The Lyrics of Henry VIII

__NOTOC__ thumb thumb IntroductionThis extended note contains materials which will not be treated – except in heavily condensed form – in Siemens' edition of the lyrics of the Henry VIII Manuscript for the Renaissance English Text Society, available from the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Google Books. When we think of exemplary models illustrative of the nature of courtly literature and culture in Renaissance England, the early court of Henry VIII is not always the first to come to mind. By sheer force of voluminous scholarship alone, one might be more drawn to that of his daughter Elizabeth I and, once there, persuaded to consider those who assisted in the process of shaping the literary life of her court in a model suited to its monarch, and literary representations of that monarch in terms suitable to the court. Of this, there are many illustrations, among them the Cynthia of Edmund Spenser’s Colin Clout; the Britomart, Glorianna, and Belphoebe of The Faerie Queene; Sir Philip Sidney’s judicious judge at the centre of his Lady of May; and the figure—constructed and interpreted by Spenser, Mary Sidney, William Shakespeare, George Peele, John Davies, and others—of Astrea.See Frances Yates’ Astrea (29-87). What emerges from consideration in such a vein is the nature of the social fiction that is constructed and elaborated in literary terms by these literati and, when viewed in the larger context of court activity, the way in which literary constructions are reflected in (and, themselves, reflect) themes and trends in the larger fabric of court life. Such processes are similarly at work in the earlier Tudor court,See, for example, studies in the literature of the Henrician court carried out by Alistair Fox, in his Politics and Literature in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, and Greg Walker, in his Plays of Persuasion, among others. especially that of Elizabeth’s father Henry in the first years of his reign, but there are far fewer literary figures of such prominence to recount—unless, of course, one is willing to consider the king directly among those literary figures who participated in the construction of courtly social fictions. The Henry VIII Manuscript (BL Additional MS 31,922; hereafter referred to as H), one of only three large songbooks surviving from the period, is notable for many reasons, but chief among them is its intimate connection with Henry’s early court and, within, its exemplification of the social fictions developed and elaborated by Henry and his early contemporaries, specifically that of courtly love and the elements of spectacle and regal power that Henry brought to it.On the nature of the fiction of courtly love, see the fourth chapter of R.F. Green’s Poets and Princepleasers, “The Court of Cupid” (101-134); also the chapters in Stevens M&P: “The ‘Game of Love’” (154-202) and “The Courtly Makers from Chaucer to Wyatt” (203-232). On the dynamic of political power inherent to such “fictions,” see Anglo (Spectacle, Pageantry, and Early Tudor Policy). It provides a rare witness to the fictions the early Tudor court literati constructed and upheld, and the even rarer opportunity of examining the light, earlier lyrical works of a figure better known for his later reforms, secular and religious alike. In allowing one to view the court, and its monarch, through the short poetical works which graced them, the lyrics of the Henry VIII MS are themselves exemplary of the literary accoutrement—the apparel or attire intended for special purposesSee OED (“accoutrement”).—of the early Tudor court and of the king himself. Hitherto unedited in a form intended for a literary audience, the lyrics of the Henry VIII MS thus constitute a document that contributes considerably to our critical understanding of the connections between music, poetry and power in early Renaissance society—because of the prominence of its chief author and composer, the King himself, and also because of its literary reflection of the social and political elements of the early Tudor court. The lyrics themselves will appear soon in an edition published by the Renaissance English Text Society, but the matter of the text itself and its