An Elizabethan Tune List from Lleweni Hall, North Wales

Abstract

A little-known list of some 80 Elizabethan tune titles, probably copied during the 1590s at Lleweni Hall, near Denbigh in north Wales, is preserved in the library archive of the University of Wales, Bangor: MS Gwyneddon 4, a composite volume of late medieval Welsh poetry (p. 130 / f. 71v; see Illustration 1 and Figure 1 for parallel transcription). The list has neither heading nor notation, and was apparently written out at speed in random order. It has received little attention to date, although a transcription was published by Ifor Williams in 1937, and John Ward noted concordances with some of the items in the ‘Giles Lodge’ lute book in 1992. The list warrants closer scrutiny for several reasons: the number of ‘lost’ titles unique to this source; the theatrical associations of some of the tunes; reference to named individuals (among them ‘alen’, ‘mistres shandoes’, and the ‘countese of lester‘); and the implications of the unusual Welsh provenance. Taken as a whole, the list not only gives a flavour of the musical repertory associated with one wealthy Elizabethan household at the end of the sixteenth century, but also demonstrates how such a repertory was shaped by family tastes and connections. Part I of this article discusses the various contexts for the list with particular reference to its social and dramatic associations, while Part II comprises a catalogue of the tunes and their main concordances. Some of the most significant information is summarized in tabular form. Table 1 presents an alphabetical index of the tunes; Table 2, tunes known to survive with music and their earliest associated source; Table 3, tunes set as lute or consort items; Table 4, tunes associated with the actor Richard Tarlton (d. 1588); Table 5, Tarlton's ballads and other texts; Table 6, tunes prescribed in the ballad collectionA Handefull of Pleasant Delites(1584); Table 7, tunes found in Playford'sEnglish Dancing Master; and Table 8, tunes cited in Elizabethan stage works.