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ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC. |
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REIGN OF ELIZABETH. |
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During the long reign of Elizabeth, music seems to have been in universal cultivation, as well as in universal esteem. Not only was it a necessary qualification for ladies and gentlemen, but even the city of London advertised the musical abilities of boys educated in Bridewell and Christ's Hospital, as a mode of recommending them as servants, apprentices, or husbandmen.a In Deloney's History of the gentle Craft, 1598, one who tried to pass for a shoemaker was detected as an imposter, because he could neither " sing, sound the trumpet, play upon the flute, nor reckon up his tools in rhyme." Tinkers sang catches; milkmaids sang ballads; carters whistled; each trade, and even the beggars, had their special songs; the base-viol hung in the drawing room for the amusement of waiting visitors; and the lute,, cittern, and virginals, for the amusement of waiting customers, were the necessary furniture of the barber's shop. They had music at dinner; music at supper; music at weddings; music at funerals; music at night; music at dawn; music at work; and music at play.
He who felt not, in some degree, its soothing influences, was viewed as a morose, unsocial being, whose converse ought to be shunned, and regarded with suspicion and distrust.
" The man that bath no music in himself, Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils ; The motions of his spirit are as dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus : Let no such man be trusted."
Iferckant of Venice, act v., sc. 1. " Preposterous ass ! that never read so far To know the cause why music was ordain'd 1 Was it not to refresh the mind of man After his studies, or his usual pain ? "
The Taming of the Shrew, act ii., sc. 3. |
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» "That the preachers be moved at the sermons at the Crosse" [St. Paul's Cross] '* and other convenient times, and that all other good notorious meanes he used, to require both citizens, artificers, and other, and also all farmers and other for husbandry, and gentlemen and other for their kitchens and other services, to take servants and children both out of Bridewell and Christ's Hospital at their pleasures, .. . with further declaration that many of them be of toward qualities in readyng, wry ting, gram-mer, and musike." This is the 66th and last of the "Orders appointed to be executed in the cittie of London, for setting rogfnjes and idle persons to worke, and for releefe of the poore." "At London, printed by Hugh Singleton, dwelling in Smith Ficlde, at the signe of the |
Golden Tunne;" reprinted in The British Bibliographer. Edward VI. granted the charters of Incorporation for Bridewell and Christ's Hospital, a few days before his death. Bridewell in a foundation of a mixed and singular nature, partaking of the hospital, prison, and work-bouse. Youths were sent to the Hospital as apprentices to manufacturers, who resided there; and on leaving, received a donation of 10/., and their freedom of the city. Pepys, in his Diary, 5th October, 1664, says, "To new Bridewell, and there I did with great pleasure see the many pretty works, and the little children employed, every one to do something, which was a very fine sight, and worthy encouragement." |
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