Thomas Ravenscroft: Musical Chronicler of an Elizabethan Theater Company

Thomas Ravenscroft: Musical Chronicler of an Elizabethan Theater CompanyAuthor(s): Linda Phyllis AusternSource: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Summer, 1985), pp.238-263Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/831565 .

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Thomas Ravenscroft: Musical Chronicler of an Elizabethan Theater Company*

BY LINDA PHYLLIS AUSTERN

HOMAS RAVENSCROFT (ca. 1590-1635) is best known today as the collector and editor of the earliest printed English folk songs and

rounds. But during his relatively short lifetime, this enigmatic man was also a chorister, composer, music theorist, and, possibly, actor. His sense of commerce was remarkably shrewd, for he carefully marketed his four secular publications-Pammelia (i 609), Deuteromelia (1 609), Melismata (i 6i ), and A Briefe Discourse of the True (but Neglected) Use of Charact'ring the Degrees ( 16 4}--on the strength of their diversity and promised significance, clearly aiming at the widest possible audience.1 From these varied collections modem musical source studies have identified eleven songs whose lyrics appeared in contemporaneous stage plays, gaining for Ravenscroft a secondary reputation as a man of the theater.2 Since wordbooks of the era did not include music, and collections of exclusively theatrical music were never printed, most songs from Elizabethan and Jacobean plays have been

*An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society, Louisville, 1983, under the title of "Thomas Ravenscroft and the Children of Paul's."

I The addresses to the reader in Pammelia: Musicks Miscellanie; or, Mixed Varietie of Pleasant Roundelayes, and Delightfull Catches (London: Barley, 1609); Deuteromelia; or, The Second Part of Musicks Melodie; or, Melodious Musicke (London: Adams, I609); and Melismata: Musicall Phansies Fitting the Court, Citie, and Countrey Humours (London: Stansby, 16 1) all stress the wide variety of content intended to please all tastes, the simplicity to permit any to perform the included pieces, and the uniqueness of that particular publication and its contents. The lengthy introductory material to A Briefe Discourse of the True (but Neglected) Use of Charact'ring the Degrees by Their Perfection, Imperfection, and Diminution in Measurable Musicke, against the Common Practise and Customs of These Times (London: Allde, 1614), including an apology, a preface, and nine short commendatory verses by well-known contemporary musical personalities, emphasizes the importance and high quality of the Discourse itself, and the aptness of the "various Sprightfull, Delightfull harmonies" appended to it as "harmonicall examples."

2 See Mary Chan, "Cynthia's Revels and Music for a Choir School: Christ Church Manuscript Mus 439," Studies in the Renaissance, XVIII (1971), 145; idem, Music in the Theatre of Ben Jonson (Oxford, I980), p. 30; Vincent Duckles, "The Music for the



THOMAS RAVENSCROFT 239

irrevocably lost; Ravenscroft's eleven represent a large share of those that do survive. The present study, however, will show Ravenscroft's contribution to our knowledge of theater music to be even more significant than previously suspected.

The nature and extent of Ravenscroft's theatrical repertoire should first be clarified. Ravenscroft actually had relatively little to do with the origin of the songs from the two most famous plays of the era with which his name has been associated. These songs, from Francis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607) and William Shakespeare's The Twelfth Night (I6o0o- 602), have been known to modern scholars only from printed sources such as Ravenscroft's.3 But actually they circulated in manuscript before the plays were written. Concordant sources such as King's College Cambridge MS KCI (1580)4 and "The Melvill Book of Roundells," Library of Congress MS MI490.M535A5 (16I2),5 have been overlooked. A survey of all extant contemporary publications and manuscripts of English secular music now shows conclusively that The Knight of the Burning Pestle and Twelfth Night do not include any texts for which Ravenscroft's positively represent the earliest musical settings, and

Lyrics in Early Seventeenth-Century English Drama: A Bibliography of the Primary Sources," Music in English Renaissance Drama, ed. John H. Long (Lexington, 1968), pp. 124-25, 128-29; W. J. Lawrence, "Thomas Ravenscroft's Theatrical Associations," The Modern Language Review, XIX (1924), 418-23; David Mateer, "Ravenscroft, Thomas," The New Grove Dictionary, XV, 623-24; Andrew J. Sabol, "Ravenscroft's 'Melismata' and the Children of Paul's," Renaissance News, XII (1959), 3-9; idem, "Two Songs with Accompaniment for an Elizabethan Choirboy Play," Studies in the Renaissance, V (1958), 147, 152; and Michael Shapiro, Children of the Revels: The Boy Companies of Shakespeare's Time and Their Plays (New York, 1977), PP. 236-37, 239. Each of these studies mentions only selected songs from the theater; for a complete list of the dramatic songs in Ravenscroft's publications, see Table i of the present work.

3 In particular, see Louis C. Elson, Shakespeare in Music (Boston, 1901), p. 21I1; Edwin S. Lindsey, "The Original Music for Beaumont's Play The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Studies in Philology, XXVI (1929), 425-43; Edward Woodall Naylor, Shake- speare and Music, rev. ed. (London, 193 I; repr. New York, 1965), pp. 86-89, 192; and Charles Vincent, ed., Fifty Shakespeare Songs (Boston, i906), p. xxix.

4 King's College Cambridge MS KCI, a parchment roll measuring sixteen feet in length, contains the words and music to fifty-seven rounds, catches, and canons. Its opening explains that these were collected by Thomas Lant in 158o, more than a quarter century before the first of Ravenscroft's publications. This manuscript overlaps significantly in content with both Pammelia and Deuteromelia. Writers on Ravenscroft and his theatrical associations appear to be completely unaware of this manuscript, which is described in Jill Vlasto, "An Elizabethan Anthology of Rounds," The Musical Quarterly, XL (1954), 222-34.

