Spenser and Music

RICHARD CARLTON
Madrigals To Fiue voyces. 16o1.

ix-x
NOUGHT under heaven so strongly doth allure
The sense of man, and all his mind possess,
As beauty's lovely bait that doth procure
Great warriors oft their rigour to repress.
And mighty hands forget their manlines§
Drawn with the power of an heart-robbing eye,
And wrapped in fetters of a golden tress,
That can with melting pleasance mollify
Their hardened hearts, inured to blood and cruelty.

So whilom learned that mighty Jewish swain.
Each of whose locks did match a man of might.
To lay his spoils before his leman's train.
So also did that great Oetean knight
For his love's sake his lion's skin undight.
And so did warlike Antony neglect
The world's whole rule for Cleopatra's sight.
Such wondrous power hath women's fair aspect
To captive men, and make them all the world reject.

Two stanzas from Spenser's Fairy Queen (Bk. V, c. viii, st. I and 2).

xiv
NOUGHT is on earth more sacred and divine.
That gods and men do equally adore.
Than this game virtue that doth right define ;
For the heavens themselves, whence mortal men implore
Right in their wrongs, are ruled by righteous lore
Of highest Jove, who doth true justice deal
To his inferior gods, and evermore
Therewith contains his heavenly commonweal.
The skill whereof to princes' hearts he doth reveal.
Edmund Spenser
the begining of original poem

From Spenser's Fairy Queen, Bk. V, c. vii, st. i.

XV
YE gentle ladies, in whose sovereign power
Love hath the glory of his kingdom left,
And the hearts of men as your eternal dower.
In iron chains of liberty bereft.
Delivered hath into your hands by gift;
Be well aware how you the same do use.
That pride do not to tyranny you lift;
Lest if Hften you of cruelty accuse,
He from you take that chiefdom which you do abuse.

From Spenser's Fairy Queen, Bk. VI, c. viii, st. i


ORLANDO GIBBONS
The First Set of Madrigals And Mottets of 5 Parts : apt for Viols and Voyces. l6l2.

x-xi
FAIR ladies, that to love captived are.
And chaste desires do nourish in your mind,
Let not her fault your sweet affection mar ;
Ne blot the bounty of all womankind,
'Mongst thousands good one wanton dame to find.
Amongst the roses grow some wicked weeds.
For this was not to love, but lust inclined.
For love doth always bring forth bounteous deeds.
And in each gentle heart desire of honour breeds.

x-xi. From Spenser's Fairy Queen, Bk. Ill, c, i, st. 49.


GEORGE KIRBYE
The first set Of English Madrigalls to 4.5. and 6. voyces. 1597.

xxii-xxiii
UP then, Melpomene ! the mournfull'st Muse of nine
Such cause of mourning never hadst afore.
Up grisly ghosts ! and up, my rueful rhyme !
Matter of mirth now shalt thou have no more,
For dead she is that mirth thee made of yore.
Dido, my dear, alas, is dead.
Dead, and lieth wrapped in lead.
O heavy hearse !
Let streaming tears be poured out in store,
O careful verse !

Why wail we thus ? why weary we the gods with plaints,
As if some evil were to her betight ?
She reigns a goddess now among the saints,
That whilom was the saint of shepherds' light.
And is installed now in heaven's height.
I see thee, blessed soul, I see.
Walk in Elysian fields so free.
O happy hearse !
Might I once come to thee

xxii-xxiii. From the November eclogue of Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar. In lines 14 and 15 the words light and height have been transposed in the cantus part-book though they are correctly printed in the other parts—a good example of this type of textual corruption in the madrigal books.

===
WILLIAM BYRD
Psalmes, Sonets, 6 Songs ofSadnes and Pietie, made into Musicke ofjiue parts : whereof, some of them going abroade among diuers, in vntrue coppies, are heere truely corrected, and tKother being "Songs very rare and newly composed, are heere published, Jor the recreation of all such as delight in Musicke. 1588.

xxii
IN fields abroad, where trumpets shrill do sound,
Where glaives and shields do give and take the knocks,
Where bodies dead do overspread the ground.
And friends to foes are common butchers' blocks,
A gallant shot well managing his piece,
In my conceit deserves a Golden Fleece.

Amid the seas a gallant ship set out.
Wherein nor men nor yet munitions lacks.
In greatest winds that spareth not a clout,
But cuts the waves in spite of weather's wracks,
Would force a swain that comes of coward's kind
To change himself and be of noble mind.

Who makes his seat a stately stamping steed,
Whose neighs and plays are princely to behold.
Whose courage stout, whose eyes are fiery red.
Whose joints well knit, whose harness all of gold.
Doth well deserve to be no meaner thing
Than Persian knight whose horse made him a king.

By that bedside where sits a gallant dame.
Who casteth off her brave and rich attire.
Whose petticoat sets forth as fair a frame
As mortal men or gods can well desire,
Who sits and sees her petticoat unlaced,
I say no more, the rest are all disgraced.

Also set by Pilkington (Second Set of Madrigals, No. 15). The poem may be compared with Spenser's sonnet, ' One day I wrote her name upon the sand '.

JOHN WILBYE

The First Set Of English Madrigals To 3.4. 5. and 6. voices. 1598.

vii-viii

WHAT needeth all this travail and turmoiling,

Shortening the life's sweet pleasure

To seek this far-fetched treasure

In those hot climates under Phoebus broiling ?

fools, can you not see a traffic nearer

In my sweet lady's face, where Nature showeth

Whatever treasure eye sees or heart knoweth ?

Rubies and diamonds dainty,

And orient pearls such plenty.

Coral and ambergris sweeter and dearer

Than which the South Seas or Moluccas send us.

Or either Indies, East or West, do lend us.

Compare these words with Spenser's sonnet (No. 15) ' Ye tradeful merchants that with weary toil '. Mr. A. H. BuUen points out that Spenser's lines and those of this madrigal were both imitated from a French sonnet by Desportes : Marchans qui traversez tout le rivage More.