FOLGER BOOKLETS ON TUDOR AND STUART CIVILIZATION

MUSIC IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

By Dorothy E, Mason

THE FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

ADMINISTERED BY THE TRUSTEES OF AMHERST COLLEGE

FOLGER BOOKLETS ON TUDOR AND STUART CIVILIZATION

THE Folger Shakespeare Library of Washington, D.C., a research institution founded by Henry Clay Folger and administered by the Trustees of Amherst College, has an extraordinary collection of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and other materials useful for the study of Western civiliza- tion from about 1485 to 1715. Although its primary purpose is to encourage advanced research in history and literature, the Folger Library also recognizes an obligation to the non- specialist who wants to know more about the civilization of the Tudor and Stuart periods when the English-speaking people were beginning their first expansion overseas and were laying the foundations of new realms abroad. This booklet is one of a series planned by the Folger Library to describe various aspects of the cultural history of the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries. Titles of other booklets will be announced as soon as they are published. Each of the pamphlets will be illustrated from contemporary docu- ments. Teachers desiring copies of the illustrative photo- graphs for use in preparing closed-circuit television pro- grams or other visual aids for their classes should write to the Folger Library for an estimate of the cost.

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MUSIC IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

By Dorothy E. Mason

THE FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

ADMINISTERED BY THE TRUSTEES OF AMHERST COLLEGE WASHINGTON, 1958

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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

ANY account of Elizabethan music, however brief, should note the fact that musical development in this age was part of a great intellectual and social movement that influenced the whole of life. The same forces that produced writers like Sir Philip Sid- ney, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Donne, and Francis Bacon also produced musicians like William Byrd, Thomas Morley, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Weelkes, and John Dowland. Artistic greatness was in the very air along with that exciting urge for adventure that was to widen the geo- graphical horizons of the world, and men's spiritual concepts as well.

The great Queen, of course, provided an inspiration for the best efforts of Englishmen, whatever their aims and activities. For music she was the ideal patroness. No mean musician her- self—she was an accomplished performer on the virginals— she aided her favorite art immensely in every way possible, be- stowing her favors on the singers in chapel and court, on the musicians in public and private theatrical performances. To the great composers of her time she was particularly gracious and helpful.

When Elizabeth died in 1603, there was in England a large and active group of composers (including Byrd, Gibbons, Dow- land, Pilkington, Weelkes, and Este among many others) who were destined to continue with brilliance the traditions of the sixteenth century well through the first quarter of the seven- teenth. On the other hand, Thomas Tallis, whose music still remains a valuable heritage, had died in 1585, an aged man whose professional life had begun as a gentleman of the Chapel Royal of Henry VIII. Thus, we must keep in mind that the gen- eral term "Elizabethan music" is a broad one, covering a full century of distinguished musical activity.

This long chronological span means, .of course, that there was no sudden outburst of song or of proficiency in producing or performing it in Elizabeth's age. Singing was an integral part of English life long before the beautifully planned and well- sung madrigals and airs had become a common heritage. We have record of the people, thousands of them, expressing their religious or patriotic fervor in song. In 1560, Bishop Jewel wrote to Peter Martyr:

A change appears more visible among the people; which nothing promotes more than the inviting them to sirig Psalms. . . . Sometimes at Paul's Cross, there will be 6000 people singing together.*

Years later, long after the age with which we are now con- cerned was past, great throngs gathered in York Minster when that city was being besieged during the Civil War in 1644 and, according to Thomas Mace {Musicks Monument, 1676),

Always before the sermon the whole congregation sang a psalm, to- gether with the choir and the organ. . . . When that vast ooncording unity of the whole congregational chorus came, as I may say, thun- dering in ... I was so transported, and rapt up into high contempla- tions, that there was no room left in my whole man, viz. body, soul, and spirit, for anything below divine and heavenly raptures.

This glance at a century of communal enthusiasm for ex- pression of devotion in song is presented only to emphasize the brilliance which Elizabeth's own age achieved, when all England was musically awake and literate. It is to this England we now turn.

