Shakespeare: The Winter’s Tale (WT-18)

(CM266: 17 cues); see especially SQ Spring 1959, pp. 161-175; AS (1963) App II, p.172-4 for a discussion of the music and songs. Nosworthy notes how Shakespeare’s new conception of music as a regenerative force is now quite evident: ‘The division of the play into two parts…the period of chaos, dominated by Leontes and that of regeneration, dominated by Perdita. In the first of these, music finds no place. Its appearance…is at…the point where the process of winning order out of chaos is begun… Autolycus’s music symbolising the re-awakening of Nature.’ (NN67). Gurr also describes the relentless tragedy of the first three acts made all the more stark by the total absence of music, contrasted with almost an excess of singing and dancing in the fourth act. (Gurr 311)

FV18 has anonymous settings of the pedlar hawking song snatches without indication of provenance but which may perhaps have been in use as a stage tradition based on Caulfield. N&77-81, Charles Firth in SE ii 511-538 and ME212-6 sketch in the background to the pedlar’s songs.

See also Bruce Smith The Acoustic world of EarlyModern England. Chicago, 1990, pp. 64-5, WT59 and CDw 88-9. Autolycus, Mopsa and Dorcas ‘show musical competence.’ In some editions the opening Act IV {‘Chorus’} is treated as scene i and the following scenes are numbered accordingly. A set of four pieces selected as appropriate for use during the play is on ۞Ge 15. The New Variorum edition (V) offers music settings (ed. H. H. Furness) 7th ed.. Lippincott (1898) 1926, pp 387-9.

act scene line Click here to find out more about suggested song
I ii 127-8 [Still virginalling Upon his palm?] (running one’s fingers as on the keys of a virginal cf V153
278 [my wife’s a *hobby horse]
307-8 […she would not live The running of one glass] DO168-170 ‘The glass doth run’ set to ’Wigmore’s galliard’ ۞DO ii 19 (247a) 401
III i 6-8 (At the pronouncement of the oracle) 401A
iii 55-7 [A savage clamour! Well may I get abroad. This is the chase: I am gone for ever!]. Exit (Antigonus), pursued by a bear 402
(DLC) 1622 Bear’s dance (LM19: 19r, 73r) LMw i 19/ SA70; rA + g LMz 6; rS + k; LMb1: 1; rATB or viol consort LMh9; lute/t (BO 39v 153); kSA297; Chan ex 38a-b (used in the Jonson masque ‘Augurs’ 1622)
IV i 0 (B278) 3 trumpet blasts
ii 9 [The lark that tirra-lirra chants]
iii 1-12 Enter Autolycus singing [56]. When daffodils begin to peer…the sweet birds How they sing!… The lark, that tirra-lirra chants…Are summer songs for me and my aunts… 403
a) ۞BroP51/ ۞BroS16/ ۞Ph2. 1599 HOLBORNE Faery round (188a)
b) uLF72 1565 ‘Row well, ye mariners’ tune: E102/ Eb84/ Ep47/ SB401/ CW127-8/ C112-4/ SC iii 33/ SCt vi 14; lute/kt Robinson RS3. Cf ME18; sopranino & SA capped shawms, T shawm & drum, cornett, sackbut, rAT, b-curtal ۞YM29
c) uCM268 ‘The Carman’s whistle’ (60)
d) (B278) 1560 Heart’s-ease C210 (281a)
e) uDO440-1 set to ‘Callino custurame’ melody and words; as lute song ۞DO i 69 (74)
15-22 [57]. But shall I go mourn 404
a) uLF73 ‘The Noble Shirve kCW126/ C347-8
b) uCM271=3 ‘Pretty Bessie’ + rSATB [tune SB121/ C159 as ‘The doubting virgin’]
c) uFV18: 2 (source untraced)
d) uDO84-5 set to ‘Lustie gallant’ tune and words; as lute song DO8 (64d)