5 Library of Congress MS MI490.M535A5 is a small quarto of 152 numbered pages, giving the words and music to ninety rounds, catches, and canons and eight partsongs. Its title page bears the designation "Ane Buik off Roundels" and indicates



240 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

they do not share with the Ravenscroft collections any textual variations that would connect the plays specifically to these musical publications. (See Table i.) Furthermore, none of the seventeenth- century editions of either The Knight of the Burning Pestle or Twelfth Night includes complete text for any setting preserved by Ravenscroft. Contemporary dramatists and their publishers often conserved pre- cious ink and paper by introducing only the title, incipit, or an internal quotation from a well-known song into the text of a play. Therefore, it may be assumed that a song represented by a mere fragment in a wordbook must have been already popular before the play was written. From all of this we may safely conclude that the five songs in question were widely known in London, did not originate as theater music, and were undoubtedly gathered independently by Ravenscroft, Beaumont, Shakespeare, and the other collectors. Not coincidentally, The Knight of the Burning Pestle and Twelfth Night are the only two plays in the Ravenscroft canon that were not acted by the Children of Paul's.

The remaining six theatrical songs in Ravenscroft's publications all belong to the repertory of the Children of Paul's. Only one of these, Pammelia, no. 3, is presented as a simple song fragment in a dramatic text and finds concordances in other musical collections of the era. The others are all given with complete text in their dramatic sources, and their musical settings are all unique to Ravenscroft. It may therefore be assumed that they were written specifically for the Children of Paul's productions. These five songs represent the largest number of original theatrical settings preserved from any one contemporary dramatic company in a single set of sources. And all of these originate in plays first presented between I598 and 1604, the years during which Ravenscroft was associated with the company through his membership in the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral. The connection between Ravenscroft and the Children of Paul's has been previously noted by several scholars,6 but its exclusivity and the remarkable coincidence of dates have been overlooked until now.

that the contents were "collected and notted by David Melvill. 1612." Many of its texts are in Melvill's native Scottish dialect. This manuscript also has significant overlap in content with Pammelia and Deuteromelia. It is available in modern edition with an extensive introduction by Granville Bantock and H. Orsmond Anderton, eds., The Melvill Book ofRoundels (London, 1916; repr. New York, 1972), in which the manuscript is considered to be in the hands of an unnamed private collector.

6 See Reavley Gair, The Children of Paul's: The Story of a Theatre Company, i55y3- I6o8 (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 167-69; Lawrence, "Thomas Ravenscroft's Theatrical




Ravenscroft's association with the Children of Paul's must be understood in the context of the two distinct types of professional theater companies in sixteenth-century England. To the first and most enduring of these belonged the companies composed principally of adult men who trained for the stage from childhood, through the apprenticeship system. To the second belonged the companies, like the Children of Paul's, composed entirely of young boys who were never considered apprentice actors. These companies arose from the early Tudor practice of using the young choristers from chapels and cathedrals in special dramatic entertainments at court.

Choirboys continued to entertain the court with special plays throughout the reign of Elizabeth, and by the 158o0s rehearsals for these court appearances attracted wealthy spectators who wished to keep abreast of courtly fashions. By Ravenscroft's day, troupes named for the Chapel Royal and St. Paul's Cathedral functioned as indepen- dent, commercial dramatic companies with their own theaters, a regular season of performances, and a somewhat tenuous connection with their parent choirs. By 1613 this form of theater had died out, its entire history covering a mere ninety-seven years from amateur, to professional, to extinct status. During their brief but flamboyant history, the children's companies were assisted by the most famous native playwrights, with the notable exception of William Shake- speare. They also involved many of England's finest musicians as composers or directors, from William Cornish to Philip Rosseter. Music was integral to performances by companies of both types, but on an average, plays presented by boys contained more songs and instrumental pieces.7

The Children of Paul's, named for their connection to St. Paul's Cathedral, underwent a reorganization toward the end of the sixteenth century. The company was expanded to include actors who were not choristers, as we learn from recently recovered documents relating to St. Paul's Cathedral grammar school.8 However, some of the cathedral choirboys continued to appear in stage roles. In fact, the only two actors of this company whose names are known to us were

Associations"; Mateer, "Ravenscroft"; Sabol, "Two Songs with Accompaniment"; and Shapiro, Children of the Revels, p. 10o4.

7 See Shapiro, Children of the Revels, pp. 235-36. 8 See Linda Phyllis Austern, "Music in English Children's Drama, I597-1613"

(Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Chicago, 1984), pp. 30-31; and Shapiro, Children of the Revels, p. 20. Gair has also recognized this school as a potential recruiting ground for actors throughout contemporary London (Children of Paul's, pp. i40-41).



TABLE I

Ravenscroft's Songs in Theatrical Context

Ravenscroft col- Manuscript Play Dramatic company lection and number concordances*

Pammelia, GB:Ckc, MS KC I, no. 22; Anon., The Maydes Children of no. 3 US:Wc, MS MI490o.M53 A5, Metamorphosis, Act II Paul's

"The Secund Roundells, p. 2 (i6oo)

Pammelia, GB:Ckc, MS KC I, no. 29; Francis Beaumont, The Children of the no. 7 US:Wc, MS MI49o.M35A5, Knight of the Burning Pestle, Chapel "The VI Roundell," p. 6 Act II, scene 8 (I607)

Pammelia, GB:Ckc, MS KC i, no. i2; Francis Beaumont, The Children of the no. 85 US: Wc, MS MI49o.M535As, Knight of the Burning Pestle, Chapel "The XLI Roundell," p. 46 Act IV, scene 4 (1607)

Pammelia, GB:Ckc, MS KC i, no. 7; Francis Beaumont, The Children of the no. ioo US:Wc, MS MI49o.M535A5, Knight of the Burning Pestle, Chapel "The LXIX Roundell, p. 80o Act IV, scene 4 (1607)