We shall begin with a very brief survey of the music of the Church. There was a gradual transition from the services of the Roman Catholic Church to the final forms adopted for worship in the Church of England. The Roman plainsong was sim- plified; the Mass, in adapted form, became the service of Holy Communion. English was substituted for Latin, so that divine service might have meaning for all the people. The music of the Church of England consisted mainly of anthems, morning

* The spelling of this and all following quotations has been modernized.

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and evening services [Plate 2], musical settings of the re- sponses, and the litany. The anthems, while still contrapuntal in character, became more complex, though gloriously free- spirited and inspiring. Some of the finest of these were written by Christopher Tye, Orlando Gibbons, William Byrd, and Thomas Tallis. The Elizabethan settings of the Psalms which replaced the Catholic hymns were very moving and are still sung. During EKzabeth's reign, at least twenty-two psalters were published based on the metrical versions of the Psalms made by Sternhold and Hopkins alone, the first of them pub- lished with music in 1560. Distinguished Elizabethan com- posers of these settings included Robert Parsons, Thomas Tallis, John Cosyn, and WilHam Damon [Plate 3]. With such inspiring music provided for them, we can understand the satisfaction that psalm-singing must have given Elizabeth's church-going subjects.

The chief glory of Elizabeth's age was, however, the devel- opment of its secular vocal music, which reached a high degree of artistry. It did so, of course, because the Elizabethans re- ceived perhaps even more enjoyment from singing together socially than they did from singing psalms together in church. An educated person of the time was expected to perform music more than just fairly well. Thomas Morley, "Bachelor of Mu- sicke and Gentleman of Her Majesty's Royal Chapel," in his famous book on music and the teaching thereof, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (1597), relates an imaginary conversation which took place at a supper party [Plate 4]:

Among the rest of the guests, by chance, master Aphron came thither also, who falling to discourse of music, was in an argument so quickly taken up and hotly pursued by Eudoxus and Calergus ... as in his own art he was overthrown. But he still sticking in his opinion, the two gentlemen requested me to examine his reasons, and confute them. But I refusing and pretending ignorance, the whole company condemned me of discourtesy, being fully persuaded that I had been as skillful in that art as they took me to be learned in others. But supper being ended, and music books, according to the custom being

brought to the table, the mistress of the house presented me with a part, earnestly requesting me to sing. But when, after many excuses, I protested unfainedly that I could not, every one began to wonder. Yea, some whispered to others, demanding how I was brought up.

We see implied here the prevalent idea that an educated man should not only be able to take his part in a madrigal, but also to know the niceties of musical theory. Moreover, Morley's evi- dence is supported by that of Henry Peacham, who wrote in The Compleat Gentleman in 1622 that one of the fundamental qualities of a gentleman was to be able "to sing your part sure, and at the first sight, withall, to play the same upon your viol, or the exercise of the lute," thus adding instrumental accom- plishments to Morley's two earlier requirements.

About the musical interests of these people we have many other authentic reports. Contemporary records of all kinds, from royal account-books to household accounts, public documents, and private inventories, assure us that music, well learned and capably performed, was widespread throughout the land and an important part of everyday Elizabethan life. In addition to the masterpieces left by the greatest composers, we still have extant literally hundreds of catches, glees, ballads, street songs, and vendors' cries. They were sung or hummed on the street and played, with complicated variations, on the virginals by the well-trained sons and daughters of the higher gentry and nobility— all attesting to a land that was highly articulate in music.

