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INTRODUCTION
The use of music in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama was widespread, and examples may be found in the works of all the major playwrights of the period: Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson and Webster, to mention a few. I.1 Music was an important part of seventeenth century life and it was natural to use it as a means of forwarding the action of a play or commenting on events past or about to happen within the play's structure. Such refined use was, however, confined to a few plays of the greater playwrights. Generally, music, song and dance were used purely for their entertainment value, extraneous to the action of the play, as in the case, for example, with the approximately twenty songs in Heywood's The Rape of Lucrece (1608). I.2 Any correspondence between the songs and the action of this play is purely fortuitous, something which cannot be said of Shakespeare's plays. Noble remarks that in Shakespeare 'great superiority over his immediate predecessors ... is manifested not only in the more normal manner in which the songs occur, but also in the greater advantage to which they are turned'. I.3 The skill with which Shakespeare used songs, and with what dramatic effect, is one of the major concerns of this dissertation.
In incorporating songs in plays it was common practice to use melodies or words (or both) of popular ballads or street songs. This would have helped the musically less-gifted actor in his performance, but would not always have improved the dramatic quality of the play. However, even Wright, an uncompromising detractor of the songs in Elizabethan drama, has given credit where it is due: 'Undoubtedly Shakespeare was skillful [sic] in weaving together much incongruous matter into a unified whole'. I.4 Halliday ascribes only twenty-three (fewer than half) of the many songs in Shakespeare's plays to Shakespeare himself, I.5 but Noble is more generous, and identifies many others 'indisputably of Shakespeare's authorship', his criterion being the 'presence of a distinct natural singing quality ... an essential constituent in any song it may be sought to ascribe to' Shakespeare. I.6 Noble then goes on to mention 'the improvement in natural singing value' of songs Shakespeare had borrowed. I.7 However, I feel that one cannot be quite so categorical in ascribing songs to authors on such flimsy grounds as 'singing quality', and Halliday's more cautious estimate is likely to be closer to the truth.
The harmony of both songs and instrumental music was an obvious symbol of the harmony between man and man, or between man and Nature. The harmony of a well-ordered nation could also be reflected in musical harmony, and the greater harmony of the Universe was seen in the music of the spheres:
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Ring out, ye crystal spheres,
Once bless our human ears
(If ye have power to touch our senses so),
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time,
And let the bass of heav'n's deep organ blow;
And with your ninefold harmony
Make up the full consort to th' angelic symphony. I.8
In addition to harmony, music was thought to have mystical powers, proof of this being seen in the unexplained sympathetic vibration of similarly tuned musical instruments. The idea persisted well into the seventeenth century, as evidenced by Henry Peacham's comments in 1622: 'And who can show us reason why ... two lutes of equal size being laid upon a table and ... alike in the Gamma, G sol re ut, or any other string, the one stricken, the other untouched shall answer it?' I.9 This phenomenon was used to symbolise marital harmony and even heredity in the conceit of Shakespeare's Sonnet VIII:
Mark how one string sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire, and child, and happy mother,
Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee, 'Thou single wilt prove none'.
(Sonnet VIII) I.10
The mystical nature of music made it an ideal means of portraying the supernatural, sometimes associated with harmony, as in the sonnet above, and it will be seen that Shakespeare makes use of this in several of the comedies.
Another powerful image of harmony and order was found in dancing. Not only was harmony seen in the music accompanying the dance, but the orderly movements of the dancers themselves reflected harmony and order in the world of human relationships. Conversely, if a dance were cut short in any way, or performed in a perverse manner, it would be a symbol of discord. Both types of dancing symbolism are found effectively exploited in Shakespeare's comedies.
References to music abound in Shakespeare. These range from the passing mention of musical terms, musical instruments, popular songs and dances, to elaborate and extended passages making use of sustained musical imagery. Such passages may be serious, as in the final act of The Merchant of Venice, or humorous, as in the music lesson in The Taming of the Shrew. The critical analysis undertaken in this study will show that a large proportion of these references are dramatically significant.