Deuteromelia, US:Wc, MS MI49o.M 35A5, Francis Beaumont, The Children of the no. 7 "The 4th Song for Thrie Voices," Knight of the Burning Pestle, Chapel

p. I30 Act I, scene I (607)

Deuteromelia, GB:Ckc, MS KC i, no. 32**; William Shakespeare, Lord Chamberlain's no. Io US:Wc, MS MI490.M535A5, Twelfth Night, Act II, Men

"The LXXII Roundell," p. 84** scene 3 (I6oo-I6o2)***

0

0

oi

z

0

o

o0 o



Deuteromelia, None John Marston, Jacke Drum's Children of no. 17 Entertainment, Act V (i60o) Paul's

Melismata, None Thomas Middleton, A Tricke Children of no. I2 to Catch the Old-One, Paul's

Act IV, scene 5 (1604)

Briefe Discourse, None Anon., The Maydes Children of no. 8 Metamorphosis, Act II (16oo) Paul's

Briefe Discourse, None Anon., The Maydes Children of no. 9 Metamorphosis, Act II (16oo) Paul's

Briefe Discourse, None Anon., Blurt, Master- Children of no. 15 Constable; or, The Spaniards Night- Paul's

Walke, Act V, scene 2 (160o-1602)

*GB:Ckc = Cambridge, Rowe Music Library, King's College; US:Wc = Washington, D.C., Library of Congress.

**These versions of the song differ significantly from each other and from Deuteromelia, no. io, but all three include the complete textual quotation given in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

***Vincent Duckles, "The Music for the Lyrics in Early Seventeenth-Century English Drama," Music in English Renaissance Drama, ed. John H. Long (Lexington, 1968), pp. 124, 128, mistakenly claims that the quotation "I am three merry men" from Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Act II, scene 8, comes from this song.

c3 O

0

M

.g,




both choristers of St. Paul's Cathedral according to the bishop of London's register of i598.9 Thomas Rainescroft [Ravenscroft] is included among the choirboys in this register,'0 and on this basis it would seem likely that young Thomas was one of the choristers who acted with the company, given Ravenscroft's later role in publishing its music.

Another and more important name to appear in connection with St. Paul's Cathedral at about the same time is that of Edward Pearce, the composer and musician extraordinaire, who became master of the children in what has been termed "the second and more brilliant phase" of this company's history."I In the year I6oo, Pearce "yealded up his place [as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal] for the mastership of the Children of Poules."12 His duties included direction of the cathedral choirboys and of the dramatic company. Rewards for court appearances by the actors went to him, and he finally served as manager of the company playhouse."3 Years later Thomas Ravens- croft recalled Pearce as an outstanding composer and teacher:

Maister Edward Pearce . . . sometimes Maister of the Children of Saint Paules in London, and there my Maister, [was] a man of singular eminency in his Profession, both in the Educating of Children for the ordering of the Voyce so, as the Quality might afterward credit him and preferre them: And also in those his Compositions to the Lute ... together with his skilfull Instructions for other Instruments too, as his fruits can beare him witnesse.14

9 The first quarto of John Marston's The History of Antonio and Mellida, the First Part (London: Lownes and Fisher, 1602), Act IV, scene i, includes a stage direction with the names of the actors "Cole" and "Norwood." Robert Coles and John Norwood are two of eleven "choriste" listed for 1598 in the bishop of London's register, Guildhall Library MS 953 1/1 3, foliation unmarked. This list of choristers is transcribed in Gair, Children ofPaul's, Appendix 2, without citation of the manuscript; and in Harold Newcomb Hillebrand, The Child Actors: A Chapter in Elizabethan Stage History, University of Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, i i, nos. I and 2 (Urbana, Ill., 1926; repr. New York, 1964), p. i i i, with incomplete citation of the manuscript.

10 Guildhall Library MS 9531/13, foliation unmarked. " Shapiro, Children of the Revels, p. I79- 12 Edward Francis Rimbault, ed., The Old Cheque-Book, or Book of Remembrance, of

the Chapel Royal, from 1561 to 1744 (Westminster, 1872; repr. New York, 1966), pp. 5- 6.

13 Gair, Children of Paul's, p. i i3; and Shapiro, Children of the Revels, p. 22. 14 Ravenscroft, A Briefe Discourse, Preface. In this article I have reduced letter

shapes to the conventions of modern typography, in particular as regards the letters u and v, which were often interchangeable shapes in sixteenth- and seventeenth- century printing.




Some of Pearce's surviving compositions were written for the Children to perform in their plays, and these youthful actors did indeed bear witness to the eminency of their master as a teacher of the musical arts. The Children's music brought them fame but also sarcastic and often envious derision when its elaborate style was compared with the often simple ditties sung by the less musical players of the adult stage. Thomas Middleton, himself a leading playwright for the Children of Paul's, wrote these lines for a rival company: "Pish I had rather hear one Ballad sung i'th'Nose now, of the lamentable drowning of fat Sheep and Oxen, then all these simpering tunes plaid upon Cats-guts, and sung by little Kitlings."'s

The Children were selected for both beauty and musical talent. High expectations in both areas are indicated in passages from their plays, such as: "I was solicited to graunt him leave to play the Lady in comedies presented by Children, but I knew his voice was to[o] small and his stature to[o] loe."16 The bishop of London describes them as being "well instructed and fitt for their places and they doe diligentlie keepe theire accustomed howers in repayring unto divine service, they come to church in decent order."" At the same time, the unknown author of the play The Maydes Metamorphosis comments in mock horror on some of the indecent disorder that frequently crept into their dramas: "Well, you have wicked Maisters that teach such little Boyes as you are to sweare so young."'8 Thomas Dekker, another playwright for the company, describes a distraction available to the same boys during the sacred service in his sarcastic advice to would-be gallants:

Never be seene to mount the steppes into the quire [of St. Paul's Cathedral], but upon a high Festivall day, to preferre the fashion of your doublet, and especially if the singing boyes seeme to take note of you: for they are able to buzze your praises, above their Anthem, if their Voyces have not lost their maiden-heads; be sure your silver spurres dogge your heeles, and then the Boyes will swarme about you like so many white butter-flyes when you in the open Quire shall drawe forth a perfumd embrodered purse . .. and quoyt Silver into the Boyes handes, that it may bee heard above the first lesson.'9

I' Thomas Middleton, Women Beware Women (London: Moseley, 1657), Act III,

scene 2. 16 John Marston, What You Will (London: G. Eld, 1607), Act II, scene [2]. 17 The visitation book of Bishop Bancroft, London, Guildhall Library MS 9537/9,

fol. 56'. 18 The Maydes Metamorphosis (London: Creede, i6oo), Act III. 19 Thomas Dekker [T. Deckar], The Guls Horne-Booke: Stultorum plena sunt omnia

(London: Imprinted for R. S., 1609), p. 20.




John Marston, the principal playwright for the company during Ravenscroft's tenure in the choir, praises the impish actors and the exclusive audience that frequented their expensive theater on the grounds of St. Paul's:

Sir Edward Fortune. I sawe the Children of Powles last night, And troth they pleasde me prettie, prettie well,

Ned Planet. I'faith I like the Audience that frequenteth there With much applause: A man shall not be choakte With the stench of Garlicke, nor be pasted To the barmy Jacket of a Beer-brewer.20

Such evidence makes it abundantly clear that the actors, the audience, and the polyphonic musical settings associated with the Children of Paul's had few rivals in Ravenscroft's England. But the plays whose music he preserved and the dramatic use of that music are entirely typical of the contemporary English theater at large.

Although children's plays included, as I have said, on average, more musical performance, they are not all invariably more musical than similar adults' plays.21 The use of music by all Elizabethan theater companies now appears to have been dictated primarily by dramatic convention and contemporary attitudes toward this "Liberall Science,"22 and only secondarily by the special musical training of certain actors. Pastoral plays and comedies required more music than other dramas, regardless of which type of company performed them. Now, most children's plays are comedies, and the Children of Paul's presented only one play that was neither comedy nor pastoral during Ravenscroft's tenure in the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral. The nature of the children's companies, in general, allowed their dramatists greater freedom to choose the amount and kind of music for their plays, although sometimes, for dramatic reasons, the children's musical resources were ignored.

Because Elizabethan theaters lacked painted scenery and front drop curtains, music was regarded as indispensable in establishing settings and ushering actors gracefully on and off stage. So closely were music and drama allied in English Renaissance thought that an

20John Marston, Jacke Drum's Entertainment; or, The Comedie of Pasquill and Katherine (London: Olive, I6oi), Act V.

21 Austern, "Music in English Children's Drama," pp. 56-io5. 22 Ravenscroft, A Briefe Discourse, Dedication.




anonymous literary theorist could write in 1589 that poets had been the world's original musicians, for in the theater

they did altogether endevor the[m]selves to reduce the life of man to a certaine method of good maners, and made the first differences betweene vertue and vice, and then tempered all these knowledges and skilles with the exercise of a delectable Musicke. .. .23

Thomas Gainsford explains that musical skills ranked among the standard abilities of all excellent actors:

Player hath many times, many excellent qualities: as dancing, activitie, musicke, song, elloqution, abilitie of body, memory, vigilancy, skill of weapon, pregnancy of wit, and such like: in all which hee resembleth an excellent spring of water, which growes the more sweeter, and the more plentifull by the often drawing out of it: so are all these the more perfect and plausible by the often practise.24

A detractor from the stage mentions the same abilities when he tells us that in the contemporary theater one finds

straunge consortes of melody, to tickle the eare; costly apparel, to flatter the light; effeminate gesture, to ravish the sence; and wanton speache, to whet desire to inordinate lust.25

And music was such an accepted feature of all dramatic performances that William Prynne's infamous antitheatrical tract, Histrio-Mastix, not only tells us that playhouses were "resounding alwayes with such voluptuous Melody,"'26 but elevates music to one of the principal vices of the theater:

The third unlawfull Concomitant of Stage-playes, is efeminate, delicate, lust-provoking Musicke ...

23 [George or Richard Puttenham?], The Arte of English Poesie (London: Field, i589), p. 6.

24 Thomas Gainsford, The Rich Cabinet (London: Printed by J. B. for Roger Jackson, I616), fol.

I7v'. 25 Stephen Gosson, The Schoole of Abuse (London: Printed for Thomas Woodcocke,

1579), fol. 14'. Similar accounts of the consistency with which music was used in the theater are found in William Prynne, Histrio-Mastix: The Players Scourge; or, Actors Tragedie (London: Printed by E. A. and W. I. for Michael Spake, 1633), pp. 237-90; and Phillip Stubbes [Stubbs], The Anatomie of Abuses (London: Jones, I583), "Of Stage-Playes and Enterluds."

26 Prynne, Histrio-Mastix, p. 286.




That which is alwaies accompanied with effeminate lust-provoking Musicke, is doubtlesse inexpedient and unlawfull unto Christians. But Stage-playes are alwayes accompanied with such Musicke.27

This vital position of music in Elizabethan theater is mentioned by writers in such diverse areas as history, mathematics, linguistic instruction, and music theory.28 Ravenscroft's Briefe Discourse is but one among dozens of such works. But Ravenscroft's treatise reflects the authority of a musician with a documented connection to an Elizabethan theater company, and it is unusually specific about the social occasions that were most frequently provided with music when they were portrayed in contemporaneous plays. He describes the purposes and occasions of musical performance that apply equally to the mirrored universes of the theater and everyday life, telling us that music may pertain to the common recreations that men take, "and therein utter that Passion which men discover in the use of those Recreations. "29

The five recreations that Ravenscroft names are hunting and hawking, dancing, drinking, and enamoring. And for each he describes and presents suitably representative musical examples, some of which were taken directly from stage plays. All but one of Ravenscroft's published theatrical settings come from stage representations of these particular pastimes.

