival, Turn from their office to black funeral: Our _instruments_ to _melancholy bells_; Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast; Our _solemn hymns_ to _sullen dirges_ change.

In close connection with these funeral songs is the passage in _Hen. VIII._ IV, ii, 77, where Queen Katherine, sick, requests her gentleman-usher to get the musicians to play a favourite piece of this class--

... Good Griffith, Cause the musicians play me _that sad note I named my knell_, whilst I sit meditating On that celestial harmony I go to.

[She sleeps, then, waking from the vision--]

... Bid the music leave, They are harsh and heavy to me.

It would be of great interest if it were possible to identify Queen Katherine's 'Knell.'

There is an old song, given in Chappell's Popular Music, 'O Death, rock me to sleep,' which might be the very one, for both music and words are singularly appropriate. The Refrain is as follows:--

'Tole on thou passing bell Ringe out my dolefull _knell_ Let thy sound my death tell, For I must die, There is no remedye.'

The song is most plaintive, and has a very striking feature in the shape of a real independent accompaniment, which keeps up a continual figure of three descending notes, like the bells of a village church. Hawkins gives the poem, with certain variations, and two extra verses at the beginning, the first commencing--

'Defiléd is my name full sore, Through cruel spite and false report.'

and he says the verses are thought to have been written by Anne Boleyn. Hawkins also gives music (in four parts) to the first two verses, by Robt. Johnson, a contemporary of Shakespeare's. The music of the song in Chappell is much older than that; indeed, it is very possibly of Hen. VIII.'s time.

V

DANCES AND DANCING

The history of Dances is the history of the transition from pure vocal music to pure instrumental music. In the Dances of the 16th century, we have the germs of the modern 'Sonata' Form; and in the association of certain of them we have the first attempt at a sequence of different 'movements,' which finally resulted in the Sonata itself.

The Elizabethan Dances, especially the Pavan, shew us this development just at the point where instrumental music was dividing itself from vocal.

_All the ancient dances were originally sung._ In Grove's Dictionary, Vol. ii. p. 676, there is given the music of a _Pavan_, in four vocal parts, with the words sung [copied from Arbeau's Orchésographie, 1588]. Morley (Practical Music, 1597) mentions _Ballete_, as being 'songs which being sung to a dittie may likewise be danced.' Again, he speaks of 'a kind of songs ... called Justinianas ... all written in the _Bergamasca_ language.' See _Mids. Nt. Dream_ V, ii, 30, where Bottom is not so very inaccurate after all in asking Duke Theseus to '_hear_ a Bergomask dance between two of our company.' The same author also gives '_Passamesos_ with a dittie [_i.e._, sung],' and distinguishes between these aforesaid and 'those kinds which they make _without_ ditties.' [Passamesos are Passing-measures--or Passamezzo--Pavans, see _Twelfth Nt._ V, i, 200.]

Hence it appears that in Elizabeth's reign some dances were sung, and others were simply played.

Morley goes on to instance two particular dances which were commonly associated together--viz., _Pavans_ and _Galliards_. [_Tw._ V, i, 200, I, iii, 127, etc., _H. 5._ I, ii, 252], the first of which he says is for 'grave' dancing, having three 'strains,' each containing 8, 12, or 16 semibreves (two beats in a bar), which are each repeated; and that this _Pavan_ is usually followed by a _Galliard_, 'a kind of music made out of the other' [see Bull's Pavan and Galliard, 'St Thomas Wake,' in _Parthenia_] in _triple_ time, 'a lighter and more stirring dance than the _Pavan_, and consisting of the same number of straines.'

The next passage from Morley is very interesting when compared with the stage direction in _Timon_ I, ii, 131, where a _masque_ of _Ladies_ as _Amazons_ enter the banquetting hall at Timon's house, with _lutes_ in their hands, _dancing and playing_. This stage direction corresponds closely with Morley's account, 'the Italians make their _galliards_ (which they tearm _salta relly_) plain' [_i.e._, alone; not as an appendage to the Pavan, as in England], 'and frame ditties to them, which in their _mascaradoes_ they sing and dance, and manie times without any instruments at all, but instead of instruments they have _Curtisans disguised_ in men's apparell, who sing _and daunce_ to their own songes.'

The 'French _bransle_,' he says, is like the Alman (Allemagne of Bach, etc.)--_i.e._, it 'containeth the time of eight, and most commonly in short notes.' This is the Brawl, see _L.L.L._ III, i, 9, and was one of several tunes to which the Country Dance was danced, whether in a ring, or 'at length,' like our 'Sir Roger.'

He says that the '_voltes_ and _courantes_' also are 'like unto this,' but are 'danced after sundrie fashions' [he means, with different steps, but occupying the same rhythmical time, so that the same tune would do], 'the _volte_ rising and leaping, the _courant_ travising and running, in which measure also our Countrey dance is made, though it be danced after _another form_ than any of the former.'

'All these be made in _straines_, either two or three.' See _Tw._ I, i, 4, 'that _strain_ again,' or _Julius Cæsar_ IV, iii, 258, 'touch thy instrument a _strain_ or two.'

Christopher Sympson, the royalist soldier (1667), confirms Morley's statements as to the constitution and use of these dances. See his 'Compendium,' p. 116, where he expressly states that pure instrumental music, 'made only to delight the ear,' is merely a development from Dances.

He speaks of the association of Pavan and Galliard as being 'in course.' He spells the latter _Giliard_, and says that it is 'according to its name' [see Skeat, Etym. Dict., Spanish, gallardo (ll = ly), pleasant, gay, lively] 'of a loftly and frolick movement.' Immediately afterwards, however, Sympson seems to forget his own remarks, for he says the name is derived from Gallia, 'the country whence it came.'

On page 117 he speaks of _Corants_, _Sarabands_, _Jiggs_, _Country Dances_, etc., as 'things so common in each one's ears' that he 'need not enlarge his Discourse' to them.

There is a capital bit of patriotism on page 118, which deserves quoting, first, because at the time it was entirely justifiable; secondly, because it shews us that in 1667, instrumental music had at last decidedly parted company with vocal part-writing, and had an independent existence. 'You need not seek Outlandish Authors, especially for Instrumental _Music_; no Nation (in my opinion) being equal to the _English_ in that way; as well for their excellent as their various and numerous Consorts, of 3, 4, 5, and 6 Parts, made properly [on purpose] for Instruments, of all which (as I said) _Fancies_ are the chief.' For 'Consort,' see _Two Gent._ III, ii, 83; and for 'Fancies,' _Hen. IV. B._ III, ii, 323.