The late Canon Fellowes, in his book on The English Madri- gal, describes one of the great houses, of which there were many in England at this time, Hengrave Hall near Bury St. Edmunds. It was not by any means one of the largest or most beautiful, but it was ample and comfortable, having been built by Sir Thomas Kytson, a wealthy wool merchant who had a great trade with Antwerp. After two generations this family, thanks to shrewd marriages, occupied a place of social promi- nence and patronized the arts. The second Sir Thomas was particularly interested in music and encouraged performances in his house. Many documents concerning this household have

been preserved and shed light on customs that were by no means confined to Hengrave Hall. One of the inventories made after the death of the younger Sir Thomas in 1602 reveals an astonishing music "establishment." There was "the chamber where the musicians play," and in this room were chests of in- struments and many song books, English, Italian, and one from Spain. In all, some fifty-four books are listed, mainly of part-songs, for three, four, five, and six voices. There are also a few books of dance music: corrantos, pavans, and galliards. This is a remarkable list, particularly of song books, for most of the English madrigals had not as yet been published. Also on the list we find some forty instruments owned by the family, including twelve viols, seven recorders, four lutes, five virginals, various brasses and woodwinds, and two "great organs."

To have use for such a great number of instruments implies a fairly large group of players resident at the Hall. Their num- ber would be supplemented on special occasions by profes- sionals from the neighboring town of Bury St. Edmunds, by talented retainers, and now and then by guests who might have studied Morley's book.

Master of the music at Hengrave was none other than the famous madrigal composer, John Wilbye, who held his post there for many years. With such a leader, and with the library of at least fifty-four books, a goodly number of them being part- books, there must have been much singing— and good singing, too. Wilbye's music is not easy to perform. Neither were the Italian madrigals which were also there. Much of the music, particularly Wilbye's, was probably in manuscript and written for the Hall [Plate 5]. Wilbye's First Set of English Madrigals, published in 1598, was dated from the Austin Friars, the Lon- don home of the Kytsons, and dedicated to Sir Thomas Caven- dish of Welbeck, who was the husband of Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas. His second set, published in 1609, was dedicated to Lady Arabella Stuart, another relative of the Kytson family and an occasional visitor at Hengrave, where Wilbye doubtless met her.

This close family intimacy may explain one of the reasons for

the charming freshness, the spontaneity, the verve of Wilbye's as well as of other English madrigals, qualities which were lack- ing in their continental counterpart, the Italian madrigal, upon which the English was modelled. The madrigal, which was a secular, lyrical poem in the native language, was set in the form of an a capella song, originally for three voices, and afterwards for four, five, or even more. This contrapuntal form was one which would naturally appeal to the English taste and to the English love for communal performance. The composers adopted what could have become a very artificial and so- phisticated style, as it often was across the Channel, but they displayed so much enthusiasm and spontaneity, and were so greatly influenced by the lively spirit surrounding them, that the form became in their hands almost a native expression. Moreover, they seldom followed their Italian and French models in setting the songs to serious poetry, but instead chose popular verse, some of it based on matters of topical interest, such as Weelkes' madrigal called "The Andalusian Merchant," which reflects the common Elizabethan interest in travel and adventure, an eagerness expressed even in song:

That Andalusian merchant that returns,

Laden with cochineal and China dishes, Reports in Spain, how strangely Fogo burns,

Amidst an ocean full of flying fishes. These things seem wondrous, yet more wondrous I, Whose heart with fear doth freeze, with love doth fry.

The later canzonets, airs, and ballads were far more consciously literary, and for these we find verses from England's great poets of the day: Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne, Raleigh, and others.

The terms "ayre" (air) and "canzonet" we often find used for the same sort of song— a composition for a single voice, with other voices or, later, instruments supporting it [Plate 6]. While the contrapuntal nature of the madrigal made it difficult to set more than one verse of a poem in any one song, the air was sufficiently simple in structure to permit many verses to be sung through without difficulty. For Hengrave Hall and like places.

for groups of skilled performers or accomplished amateurs, the madrigal was a highly enjoyable form of entertainment. But at the turn of the century, when many poets were producing lyrics that fairly sang by themselves, it was inevitable that the more simple form of musical expression should become popular.

