For Friday please bring the copies of Ferrabosco’s songbook that we handed out on Tuesday. You should read the dedicatory material from Ferrabosco and the poem by Ben Jonson at the beginning. You also have a handful of poems to read from Robert Herrick. There is one more at the end by Richard Lovelace. It’s optional reading. The poems are “Cherry-Ripe,” “Delight in Disorder,” “How Violets Came Blue,” “To Daffodils,” “His Prayer to Ben Jonson,” “Another Grace for a Child,” and “The Bellman,” gathered here: Herrick Poems. How are these poems different from the others we have read so far? Herrick admires Jonson, but he also differs from Jonson. Can you say how?

In addition to this reading, please listen to the playlist below. As you do, follow along with the lyrics to those songs linked below. Prepare to discuss any questions you have as well as the following three questions:

  1. Can you tell any difference in the musical style between the first two songs (“Come, my Celia” and “So, so leave off this last lamenting kiss”) both by Ferrabsoco during King James I’s reign and the last five songs all written later in the 17th-century, possibly during Charles I’s reign? How would you describe this?
  2. Do the songs seem to relate to Ben Jonson’s ideas about music expressed in the dedicatory poem in the Ferrabosco volume? You could probably make a case either way.
  3. There are two different settings of “So, so leave off” (“So, so break off”). Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to both settings. How do the different musical settings affect your experience and understanding of the lyrics? Try to point to specific moments in the music to support your ideas.

Playlist Guide with Lyrics: 17th-Century English Song