Misc. MS 170, Filmer MS 4
Three oblong quarto music part books (4/a, 4/b, and 4/c), 103, 93, and 75 leaves (including numerous blanks) respectively, in contemporary calf gilt. Principally in a single hand, a second hand responsible for 4/b, ff. 17v-24v, and for 4/c, ff. 5r-12v; the collection largely copies of vocal trios that would appear in John Wilson's Cheereful Ayres (Oxford, 1660). Mid-17th century.
In a collection of MS music books associated with the Filmer family, baronets, of Kent, members of whom included the political philosopher Sir Robert Filmer (1588-1653), his brother Edward (d.1650, compiler of French Court Aires, 1628) and son Sir Edward (d.1668), and the playwright Edward Filmer (fl.1700).
4/a ff. 10v-11r; 4/b f. 8v; 4/c f. 11v
• CmT 139: Thomas Campion, ‘Though your strangenesse frets my hart’
Copies in a musical setting by John Wilson, untitled.
This MS collated in Doughtie, pp. 573-5.
First published in Robert Jones, A Musical Dreame (London, 1609). Campion, Two Bookes of Ayres (London, [c.1612-13]), Book II, No. xvi. Davis, pp. 106-7. Doughtie, pp. 319-20.
4/a f. 14v; 4/b f. 10v; 4/c f. 15r
• B&F 173: Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Valentinian, II, v, 4-23. Song (‘Now the lustry spring is seen’)
Copies in a musical setting by John Wilson, untitled.
First published in Comedies and Tragedies (London, 1647). Dyce, V, 207-316 (p. 243). Bullen, IV, 207-321, ed. R.G. Martin (pp. 247-8). Bowers, IV, 276-380, ed. Robert K. Turner (pp. 307-8). The musical setting first published in John Wilson, Cheerfull Ayres (Oxford, 1659).
4/a f. 15r; 4/b f. 11r; 4/c f. 15v
• B&F 72: Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Love's Cure, III, ii, 118-225. Song (‘Turn, turn thy beauteous face away’)
Copies in a musical setting by John Wilson, untitled.
First published in Comedies and Tragedies (London, 1647). Dyce, IX, 105-95 (p. 149). Bowers, III, 12-93, ed. George Walton Williams (p. 48). This setting first published in John Wilson, Cheerfull Ayres (Oxford, 1659).
4/a f. 20v; 4/b f. 14v; 4/c f. 20r
• ShW 94.5: William Shakespeare, The Tempest, I, ii, 400-9. Song (‘Full fathom five thy father lies’)
Copies in a musical setting by Robert Johnson (as edited by John Wilson), untitled.
4/a f. 21r; 4/b f. 15r; 4/c f. 20v
• ShW 103.8: William Shakespeare, The Tempest, V, i, 88-94. Song (‘Where the bee sucks, there suck I’)
Copies in a musical setting by Robert Johnson (as edited by John Wilson), untitled.
4/a f. 21v; 4/b f. 15v; 4/c f. 21r
• B&F 55: Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, III, i, 429-36. Song (‘Do not feare to put thy feete’)
Copies in a musical setting by John Wilson, untitled.
Bowers, III, 545. This setting first published in John Wilson, Select Ayres and Dialogues (London, 1659).
4/a f. 22r; 4/b f. 16r; 4/c f. 21v
• B&F 39: Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, The Captain, IV, iv, 85-104. Song (‘Come hither you that love, and heare me sing’)
Copies in a musical setting by Robert Johnson (as edited by John Wilson), untitled.
Bowers, I, 624-5.
4/a f. 22v; 4/b f. 16v; 4/c f. 22r
• B&F 9: Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Beggars' Bush, II, i, 143-64. Song (‘Cast our Caps and cares away!’)
Copies in a musical setting by John Wilson, untitled and here beginning ‘Cast your Capps and cares away’.
Bowers, III, 264-5. This setting first published in John Wilson, Cheerfull Ayres (Oxford, 1659).
4/a f. 27r; 4/b f. 21r; 4/c f. 26r
• StW 1036: William Strode, A Sonnet (‘My Love and I for kisses played’)
Copies in a musical setting by John Wilson, untitled.
First published in A Banquet of Jests (London, 1633). Dobell, p. 47. Forey, p. 211. The poem also discussed in C.F. Main, ‘Notes on some Poems attributed to William Strode’, PQ, 34 (1955), 444-8 (p. 446-7).
4/a f. 27v; 4/b f. 21v; 4/c ff. 26v-7r
• LoR 47: Richard Lovelace, To Althea, From Prison. Song (‘When Love with unconfined wings’)
Copies in a musical setting by John Wilson, untitled and here beginning ‘Where Love with vnconfined wings’, the full lyrics appearing in 4/c.
First published in Lucasta (London, 1649). Wilkinson (1925), II, 70-1. (1930), pp. 78-9. Thomas Clayton, ‘Some Versions, Texts, and Readings of “To Althea, from Prison”’, PBSA, 68 (1974), 225-35. A musical setting by John Wilson published in Select Ayres and Dialogues (London, 1659).
4/a ff. 28v-9r; 4/b ff. 23v-4r; 4/c ff. 28v-9r
• B&F 102: Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, The Mad Lover, V, i, 13-24. Song (‘Oh, fair sweet goddess, queen of loves’)
Copies of a version, untitled and here beginning ‘O divinest God of Loue’, in a musical setting by John Wilson.
Dyce, VI, 194. Bullen, III, 198-9. Bowers, V, 79-80.
Misc. MS 170, Filmer MS 26
A narrow oblong octavo songbook, in two hands, 38 leaves (including numerous blanks), in contemporary calf. c.1676.
In a collection of MS music books associated with the Filmer family, baronets, of Kent, members of whom included the political philosopher Sir Robert Filmer (1588-1653), his brother Edward (d.1650, compiler of French Court Aires, 1628) and son Sir Edward (d.1668), and the playwright Edward Filmer (fl.1700).
ff. 37v-8v
• EtG 84.5: Sir George Etherege, Sylvia (‘The nymph that undoes me is fair and unkind’)
Copy, in a musical setting.
First published in A Collection of Poems, Written upon several Occasions (London, 1672). Thorpe, p. 26.