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The Case of ‘O Mistresse mine’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Extract
That there was a possible collaboration between Thomas Morley and Shakespeare has long been a source of speculation and controversy among scholars. The discussion has generally centered on the validity of certain musical evidence, namely, the songs, ‘ It Was a Lover and His Lass’ from As You Like It and ‘O Mistresse mine’ from Twelfth Night, to which Morley may or may not have composed the music for the first performance of the play. It is not the purpose of this article to enter into the controversy, but rather to re-examine the problem of the relation between text and music in the case of the latter song, the chief bone of contention, and perhaps to throw some more light on the question.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1953
References
[*Mr. Beck has spent several years on the restoration of Morley's Consort Lessons, the part books of which have long been scattered or lost. His restoration is expected to be published shortly. Ed.]
1 Chappell, William, Old English Popular Music, London, 1893, Vol. 1, p. 103-5.Google Scholar
2 ‘The Morley-Shakespeare Myth,’ Music and Letters, April, 194.7, p. 124.
3 See ‘A Reply and a Symposium’ to Ernest Brennecke's ‘Shakespeare's Collaboration with Morley’ in PMLA, Vol. LIV, No. 1, March, 1939, p. 149.
4 ‘Shakespeare and Music’ in Companion to Shakespeare Studies by H. Granville- Barker and G. B. Harrison, pp. 158-9, Cambridge, 1934.
5 Sir Bridge, Frederick, Shakespearean Music in the Plays and Early Operas, London, 1923 Google Scholar.
6 See 5. Bridge remarks that ‘The words fit Morley's simple version much better than Byrd's …’ but he believes the C’ D’ repetition ‘certainly more effective.’ In any case, he felt he was ‘something very near the original’ in his restoration.
7 See 1 This is the closest to a satisfactory solution of the word setting I have seen. Why it was ignored by later editors is difficult to understand. The musical transcription is poor, however.
8 See 6 above. Also Elson, Vincent, Jackson, Buck, Gibbon, Hardy, Kidson, Duncan, Bantok, Moncour-Sime, and others. All of these settings are practically identical except for some details of musical transcription, and in the handling of certain syllables. An amusing distortion is the setting of E. F. Rimbault[?] (N. Y. Public Library MS. 3850) in which line 2 is stretched over phrase B and half of C, the remaining half of C being given to line 3; otherwise it is the usual setting after Byrd.
9 See ‘Sellinger's Round,’ ‘Gipsies Round,’ etc. in the Fitzivilliam Virginal Book.
10 This probable connection with the stage is substantiated by R. Thurston Dart in his paper, ‘Morley's Consort Lessons of 1599’ in Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, Nov. 6, 1947.