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Henry Purcell's Dramatic Songs and the English Broadside Ballad

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Roy Lamson Jr
Roy Lamson Jr*
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Harvard University
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Extract

Henry Playford in his note to the reader in Orpheus Britannicus felt free to say:

The Author's [Purcell's] extraordinary Talent in all sorts of Musick is sufficiently known, but he was especially admir'd for the Vocal, having a peculiar Genius to express the Energy of English Words, whereby he mov'd the Passions of all his Auditors.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , March 1938 , pp. 148 - 161
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1938

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References

1 London, 1698, p. iii.

2 See R. G. Noyes and Roy Lamson, Jr., “Broadside-Ballad Versions of the Songs in Restoration Drama” in Barnard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, xix (1937), 199–218.

3 The Pepys Collection of ballads, 5 vols., Magdalene College, Cambridge, v, 173. The music may also be found in Joyful Cuckoldom [ca. 1695], p. 13; Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1699, 1707, 1714, i, 312, 1719, iii, 287; British Museum G. 303 (54), G. 309 (52) and in The Works of Henry Purcell, ed. J. S. Shedlock for the Purcell Society xii (1903), 68.

4 The Pepys Collection, v, 174.

5 See R. G. Noyes, “Contemporary Musical Settings of the Songs in Restoration Drama,” ELH, i (1934), 325–344 and the same author's “Songs from Restoration Drama in Contemporary and Eighteenth-Century Poetical Miscellanies,” ELH, iii (1936), 291–316. See also Cyrus L. Day, The Songs of John Dryden (Harvard University Press, 1932), The Songs of Thomas D'Urfey (Harvard University Press, 1933), and Willard Thorp, Songs from the Restoration Theater (Princeton University Press, 1934).

6 Act v; see Works, ed. Montague Summers, ii, 338.

7 For Gay's use of ballad and dance tunes, for example, see William E. Schultz, Gay's Beggar's Opera (Yale University Press, 1928), pp. 306–341; Frank Kidson, The Beggar's Opera: Its Predecessors and Successors (Cambridge, 1922), pp. 64–79; A. E. H. Swaen, “The Airs and Tunes of John Gay's Beggar's Opera,” Anglia, xliii (1919), 152–190, and the same author's “The Airs and Tunes of John Gay's Polly,” ibid., lx (1936), 403–122.

8 Act iii, 2.

9 J. W. Ebsworth lists eighteen in his edition of The Roxburghe Ballads (Ballad Society, 1883–97), vi, 32–33.

10 The Pepys Ballads, ed. Hyder E. Rollins (Harvard University Press, 1929–32), iii, 224, vi, 266, vii, 147; The Bagford Ballads, ed. J. W. Ebsworth (Ballad Society, 1878), i, 181, 200; The Pepys Collection, v, 291, 328.

11 The Roxburghe Ballads, iii, 481; vii, 22.

12 The Pepys Collection, iv, 83.

13 Ibid., iii, 87.

14 The Pepys Ballads, vi, 266.

15 The Pepys Collection, v, 421.

16 The Pepys Ballads, vi, 270; The Bagford Ballads, i, 221; The Roxburghe Ballads, iii, 624.

17 The Pepys Collection, iv, 113.

18 Ibid., v, 167.

19 The Pepys Ballads, vii, 198.

20 Ibid., vii, 22.

21 Ibid., vi, 330.

22 For example, A Collection of Poems . .. printed for Ralph Smith, 2d ed., 1702, p. 366; The Compleat Academy of Complements, 1705, p. 118; A New Academy of Complements, 1715, p. 105, 1748, p. 125; The Aviary, ca. 1750, p. 271; The Tea-Table Miscellany, 13th ed., 1762, ii, 124; The Bull Finch, ca. 1759, p. 321, ca. 1780, p. 190; The London Songster, 1773, p. 201; The Humming Bird, 3rd ed., 1785, p. 152; The New Vocal Enchantress, ca. 1788, p. 164. Dr. R. G. Noyes kindly supplied me with the foregoing references.

23 See John Gay, The Beggar's Opera, 1728, Air xli; Gabriel Odingsells, Bays's Opera, 1730, Air xxii; Anon., Calista, 1731, Air xx; Anon., The Humours of the Court, 1732, Song xx; Anon., The Study Beggars, 1733, Air xi.

24 Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Catalogue of a Collection of. . . English Ballads of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, 1890, no. 1310. The music may be found in Joyful Cuckoldom [ca. 1695], p. 16; Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1720, vi, 155.

25 The songs with music were printed at the end of the 1680 edition of Theodosius. For a brief discussion of the value of Purcell's work see Edward J. Dent, Foundations of English Opera (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1928), pp. 149–153 and J. A. Westrup, Purcell (London, 1937), pp. 37, 150, 151.