One of the most famous of the composers of airs was John Dowland, a singer par excellence and a lutenist without rival in his day. Of him Richard Bamfield wrote in his sonnet, "To his friend Maister R. L. in praise of Musique and Poetrie":

Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch Upon the lute doth ravish human sense.

As may be deduced from the list of musical instruments at Hengrave Hall, the most popular ones were probably the lute, virginals, and the family of viols. These had already enjoyed a long popularity, for records tell us that Henry VHI had a large collection of them. The lute was a loved instrument among all classes, either played as a solo instrument for simple affecting airs or used in accompanying or supporting a solo voice. They were of various shapes and sizes, the commonest— the treble lute— being shaped like a large mandolin, with six strings, the five lower attached in pairs, making eleven in all. The strings were fretted and played by being plucked with the fingers of the right hand. The popularity of the instrument lasted until the very end of the seventeenth century [Plate 7].

The viols, too, were used both for solo and accompaniment. A chest of them, about which we read so much, consisted of two treble, two tenor, and two bass viols. If concerted music was played on a family, or chest, of viols, it was called a "consort." If some other instrument, such as a recorder or lute, was brought into the combination, it was known as a "broken con- sort," or "broken music" [Plate 8]. Viols had six strings, were fretted like the lute, and played with a bow [Plate 7]. The cittern, a kind of country cousin of the lute, usually had four wire strings and was played with a plectrum, or quill [Plate 9].

The virginal, one of the earliest of keyboard instruments, was rectangular in shape and had a keyboard of about four octaves,

with strings plucked with a quill instead of being struck with a hammer like our modern piano [Plate 10]. It was queen of instruments during Elizabeth s reign, probably because she was known to be a very accomplished performer. She evidently took great pride in being so, for even in her later years diplomats were sometimes put to it to make the proper flattering remarks about the Queen's performance, even if it meant demeaning their own sovereign ladies.

Finally, we must at least mention the recorders, flutes, flageo- lets, rebecs (three-stringed "fiddles"), tabors (tiny drums), fifes, drums, andsackbuts (trombones)— all popular instruments since early days, and we hear of them repeatedly on the Eliz- abethan stage [Plates 1 and 9].

While much music was undoubtedly written for all these instruments ( we still possess much, and over the centuries much more has undoubtedly been lost), yet performers could play from the part-song books just as well. Madrigals for voices often became the music for viols and lutes. Their composers even suggested such arrangements on the title-pages of their com- positions: Michael Este, for example, notes his songs as "apt for viols and voices."

The printing of these part-song books "apt" for various com- binations of voices and instruments should not be overlooked. As shown in Plates 6 and 11, the large folio volumes were so printed, and the parts so arranged, that several persons could sing or play from one book. For example, a work in four parts would usually be arranged thus: On the left-hand page was the cantus part, which, if it was also to be sung to the lute, would have the special lute tablature beneath it. On the right-hand page the three parts were arranged so that the performers could sit or stand at three sides of the table: at the bottom of the page was the tenor part; at the top, facing the other way, the altus; between them, and facing both, was the bassus. In some books, such as Leighton's [Plate 11], alternative instruments were definitely suggested by the composers themselves, making a "broken consort" performance. The polyphony of the part-song

easily lent itself to the light-toned instruments of the period, the viols, lutes, and gambas.

In 1599 Thomas Morley published one of the first instru- mental ensemble compositions, the Consort Lessons, written for six instruments: treble lute, pandora (a kind of lute), cittern, bass viol, flute, and treble viol. Thomas Weelkes, Orlando Gib- bons, Tobias Hume, and John Dowland were also among the prominent writers of vocal music who used their polyphonic gifts in the writing of fantasias for instruments and voices.

Weelkes and Gibbons, along with Richard Deering, really had some fun with the form, too, for together they incorporated into one such fantasy more than one hundred and fifty cries and songs of the itinerant vendors on London's streets. All the indi- vidual songs concerned themselves with such matters as "New oysters, new mussels, my lily-white mussels," "Hot mutton pies," and "Cherry-ripe, strawberry ripe." Weelkes, amusingly enough, added a rather lugubrious "Alleluia" to all his pieces in this delightful collection.

