Fine Knacks For Ladies - John Dowland
Fine Knacks For Ladies - John Dowland
Introduction
This piece was composed by John Dowland, and published in his 1600 book Second Booke of Songs and Ayres. It’s a Madrigal written for four voices. The lyrics for “Fine Knacks…” were written by an anonymous author, and the poem appears the 1970 Norton anthology as “An Anonymous Peddler’s Song.”(Rumens) It was typically sung by four voices, a Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass, and accompanied by a lute(Dowland).
The Composer
John Dowland was born in 1563 and was buried 20 Feb 1626 (Poulton). While relatively little is known about his early life, it is known that in 1580 he travelled to Paris where he lived until 1584(Poulton, 26-27). He received his Bachelor in Music from Christ Church, Oxford, in 1588.(Poulton, 28) After failing to get the open position in Queen Elizabeth the First’s court, in 1594, Dowland decided to travel(Poulton, 30). He eventually settled into a court musician position for King Christian IV of Denmark, in 1598(Poulton, 52).
The Form
The Madrigal is a musical form which originated in its most recognizable form in the 16th century Italy. Madrigals are built around stanzas in particular poetic forms, with the ”musical form reflecting the structure of the poem.” (“Madrigal|Vocal Music”). The Madrigal “is most often set polyphonically”(“Madrigal|Vocal Music”), meaning that it was intended to be sung by more than one voice.
The Piece
Fine Knacks for Ladies is a Madrigal written by John Dowland. The poem it was written around gives the impression of a peddler’s cry to passers by. It was interesting to read the several interpretations of the poem’s meaning. The most interesting of them, was published by The Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship, and links the poem with Shakespeare. This interpretation posits that the second line of the poem ”… But mony can ..not move” shows that there is more depth to the meaning of the poem than appears at first. (Fitzgerald). In the third line the poet uses “faier” (fair) two different ways, both as a market, and as a beauty.(Rumens) Fitzgerald proposes that the multiple different uses of fair, are a link to the writing of Shakespeare. (Fitzgerald) The article continues to draw parallels to Shakespeare’s writing, showing the connection between the wording of line 4 “a beggar may be liberall of love” and Henry VII (Act II, Scene 1, line 126) “Were you are liberal with your loves and counsels.”(Fitzgerald) In his article Fitzgerald poses the idea that the “Fine knacks” are infact performances, and that the “faiers” are Queen Elizabeth I and the ladies of her court.(Fitzgerald)
Moving away from Fitzgerald’s interpretation, Carol Rubens in an article for The Guardian, agrees with Fitzgerald’s assertion that there is more to the poem than meets the eye. She refers to the poem as “charmingly ambiguous.” But, she takes a slightly different approach in the ways that there is more to the poem. Rubens suggests that the poem is about a lover, and the wares he is “selling” are his affections. She suggests that
“What the fine knacks symbolise may be best left to the imagination, though they could of course be poems, or nice phrases, or merely (as the speaker would have us believe) his heart’s candid affections”(Rubens)
Later in the poem, in line 10, there is an allusion that the “knacks” may be poems. “Of other’s take a sheaf…” as in of paper.(Pinsky) However, that line may also be carrying on the continued peddler motif. Line twelve holds another interesting vagueness for Rubens. As the poet used “faier” to mean both a market and a beauty, in line 2, she proposes that maybe the double meaning exists in the 12th line too, creating a “lovely pun.”
The last lines of the last stanza are the hardest to interpret. Seeming to be gibberish. “Turtles and twins, courts brood, a heavenly pair.” Fitzgerald quotes an annotation from the Oxford Anthology of English Literature, “turtle-doves and the ‘heavenly pair’ of twins Castor and Pollux of the constellation Gemini were emblems of true love and constancy; the latter were the ‘brood’ of Jove as the swan, and Leda.” (Fitzgerald) This seems to make more sense to me than Rubens assertion that it refers to the lovers as a pair and “the beloved’s breasts”.(Rubens)
Turning attention now to Dowland’s music, it is in the key of F Major, and in the ionian mode. The time signature however seems to change depending on the printing of the music. “Metres and tempi in lute tablatures are largely unassigned, leaving much to the performer’s common sense and intuition.”(d’Avignon, 9) The Tablature does suggest that it is to be played relatively slowly though, using a tempo marking resembling a C with a strike through it. (Dowland, 1998, 86) The vocal part in the same printing of the music shows a tempo mark resembling a C, which suggests that the singer should sing neither fast nor slow.(d’Avignon, 9)
My Performance:
I will be performing the piece alone and without lute accompaniment. Which, while a departure from the way it was written, is within Dowland’s style. “Dowland tends to offer more than one option.”(Maher) So, I will be singing the Cantus part (equivalent to a Soprano) with modification to fit my range.
References
D’Avignon, Tristran. “Making the Transition from Guitar to Lute.” 2006. Web. 4 Dec. 2015. http://stdionysius.lochac.sca.org/collegeprojects/guitartolute.pdf. Written for the College of Saint Dionysius of the SCA Kingdom of Lochac
Dowland, John. “JOHN DOWLAND, FINE KNACKS FOR LADIES.” Arcadia Early Music Archive. Ed. Gordon Callon. Arcadia University, 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
Dowland, John, and David Nadal. Lute Songs of John Dowland: The Original First and Second Books including Dowland’s Original Lute Tablature. Place of Publication Not Identified: Dover Pubns., 1998. Print.
Fitzgerald, James. “Shakespeare, Oxford, and “A Pedlar”.” Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship. Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship, 8 May 2011. Web. 4 Dec. 2015.
Maher, Alan. “The Second Booke of Songes or Ayres.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Nov. 2014. Web. 4 Dec. 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Booke_of_Songes_or_Ayres#cite_note-VnA-1.
Pinsky, Robert. “Fine Knacks, Painted Things: John Dowland and Michael Drayton.” Robert Pinsky Poetry Forum. 26 Mar. 2014. Web. 4 Dec. 2015.
Poulton, Diana. “The Life of John Dowland.” John Dowland. New and Rev. ed. Berkeley U.a.: U of California Pr., 1982. 19-94. Print.
Rumens, Carol. “Poem of the Week: Fine Knacks for Ladies.” Www.theguardian.com. The Guardian, 21 Jan. 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/jul/21/poemoftheweekfineknacksf.