26 See A. K. Holland, Henry Purcell: The English Musical Tradition (London, 1932), pp. 178–179. Interact songs are rare in Restoration texts. For other examples, see Nahum Tate, Cuckolds-Haven (1685), n-m; George Powell, The Cornish Comedy (1696), ii-iii, iii-iv; and Katherine Philips, Pompey (1663). In Pompey songs follow each act “to lengthen the Play, and make it fitter for the Stage.” See the edition of 1667, sig. Fff2; Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus (2nd ed., London, 1729), p. 106; and Philip W. Souers, The Matchless Orinda (Harvard University Press, 1931), pp. 180 ff.

27 A. K. Holland, Henry Purcell, p. 179.

28 The Pepys Collection, iii, 105. For the music see The Works of Henry Purcell (Dramatic Music, Part iii), ed. Alan Gray for the Purcell Society, xxi (1917), 127.

29 Pages 62–68.

30 The Roxburghe Ballads, v, 426.

31 The Pepys Ballads, iii, 115.

32 Ibid., iii, 170.

33 The Roxburghe Ballads, v, 354, 359.

34 Ibid., v, 166.

35 The Pepys Ballads, iv, 98.

36 The Roxburghe Ballads, iv, 245.

37 Ibid., iv, 250.

38 Ibid., v, 85.

39 iii, 26.

40 See The Roxburghe Ballads, v, 84.

41 Ibid., v, 86.

42 Ibid., ix, cxxxvi, “Cupid's Revenge,” beginning “Now, now, you blind Boy, I you clearly deny.” Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clark, W. Thackeray, T. Passenger. Ebsworth dates the ballad conjecturally “circa 1673,” but Purcell would have been only fourteen at the time, and Lee had not commenced to write for the stage at that date.—For other ballads on Cupid see The Roxburghe Ballads, vi, 254; ix, clvii.

43 Hyder E. Rollins, The Pack of Autolycus (Harvard University Press, 1927), p. 216.—Some repetition of the last phrases of the first tune would be necessary to fit the eight-line stanzas printed, but the alternative tune would fit quite easily.

44 Music in Choice Ayres and Songs, 1681, iii, 22; Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1699, 1707, 1714, i, 197, 1719, iii, 184; Nathaniel Thompson, A Choice Collection of 180 Loyal Songs, 1685, 1694, p. 25; The Works of Henry Purcell (Dramatic Music, Part m), ed. Alan Gray, xxi, 132. Another setting may be found in British Museum G. 308 (56).

45 The Pepys Collection, iii, 194; numerous other copies: British Museum C.22.f.6 (58); Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, i, 127, 132v; Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Catalogue of a Collection of. . . English Ballads of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, 1890, no. 475; Harvard College Library, shelf-mark 25242.67PF*, i, 113; 25242.68PF*, i, 158.

46 A ballad in the Frederick Lewis Gay collection of broadsides and pamphlets in the Harvard College Library, shelf-mark Gay 2681.975.865.

47 The Roxburghe Ballads, v, 279.

48 Harvard College Library, shelf-mark Gay 2682.660.25*. For other ballads of this kind see British Museum C.38.i.25 (6) and Nathaniel Thompson's A Choice Collection of 180 Loyal Songs, 1685, 1694, p. 29.

49 The Roxburghe Ballads, v, 432. A copy may be found in the Harvard College Library's Alphabetical File of Broadsides.

50 The Bagford Ballads, ii, 612.

51 The Pepys Collection, iii, 221.

52 The Roxburghe Ballads, vii, 490.

53 Harvard College Library, shelf-mark 25242.67PF*, i, 26, 25242.68PF*, i, 43.

54 Music in Choice Ayres and Songs, 1681, iii, 29; Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1700, 1707, 1712, ii, 252, 1719, iv, 284; Nathaniel Thompson's A Choice Collection of 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694, p. 126; and in The Works of Henry Purcell (Dramatic Music, Part iii), ed. Alan Gray, xxi, 133.

55 The Roxburghe Ballads, iv, 38.

56 Ibid., iv, 40.

57 Ibid., v, 234.

58 Besides those already given see The Roxburghe Ballads, iv, 34, 380, v, 482; The Bagford Ballads, i, 154.

59 Ibid., ii, 543; Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, ii, 244v, 249; The Pepys Collection, iii, 97, iv, 165, 171, 189; The Roxburghe Ballads, iii, 505, iv, 382, 503, v, 234, ix, 709.

60 The Pepys Collection, iii, 386; The Roxburghe collection of ballads in the British Museum, iv, 28; The Roxburghe Ballads, vr, 52. The song was also reprinted in several miscellanies with music. See for example The Newest Collection of the Choicest Songs . . . at Court, Theatre, Musick-schools, Balls, etc. (London, 1683), p. 66.