41-44 [*Three-man song-men all, and very good ones–but they are most of them means and basses, but one Puritan among them, and he sings psalms to *horn-pipes]
123-6 [58]. Sings JOG ON, JOG ON, THE FOOTPATH WAY 405
a) uG104/ PS252/ HH32/ CM274-5/ CW159-60/ C211-2/ SB251/ K27/ DO230-1/ MK70, 311; melody V387; as song with cittern ۞DO i 39; as country dance E54/ Eb48/ RE42/ SC iv 37/ SCt viii 15; ۞BroP13/ ۞BroS17/ ۞Eh 16/ ۞KnK7/ ۞No14; c1590 Richard FARNABY (attrib.) tenor & lute ۞Ec4; tune appeared as ‘Hanskin’ in the set of variations kF297 cf comment AS88. PRAETORIUS Courante P154; ۞PaD 26; set to ballad text ‘Eighty-eight or Sir Francis Drake’ DO 135-7; ۞DO ii 16/ ۞YM24
b) ‘Halfe Hannikin’ country dance tune RE41 vi/ E43/ Eb34/ C74/ N192/ FU387/ SC iv 16/ SCd 10/ SCt vii 16; ۞CwL 14 iii/ ۞Du 18/ ۞Ec4/ ۞KnQ22/ ۞YF 18 ii; lute/t 193 (BO 37v-38r 142). Sabol gives a version of the broadside ballad tune with text which appears to be unrelated ‘Tho’ it may seem rude’ SA32]
c) HILTON catch à 3 ‘Jog on’ HS10/ N185/ LF(74), FV18:3; rSS/AA/T HR2
I v LF74 for the Sheepshearing scene Long suggests strains of bagpipe, pipe and tabor should form a background to the’ fresh idyllic love of Florizel and Perdita’ with bucolic lads and lasses and wildly gambolling satyrs. ۞DeS22 suggests a Sheepshearing song collected in Somerset by Cecil Sharp ‘How delightful to see in those evenings of spring SCe254/ Novello part song book (ed. no. 1094) SATB 406
55-8 [Fie, daughter, when my old wife lived, upon This day she was both pantler, butler, cook,…Would sing her song and dance her turn,]
137-140 [when you sing, I’d have you buy and sell so, so give alms, Pray so; and, for the ord’ring your affairs, To sing them too. When you do dance, I wish you a wave o’ th’ sea that you might do Nothing but that…]
152-4 [our dance, I pray; Your hand, my Perdita. So turtles pair, That never mean to part.]
166 [Come, strike up!]. Music. Here a dance of shepherds and shepherdesses 407
BR: *brawl or *hay proving energetic, grotesque dancing
a) Cutts à 2 (LM66:34v,85v) ‘Shepherds’ Masque’ SA118/ N77/ LH249 suite of 3 dances. Cutts considers this was composed for this position in the play
b) LF79: 1588 ARBEAU Branle de la Haye (23a)
c) (DLC): BYRD attrib. Bagpipe and the drone BY4e/ MB xxviii 94f/ RV4
167-8, 177 [what fair swain is this Which dances with your daughter?…She dances featly]
182-191 [O, master, if you did but hear the pedlar at the door, you would never dance again after a *tabor and *pipe;] DO197-8 ‘The Hobbyhorse’ (39a) 408
[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/… 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.]
192-6 [He hath songs for man or woman, of all sizes. No milliner can so fit his customers with gloves. He has the prettiest love songs for maids, so without bawdry, which is strange, with such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings, ] 409
C234-6 allusion to tunes ‘With a hie dildo dill’ and to refrains to certain ballads which have the words ‘With a fading’ possibly referring to an *Irish country dance or *jig, ‘the Fadding’ C235/ N82/ SB527) whose tune opens similarly to ‘Jog on’ (405a below) Malone ed. of the play (1821, p.429-30) notes that the word ‘fadding’ relates to the reed from which the instrument was made.
