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Copyright Matthew Steggle, Editor, EMLS Jan 2009

Abstract

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.4 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. 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. Description of the Lyrics 4. Predominantly secular in tone, the lyrics contained in the Henry VIII MS chiefly reflect a lively and light court atmosphere, and a court culture whose influence echoed from the public sphere associated with Henry VIII and his entourage into the more private court circles of Wyatt6 and others further removed from the centre of court activity.7 The lyrics themselves are as follows: * Benedictus [Isaac] (Incipit) (3v-4r) * Fortune esperee [Busnois] (Incipit) (4v-5r) * Alles regretz uuidez dema presence [van Ghizeghem / Jean II of Bourbon] (Incipit) (5v-6r) * En frolyk weson [Barbireau] (Incipit) (6v-7r) * Pastyme with good companye, Henry VIII (14v-15r) * Adew mes amours et mon desyre, Cornish (15v-17r) * Adew madam et ma mastress, Henry VIII (17v-18r) * HElas madam cel que ie metant, Henry VIII (18v-19r) * Alas what shall I do for love, Henry VIII (20v-21r) * Hey nowe nowe, Kempe (Incipit) (21v) * Alone I leffe alone, Cooper (22r) * O my hart and o my hart, Henry VIII (22v-23r) * Adew adew my hartis lust, Cornish (23v-24r) * Aboffe all thynge, Farthing (24v) * Downbery down, Daggere (25r) * Hey now now, Farthing (25v) * In may that lusty sesoun, Farthing (26r) * Whoso that wyll hym selff applye, Rysby (27v-28r) * The tyme of youthe is to be spent, Henry VIII (28v-29r) * The thowghtes within my brest, Farthing (29v-30r) * My loue sche morneth for me, Cornish (30v-31r) * A the syghes that cum fro my hart, Cornish (32v-33r) * With sorowfull syghs and greuos payne, Farthing (33v-34r) * Iff I had wytt for to endyght [Unattributed] (34v-35r) * Alac alac what shall I do, Henry VIII (35v) * Hey nony nony nony nony no [Unattributed] (Incipit) (36r) * Grene growith the holy, Henry VIII (37v-38r) * Whoso that wyll all feattes optayne, Henry VIII (38v-39r) * Blow thi hornne hunter, Cornish (39v-40r) * De tous bien plane [van Ghizegehem] (Incipit) (40v-41r) * Iay pryse amours [Unattributed] (Incipit) (41v-42r) * Adew corage adew, Cornish (42v) * Trolly lolly loly lo, Cornish (43v-44r) * I love trewly withowt feynyng, Farthing (44v-45r) * Yow and I and amyas, Cornish (45v-46r) * Ough warder mount [Unattributed] (Incipit) (46v-47r) * La season [Compère / Agricola] (Incipit) (47v-48r) * If love now reynyd as it hath bene, Henry VIII (48v-49r) * Gentyl prince de renom, Henry VIII (Incipit) (49v-50r) * Sy fortune mace bien purchase [Unattributed] (50v-51r) * Wherto shuld I expresse, Henry VIII (51v-52r) * A robyn gentyl robyn, Cornish [Wyatt] (53v-54r) * Whilles lyue or breth is in my brest, Cornish (54v-55r) * Thow that men do call it dotage, Henry VIII (55v-56r) * Departure is my chef payne, Henry VIII (60v) * It is to me a ryght gret Ioy, Henry VIII (Incipit) (61r) * I haue bene a foster, Cooper (65v-66r) * Fare well my Ioy and my swete hart, Cooper (66v-68r) * Withowt dyscord, Henry VIII (68v-69r) * I am a joly foster [Unattributed] (69v-71r) * Though sum saith that yough rulyth me [Henry VIII] (71v-73r) * MAdame damours [Unattributed] (73v-74r) * Adew adew le company [Unattributed] (74v-75r) * Deme the best of euery dowt, Lloyd (79v) * Hey troly loly loly [Unattributed] (80r) * Taunder Naken, Henry VIII (Incipit) (82v-84r) * Whoso that wyll for grace sew, Henry VIII (84v-85r) * En vray Amoure, Henry VIII (86v-87r) * Let not vs that yongmen be [Unattributed] (87v-88r) * Dulcis amica [Prioris] (Incipit) (88v-89r) * Lusti yough shuld vs ensue, Henry VIII (94v-97r) * Now [Unattributed] (98r) * Belle sur tautes [Agricola] (Incipit) (99v-100r) * ENglond be glad pluk vp thy lusty hart [Unattributed] (100v-102r) * Pray we to god that all may gyde [Unattributed] (103r) * Ffors solemant, [de Févin, after Ockeghem] (Incipit) (104v-105r) * And I war a maydyn [Unattributed] (106v-107r) * Why shall not I [Unattributed] (107v-108r) * What remedy what remedy [Unattributed] (108v-110r) * Wher be ye [Unattributed] (110v-112r) * QUid petis o fily, Pygott (112v-116r) * My thought oppressed my mynd in trouble [Unattributed] (116v-120r) * Svmwhat musyng [Fayrfax / Woodville] (120v-122r) * I loue vnloued suche is myn aduenture [Unattributed] (122v-124r) * Hey troly loly lo [Unattributed] (124v-128r) Description of the Manuscript 5.

Details

Title
Revisiting the Text of the Henry VIII Manuscript (BL Add Ms 31,922): An Extended Note[1]
Author
Siemens, Ray
Pages
N_A
Publication year
2009
Publication date
Jan 2009
Publisher
Matthew Steggle, Editor, EMLS
ISSN
12012459
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
196564232
Copyright
Copyright Matthew Steggle, Editor, EMLS Jan 2009