The Matter of Song in Early Modern England : Texts in and of the Air

## Abstract Given the variety and richness of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English “songscape,” it might seem unsurprising to suggest that early modern song needs to be considered as sung. When a reader encounters a song in a sonnet sequence, a romance, and even a masque or a play, however, the tendency is to engage with it as poem rather than as musical performance. The Matter of Song in Early Modern England: Texts in and of the Air opens up the notion of song from a performance-based perspective and considers the implications of reading early modern song not simply as lyric text but as embodied and gendered musical practice. Animating the traces of song preserved in physiological and philosophical commentaries, singing handbooks, poetic treatises, and literary texts ranging from Mary Sidney Herbert’s Psalmes to John Milton’s Comus, the book confronts song’s ephemerality, its lexical and sonic capriciousness, and its airy substance. These features can resist critical analysis but were vital to song’s affective workings in the early modern period. The Matter of Song in Early Modern England demonstrates the need to attend much more closely to the musical dimensions of literary production and circulation in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. It also makes an important and timely contribution to our understanding of women’s engagement with song as writers and as performers. A companion recording of fourteen songs, featuring Larson (soprano) and Lucas Harris (lute), brings the project’s innovative methodology and central case studies to life. Given the variety and richness of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English 'songscape', it might seem unsurprising to suggest that early modern song needs to be considered as sung. When a reader encounters a song in a sonnet sequence, a romance, and even a masque or a play, however, the tendency is to engage with it as poem rather than as musical performance. Opening up the notion of song from a performance-based perspective The Matter of Song in Early Modern England considers the implications of reading song not simply as lyric text but as an embodied and gendered musical practice. Animating the traces of song preserved in physiological and philosophical commentaries, singing handbooks, poetic treatises, and literary texts ranging from Mary Sidney Herbert's Psalmes to John Milton's Comus , the book confronts song's ephemerality, its lexical and sonic capriciousness, and its airy substance. These features can resist critical analysis but were vital to song's affective workings in the early modern period. The volume foregrounds the need to attend much more closely to the embodied and musical dimensions of literary production and circulation in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. It also makes an important and timely contribution to our understanding of women's engagement with song as writers and as performers. A companion recording of fourteen songs featuring Larson (soprano) and Lucas Harris (lute) brings the project's innovative methodology and central case studies to life. Cover 1 The Matter of Song in Early Modern England: Texts in and of the Air 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Acknowledgments 8 Contents 12 List of Figures 14 Track List for Companion Recording 16 Abbreviations 18 Note on the Text 20 Prologue 22 Sounding Early Modern Song 23 The Drastic Nature of Song 29 Song’s Textual Traces 36 Singing Women in Early Modern England 41 Animating Women’s Song Performance 48 1: Airy Forms 53 A Local Habitation and a Name: Defining Song 55 Bodying Forth the Forms of Things Unknown 63 “They show us why, and teach us how to sing”: Reading the Countess of Pembroke’s Psalmes as Song 69 2: Breath of Sirens 85 Music in the Air 86 “Quavers, and Trilloes, and the Like”: Ornamenting the Breath 98 Singing Sirens 106 Plain Old Ballads: Margaret Cavendish’s Civilizing Songs 117 3: Voicing Lyric 131 The Musical Contexts of Wroth’s Folger Manuscript 134 The Songs of V.a.104 140 Making the Room Rattle: Pamphilia in Performance 146 4: Household Songs 160 Closet Singing 163 The “Sound of Print”: The Cavendish Sisters, Jane Lumley, and the Duchess of Newcastle 169 “Pretty Sport” at Penshurst: The Songs of Mary Wroth’s Love’s Victory 188 5: Sweet Echo 200 “Blest Pair of Sirens . . . | . . . Voice and Verse”: Milton and Song 202 The “Noise” of Song 206 Performing “Sweet Echo” 209 The Musical Lessons of Comus 214 Epilogue 224 Works Cited 230 Primary Sources 230 Manuscript 230 Print 230 Recordings and Performances 235 Electronic Resources 236 Secondary Sources 237 Index 258 Given the variety and richness of the 16th- and 17th-century English 'songscape', it might seem unsurprising to suggest that early modern song needs to be considered as sung. When a reader encounters a song in a sonnet sequence, a romance, and even a masque or a play, however, the tendency is to engage with it as poem rather than as musical performance. Opening up the notion of song from a performance-based perspective 'The Matter of Song in Early Modern England' considers the implications of reading song not simply as lyric text but as an embodied and gendered musical practice. Animating the traces of song preserved in physiological and philosophical commentaries, singing handbooks, poetic treatises, and literary texts ranging from Mary Sidney Herbert's Psalmes to John Milton's Comus, the book confronts song's ephemerality, its lexical and sonic capriciousness, and its airy substance This volume treats early modern song as a musical and embodied practice and considers the implications of reading song not just as lyric text, but as a musical phenomenon that is the product of the singing body. It draws on a variety of genres, from theatre to psalm translations, sonnets and lyrics, and household drama to courtly masques.