This could be called "art music" with popular elements, since it was done with consummate skill by England's finest and most accomplished musicians and composers. The real "folk music," performed on the streets along with the cries of the vendors, by ballad-singers, itinerant fiddlers, and others less accomplished, was another thing, no less interesting. Great numbers of ballad texts were printed with directions to be sung to such-and-such an air, "Greensleeves," for example. These ballads were enor- mously popular, for references to them are constant in all types of written records, from pulpit to theatre. We are reminded of Mrs. Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor [n.i.55 ff.]:

I shall think the worst of fat men as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's liking. And yet he would not swear; prais'd women's modesty, and gave such orderly and well-behaved reproof to all uncomeliness that I would have sworn his disposition would have gone to the truth of his words. But they do no more adhere and keep place together than the Hundred Psalm to the tune of "Green- sleeves."

In a manuscript commonplace book once belonging to John Dowland, there is a version of this ballad set for lute, another indication of its popularity amongst all people at the time [Plate 12]. Many ballads and other forms of then-current "pop- ular" music are still accessible to us in Thomas Ravenscroft's collections: Pammelia (1609), Deuteromelia (1609), and Melis- mata (1611).

Since the printing of complex musical texts had not reached so high an art in England as on the Continent, most of the enormous amount of virginal music written at this time was circulated in manuscript. Two notable exceptions are the Par- thenia, or Maydenhead of the first musicke that euer was printed for the Virginals. Composed by three famous Masters William Byrd, Dr. John Bull and Orlando Gibbons Gentilmen of his Maiesties most Illustrious Chappell, printed from engraved plates in 1611; and its companion volume, Parthenia Inviolata or Mayden-Musicke for the Virginall and Bass-Violl. Selected out of the Compositions of the most famous in that Arte by Robert Hole and consecrated to all true Louers b- Practicers thereof. In recent years much more of this interesting music for a very beautiful instrument is being printed for the first time and regaining a deserved admiration.

Music had an important part in the early dramas. The mys- tery and miracle plays popular in England in the fourteenth century were still being acted occasionally early in Elizabeth's reign and were another means of preserving and continuing the folk-art of the people. Early interludes also continued the tra- dition, for many of them specifically indicated the use of songs and even particular instruments. John Redford, musician and playwright (cfl.1485-ca.1545), in his position as choir-master of St. Paul's, London, would have been in charge of many of the Latin plays presented by the choir-boys for visiting dignitaries. An extant manuscript of his morality, Wyt and Science, contains the words of three different songs. At the end of the play is a further note: "Here come in four with viols and sing remem- brance,' and at the last quire [verse] all make cur[t]sey and so go forth singing." At the end of another morality play,

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Redford again uses music: "Here the[y] sing 'Hey nonny, nonny,' and so go forth singing." We meet that particular refrain long afterwards in Elizabethan ballets.

In 1562 the famous tragedy of Gorhoduc was acted in the Hall of the Inner Temple on Twelfth Night, and the play was produced with musical effects supplied by viols, cornets, oboes, drums, and flutes. This was no exceptional presentation. Music like this was expected in a play, for it was an important and integral part of everyday life even this early, and actors were already well equipped, musically, to depict that life upon the stage.

With the growth of interest in theatrical performances, with recognized stage practices, there came into being certain ac- cepted standards of stage music as well. The Theatre, built in 1576, and its neighboring houses were repertory theatres, pro- ducing a different play each acting day. As we learn from Henslowe's Diary, in a typical two- weeks' schedule for February, 1596, the Admiral's Men presented ten plays on twelve acting days, each play employing from ten to twenty musical effects. In the public theatres, music was probably placed in the same category as the stage properties, such as costumes and the machines, to be used whenever required by the dramatic texts. Records show that in 1598 the Lord Admiral's Company owned three trumpets, one drum, one treble viol, one bass viol, one pandora, one sackbut, three tymbrels (small drums), and bells. Considering the demands of the texts of the plays and the instruments in each theatre, there must have been a need for at least eight musicians in each company.

