VIII. HENRY LAWES
1595—1662
In Henry Lawes we have a subject of particular interest. No musician of the 17th or probably of any century, has been so praised by the poets, and few musicians of reputation have been so disdainfully treated by the old musical historians. I think we shall find Henry Lawes worthy of inclusion amongst the Twelve Good Musicians with whom I am dealing. His life was a chequered one. He lived in troublous days, and in an era of great changes in the political and musical worlds. Born in 1595, at Dinton, in Wiltshire, he became a pupil of Giovanni Coperario (or John Cooper, to give him his English name), and I think this had a considerable influence on the direction which his compositions took, and about which I shall say more later. We find him a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1625, and later on a Gentleman of the Private Music to King Charles the First. On the breaking out of the Rebellion, he lost his posts, and employed himself principally in teaching singing. He lived a long life; long enough to see the Restoration, and to compose the Coronation Anthem for King Charles the Second, dying in 1662.
Lawes' contributions to English music begin with the Masque. The earliest date seems to be 1633-4, when he set the songs in a Masque written by Thomas Carew, entitled Coelum Britannicum. This was written at the particular invitation of the King, and performed for the first time at Whitehall.
The poem was published in 1634 and was wrongly attributed to Sir William Davenant. Another Masque, by James Shirley, The Triumph of Peace, was produced in the same year, Lawes and another well-known musician, Simon Ives, writing the music, for which they received the sum of £100. The following year saw the production of Comus, the greatest of Masques. It will be seen that Lawes differed from most of our English Composers in devoting himself, at the outset of his career, almost exclusively to the stage. I cannot help thinking this is to be explained by the fact that he was not educated in a Cathedral Choir, but was a pupil of Giovanni Coperario. Now this musician had an experience which few of his contemporaries enjoyed. He studied in Italy—going there as plain John Cooper and returning to his native country as Giovanni Coperario. His sojourn in Italy was at a remarkable time; the time when the first Opera and the first Oratorio were given. It is very interesting to be told—and I have been told on the authority of my friend Rev. Spooner Lillingston—that among the names given in a certain record of the performance of the first Opera was found that of the Englishman, Giovanni Coperario. This seems to me to be an important fact. Lawes would come under the influence of Coperario, who, with his love for Italian music and experience of the beginning of Opera would, no doubt, help Lawes to take up the music of the stage, instead of the music of the Church.
Our composer was not, however, long before he embarked on some Church music by setting A Paraphrase upon the Psalms of David by George Sandys, and also contributing another volume of tunes to Church Psalms, in which he was joined by his clever brother William, who was, later on, killed at the siege of Chester.
Among the commendatory poems prefixed to this volume was the well-known sonnet by Milton addressed to Lawes, beginning:
Harry, whose tuneful and well measured Song
First taught our English musick how to span
Words with just note and accent——
He was a prolific writer of songs and Masque-music, but his great opportunity was in writing the music and producing Milton's Masque of Comus, at Ludlow, in 1634. Milton was a friend, and I think there is no doubt a pupil in music of Lawes. Milton's father had much music in his house in Bread Street, and no doubt, Lawes was among the eminent musicians who gathered there. When Milton's father removed to Horton, in Buckinghamshire, we are told that the young Milton came up to London to receive instruction in music, as well as in other things. It was Lawes who apparently got Milton to write the Masque, which he desired to produce at Ludlow Castle in September 1634. The story of Comus and its origin is so well known that I need not dwell upon it. The music of the Masque was not published in the composer's life-time, but, curiously enough, it was Lawes who edited Milton's Poem in 1637. This was published without the name of the poet appearing[[1]], and was dedicated to Viscount Brackly, one of those who took part in the performance at Ludlow. In the dedication Lawes says: "Although not openly acknowledged by the Author, yet it is legitimate offspring, so lovely, and so much to be desired, that the often copying of it hath tired my pen to give my several friends satisfaction, and brought me to the necessity of producing it to the public view."