I have presented the plays in what I consider to be their chronological sequence. I.11 By doing this, any trends in the use of music in the comedies may be related to the development of the playwright's style. The Dark
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Comedies and the Romances stand apart from the body of the comedies, but both may be seen as different solutions to the problem of blending both tragic and comic elements in a comedy - a problem first seriously tackled by Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice. The only Shakespearean comedies not fully represented are The Comedy of Errors and Pericles. The first of these contains no music, and only three musical references, I.12 while the other is not entirely by Shakespeare. I.13
Comparatively little criticism has been devoted to music in Shakespeare. Although many brief articles raising important issues have been published, most of them this century, few works deal with this topic at any great length. The first to appear was Edward W. Naylor's Shakespeare and Music (1896). I.14 Naylor's approach is that of the musical historian rather than the literary critic, and much of this study consists of catalogues of the various aspects of music in the plays with brief comments relating to their history. The second major work was Richmond Noble's Shakespeare's Use of Song with the Text of the Principal Songs (1923). In this work most of the songs intended for singing in Shakespeare's plays are critically examined, and although Noble's arguments tend to be subjective at times, his conclusions are generally sound. Next came John H. Long's trilogy, Shakespeare's Use of Music, the three volumes published in 1955 (Seven Comedies), 1961 (Final Comedies) and 1971 (Histories and Tragedies). Although I disagree with some of Long's chronology and classifications, I.15 he makes some sound contributions. His concern is for historical accuracy, and he tries to find contemporary musical settings for every occurrence of music in Shakespeare's plays. He gives detailed accounts of how he feels many of the scenes should be staged, the dramatic effect of music being the important consideration. I do not find all of his arguments satisfactory, and I have indicated some of my disagreements in this study. Before Long had completed his trilogy two other important works appeared. The first was F.W. Sternfeld's Music in Shakespearean Tragedy (1963), which is a somewhat rambling but sound study, confining itself neither to tragedy nor to Shakespeare. The second was Peter J. Seng's The Vocal Songs in the Plays of Shakespeare: A Critical History (1967), the most important work of its kind. It presents the texts of the songs together with quotations from all the important critics who have written on the songs. Sources of the songs are presented where possible, and the dramatic function of each song is discussed. Needless to say, all of these works have provided much inspiration in the writing of my own brief study. Inevitably there have been times when I have reached conclusions only to find that others had reached them before me, and in such instances I have acknowledged the earlier work without reference to the fact that my findings were reached independently.
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I have used the New Arden editions of the texts of the comedies, although I have also at times consulted the New Cambridge editions. As stage directions are a matter of some importance in the study of music, song and dance, all the quotations of stage directions are taken from the First Folio of 1623 (unless otherwise stated), in order to avoid the possibility of confusion arising over later editorial additions. I.16
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INTRODUCTION
I.1 For specific examples see John H. Long, Shakespeare's Use of Music: A Study of the Music and Its Performance in the Original Production of Seven Comedies, rpt. (New York: Da Capo, 1977), pp.1-50 (hereafter cited as Long, Seven Comedies); John Robert Moore, 'The Songs of the Public Theaters in the Time of Shakespeare', Journal of English and Germanic Philology, XXVIII (1929), 166-202. return
I.2 The number of songs varies from one Quarto to another. See Moore, pp.171-172; L.B. Wright, 'Extraneous Song in Elizabethan Drama after the Advent of Shakespeare', Studies in Philology, XXIV (1927), 267-268. return
I.3 Richmond Noble, Shakespeare's Use of Song with the Text of the Principal Songs (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), p.12. return
I.5 F.E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion, rev. ed. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969), p.460. return
I.8 Milton, 'On the morning of Christ's Nativity': The Hymn, XIII. The edition cited is Douglas Bush, ed., Milton: Poetical Works (London: Oxford University Press, 1969), p.68. return
I.9 Henry Peacham, The Compleat Gentleman (1622), found in Oliver Strunk, ed., Source Readings in Music History (New York: Norton, 1950), p.337. return
I.10 The edition cited is William Shakespeare, The Sonnets, ed. John Dover Wilson, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), p.6. return
I.11 This order has been based on the conclusions drawn by the various editors in the New Arden editions of the plays concerned. return
I.12 These are: the songs of mermaids and sirens, mentioned by Antipholus of Syracuse in III.ii; Dromio of Syracuse's humorous use of the bass viol in his devious description of an officer in IV.iii; and the aged Egeon's plea for recognition in V.i, which contains a reference to a musical key and tuning. Although no musical stage directions are recorded, the usual flourishes may be assumed. return
I.13 See my chapter on the Romances for further discussion of this play. return
I.14 Bibliographic details of this and other works mentioned here are given elsewhere in this dissertation, some of them referring to later editions or printings. return
I.15 Troilus and Cressida is classed as a tragedy and The Taming of the Shrew and The Merry Wives of Windsor are arbitrarily placed with the final comedies. return
I.16 Act, scene and line numbers are given in the conventional form (such as I.ii.4 for act one, scene two, line four), while the numbers which follow quotations from the First Folio refer to the line numbering in the play concerned in Charlton Hinman, ed., The Norton Facsimile:
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The First Folio of Shakespeare (New York: Hamlyn, 1968). return
Proceed to Chapter One