From the play texts themselves we learn that music of certain kinds had specific meanings for the Elizabethan audience. When a king entered or left the stage, hoyboyes (oboes) sounded. A drum beaten on or off stage could indicate a march- ing army. For each phase of the stage battles there was special music— such as "alarum," "parley," "retreat," played by trumpet and drum, and sometimes even by the flute. Likewise, certain dramatic situations had corresponding musical formulas. It is evident that these were taken from everyday Elizabethan life.

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Trumpets and kettledrums were the signs apparent of the ap- proach of EHzabeth and her court and thus heralded the Queen on all state occasions. Parenthetically, it may be stated here that Elizabeth loved the sound of drums and trumpets, and as early as 1571 maintained eighteen trumpeters and six sackbut players in her household. Every day the signal for dinner was given by twelve trumpets and a pair of drums, which "made the hall ring for half an hour together."

Shakespeare, along with his fellow-dramatists, called for much music in his plays. One critic writes: "Shakespeare knew his audience well, and it cannot be coincidence that the two plays whose titles imply that he was giving it what it wanted contain the most songs. As You Like It and Twelfth Night, or What You Will contain no fewer than six songs each." Two pages sing "It was a lover and his lasse" in Twelfth Night [see Plate 13 for Morley's setting of this song; it may have been the version sung in the play]. Ophelia sings in Hamlet, Desdemona in Othello. Robert Johnson's settings of "Full fathom five" and "Where the bee sucks" from the Tempest may have been written for the first performance of the play, although they were not published until 1660 by Dr. John Wilson [Plates 14 and 15]. "What shall he have that kill the deere," a catch sung in As You Like It [IV.ii.10-7], comes down to us recorded in a seventeenth century manuscript book of catches [Plate 16].

It must be stressed that all of these songs were not what we now might call incidental music, but that the playwrights used music as a deliberate device to suggest moods, provide atmos- phere, prepare the spectators for coming action, and emphasize dramatic situations. Of course, it supplied extraneous entertain- ment as well.

Our most important generalization to be made about this constant and significant use of music is that the English theatre was musical because the English audience was musically liter- ate, delighted in music, and demanded it. We must remember, too, that the love of music in the plays had received an impetus from the boy choirs, particularly those of the Chapel Royal. It had been customary from early times for the Children of the

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Chapel, as they were called, to take part in dramatic entertain- ment. By the 1570's enterprising Masters of the Chapel Royal were using the boys almost as professional players, and it was logical to emphasize music when the actors themselves were so well equipped to provide such entertainment. Henry VIII and Elizabeth often availed themselves of the talents of the boys of their Chapel, and in many a record we find in the court orders to the Lord Chamberlain the words, "The children of the Chapel to come before the Queen at dinner with a carol."

In 1602 a German visitor, Frederic Gershow, touring England with his master the Duke of Stettin, was greatly impressed by the Queen's Children of the Chapel, and wrote:

The Queen maintains a number of young boys who are required to devote themselves earnestly to the art of singing, and to learn to per- form on various sorts of musical instruments, and at the same time to carry on their studies. These boys have their special preceptors in all the various arts, and in particular excellent instructors in music. . . . For a whole hour preceding the play one listens to a delightful musical entertainment on organs, lutes, and flutes.