a) DO473-4 ‘With a fading’ tune with 5 verses (‘The courtier scorns us country clowns …with a fading.’); ۞DO ii 77
b) DO474-6 MORLEY ‘Will you buy a fine dog„. With a dildo, diddle, dildo’ based on tune (GB-Occ MS 439) lst book of ayres 1600 no 17/ EL i 16/ EL LS8 ۞DO ii 76
196-201 ‘Jump her, and thump her’ …he makes the maid to answer, ‘WHOOP, DO ME NO HARM, GOOD MAN’; puts him off, slights with him, with ‘Whoop, do me no harm, good man!’] allusion to ballad ‘The pretty sweet Jinny’ which ends: ‘Whoop…’ uN184/ G104/ CW96-7/ C208; ۞Eh 14; lute kSA398; tune SB519; tune with words DO461-2 1610 CORKINE version of tune in Ayres to sing and play to the lute and basse violl tune transcribed for keyboard SA398, K28 (words of refrain underlaid); V3; rST or AT/A SR26; ۞ChQ16 i; setting by SUMARTE ۞Eh 14; kGIBBONS Variations MB xx 31; ۞ChQ16 ii 410
204-8 [He hath ribbons of all the colours i’th’ rainbow…why, he sings ’em over, as they were gods or goddesses.] 411
a) DO173-5 ‘The god of love’ tune and 5 verses (241a)
b) DO171-2 ‘Goddesses’ (‘The Northern lass’s lamentation’) to ‘Quodling’s delight’ (193)
[You would think a smock were a she-angel, he so chants to the sleeve-hand…/ …let him approach singing./Forewarn him that he use no scurrilous words in’s tunes.]
218-230 [59]. Enter Autolycus…singing LAWN AS WHITE AS DRIVEN SNOW,… 412
a) LF82-3 JOHNSON (had been attrib. WILSON) [Gooch 19025] facsimile FU388-9/ CU 10/ HS8/ K29-31/ V388-9/ VH13/ K29-31/G121/ FV18: 4/ CM276-9/ HH33; ۞BroS37/ ۞CamS1/ ۞Eh 13/ ۞Ge9/ ۞Lg 1/ ۞Ph6
b) (MH145)/ K58-59: 1600 DOWLAND ‘Fine knacks for ladies’ EL LS 2 (i 2) 48/ Df 22/ PM ii 9/ F iv 6/ GR114-6/ K58-59; /۞Aw i 11/ ۞BoD9/ ۞BreE 10/ ۞CamE2/ ۞CmD ii 12/ ۞DeP20/ ۞R2/ ۞U16; SATB voices S&B JP4/ in MB vi; voice +rSATB BC i 31; voice + g Dg 2
c) uDO251-2 set to ‘In Crete’ tune and words; as lute song ۞DO i 42 (211)
d) Km50
271 [Let’s first see more ballads]
273-293 [Here’s another ballad, of a fish…and sung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids …The ballad is very pitiful and as true./…This is a merry ballad, but a very pretty one…Why, this…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./ We can both sing it. If thou’lt bear a part thou shalt hear; ’tis in three parts./ We had the tune on’t a month ago./ I can bear my part; you must know, ’tis my occupation. Have at it with you]. *cf NS 21ff John Dover Wilson on ‘Two maids wooing a man’7
295-306 [60]. They sing GET YOU HENCE, FOR I MUST GO, 413
a) CU9, 9a/ LF82-3/ PS244-5/ FV18: 5:[Gooch 18961] now attributed to JOHNSON CM280-2/ EL (ii 17) LS23; ۞BroS38/ ۞MgM 14/ ۞ PaH2; adapting US-NYp Drexel 4041: SSB voices CM413, and Drexel 4175 f23 c1620 ms. ‘Songs unto the Violl and Lute’ (see SS ix (1956) 86-9)
b) N192-3 1609 RAVENSCROFT ‘We be soldiers three’ (SST) Rd3/ Rp74/ K48; ۞CwL5/۞DeC9/ ۞DeS7/ ۞No16
307 [We’ll have this song out anon by ourselves.]