Ravenscroft failed to preserve settings of extant lyrics from staged hunting or hawking expeditions, so we may begin a survey of representative examples from the repertory of the Children of Paul's with his third recreation, dancing. This is the one activity whose description in the Briefe Discourse makes a direct concession to the imaginative realm of musical drama:

The next we present is Dauncing, but that with some difference from the common Exercise now a daies of it, in our Maskes and Revells: As not grounded on the Dauncing of Measures, and accordingly bound to some particular Rules and Numbers ... But fashioned like those Antique

27 Ibid., pp. 273-74- 28 See Austern, "Music in English Children's Drama," in which such widely

ranging works as Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion; or, A Chorographicall Description of Great Britain (London: Busbie, 1612); Claude de Sainliens [Claudius Hollybande], The French Schoolmaister (London: How, 1573); and William Ingpen, The Secrets of Numbers (London: Lowns, I624), are shown to illustrate aspects of the use of music in the Elizabethan and Jacobean theaters.

29 Ravenscroft, A Briefe Discourse, Preface.




Daunces, which the Poets would have us beleeve, the Fayries, and the Satyres, and those other Rurall Natures frequented. .. .30

The fairies of the anonymous play The Maydes Metamorphosis (16oo) are typical of such characters. They are a charming and delightful company whose main purpose is to heighten the mood of lighthearted beneficence with their pert dialogue and enchanting song and dance. Fairies on the English stage are a phenomenon associated with the waning years of Elizabeth's reign, appearing primarily in plays that blend the elements of mythology and pastoral into the genre known to literary historians as forest, or Lylyesque, pastoral comedy.31 Al- though sophisticated Englishmen did not really believe in fairies,32 they generally agreed on the attributes of such beings as they might be represented on stage. A 1572 treatise on the supernatural tells us that

in many places in the North partes, there are certaine monsters or spirites, whiche taking on them some shape or figure, use (cheefly in the night season) to daunce, after the sounde of all manner of instrumentes of musicke: whome the inhabitants call companies, or daunces, of Elves, or Fairies. 33

The unknown author of The Maydes Metamorphosis was clearly aware of this musical mythos. And so were the composers who set the paired dance songs from the end of Act II as the four-voice madrigals that are preserved as numbers 8 and 9 in Ravenscroft's Briefe Discourse. Stage directions make it quite clear that these two pieces are to be sung and danced at the same time, which gives Ravenscroft's theatrical chronicle yet another unique significance. For these two pieces perfectly fit Thomas Morley's famous definition of the ballett as a light madrigalian composition, "which being sung to a dittie may likewise be daunced."34 It has long been assumed that the ballett was

30 Ibid. I3 See Walter W. Greg, Pastoral Poetry & Pastoral Drama: A Literary Inquiry, with

Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration Stage in England (London, 1906), p. 2 16; and Robert Rentoul Reed, Jr., The Occult on the Tudor and Stuart Stage (Boston, 1965), pp. 203-205. The term Lylyesque refers to playwright John Lyle, who pioneered this particular blend of classical and fairy-tale elements in the late sixteenth century; see Shapiro, Children of the Revels, pp. I80-83.

32 Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York, 197 1), pp. 607-608. 33 Lewes Lavaterus [Ludwig Lavater], Of Ghostes and Spirites Walking by Night,

trans. Robert Harrison (London: Benneyman, 1572), p. 93. Also see Thomas Nashe, The Terrors of the Night; or, A Discourse of Apparitions (London: Jones, i594), fol. I32V.

34 Thomas Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (London: Short, 1597), p. I8o.




not danced in England and that Morley simply referred to an Italian custom learned from the title page of Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi's Balletti a cinque voci of 1591. 35 These two fairy dance-songs, however, ignored by previous commentators on the English ballett, provide the only evidence as yet discovered to suggest that Morley's statement applies to England. And they represent a further link between the English ballett and the Italian balletto.36

In Act II of The Maydes Metamorphosis, a company of fairies surprises a merry gathering of shepherd boys and a courtier's page, then dances by moonlight and makes mischief at the boys' expense. Its entry dance is anonymous, number 8 in the Briefe Discourse, and the text of the dance, identical in both the play and musical collection, is a six-line poem with an added refrain. The rhyme scheme is AABBCC(C), and each of the first six lines consists of seven syllables, in homage to Italian poetry. The seventh line appears to fulfill the function of the nonsense refrain that is appended to most balletts, although it makes perfect sense and rhymes with the fifth and sixth lines:

By the moone we sport and play, With the night begins our day; As we daunce, the deaw doth fall; Trip it little urchins all, Lightly as the little Bee, Two by two and three by three: And about go wee, and about go wee.

