Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/417

 10 th S. V. MAY 5, 19C6.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

341

LONDON, SATUEDAY, MAY 5, 1S06.

CONTENTS. No. 123.

NOTES : The Death Songs of Pyramus and Thisbe, 311 Greene's Prose Works, 343 Macaulay's " New Zealander,' 344 "Rebound," Verb Creswell of Odiham, Hants Burns's 'Bonnie Lesley,' 345 Itotary Bromide Process- Sir Thomas Browne's Skull " Ponica"=Gardener Manx Emphasis, 34^ Sixteen Bishops consecrated at One Time -Wood-Pigeon's Lament, 347.

QUERIES : Chapman's 'All Fools,' 347 Steward of the Household Saint with Five Stars Travelling in Eng- land, 1600-1 700 -'St. George and the Robbers' Delmer Hawtrey Sharry Family, 348 Statues in Southern Russia Louis Philippe's Landing in England Gin Distillery in Bermondsey Watches and Clocks with Words instead of Figures Bury Family Hayes, Consu' at Smyrna, 349.

REPLIES : Greek and Roman Tablets, 350 Portman Family Ballad by Reginald Heber : W. Crane Copying Letters Provincial Booksellers, 351 ' Cherry Ripe' Luppinos of Hertford and Ware' The King of the Peak ' Inscription on Constantino's Tomb Barnes : Origin oi the Name, 352-'' The Coal Hole" Irish Bog Butter "Place," 353 Babington Conspiracy Holborn "The Sophy" Mr. Thompson of the 6th Dragoons, 354 Latin Genitives in Floricultural Nomenclature Dickens and the Bible -Oscar Wilde Bibliography -Lady Coventry's Minuet, 355 Reynolds at Le Port el Westminster Changes Chemists' Coloured Glass BotAles Rebus in Churches, 356 Cabot and Mychell Gray's 'Elegy' in Russian "The hand that rocks the cradle " " Metropolitan toe," 357.

NOTES ON BOOKS: -Oxford Dictionary Whittaker's 'Apollonius of Tyana' 'The Antiquary '' The Home Counties Magazine.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

Stole*,

THE DEATH SONGS OF PYRAMUS AND THISBE.

AMONG the musical treasures of the Christ Church Library at Oxford is a valuable set of part-books written by or for one Robert Dowe, and bearing the date 1581. In this set are to be found two songs which seem to be of some interest, apart from their historical value as specimens of a kind of music of which few examples remain. I am indebted to the kindness of the Dean of Christ Church for permission to print the words of these songs, and to the Librarian for giving me access to them. The verses may not be reprinted without the permission of the Christ Church authorities.

The first is a song for treble voice, with accompaniment for instruments, probably viols, composed by Farrant. No Christian name is given, but Richard Farrant is intended ; his name is well known in con- nexion with some favourite anthems. In printing the verses I have divided them into lines and inserted stops. I have also put in brackets the vain repetitions of words intro- duced by the composer, because they much enhance the pathetic effect, though they may somewhat obscure the rhythm :

[Ah, ah,] Alas, you salt sea Gods,

Bowe downe youre eares devine ; Lend, Ladies, here warm water springs

To moyst their cristall eyen, That they maie weep and waile

And wring their hands with me For death of Lord and husband myne, [Alas, alas, alas,] Alas, lo this is he ! You Godds that guide the ghostes

And sowles of them that fled, Send sobbs, send sighes, send greeuous grones

And strike poore Panthea dedd. [Abradad, Abradad, ah, ah,] Alas, poore Abradad,

My spirite with thine shall lie : Come, Death, alas ! O Death most sweet, [For no we, for no we,] For nowe I crave to die, [to die, to die, to die, to die.]

The second song occurs later in the volumes. It is almost as touching as the other, though it has nothing in it to equal the beautiful image of the sea gods bringing warm salt water for the ladies to cry withal. It bears no composer's name, but, like the other, it is written for treble voice with instrumental accompaniment ; and judging from the style of composition, I have no hesitation in con- jecturing that it also is the work of Farrant.

Come, tread the paths of pensive pangs

With me, ye lovers true. Bewaile with me your luckles lotts,

With tears your eies bedue : Aid me, you ghosts who lothed life,

Your lovers being slain, With sighs and sobbs and notes of dule

My hard hap to complain. Farewell, my Lords and friends,

Farewell, all princely state : Let father rue his rigour shewn

In slaieng of my mate. [Guichardo, Guichardo, ah,] Guichardo, if thy

sprite do walke, Come, draw thy lover nie. [Behold] Behold, I yeld to thee my ghost,

Ah see, I die, I die, [I die : ah see, 1 dy, I dy, I dy : ah, ah, ah, alas, I dy, I dy, I dy, I dy.]

Naturally, one's first impulse after reading these verses is to exclaim, "This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad." Then the question presents itself, Is not this the kind of stuff which Shakespeare set himself to parody in the death songs of Pyramus and Thisbe in 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' Act V. 1 I think it is ; and therefore it is worth while to try to discover what these ielectable effusions are.

It is quite evident, I think, that these songs are excerpts from two plays. The irst, in which Panthea laments the death of her husband Abradad (which we recognize as the tragi-comical form of Abradates) must from a play of * Panthea and Abradad,' or possibly 'Cyrus the Great,' based on a story which scholars will find in Xenophon, or more conveniently in the classical