John Dowland and the Elizabethan courtier poets

Abstract

In the address to the reader of The First Booke of Songes or Ayres (1597), John Dowland publicizes his hopes that ‘The Courtly iudgement ... will not be seuere against them [the songs], being it selfe a party’. This was an ostensibly tacit acknowledgement of the socio-political context in which at least some of the lyrics had been conceived, and of the social calibre of the otherwise anonymous versifiers. The lyric poetry set by Dowland in his four single-composer songbooks appeared, following convention, without attribution. While the vast majority of lyrics Dowland set remain, as they originally appeared in print, anonymous, work by both musicologists and literary scholars since at least the final third of the 20th century has begun to illuminate the contexts in which a number of these lyrics were generated and, in some cases, to identify the authors. Among Dowland’s songbooks are lyrics by Thomas Campion and Nicholas Breton. Most of the verses with secure attributions are, however, by amateur versifiers, men identified by Steven W. May as ‘Elizabethan courtier poets’: Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex, Sir Edward Dyer, Sir Fulke Greville, Sir Henry Lee and Sir Philip Sidney. Drawing together work by musicologists, literary scholars and historians over the last 45 years, this articles focuses on lyrics set by Dowland for which the ‘Courtly iudgement’ was ‘it selfe a party’, with a particular emphasis on verses that can be attributed to courtier poets. Building on critical editions by Stephen W. May and Edward Doughtie in particular, this study surveys those lyrics set by Dowland that can be firmly attributed to courtier poets, and examines especially the place of Essex, and the circle of poets associated with his politico-cultural predecessor, Philip Sidney, in Dowland’s song output. The themes and functions of these lyrics are explored, alongside the social, political, literary and musical milieu that connects them as they are brought together in Dowland’s printed songbooks.