relation to the larger context of the literary and musicological study of this manuscript will not be addressed at length in that edition; this note attempts to provide that material, bringing forward aspects of our understanding of the text of the manuscript from the previous generation of scholars to the current one, toward a greater understanding of the social, cultural, literary and musicological understanding of the text of H. Table of Contents Acknowledgements The Lyrics Description of the Lyrics List of LyricsLyricFolioBenedictus [Isaac] (Incipit)3v-4rFortune esperee [Busnois] (Incipit)4v-5rAlles regretz uuidez dema presece [van Ghizeghem / Jean II of Bourbon] (Incipit)5v-6rEn frolyk weson [Barbireau] (Incipit)6v-7rPastyme with good companye, Henry VIII14v-15rAdew mes amours et mon desyre, Cornish15v-17rAdew madam et ma mastress, Henry VIII17v-18rHElas madam cel que ie metant, Henry VIII18v-19rAlas what shall I do for love, Henry VIII20v-21rHey nowe nowe, Kempe (Incipit)21vAlone I leffe alone, Cooper22rO my hart and o my hart, Henry VIII22v-23rAdew adew my hartis lust, Cornish23v-24rAboffe all thynge, Farthing24vDownbery down, Daggere25rHey now now, Farthing25vIn may that lusty sesoun, Farthing26rWhoso that wyll hym selff applye, Rysby27v-28rThe tyme of youthe is to be spent, Henry VIII28v-29rThe thowghtes within my brest, Farthing29v-30rMy loue sche morneth for me, Cornish30v-31rA the syghes that cum fro my hart, Cornish32v-33rWith sorowfull syghs and greuos payne, Farthing33v-34rIf I had wytt for to endyght [Unattributed]34v-35rAlac alac what shall I do, Henry VIII35vHey nony nony nony nony no [Unattributed] (Incipit)36rGrene growith the holy, Henry VIII37v-38rWhoso that wyll all feattes optayne, Henry VIII38v-39rBlow thi hornne hunter, Cornish39v-40rDe tous bien plane [van Ghizeghem] (Incipit)40v-41rIay pryse amours [Unattributed] (Incipit)41v-42rAdew corage adew, Cornish42vTrolly lolly loly lo, Cornish43v-44rI love trewly withowt feynyng, Farthing44v-45rYow and I and amyas, Cornish45v-46rOugh warder mount [Unattributed] (Incipit)46v-47rLa season [Compère / Agricola] (Incipit)47v-48rIf love now reynyd as it hath bene, Henry VIII48v-49rGentyl prince de renom, Henry VIII (Incipit)49v-50rSy fortune mace bien purchase [Unattributed]50v-51rWherto shuld I expresse, Henry VIII51v-52rA robyn gentyl robyn, Cornish [Wyatt]53v-54rWhilles lyue or breth is in my brest, Cornish54v-55rThow that men do call it dotage, Henry VIII55v-56rDeparture is my chef payne, Henry VIII60vIt is to me a ryght gret Ioy, Henry VIII (Incipit)61rI haue bene a foster, Cooper65v-66rFare well my Ioy and my swete hart, Cooper66v-68rWithowt dyscord, Henry VIII68v-69rI am a joly foster [Unattributed]69v-71rThough sum saith that yough rulyth me [Henry VIII]71v-73rMAdame damours [Unattributed]73v-74rAdew adew le company [Unattributed]74v-75rDeme the best of euery dowt, Lloyd79vHey troly loly loly [Unattributed]80rTaunder Naken, Henry VIII (Incipit)82v-84rWhoso that wyll for grace sew, Henry VIII84v-85rEn vray Amoure, Henry VIII86v-87rLet not vs that yongmen be [Unattributed]87v-88rDulcis amica [Prioris] (Incipit)88v-89rLusti yough shuld vs ensue, Henry VIII94v-97rNow [Unattributed]98rBelle sur tautes [Agricola] (Incipit)99v-100rENglond be glad pluk vp thy lusty hart [Unattributed]100v-102rPray we to god that all may gyde [Unattributed]103rFfors solemant, [de Févin, after Ockeghem] (Incipit)104v-105rAnd I war a maydyn [Unattributed]106v-107rWhy shall not I [Unattributed]107v-108rWhat remedy what remedy [Unattributed]108v-110rWher be ye [Unattributed]110v-112rQUid petis o fily, Pygott112v-116rMy thought oppressed my mynd in trouble [Unattributed]116v-120rSvmwhat musyng [Fayrfax / Woodville]120v-122rI loue vnloued suche is myn aduenture [Unattributed]122v-124rHey troly loly lo [Unattributed]124v-128r The Manuscript Description of the Manuscript Date of the Manuscript Provenance of the Manuscript Language of the Manuscript Authors and Composers Represented Authors and Composers Represented in H, Beyond Henry VIII Non-Native Authors and Composers Appendices Appendix 1: English Lyrics by Occasion/Theme Appendix 2: Notes, References, and Brief Comments on Textual and Musical Witnesses Appendix 3: Bibliography Notes