The musical setting reflects the fairies' playful and capricious nature in changing textures, dainty rhythm, and shifting meter (Ex. i). The text is set for high voices in a bright G-major tonality,

I5 Gio[vanni] Giacomo Gastoldi da Caravaggio, Balletti a cinque voci, con li suoi versi per cantare, sonare, & ballare, quarta impressione (Venice: Amadino, i593); facs. ed. Corpus of Early Music, 30 (Brussels, 1970). See Denis Arnold, "Gastoldi and the English Ballett," The Monthly Musical Record, LXXXVI (1956), 44-45, 51-52; Joseph Kerman, The Elizabethan Madrigal: A Comparative Study, American Musicological Society, Studies and Documents, 4 (New York, 1962), pp. 136, 145; and Suzanne G. Cusick, "Balletto," The New Grove Dictionary, II, 92-94-

36 Gastoldi's Balletti a cinque voci were probably performed in costume before an audience; see Arnold, "Gastoldi and the English Ballett," pp. 44-45; and Kerman, Elizabethan Madrigal, p. 138. In addition, Gastoldi's collection appears to be arranged programmatically, and Alfred Einstein considers it to be the most important forerunner of the madrigal comedies of Vecchi and Banchieri; The Italian Madrigal, trans. Alexander H. Krappe, Roger H. Sessions, and Oliver Strunk (Princeton, '949), p. 605.




Example I From Thomas Ravenscroft's Briefe Discoune, no. 8, 'The Urchins Dance"

Trip it, [trip it, trip it, trip it,] lit - tie ur-chins all,


I----------------------II



Light - ly, light - ly

Light - ly, light - ly

Light - ly, light - lyig htght ly ,y, light - ly

Light - ly, light - ly, light - ly, light - ly

AA"A d A

as the lit- tie, lit- tie bee, Two by A A A

as the lit- tie, lit- tie bee, Two by

as the lit- tie, lit - tle bee, Two by two,




two by, two and three by three, and three by

two and three by three, and three by

two and three by three,andthree by three,

two by two and three by three and three by three,andthree by

30 = J.

three, and three by three, And a - bout goe wee, and a -

three, and three by three, And a - bout goe wee, and a-

two by two and three by three, A nd thra ebout goe wthree, and three by

A

three, and three by three, And a - bout goe wee, and a-

bout goe wee, and a - bout, a - bout, a -


bout goe wee, and a - bout, a bout, a -





lightened further by a cadence on A major. Each line of poetry receives a surprisingly different musical treatment, perhaps to illustrate the fairies' whimsical character as well as to work in simple madrigalisms at the words "lightly," "little," "two by two," and "three by three." Declamation is suitably deft, and the narrow vocal ranges foster an easy, graceful deployment of young voices. The piece is full of dancelike rhythms, and the shifts from duple to triple meter may relate to actual choreography, for, as Francis Bacon tells us,

the Tripla's and Changing of times, have an Agreement with the Changes of Motion; As when Galliard Time, and Measure [i.e., pavan] Time are in the Medley of one Dance.37

The other fairy dance from the same scene, preserved as number 9 in the Briefe Discourse and there attributed to John Bennet, is separated from the first by a brief and witty dialogue between the fairies and the boys. The young mortals are coerced into joining a dance in the traditional fairy ring by threat of severe pinching. This dance closes the second act of the play on a note of graceful merriment; its musical setting has been described as "perfect iqi its daintiness and delicacy."38 The poem, as presented in the play, consists of three stanzas, the first two of which are identical. Each stanza is four lines long, and each line is extended to an Italianate eleven-syllable length by means of the added, artificial syllable "a." The rhyme scheme is AABB in each stanza:

Round about, round about, in a fine ring a, Thus we daunce, thus we daunce, and thus we sing a: Trip and go, to and fro, over this Greene a, All about, in and out, for our brave Queene a.

[The same text is then repeated.]

We have daunc't round about in a fine Ring a, We have daunc't lustily and thus we sing a; All about, in and out, over this Greene a, Too and fro, trip and go, to our brave Queene a.

37 Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum; or, A Naturall Historie, 4th ed. (London: Haviland, 1635), p. 38.

38 Edmund H. Fellowes, The English Madrigal (London, 1925), p. 83. Fellowes neither identifies the piece with the theatrical context that it enhances so considerably nor presents a transcription to illustrate his point.




Bennet's musical setting preserves only the first stanza of the poem, varied so that the phrase "for our brave Queene a" is replaced with a repetition of "over this Greene a." Again, each of the four lines of text receives different musical treatment, and only the final one is repeated. The composer was clearly aware of the dictum on madrigalian writing that is expressed so beautifully by Thomas Morley:

You must in your musicke be wavering like the wind, sometime wanton, sometime drooping, sometime grave and staide, otherwhile effeminat, you may maintaine points and revert them, use triplaes and shew the verie uttermost of your varietie, and the more varietie you shew the better shal you please.39

Of course, this dance song is set for the same combination of voices in the same comfortable range as its companion piece: its third vocal part is especially easy to sing. Although the song shifts between two meters, its "changing of times" is never as pronounced or as rapid as any of those in the first, and it is less insistent in word painting. It achieves interest through the alternate use of homophony and counterpoint in its opening section (Ex. 2), a technique later praised by Charles Butler, who said that "bothe in Madrigalz and Canzonets, Counterpoint with Discant, and Discant with Counterpoint, are soomtime enterchangeably and artificially mixt. "40

Of the next musical pastime, Ravenscroft says that

Drinking is our fourth Recreation. For so 'tis become (at least, if not thefirst) by the use & Delight that men now take in it. .... [F]or want of Skill and Reason in that which they performe. . . [T]he Note they sing is of a higher Strayne, their Recreation lies in a braver Element, wherein they hover.41

The tradition behind drinking songs, both on stage and off, scarcely requires discussion, so long have the fine spirits of grain and grape been associated with the jovial spirits of men through song. Robert Burton tells us that drink and music are important components of the strongest antidote to melancholy known to the early seventeenth century:

Many and sundry are the meanes, which Philosophers and Physitians have prescribed to exhilarate a sorrowful heart, and to divert those fixed

39 Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction, p. I8o. 40 Charles Butler, The Principles ofMusik, in Singing and Setting (London: Haviland,

1636), p. 8 41 Ravenscroft, A Briefe Discourse, Preface.




