Well - I don't know about the rest of it - but the Duc d'Alencon was the
youngest son of Catherine de Medici, the wife of Henri II of France. Marie
de Medici was the second wife of Henri IV and the mother of Louis XIII.
The Duc d'Alencon died in 1584 and he wasn't a Medici grand duke - he was a
prince of the house of Valois. The Medici wedding was between Ferdinando
de Medici who was only very distantly related to Catherine and the French
princess Christine of Lorraine of the Guise family. The link with Dowland
seems rather tenuous. Would he even have known about the Medici wedding?.
Monica
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stewart McCoy" <[email protected]>
To: "Lute Net" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2014 7:11 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Say love and Queen Elizabeth
Dear All,
Earlier today I was accompanying Dowland's "Say love, if ever thou
didst find". I remarked to the singer and gamba player, that people
today often assume the song refers to Queen Elizabeth. Though not
named, she is likely to be the song's "she".
A similar use of the word "she" occurs in "Now, oh now I needs must
part" and "Can she excuse". The titles of their instrumental settings,
"The Frog Galliard" (Frog = Duc d'Alenc,on) and "The Earl of Essex
Galliard", point us to the names of the characters referred to in "Now,
oh now" and "Can she", which in turn suggest that the Queen must be the
unnamed "she".
The first few notes of "Now, oh now" match the first few notes of the
well-known "Aria del Gran Duca", a piece first performed in 1589 in
Florence for a Medici wedding. The Duc d'Alenc,on was the son of Marie
de Medici, Queen of France, so Dowland appears to be using music for a
grand duke at a successful Medici wedding in his song about a failed
courtship by a different Medici grand duke.
In the second part of "Now, oh now", there is a modulation to the
supertonic; there is a similar modulation in the second part of
"Monsieur's Almain". "Monsieur" was the name commonly used for the Duc
d'Alenc,on; "Frog" was Queen Elizabeth's nickname for him.
Many years ago I wrote on this list about "Now, oh now" and its
associations, and there were some who were not convinced. They argued
that such things were mere coincidences, yet musical references abound
in music from this period. Another example is a quotation from "The
Sacred End Pavan" in "Henry Unton's Funeral", showing that Henry has
come to his own sacred end. Dowland's "Farewell" has links with a
madrigal by Weelkes, and references to Dowland's Lachrimae for weeping
(e.g. John Bennet's "Weep oh mine eyes") are ubiquitous.
If the first few notes of "Now, oh now" point to the Duc d'Alenc,on,
what about the first few notes of "Say love"? This afternoon I noticed
that they are exactly the same as the first few notes of Dowland's
"Queen Elizabeth's Galliard". Was Dowland using his own galliard to
show that the song really is about the Queen?
Best wishes,
Stewart McCoy.
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