313-321 [61]. Sings Will you buy any tape (B279) lines ‘cried’ not sung 414
a) uLF85: Sellenger’s round (188d)
b) K58-9 DOWLAND ‘Fine knacks for ladies’ (412b)
c) uFV18: 6/ HH35 traditional setting after Caulfield, voice and accompaniment
d) uCM283-4 Shaking of the sheet + rSATB; tune RE 11 iv, (in Playford dance as ‘ The Night peece’ E3/ SB422/ Eb70/ RE37 iii/ SC vi / SCt x 9; DH13, 59, steps 58, ۞BaL13/ ۞BroL 15/ ۞DH15. [Note also a quite different lute tune ‘The shaking of the sheets’ E75] (57a)
e) uDO471-2 set to ‘Hanskin’ melody and words; song with cittern ۞DO i 79 (405a)
f) (N&71) JENKINS set to round à 3 ‘Come pretty maidens’
324-7 [They call themselves saultiers, and they have a dance which the wenches say is a gallimaufry of gambols, because they are not in’t.]
340 Here a dance of twelve satyrs
B279-280 on staging of this antimasque, suggesting as music a morris or vigorous galliard played on pipe and tabor. SA p.600: masque in Jonson’s‘Oberon’ probably interpolated in a 1611 Court performance (WP 308-324/ ME215) 415
a) CU 11/ LF88-9: attrib. Robert JOHNSON Satyres Masque: antimasque dance à 2 (LM56: 31r, 82v) SA 107/ LF140-1/ WP318-9/ vn/treble viol/r/co + continuo LMw i 10/ Moeck 413 (Old English masque dances); Heinrichshofen 1009: 5; rS/A/T Z9; à 4 + continuo ad lib: SZ24/ SA249 untitled; ۞CamM9/ ۞Eh 12/۞Hf7/ ۞Hp4/ ۞KnM15/ ۞MgO 11/ ۞Sa15/ ۞Wt 14; bcSATB: LMh12; in TM32 (see ML xli (1960) 118 for attribution and background). [RAVENSCROFT ‘Satyrs Dance’ à 4 Rb7 appears to be unrelated].
b) (B280) Staines morris: tune C125-6 (276c)
c) (B280) Barley break: C135 (62d)
d) (B280) Sweet Margaret: galliard: C155 (245a)
e) (B280) BULL The King’s hunt; kF136/ MB ixx 125; ۞CamM7 / ۞EmH10/ ۞Ke 20/ ۞Py12; bc۞ChF12; gRp 3; à 4 sCM297-8 (Note a further ‘King’s Hunt’ by FARNABY kF53/ MB xxiii 49
519-520 [It is my father’s music To speak your deeds]
605-610 [My clown…grew so in love with the wenches’ song that he would not stir his pettitoes till he had both tune and words, which so drew the rest of the herd to me that all their other senses stuck in ears.]
V ii 20-25 [The news, Ruggiero? Nothing but bonfires…Such a deal of wonder is broken out… that ballad makers can not be able to express it]
DO342-5 ‘’The torment of a jealous mind’ (All such as lead a jealous life’) set to ‘The new Rogero’ (23 verses) ; ۞DO ii 59; cfJN542 (120c) 416
170 {Flourish within} Hark, the king’s and princes…are going to see the Queen’s picture.
iii 98 [Music, awake her: strike!] Music (SM44/ B280) strings; (Dent) viols off stage (SM44) Autolocus may have strummed accompaniment for himself on the lute 417
a) LF91: 1599 HOLBORNE ‘Posthuma’ pavan [J62] H51/ H1045; bq Ha61/ Hs2; lute pavan 20: HC25; ۞He4b)
b) (B280) Western wind on dulcimer or harp off stage (31b)
see also SM10 which provides new music using the Medieval sound of the psaltery

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