and intent cares and meditations, which in this malady so much offend; but in my judgement none so present, none so powerful, none so opposite as a cup of strong drinke, mirth, musicke, and merry company.42

English stage drinkers sing frequently in taverns, in banquet halls, in the streets, but rarely in tune, if commentary given by the more sober

Example 2

From Thomas Ravenscroft's Briefe Discourse, no. 9, 'The Elves Dance," by John Bennet

thus we daunce, and thus we sing a: Trip and trip and go,

thus we daunce, and thus we sing a: Trip and

thus we daunce, and thus we sing a:

thus we daunce, and thus we sing a: Trip and trip and

A

to and fro, and froe, to and frothus we singto and fro, o:-ver this Greeneip and

trip and go, to andfro and fro, to and fro, and fro, o-ver this Greene a,

Trip and trip and go, to and fro and fro, o-ve, o-verthis Greenea,

8

go to and fro and fro, to and fro, toand fro, and fro, o-ver this Greene a,

go to and fro and fro, to and fro, and fro, and fro, o-ver this Greene a,

42 Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Lichfield and Short, I624), p. 247.




IA.A

All a - bout, in and out, all a - bout, in and out,

All a - bout, in and out, all a - bout, in and out, A b



, [Dal Segno 20 J alfinel

all a-bout, in and out, o - ver this Greene a. All a-bout,

all a-bout, in and out, o - ver this Greene a. All a-bout,

all a-bout, in and out, o - ver this Greene a. All a- bout,

all a- bout, in and out, o - ver this Greene a. All a-bout

characters in these scenes is to be believed. Thomas Morley considers drinking songs to represent a compendium of the vulgar in music:

The slightest kind of musick (if they deserve the name of musicke) are the vinate or drincking songes, for as I said before, there is no kinde of vanitie whereunto they have not applied some musicke or other, as they have framde this to be sung in their drinking. . ..43

43 Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction, p. 18o.




The drinking song in Act V of John Marston's Jacke Drum's Entertainment (i6oo) is an outstanding example of a convention taken to its extreme. In the text of the play, and as number 17 in Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia, the song is presented with a full dozen monotonously repetitive stanzas. It is a simplistic song with alterna- tions between a soloist and a chorus, very limited vocal ranges, and simple rhythms. During a scene of feasting, Sir Edward asks Ellis to sing the "high Dutch song" for which he is famous. After much coaxing, Ellis reluctantly obliges and is joined on the choruses by his merry companions. But the song goes on and on. The over-singing character, here represented by Ellis, was a stock type on the contemporary stage, of whose living equivalent Ravenscroft says:

And such be they (if there be any, as I doubt too many) for the most part, whome Horace termes Humorous Singsters, such as Arcabius was, saying of such,

(I) Ut nunquam inducant animum cantare, rogati, Iniussi nunquam desistant:

Thus Englished by Doctor Case, a Maecenas of Musicke, (2) That being prai'd to sing and shew their skill,

Cannot induced be, say what thou list: But unrequested keepe a chaunting still, And from their folly never will desist.44

Humorous singster Ellis and his friends add the names of ever larger containers-from the bowl to the barrel and beyond-to their simple song. The setting is unattributed, arranged for four voices, and may well owe its origin to the sort of drinking game still practiced today, in which participants alternate the solo section, and each person who misses a prescribed word or note pays for the next round of drinks (Ex. 3).

Ravenscroft's final musical pastime is a great favorite of the stage, for moments of dolor, joy, or enthusiasm:

Our last Recreation heere, is, that they terme Enamoring, a Passion as (more or lesse) possessing and affecting all, so truely exprest by none, but Musick ... inasmuch as Passionate Tunes make Amorous Poems both willinglier heard and better remembered. I have heard it said, that Love teaches a man Musick, who ne're before knew what pertayned thereto: And the Philosophers three Principall Causes of Musick ... are all found by him within Loves Territories. Besides, we see the Soveraignty of

44 Ravenscroft, A Briefe Discourse, Apologie.




Musicke in this Afection, by the Cure and Remedy it affoords the Dispassion- ate, and Infortunate Sonnes of Love, thereby to asswage the turmoyles, and quiet the tempests that were raised in them.45

The single amorous song preserved by Ravenscroft whose text

appears in a drama comes from the anonymous play Blurt, Master-

Example 3 From Thomas Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia, no. 17, "Freemans Song of 4. Voices"

5:

bal - la moy, For and the black quart

bal la moy, For and the black quart

bal la moy, For and the, black quart

bal la moy, For and the black quart

quart

pot,

A I0

bole, sing gen - tie but - leler bal - la la pot,

bole, sing gen - tie but - ler bal - la pot,

bole, sing gen - tie but - ler bal - la pot,

45 Ibid., Preface.




moy,

moy,

8

moy,

moy, Give us once a drinke, for and the pint pot, sing gen - tie but - ler quart pot,

5 O[Dalsegno]

For

A [Dal segno]

For

qA t[Dal segno

For

[Ad [Dal segno]

libitum] 7 bal la moy, the pint pot. For and the

?.. Dal egno

Quart pot, the pint pot, pottle pot, the quart pot, the pint pot, gallon pot, the pottle pot, the quart pot, the pint pot, etc.

