Part 38

Rimbault's Introduction to Purcell's opera 'Bonduca' gives the names of twenty-six Masques and Plays produced between 1586 and 1642 (when the theatres were closed), all of which contained important music. Amongst them are Jane Shore, by Henry Lacy, 1586, with music by William Byrd; seven masques by Ben Jonson, dating 1600-1621, four of which had music by Ferrabosco; a masque by Beaumont (1612) with music by Coperario; a play Valentinian, by Beaumont and Fletcher (1617) set by Robt. Johnson; The Triumphs of Peace by Shirley (1633), with music by William Lawes and Simon Ives; several other masques, set by Henry Lawes, who did the music to Milton's Comus (1634), etc. The list also includes Shakespeare's Tempest, with Robt. Johnson's music, two numbers of which, viz., 'Full fathom five,' and 'Where the bee sucks,' are printed in Bridge's Shakespeare's Songs, with date 1612.

Retreat, or A Retreat sounded, generally with Alarum, or Excursions, or with both.

Retreat by itself occurs only three times, but in company with Alarums and Excursions may be found in 16 other places. The whole 19 cases occur in eleven plays.

The word explains itself. The actual notes of a Retreat of Shakespeare's time are not known.

In the text it has the same meaning.

H. 6. A. II, ii, 3. 'Here sound retreat, and cease our hot pursuit.'

H. 6. B. IV, viii, 4. 'Dare any be so bold to sound retreat or parley, when I command them kill'?

H. 4. A. V, iv, 159. 'The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours.'

H. 5. III, ii, 89. Macmorris, 'the work ish give over, the trumpet sound the retreat.'

March, Dead March.

There are 18 marches provided for altogether; 4 are Dead Marches; 3 National--viz., English, French, and Danish; and 11 ordinary military marches.

Probably all are identified with Drums, without any other instruments. For the three national marches, see H. 6. A. III, iii, 30 and 33 [Transcriber's Note: Added missing scene number], and Hamlet III, ii, 91.

Hawkins gives (Hist., p. 229) the text of a Royal Warrant of Charles I., ordering the revival of the ancient 'march of this our English nation, so famous in all the honourable achievements and glorious wars of this our kingdome in forraigne parts [being by the approbation of strangers themselves confest and acknowledged the best of all marches].' The warrant goes on to say that this ancient war march of England 'was, through the negligence and carelessness of drummers, and by long discontinuance, so altered and changed from the ancient gravitie and majestie thereof, as it was in danger utterly to have bene lost and forgotten.' It appears that 'our late deare brother prince Henry' had taken steps to have the old march restored, at Greenwich, in 1610; 'In confirmation whereof' the warrant orders all English or Welsh drummers to 'observe the same,' whether at home or abroad, 'without any addition or alteration whatever.' 'Given at our palace of Westminster, the seventh day of February, in the seventh yeare of our raigne, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland.'

Then follows the march, expressed both in musical notes and onomatopoetic words. It consists of a Voluntary, and then seven lines of 'The March,' each of which ends with a 'pause.' The first line is given thus--Pou tou Pou tou [fermata symbol over next word] poung. The next three lines are very similar. Line 5 is more elaborate, and the last two lines run as follows:--

R R R R [fermata symbol over next word] poung.

R R R pou R R pou tou pou R tou pou R [fermata symbol over next word] poung potang.

See the appendix for the translation into musical notes, which is given in the warrant itself, but the accuracy of which is questionable.

It seems pretty clear that this ancient march of England is of a period long anterior to the warrant of Charles I. Several passages of that document point to this. At any rate, it was so old as to have almost dropped out of knowledge in 1610.

Hawkins gives an interesting note, in which he mentions that the characteristic of the old English march of the foot was 'dignity and gravity,' in which it differed greatly from that of the French, which is given by Mersennus (b. 1588) as 'brisk and alert.'

There is a curious story of a conversation between Marshal Biron, a French general, and Sir Roger Williams, a gallant Low-country soldier of Elizabeth's time. The marshal observed that the English march being beaten by the drum, was slow, heavy, and sluggish. 'That may be true,' answered Sir Roger, 'but slow as it is, it has traversed your master's country from one end to the other.'

The references in Shakespeare all go to confirm the opinion that the March was played by drums alone--e.g., H. 6. C. I, ii, 69, where the stage direction is A march afar off, which is immediately followed by 'I hear their drums.' Again, in the same play, Act IV., sc. vii. line 50, 'Drummer, strike up, and let us march away. [A march begun.]

Hautboys. This is an important musical term, and occurs about fourteen times in eight plays. It always implies a certain special importance in the music, and is generally connected with a Royal banquet, masque, or procession. In six cases, at least, the direction has some special qualification--e.g., Hautboys playing loud music; A lofty strain or two to the hautboys; Trumpets and hautboys sounded, and drums beaten all together. In Ant. IV, iii, 12, Hautboys supply the supposed ominous 'music in the air.'

The term is closely connected with 'Music,' the remarks on which apply equally to the present case. (See above, on 'Music,' and the music of 16th century plays).

Not long after Shakespeare's time, orchestral music for the theatre consisted of stringed instruments only (i.e., the violin family, violins, violas, violoncellos, and the sole surviving 'viol,' the double-bass) with harpsichord, for general use; while in the more important pieces, hautboys, and sometimes flutes as well, were added, playing, as a rule, with the 1st and 2nd violin parts. This, at any rate, is the case in Purcell's operas. (Purcell died 1695). Thus the word Hautboys represented very nearly the climax of power to 17th century ears. Anything beyond this was supplied by the addition of trumpets, though this was rare; while Drums were very occasionally used.

The stage direction in Shakespeare may be taken to mean--'Let the hautboys be added to the usual band of strings.' In the last of the above examples, Coriol. V, iv, 50, we have the extreme limit of power of this time provided for--viz., trumpets and hautboys and drums, all together. It is interesting to notice the wording of Menenius's description of this stage music. 'The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes, Tabors and cymbals.' The 'sackbut' was merely our modern slide trombone, while the rest of these instruments were in common use in the 16th century, except the Psaltery, which Kircher (b. 1601) says is the same as the Nebel of the Bible. The picture he gives is remarkably like the dulcimers which may be seen and heard outside public-houses to this very day, i.e., a small hollow chest, with the strings stretched across it. An instrument of this kind could be played with the fingers, like a harp, or with a plectrum, like a zither, or with two little knob-sticks, like the dulcimer. Mersennus (b. 1588) also identifies the Psaltery with the Dulcimer.

In the text, the Hautboy is only named once, in H. 4. B III, ii, 332, near the end of Falstaff's soliloquy, on old men and lying, where he says that Shallow was such a withered little wretch that the case of a treble hautboy was a mansion for him, a court.

The 'treble' hautboy corresponds with our modern instrument, and was the smallest in size of the hautboy tribe, of which only two now survive--viz., the Oboe proper, and its cousin, which is a fifth lower in pitch, and correspondingly larger, and which has curiously picked up the name of Corno Inglese, Cor Anglais, or English Horn. None the less it is the Alto Hautboy. The tenor and bass of the family have not survived. Hautboys in four parts were the backbone of the French regimental bands in Lully's time--i.e., about 1670. [Appendix.]

The spelling of the word in the old editions of Shakespeare is 'hoeboy,' which is very like the modern German Hoboe.