Unfortunately we have only five songs of the original music. There are a great number of places in the Masque for which Milton desires music—and many directions for instrumental movements particularly. What these were we do not know. The merits of Lawes' music have been decried, but having edited the Comus music, after careful correction from Lawes' original MS., which I was fortunate enough to be able to see[[2]], I am confident that all who hear it will find the songs full of beauty and expression, and well worthy of the words to which they were so admirably fitted.
I must not dwell longer upon Comus, for there is much to be said about Lawes' other work.
Playford was a great patron and admirer of Lawes. He published no fewer than three books of Ayres and Dialogues, which contain some charming settings of excellent poetry. The first book of Ayres was dedicated to his pupils, Lady Alice Egerton and her sister, daughters of Lord Bridgwater, and in it he says: "No sooner had I thought of making these public than I resolved upon inscribing them to your Ladyships; most of them being composed when I was employed by your ever honoured Parents to attend your Ladyships' education in music."
Lawes is often said to have "introduced the Italian style of music into this kingdom," but this is hardly correct. That he admired and understood the Italian style is quite certain. His studies with Coperario would have influenced him in that direction, and he himself, in one of his numerous Prefaces (and he was a great writer of Prefaces), speaks of the Italians as being great masters of music, but at the same time he contends "that our own nation has produced as many able musicians as any in Europe." He laughs at the partiality of the age for songs sung in a foreign language. In one of the prefaces to his Book of Ayres he says: "This present generation is so sated with what's native, that nothing takes their ears but what's sung in a Language which (commonly) they understand as little as they do the music. And to make them a little sensible of this ridiculous humour I took a Table or Index of old Italian Songs (for one, two, and three voyces), and this Index (which read together made a strange medley of nonsense) I set to a varyed Ayre, and gave out that it came from Italy, whereby it hath passed for a rare Italian song. This very song I have since printed."
This shows him a real humorist, and it is, I should suppose, the first real Comic Song! It is set quite in the style of an Italian song, with much declamation and with some charming melodious phrases. I have often had it performed at my Lectures, and when sung in Italian it is listened to very stolidly, but when the English translation is given it creates much hilarity. I give the English translation, whereby it will be seen it is indeed "a strange medley of nonsense."
The title is given in Lawes' book as Tavola (i.e. a Table or Index):
Tavola.
In that frozen heart .... (for one voice)
Weep, my lady, weep, and if your eyes .... (for two voices)
'Tis ever thus, ev'n when you seem to sive me,
Truly you scorn me.
Unhappy, unbelieving,
Alas! of splendour yet!
But why, oh why? from the pallid lips
And so my life .... (for three voices).
There is no doubt Lawes was a well-educated man, and it was certainly one of the reasons why he set words with "just note and accent," and obtained the great praise of so many contemporary poets. It is said he never set bad poetry[[3]]; and he set songs to Italian, to Spanish, and even to Greek words. An interesting fact in connection with his love for good poetry is given in J. P. Collier's Catalogue of Early English Literature in the Bridgwater House Library, 1837. Amongst the books catalogued is a volume of poems by Francis Beaumont, which was presented to the Earl of Bridgwater by Henry Lawes. The following inscription is found fastened to the cover:
For the Right Honble. John, Earl of Bridgwater, my most honoured Lord, from his Lordship's most humble servant