Constable; or, The Spaniards Night-Walke (I6o0I-1602). It represents the kind of dramatic love song sung by a courtesan as part of her profession. Musical brothel scenes, such as the one from which this song comes, refer to the noble tradition of the literate and accom- plished courtesan, which was established as a dramatic and historical type well before the start of the seventeenth century. On the English




stage, her direct antecedents are to be found in the wise and witty courtesans of dramas patterned after those of Terence and Plautus, and not in the real activities of the contemporary native whore.46

Contemporary sources speak of the natural affinity between women and music, describing the fair sex as naturally talented on instruments and in voice, easily affected and affective through melody and harmony. A treatise of 1599 in praise of women tells us that "as for Musique, among women it is so familiare, as their very voyce is naturally a hermonie,"47 and that "Great Caesar likewise was woont to saye, that mens tunes were learnde from the Birdes chattering on trees: but the voice of women came from the Gods themselves."48 The same author assures us that "the Astronomers do holde, that Venus is the patronesse of Musique, and that the influence of her Planet, brings most speciall felicitie to such as deale in that facultie."49 This statement certainly was true of the Elizabethan stage, where many of the most beautiful and intricately set songs are assigned to courtesan characters or other lovers in seduction scenes.

In Act V, scene 2, of Blurt, Master-Constable, Imperia, the proprietress of a fashionable brothel, privately entertains the French prisoner, Fontinell. In this instance, music becomes an overt meta- phor for sexual activity. The scene is one of the most explicit in the repertory, full of passionate embraces and the obligatory double entendres of speech and gesture. But in a theater where all women were really prepubescent boys beneath their elegant gowns and feminine airs, such scenes were restricted by very real physical limitations. Hence music, so often associated with sexual ardor and satisfaction, becomes its symbol. Contemporaries recognized that there was "a kinde [of music] that doth kindle and provoke the

passions,"'s ideal for such scenes in the theater. Stage directions

46 The Elizabethan whore was universally despised by her literate contemporar-

ies; see Paul Vernon Kreider, Elizabethan Comic Character Conventions As Revealed in the Comedies of George Chapman, University of Michigan Publications, Language and Literature, 17 (Ann Arbor, 1935), PP- 51-52; Alexander Leggatt, Citizen Comedy in the Age of Shakespeare (Toronto, I973), Pp. 99- 24; Francis Lenton, Characterismi; or, Lentons Leasures (London: J. B. for Roger Michell, 1631), "An Old Bawd"; and Sir Thomas Overbury, New and Choise Characters, 6th ed. (London: Creede, i6 5), "A Whoore" and "A Very Whore."

47 [Alexandre de Pontaymeri, sieur de Faucheran], A Womans Woorth, Defended against All the Men in the World, ed. Anthony Gibson (London: Wolfe, 1599), p. 24-

48 Ibid., p. 25.

49 Ibid., p. 26.

50 Francis Meres, Witts Academy: A Treasurie of Goulden Sentences, Similies, and Examples (London: Royston, I636), fol. 287v.




indicate that Imperia's song is both introduced and accompanied by "musicke," for it is especially in combination that "a sweet voyce & musicke are powerfull intisers" to love.s1 This song, number 15 in Ravenscroft's Briefe Discourse, is attributed by Ravenscroft to his master, Edward Pearce, and includes the musical accompaniment indicated in the stage directions. The setting is scored for unnamed instruments to support the solo voice and is most suitable for the consort of viols that was favored by the Children of Paul's. The instruments begin their introduction during Fontinell's and Imperia's amorous dialogue and burning kisses, so that Imperia may "wrastle with a straine" to enter in tune and in time. In keeping with the Italian setting of the play, she describes the piece as "a poor Italian song," but the style is typical of contemporary English consort song (Ex. 4).52 The continuous and graceful motion of the instrumental lines and the short vocal phrases separated by rests are as expressive of leisurely and restrained passion as they are a reflection of the playfully understated text:

Love for such a cherrie lip, Would be glad to pawne his arrows: Venus heere to take a Sip Would sell her Doves and teeme of Sparrowes. But they shall not so, Hey nony nony no: None but I this lip must owe, Hey nony nony no.

Did love see this wanton eye, Ganimede must waite no longer: Phoebe heere one night to lye,53 Would change her face, and looke much younger. But they shall not so, Hey nony nony no: None but I this lip must owe, Hey nony nony no.

The simple vocal line of the setting, with its octave range, often stepwise motion, and simple syllabification, would have been suitable for a newly trained singer.

5 Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 382. 52 This piece was first put into its theatrical context by Andrew J. Sabol, "Two

Songs with Accompaniment," pp. 149-5o, 158-59- s3 The extant (1602) quarto of the play gives this line as "Phoebe heere one night

did lye," which makes no sense in the context of the entire verse; see Blurt, Master- Constable; or, The Spaniards Night-Walke (London: Rockytt, 1602), Act V, scene 2.




Example 4 From Thomas Ravenscroft's Brief Discourse, no. 15, 'The Mistris of Her Servant," by Edward Pearce

1. cher - ry lip, Would be glad to pawne his ar-rowes, 2. wan - ton eye, Ga-ni - med should wayte no lon -ger:

A M

Ve-nus here to take a sip, Would sell her doves Phe-be here one night to lye, Would change her face

and looke much yon - ger, Butshee shallnot so, ! i F-' M-'

AUi ,•" " ""l-• '• LJ L iF 'o A C




hey no no-ny no-ny no, None but I this lip must owe, hey no no-ny no-ny no, Nonebut I this lip must owe,

hey no-ny, no-ny, no-ny, hey no-ny, no-ny,no-ny,no-ny, hey no- ny, no- ny, no - ny, hey no- ny, no- ny, no- ny,no-ny,

I II

"" rLk r IF r :

Thomas Ravenscroft's publications are, thus, of great value for what they show us of the songs sung in plays written for the Children of Paul's. The songs illustrate some of the musical conventions of the contemporary stage, they show what sort of music was actually performed by this particular company, and they illustrate how each musical setting helped to integrate the song into a dramatic unity. More importantly, in discussing social applications of music that apply equally inside and outside of the theater, and in preserving music for theatrical representations of these occasions, Ravenscroft helps us understand connections between music, drama, and Elizabe- than society.

Cornell University