61 The music, published as The Vocal and Instrumental Musick of the Prophetess, or the History of Dioclesian, Composed by Henry Purcell. . . 1691, was prefaced by a dedication which Professor Roswell G. Ham, in an interesting article, “Dryden's Dedication for The Music of the Prophetesse, 1691,” PMLA, l (1935), 1065–1075, shows to be the work of Dryden.

62 The music may be found in The Vocal and Instrumental Musick of the Prophetess . . . 1691; Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1700, 1707, 1712, ii, 292, 1719, iv, 277; British Museum single-sheet folio H.1601 (278) and Additional MS. 35043, fol. 5v; and in The Works of Henry Purcell, edd. Sir Frederick J. Bridge and John Pointer for the Purcell Society, ix (1900), 28. As Air xxxvii the melody was employed in the ballad-opera Love and Revenge, 1729.

63 The Pepys Ballads, v, 203.

64 See ibid., v, 203, 230, vi, 123, 145; British Museum C.22.f.6 (178); The Pepys Collection, ii, 307.

65 See The Pepys Ballads, v, 203, 230, vi, 19, 168.

66 Ibid., vi, 123, 145.

67 Ibid., v, 259.

68 The Bagford Ballads, i, 297.

69 The Pepys Ballads, vi, 151.

70 Ibid., vi, 302.

71 The Roxburghe Ballads, vi, 226.

72 See The Songs of John Dryden, ed. Cyrus L. Day, p. 168, for complete notes on the song.

73 The Beggar's Opera, 1728, Air vi; The Jew Decoy'd, 1735, Air viii.

74 The Pepys Collection, v, 280.

75 Ibid., iv, 70; The Roxburghe Ballads, vii, 735.

76 The Pepys Collection, iii, 369.

77 The music was published with the first edition of the play in an appendix The Songs in Amphitryon, with the Musick, 1690. See Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1700, 1707, 1712, ii, 304, 1719, iv, 257 and The Works of Henry Purcell (Dramatic Music, Part i), ed. Alan Gray, xvi (1906), 31.

78 Copies in Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Catalogue of a Collection of. . . English Ballads of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, 1890, no. 208; The Pepys Collection, v, 301.

79 The Pepys Collection, v, 197 (with a meaningless musical score); Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Catalogue of a Collection of. . . English Ballads of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, 1890, no. 395; British Museum C.39.k.6 (48). See also The Songs of John Dryden, ed. Cyrus L. Day, pp. 170–171.

80 British Museum C.39.8.6 (23); Broadside Ballads of the Restoration Period from the Jersey Collection Known as the Osterley Park Ballads, ed. F. Burlington Fawcett (London, 1930), p. 59.

81 The Roxburghe Ballads, viii, 133.

82 The Pepys Ballads, vii, 150, 154.

83 The Pepys Collection, v, 300 (with meaningless music).

84 Ibid., iii, 85.

85 British Museum C.39.k.6 (25); The Pepys Collection, v, 189. See also Bibl. Lindesiana, Catalogue of a Collection of. . . English Ballads of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, 1890, no. 520. For one other ballad sung to the tune see ibid., no. 744. For the music (with the original words) see Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1699, 1707, 1714, i, 314, 1719, iii, 290–291.

86 The Pepys Collection, v, 410.

87 The Roxburghe Ballads, iii, 610.

88 See The Songs of John Dryden, ed. Cyrus L. Day, p. 177, and William Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time (London, n.d.), ii, 583.

89 The Pepys Collection, v, 302 (with meaningless music) Dr. Day (The Songs of John Dryden, pp. 178–179) does not mention this version in his excellent notes to the song. The music may be found, among other places, in The Works of Henry Purcell (Dramatic Music, Part l), ed. Alan Gray, xvi, 120 and in Willard Thorp, Songs from the Restoration Theater (1934), p. 61.

90 Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Catalogue of a Collection of. . . English Ballads of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, 1890, no. 1343; The Pepys Collection, v, 213; British Museum C.39.k.6 (45) (all with meaningless music).

91 The Pepys Collection, iv, 46. Evidently no setting of the song has survived.

92 The words are not in the text of the play, but the music is in Thesaurus Musicus, 1695, iii, 1–4, “A Dialogue between Two Wives, Sung in the Play call'd, The Canterbury Guests, or The Bargain Broken.” See also Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1707, 1712, iii, 149, 1719, v, 73; Additional MS. 35043, fol. 14v, and The Works of Henry Purcell (Dramatic Music, Part I), ed. Alan Gray, xvi, 87.

93 The Bagford Ballads, i, 68 as “A New Dialogue between Alice and Betrice, To the Tune of Mopsaphil.”

94 See The Songs in the Indian Queen London, 1695), sig. A1v, “The Publishers to Mr. Henry Purcell.”

95 In a recent letter to the writer.