Elizabethan Lyrics from TassoAuthor(s): Joan MurphySource: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 58, No. 5 (May, 1943), pp. 375-377Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2910380 .

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ELIZABETHAN LYRICS FROM TASSO 375

CORRECTIONS.4 Speght fond "to make a foole," fo'rne "to be foolish," fonne "foole," Gga "foolish"; Speght fell "skinne," Gga "skinne or ferse "; Speght grisly [adj.] "abominably," Gga "abominable "; Speght hew " welfare," hew "to hoouer," Gga "couler "; Speght leuer " better," Gga " better, or rather "; Speght nigh " to draw neare," nigh " almost," Gga " neare " [perhaps the more usual meaning]; Speght nempt "tell, or name," Gga Nimpt "named "; Speght tane " take," Gga " taken "; Speght slough "ditch" [a possible meaning first cited by NED. from 1532], Gga " dirty place " [which better fits Chaucer's use of the word]; Speght shede "depart," Gga "spill "; Speght ruse "take pity," Gga " to slide down " [which is at least closer to the meaning of rused, BD. 381].

ADDITIONS. Burlace " to carry a ded man to bury "; 5 Chad " I had "; Chud " I wold "; Crased " broken "; Daggled 6 " dirtye "; Iapes " iestes"; Ich "I will"; Pinge "thrust"; Queme " know" [erroneous]; Viand " meate "; Vang " take."

Arlingtonr, Virginia, ROBERT A. CALDWELL

ELIZABETHAN LYRICS FROM TASSO

The earliest English translations from Torquato Tasso seem to have been Abraham Fraunce's The Lamentations of Amyntas for the death of Phyllis (1587) and Thomas Kyd's The Householders

the British Museum catalogue as being at the end of the Museum copy of Thynne's third edition (printed by Thomas Petit, 1545 [?]) is nothing but a copy of the glossary in Speght's second edition (1602).

'Many of the corrections and improvements, including some of those listed, are admittedly slight and of minor importance.

6 Perhaps a partial explanation of Butrlace, which does not occur in Chaucer, is to be found in the fact that burles occurs in the so-called ME translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regumn Britanniae, College of Arms MS. Arundel xxII-which Roland owned-, fol. 27, as a translation of sarcofago.

6 Daggled and several of the other words in Gga do not occur in the Chaucer Concordance; they are, nonetheless, of value as indicating Holand's philological interest.

TVang, obviously for fong, does not occur in Gg, which has the usual form. I do not know whether vanjg or some similar form occurs in MS. Arundel xxiI.

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376 MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES, MAY, 1943

Philosophie, from the Aminta and the Padre di famiglia, respec- tively. The first known translation from Tasso's Rime is a version of the madrigal " Tirsi morir volea," printed in the first part of the Musica transalpina in 1588.1 I wish to point out here what appears to be the first printed English imitation of any part of the Gerusalemme liberata. Thomas Watson's Italian Madrigals Eng- lished, published in 1590, contains the following madrigal, accom- panied by the Italian te'xt from Madrigali a quatro voci di Luca Marenzio (Venice, 1587):

Evry singing bird, that in the wood reioyces come & assist me, with your charming voices: Zephirus, come too, & make the leaues & the fountaines Gently to send a whispring sound vnto the mountains: And from thence pleasant Echo, sweetly replying, stay here playing, where my Phillis now is lying, And louely Graces with waniton Satyres come & play, dancing & singing a hornpype or a rundelay. Vezzosi augelli in frbt le verdi fronde Temprano a proua lasciuette note Mormora l'aura e fa le foglie e l'onde Garir che variamente ella percote Quando taccion gl'augelli alto risponde Quando cantan gl'augei piu lieue scote Sia caso od arte hor accompagn' ed hora Alterna i versi lor la Musica ora.

Watson's modern editors, Carpenter and Bolle,2 have neglected to point out that this Italian "madrigal" is a stanza from the Gerusalemme liberata, xvi, 12. This preceded by several years the imitations or translations of Carew, Spenser, and Fairfax. Wat- son's madrigals xxiii and xxiv are not translations of the Italian texts given in Marenzio's song-book; 3 but it is interesting to note

1 Indicated by G. A. Dunlop, " The Sources of the Idyls of Jean Vauque- lin de la Fresnaye," MP., xiI (1914), 163. This rapprochement, as well as the others I have noted here, was overlooked by Dr. H. M. Priest in his dissertation, Tasso in English Literature, 1575-1675 (1934), a MS. copy of which is in the library of Northwestern University.

2 F. I. Carpenter, "Thomas Watson's 'Italian Madrigals Englished,' 1590," JGP., II (1898), 323-358; W. Bolle, Die gedruckten englischen Liederbicher bis 1600, Berlin, Mayer & Muller, 1903 [vol. xxix of Palaestra].

8 These madrigals are to be found in the Quarto libro di madrigali, Venice, 1587.

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ELIZABETHAN LYRICS FROM TASSO 377

that the Italian musician here set to music the first eight lines and the last six lines, respectively, of a single sonnet by Tasso, beginning "Di nettare amoroso ebro la mente."

The second part of the Musica transalpina (1597) contains still another imitation from Tasso's Rime. One of the best madrigals in the collection runs as follows:

Browne is my love but gracefull, and each renowned whitenesse, matcht with thy lovely browne, looseth its brightnesse. Fair is my love but scornefull, yet have I seene despised daintie white Lillies, and sad flowres wel prised. Browne is my love but graceful.

Bolle gives the somewhat faulty Italian text from Ferabosco's Secondo libro. It corresponds to the first six lines (with the first line repeated at the end) of Tasso's madrigal:

Bruna sei tu, ma bella, Ed ogni bel candore Perde col bruno tuo, giudice Amore. Bella sei tu, ma bruna; Pur se ne cade incolto Bianco ligustro, e negro fiore e colto. Chi coglie ad una ad una Le tue lodi piu elette, Che se ne tessa in rime ghirlandette? 6

JOAN MURPHY Eugene, Oregon

FALSTAFF'S "TARDY TRICKS"

Absence from London was so distasteful to Falstaff that when he was sent by Lancaster to procure a charge of foot for the army, he went by way of the Boar's Head Tavern. There he lingered long enough to eat Mistress Quickly out of house and home and be seized by Fang for indebtedness. The Chief Justice, attracted by the squabble between the sheriff's officer and Falstaff, reproached the fat knight for dawdling in the capital when his services were

4Tasso, Opere (Florence, 1724), II, 292. i Tasso, op. cit., II, 367. I am indebted to Professor C. B. Beall for the

identification of the source of this madrigal.

4

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