The Lyrics of Henry VIII/Authors and Composers

Authors and Composers Represented in H, Beyond Henry VIII
In keeping with the large number of works found in the Henry VIII MS, there are a good number of composers (and authors) represented therein. Not all are native to England, and not all are known for their participation in the production of the early English lyric, but several are both. What brings their work together in H is its connection to Henry’s court – some, as in the case of Henry’s contemporaries, via a direct presence in the activities that such lyrics would represent, and others via their work’s historic presence at court and/or in accordance with the court’s tastes influenced via interaction with the other courts of Europe, particularly (but by no means exclusively) the Burgundian court.

A generation of court composers working with the lyric that had not seen representation in the earlier Fayrfax MS (LFay; ca. 1500) have single examples of their work represented in H, excepting that manuscript’s namesake, Fayrfax himself, who sees representation in both manuscripts; his “Svmwhat musyng” is present in H (120v-122r). Among this group are Richard Pygott (“QUid petis o fily” [H 112v-116r]), an occasional member of the Chapel Royal who rose from being a boy singer in Wolsey’s chapel to the position of master of that chapel; John Lloyd (“Deme the best of euery dowt” [H 79v]), a priest in the Chapel Royal ca. 1505 and, by 1510, a gentleman of the Chapel; Henry Rysby (“Whoso that wyll hym selff applye” [H 27v-28r]), a clerk at Eton ca. 1506-8; and William Daggere, who is represented by his work “Downbery down” (H 25r).

The largest group of lyrics in H is provided by the king himself, who is the best represented contributor with fifteen lyrics of more than one line of text, followed by that of William Cornish (nine), Thomas Farthyng (five), and Robert Cooper (three). Of Henry, much is already known, but other figures having a large place in H are less well known.

Cooper (ca. 1474 - ca. 1535-40), who is noted as Doctor in H, received that title from Cambridge in 1507. Along with Farthing, he was a clerk at King’s College, Cambridge (1493-5) and may have associations there with Cornish as well. After his ordination in 1498, Cooper was appointed rector of the chapel of Snodhill, Herefordshire (1498-1514) and of Lydiard Tregoz, Gloucestershire (1499-1513). While his extant works are few, they demonstrate a close allegiance with the life of the court and familiarity with the works of the king. Cooper’s “I haue bene a foster” (H 65v-66r) suggests acquaintance with materials found in the Ritson MS (LRit), for it strongly echoes (textually and musically) the burden of the unattributed lyric “y haue ben a foster long and meney day” in that manuscript (53v); the matter of his own forester lyric receives answer in H in the unattributed “I am a joly foster” (H 69v-71r). Moreover, the setting he provides to “In youth and age” (Twenty Songes, #2) accompanies a text that echoes some concerns expressed in Henry’s own lyrics; as well, Cooper may have also participated in the production of Rastell’s interlude of the Four Elements (ca. 1517) by providing “Tyme to pas with goodly sport,” a lyric that borrows its tune from Henry’s “Adew madam et ma mastress” (H 17v-18r).

Farthing (d. 1520), whose ties with Cooper and Cornish may have begun through his association with King’s College, has an earlier association with King’s than either of the other two, having begun there as a chorister (1477-83) and later being a clerk (1493-9). From 1500 onward, he was associated with the household of Margaret Beaufort, Henry VIII’s grandmother. Responsible for the education of Henry as a child, Margaret had brought John Skelton into her employ ca. 1494. Farthing’s “Aboffe all thynge” (H 24v) is related to the celebrations in 1511 surrounding the birth of a male child to Henry and Katherine, and his first recorded presence as a member of the Chapel Royal is at that child’s funeral several weeks later.

Composers, musicians, and singing-men all, and for the most part associated with Henry’s personal chapel, Cooper, Farthing and the others participated in the cultural life of the court as the professionals they were, chiefly through performance and composition. Taken together, this group’s involvement with the lyric of the day may be seen to be chiefly musical; in the absence of evidence to the contrary, it must be assumed that they participated in lyrical production according to the patterns of the day, which suggest a separation for the most part of the tasks of verse and musical composition. There are, however, two exceptions to this pattern of operation, and these are the prominent figures of Henry VIII and Cornish.

Of Cornish (ca. 1474-1523), there is a considerable amount to say, for his career sees him as poet, dramatist, revels organiser, participant, and deviser, composer, and performer. The most prominent member of a musical family with an often overlapping history that included the composer John (fl. ca. 1500) and the musician William (d. 1502), Cornish made his earliest court appearance ca. 1493-4, when he offered a prophecy to the court and participated, in the role of St. George, in Twelfth Night revels. He became a member of the Henry VII’s Chapel Royal in 1494 and by ca. 1495, and certainly no later than ca. 1502, he was setting to music texts written by Skelton. By 1504, he is known to have authored a poetic work for which he would become known, like Skelton, as a satirical poet; Stow, in his Annales, mentions him as such (488) for his rhymes that address Richard Empson, which include that found in his “A Treatis bitwene Trowthe and enformacon” (1504) and his later “A Balade of Empson” (ca. 1510).

Cornish also devised pageants and disguisings for the celebrations surrounding the marriage of Prince Arthur and Katherine of Aragon (1501), provided the setting for a carol during the Christmas season of 1502, and by 1509 was Master of the Children for Henry VIII’s Chapel Royal. From the middle of the first decade of the sixteenth century he was the major driving force behind the players of the Chapel Royal, acting in many of their productions, and by 1514-16 he was devising revels at court in association with Henry Guildford. Of those many entertainments with which he was associated, it is thought that he provided the song “Yow and I and amyas” (H 45v-46r) to accompany the Schatew Vert pageant of 5 March 1522 which, along with Henry Guildford and Richard Gibson, he likely helped organise; he did author an interlude, played on Twelfth Night 1516, called Troylus and Pandor, as well as the political play of 15 June 1522 which was intended to convey to Charles V the path of the negotiations for an alliance against the French into which he and Henry VIII would enter.

Non-Native Authors and Composers
While there is significant (if not, at times, incomplete) attribution to English composers, the non-native authors and composers represented in the manuscript see no direct attribution whatsoever, nor do the texts of their works exist in more than incipit form. All told, this suggests that they exist at one step remove from the central focus of H.

Of non-native composers, those most strongly represented are working in the Franco-Flemish tradition. Among this group are Agricola, in his “Belle sur tautes” (H 99v-100r), in an equal tradition with attribution to Loyset Compère, in “La season” (H 47v-48r), and with others elsewhere; Jacob Barbireau, in “En frolyk weson” (H 6v-7r); Antoine Busnois, in “Fortune esperee” (H 4v-5r); Anthoine de Févin, after Ockeghem, in “Ffors solemant” (H 104v-105r); van Ghizeghem, in “Alles regretz uuidez dema presence” (H 5v-6r; with text by Jean II of Bourbon) and in “De tous bien plane” (H 40v-41r); Isaac, in “Benedictus” (H 3v-4r); and Prioris, in “Dulcis amica” (H 88v-89r), among non-textual works and possible others.