{"id":17751,"date":"2015-12-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2574"},"modified":"2015-12-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T00:00:00","slug":"shakespeares-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakespeare’s Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

Late at night in Lady Olivia\u2019s great house in Illyrium, three friends \u2013 Sir Toby, the lady\u2019s uncle, Feste her fool, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, her hapless suitor \u2013 sing drunken songs that resound loudly through the empty halls. Malvolio, Lady Olivia\u2019s stern steward and \u201csomething of a Puritan,\u201d rises from bed to chide the drunkards, but they respond by mocking him with more songs:<\/p>\n

Sir Toby: Shall I bid him go?<\/p>\n

Feste: What an if you do?<\/p>\n

Sir Toby: Shall I bid him go, and spare not?<\/p>\n

Feste: O no, no, no, no, you dare not (Twelfth Night<\/em> 2.3).<\/p>\n

The scene, like the play as a whole, dramatizes a confrontation of two Elizabethan subcultures, the bawdy festive world of taverns and the strict moralistic world of Puritanism. <\/p>\n

For the original audiences of Shakespeare\u2019s play, the confrontation would have been more obvious than it is to us, since Shakespeare borrowed the lines that Toby and Feste exchange from a popular song of the period, first published in Robert Jones\u2019 First Booke of Songs<\/em> (1600). The song is, as Stephen Orgel says in the foreword to Ross Duffin\u2019s Shakespeare\u2019s Songbook<\/em>, one of the \u201csongs that drunken revelers really did sing in Elizabethan England\u201d (p. 13). Shakespeare used Jones\u2019 song the way a director might insert a snatch of Bob Dylan into a movie soundtrack, put lines from a rap song in the mouths of characters, or name one of his characters \u201cBobbie McGee.\u201d Duffin\u2019s book enables us to hear the joking musical allusions that would have been second-nature to Shakespeare and his audiences.<\/p>\n

Music and dance always accompanied Shakespeare\u2019s plays, like their Greek predecessors, but this aspect of Elizabethan drama has been difficult to reconstruct. Scholars have pieced together the musical aspects of his drama from scattered sources, but\u00a0Shakespeare\u2019s Songbook<\/a> is a unique achievement, the first time anyone has \u201cbrought all of the Shakespearean tunes and texts together\u201d (p. 25). Duffin, Fynette H. Kulas Professor of Music at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, has compiled all the songs in Shakespeare\u2019s plays, whether they were written by Shakespeare or borrowed from elsewhere. Wherever available, he provides the full text of each song, even when Shakespeare includes only a stanza or two, or even only a few lines. Because he includes contemporary tunes for all of the songs, Duffin\u2019s book is as useful to performers, producers, and directors as it is to scholars. He admits that he is more confident of some tunes than of others, but all the tunes were theoretically available to Shakespeare. The songs are arranged alphabetically by title, but an index of first lines and another index arranged by play make the book very easy to use. The book comes with a CD containing eighty-one songs, about half of the songs discussed in the book. <\/p>\n

Shakespeare\u2019s Songbook<\/em> is a treasure for Shakespearean scholars, demonstrating that Shakespeare quotes from and alludes to popular songs far more than has commonly been recognized. This raises many questions, but let me limit myself to two. First, there is the question of Shakespeare\u2019s sources. Shakespeare\u2019s allusions to ancient myths have often been taken as evidence of his familiarity with Ovid\u2019s Metamorphoses<\/em> and other ancient literature, all available in English translations in Shakespeare\u2019s time. As Duffin points out, however, Shakespeare\u2019s audience would more likely have gained their knowledge of myth and history from popular song than from Ovid himself, and perhaps the same was true of the Bard himself. This might even hold some implications for the always-renewed debate over the playwright\u2019s identity. If the plays draw from popular songs about Apollo and Daphne rather than from Ovid, perhaps the author really was an actor with an elementary education rather than a university-educated aristocrat. <\/p>\n

Second, Duffin understandably does not attempt to explain the significance of all the quotations and allusions to songs, but that leaves a vast interpretive task to others. When Shakespeare quotes the title of a ballad, does he intend it to evoke the entirety of the ballad, so that the ballad becomes an internal commentary on the play itself? Does he intend it as a joke, a sop to hip groundlings? When he quotes the same song in two different plays (there are five allusions to \u201cKing Cophetua and the Beggar Maid\u201d in four different plays), are we supposed to recognize the repetition and muse on larger parallels between the plays? Like the best books of criticism, Duffin\u2019s lays out a program of new research even as it brings another research program to an impressive culmination.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare\u2019s Songbook<\/em> is a wonderfully planned and executed piece of scholarly detection and an indispensable resource for anyone interested in Elizabethan popular music, or, more broadly, early modern popular culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late at night in Lady Olivia\u2019s great house in Illyrium, three friends \u2013 Sir Toby, the lady\u2019s uncle, Feste her fool, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, her hapless suitor \u2013 sing drunken songs that resound loudly through the empty halls. Malvolio, Lady Olivia\u2019s stern steward and \u201csomething of a Puritan,\u201d rises from bed to chide the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,578],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-shakespeare"],"yoast_head":"\nShakespeare's Songs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Late at night in Lady Olivia\u2019s great house in Illyrium, three friends \u2013 Sir Toby, the lady\u2019s uncle, Feste her fool, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, her hapless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shakespeare's Songs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Late at night in Lady Olivia\u2019s great house in Illyrium, three friends \u2013 Sir Toby, the lady\u2019s uncle, Feste her fool, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, her hapless\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leithart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-07T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PLeithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/\",\"name\":\"Shakespeare's Songs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-07T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-07T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\"},\"description\":\"Late at night in Lady Olivia\u2019s great house in Illyrium, three friends \u2013 Sir Toby, the lady\u2019s uncle, Feste her fool, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, her hapless\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Shakespeare’s Songs\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\",\"name\":\"Leithart\",\"description\":\"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\",\"name\":\"Peter Leithart\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Peter Leithart\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Shakespeare's Songs","description":"Late at night in Lady Olivia\u2019s great house in Illyrium, three friends \u2013 Sir Toby, the lady\u2019s uncle, Feste her fool, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, her hapless","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Shakespeare's Songs","og_description":"Late at night in Lady Olivia\u2019s great house in Illyrium, three friends \u2013 Sir Toby, the lady\u2019s uncle, Feste her fool, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, her hapless","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/","og_site_name":"Leithart","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","article_published_time":"2015-12-07T00:00:00+00:00","author":"Peter Leithart","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@PLeithart","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter Leithart","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/","name":"Shakespeare's Songs","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-12-07T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-12-07T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d"},"description":"Late at night in Lady Olivia\u2019s great house in Illyrium, three friends \u2013 Sir Toby, the lady\u2019s uncle, Feste her fool, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, her hapless","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/12\/shakespeares-songs\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Shakespeare’s Songs"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/","name":"Leithart","description":"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d","name":"Peter Leithart","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Peter Leithart"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}