In addition to these boys, Elizabeth had at her disposal for special occasions, or for special music at theatrical perform- ances at court, many other well-trained London musicians, including the "musicians of the city," or the Lord Mayor's Waits. It is interesting to note that Thomas Morley's Consort Lessons ( 1599 ) , previously mentioned, and one of the few col- lections of instrumental pieces in print this early, was dedicated to the Lord Mayor and his Waits. They must have been a varied and accomplished group, considering the variety of instruments called for in Morley's score. His dedication is both flattering and significant:

As the ancient custom of this most honourable and renowned city hath been ever to retain and maintain excellent and expert musicians to adorn your Honour's favours, feasts, and solemn meetings; to those your Lordship's Waits, after commending these my labours to your honourable patronage, I recommend the same to your servants' care- ful and skillful handling, that the wants of exquisite harmony, appar-

13

ent, being left unsupplied for brevity of proportions, may be excused by their melodious additions, purposing hereafter to give them more testimony of my love towards them.

This means that Morley had indicated the general progressions he wished, and the ornamentation of that very simply indicated melody v^^as left up to the skill and good taste of the various performers. Perhaps they had studied his book, and he felt con- fident of their ability to do his great work simple justice.

In public theatres music was often performed after the play in addition to such music as may have been a part of the drama. We have an eyewitness, one Paul Hentzner, a Brandenburg jurist, who visited London in 1598 and reported:

Without the city there are some theatres where English actors repre- sent almost every day tragedies and comedies to very numerous audiences; these are concluded with music, variety of dances, and the excessive applause of those that are present.

One of the most popular Elizabethan entertainers was Shake- speare's fellow-actor, Will Kemp, who was famous both in England and on the Continent for his jigs, which were part dance, part pantomime, part songs. Rude things they probably were, but they appealed to the sense of humor of a people who also delighted in bear-baiting and the performances of the dancing horse. After the tours of the English companies on the Continent, many imitations of English plays and jigs appeared there, particularly in Germany. The vogue for them lasted long in England. In one of the late editions (ca.l725) of the mid- seventeenth century popular Dancing Master, first published by John Playford, there is a dance, with the music, entitled "Kemp's jigg" [Plate 17]. These jigs and suchlike entr'actes gave to the general public the variety of amusement and spec- tacle which private audiences enjoyed in a far more elegant, rich, and subtle fashion in the masques.

The masque was a form of courtly entertainment which had the characteristics of both play and opera. Its plot was unfolded in song and spoken words, with singing by solo voices and chorus and much intricate dancing, all performed against a

14

gorgeously decorative background, with complicated machinery and eflPective tableaux designed by the greatest artists of the day. The beginnings of the masque go back to the fourteenth century, but its real development started in the last years of Elizabeth and culminated during the reigns of her two suc- cessors. Very little of the music written for the masques has survived in print— probably much of it was never printed, since the performances were given only privately at the court or in noblemen's houses. Thomas Campion's Description of a Maske: Presented in the Banqueting Roome at Whitehall, on St. Stephens night . . . (1614) is one of the few printed masques that have come down to us [Plates 18 and 19].

In concluding this brief description of Elizabethan music, it is fitting that we pay tribute to the great Queen who was an ever-constant inspiration to the musicians of her time. We like to think of Elizabeth on one of her "progresses," say the one at Elvetham in 1591, when her host. Lord Hertford, provided music for her pleasure.

On the day of the Queen's departure, there was another "song of six parts with the music of an exquisite consort," to words beginning Eliza is the fairest Queen. During this performance, "the Queen of Fairies . . . danced and sang before Her Majesty," who insisted on the performance being repeated three times over, and "called for divers Lords and Ladies to behold it." And finally, "as Her Majesty passed through the park gate, there was a consort of musicians hidden in a bower, to whose playing this ditty of Come again, was sung, with excellent division, by two that were cunning. ... As this song was sung. Her Majesty, notwithstanding the great rain, stayed her coach and pulled off her mask, giving great thanks."

When Elizabeth was old and pathetic and failing, two years before her death, twenty-three of the greatest composers of her realm paid her a touching tribute; together they composed that magnificent set of madrigals in her honor. The Triumphes of Oriana (1601), each song ending with the refrain, "Long live Oriana," a lyrical echo of the shouted vivat's that had rung in her ears when she ascended the throne forty-three long years before [Plate 20].

15

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