Shakespeare and Music Part 9

The 'fancies' referred to above are the 'Fantazies' already remarked on (chest of viols); and the 'Goodnights' are songs _in memoriam_, or dirges.

'Fortune my foe.' [Appendix]. _Merry Wives_ III, iii, 62. _Falstaff_ (to Mrs Ford). 'I see what thou wert, if _Fortune thy foe_ were not, Nature thy friend.' This old tune is at latest of Elizabeth's time, and was sung to the ancient ballad of "t.i.tus Andronicus." The first verse of 'Fortune my foe' is as follows:--

"Fortune my foe, why dost thou frown on me?

And will thy favour never better be?

Wilt thou, I say, for ever breed my pain, And wilt thou not restore my joyes again?"

'Ophelia's Songs.' _Hamlet_ IV, v. [Appendix]. 'How should I your true love know'; 'Good morrow, 'tis St Valentine's day'; 'They bore him barefaste'; 'Bonny sweet Robin'; 'And will he not come again.'

The one line of 'Bonny sweet Robin' is all that remains of the song, except the t.i.tle, which is also the first line--viz., 'My Robin is to the greenwood gone.' The line Shakespeare gives would be the last. One tune to it is at any rate older than 1597.

Lastly, there are the old catches, 'Hold thy peace,' sung by Toby, Sir Andrew, and Feste in _Twelfth Night_ II, iii; 'Jack boy, ho boy, news, The cat is in the well,' etc., referred to by Grumio in _Shrew_ IV, i, 42; besides 'Flout 'em and scout em,' sung by Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban in _Tempest_ III, ii; and 'What shall he have that killed the deer,' for the foresters in _As You Like It_ IV, ii, 5. The original music of the first two, probably much earlier than Shakespeare, is in the Appendix. A Round for four voices by John Hilton (flourished 1600) to 'What shall he have,' is probably the first setting, and may be seen in Rimbault, p. 19. Purcell (1675) set 'Flout 'em' as a catch for three voices, which is in Caulfield's Collection of Shakespeare Vocal Music, 1864. These last two are poor specimens of Catches, so they are not printed here. [The proper reading of 'Flout 'em,' in the 4tos and 1st Fol. is 'Flout 'em and _cout_ 'em! and _skowt_ 'em, and flout 'em! Thought is free.']

The following pa.s.sage contains a large quant.i.ty of the history of songs in the 16th century, and is one of the most important to be found in Shakespeare. Autolycus sells ballads 'of all sizes' among his wares; the country folk, Mopsa, Dorcas, and the Clown, buy them, and afterwards sing them; and the rustic servant distinctly prefers the pedlar's vocalisation to their accustomed 'tabor and pipe,' or even to the 'bagpipe.'

_Winter's Tale_ IV, iii, 181.

_Servant._ O master! if you did but hear the _pedlar_ at the door, you would _never dance again after a tabor and pipe_; no, the _bagpipe_ could not move you. He _sings several tunes_ faster than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had _eaten ballads_, and all men's ears grew to his tunes.

_Clown._ He could never come better: he shall come in. _I love a ballad_ but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably.

_Serv._ He hath _songs_, for man or woman, _of all sizes_.... He has the prettiest _love-songs_ for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with such _delicate burdens_ of "d.i.l.d.os" and "fadings," "jump her and thump her"; ... "_Whoop, do me no harm, good man._"

L. 212.

_Clo._ Pr'ythee, bring him in, and let him _approach singing_.

_Perdita._ Forewarn him, that he use _no scurrilous words_ in 's tunes.

L. 259.

_Clo._ [to Autolycus]. What hast here? _ballads_?

_Mopsa._ 'Pray now, buy some: I love a _ballad in print_, o'

life, for _then we are sure they are true_.

_Autolycus._ Here's one to a _very doleful tune_ ... [of a usurer's wife].

L. 273.

_Clo._ Come on, lay it by: and let's first see _more ballads_....

_Aut._ Here's _another ballad, of a fish_, that ... sung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids: ... the ballad is _very pitiful_, and as true.

L. 285.

_Clo._ Lay it by too: another.

_Aut._ This is a _merry ballad_, but a _very pretty_ one.

_Mop._ Let's have some merry ones.

_Aut._ Why, this is a pa.s.sing merry one, and _goes to the tune of_ "Two maids wooing a man," there's scarce a maid westward but she sings it: _'tis in request_, I can tell you.

_Mop._ We can _both_ sing it: if _thou'lt bear a part_ [_i.e._, Autolycus], thou shalt hear; 'tis in _three parts_.

_Dorcas._ We had the _tune_ on't a month ago.

_Aut._ _I can bear my part_; you must know, _'tis my occupation_: have at it with you.

[They sing 'Get you hence,' in three parts.]

_Clo._ We'll have the song out anon _by ourselves_.

L. 328.

_Servant._ Master, there is _three_ carters, _three_ shepherds, _three_ neat herds, _three_ swine herds, that have made themselves all _men of hair_: they call themselves _Saltiers_; and they have a _dance_, which the wenches say is a _gallimaufry_ of gambols, because they are not in't....

L. 609.

_Aut._ _My clown_ (who wants but something to be a reasonable man) grew so in love with the wenches' _song_, that he would not stir his pett.i.toes, _till he had both tune and words_.

The tabor and pipe, in the servant's first speech, were common popular instruments. The tabor, of course, was a small drum, which was used as accompaniment to the pipe, a small whistle with three holes, but with a compa.s.s of 18 notes. (See Frontispiece.) In its curiously disproportionate compa.s.s, it may be compared to the modern 'Picco'

pipe of the music shops. Mersennus (middle of 17th century) mentions an Englishman, John Price, who was an accomplished player. It is played on by Ariel, see a subsequent quotation from _The Tempest_ III, ii, 126 and 152. Also _Much Ado_ II, iii, 13; and the tabor alone, in _Twelfth Night_ III, i.

The Bagpipe[17] was very similar to the instruments of that name which still exist. At the present moment there are four kinds in use--Highland Scotch, Lowland Scotch, Northumbrian, and Irish. The last has bellows instead of a 'bag,' but in other ways they are very much alike. They all have 'drones,' which sound a particular note or notes continually, while the tune is played on the 'chanter.'

Shakespeare himself tells us of another variety--viz., the Lincolns.h.i.+re bagpipe, in _Hen. 4. A._ I, ii, 76, where Falstaff compares his low spirits to the melancholy 'drone of a Lincolns.h.i.+re bagpipe.'[18]

[Footnote 17: The Bagpipe appears on a coin of Nero. Also there is a figure of an _angel_ playing it, in a crosier given by William of Wykeham to New Coll., Oxon., in 1403.]

[Footnote 18: What is a 'woollen bagpipe'? See _Merchant_ IV, i, 55.]

The servant's second speech refers to the character of the words of the popular ballads, which were too often coa.r.s.e and even indecent.

'Love-songs' are quite a large cla.s.s, frequently referred to. For instance, _Two Gent._ II, i, 15.

_Val._ Why, how know you that I am in love?

_Speed._ Marry by these special marks.

First, you have learn'd ...

_To relish a love song_, like a robin-redbreast;

_Rom._ II, iv, 15.

_Mercutio._ 'Alas, poor Romeo! he is already dead; ... run thorough the ear _with a love-song_.'

besides the pa.s.sage from _Twelfth Nt._ II, iii, quoted further on, where Feste offers Sir Toby and Sir Andrew their choice between 'a love-song, or a song of good life.'