MichaelGale

John Dowland, celebrity lute teacher

oth in his own lifetime and the present day,
John Dowlands professional reputation has
been formed around two areas of practice: as a
virtuoso lutenist famed throughout Europe, and
as a composer noted in particular for the series of
songbooks he published between 1597 and 1612.
Recent scholarship has also explored the ways in
which these twin identities became intertwined. By
using the medium of print to publicize himself as an
author of lute-songs, Dowland was able to enhance
his professional image more generallyboth in the
eyes of the book-buying public and amongst more
elite circles that might provide lucrative opportunities for patronage as a lutenist.1
Studies of Dowlands life have often dwelt
upon his rather circuitous route to royal patronage in England (he was finally appointed one of
the Kings Lutes in October 1612), and it has often
been observed that this appointmentthe apex of
achievement in one professional sphereapparently
triggered a cessation of activity in the other.2 Arelative scarcity of evidence is to blame here, for little is
known about Dowlands career following his stint of
royal service in Denmark (15981606) beyond what
can be surmised from the prefaces to his printed
works. Under these circumstances, the notion of a
gradual decline in professional activity whilst comfortably supported by Crown patronage seems reasonable enough.
However, since the publication in the 1970s of
the two cornerstones of Dowland biography, Diana
Poultons monograph and John Wards extended
review-cum-supplement, new documents have
emerged which reveal more of Dowlands professional activities at around the time of his royal
appointment.3 For instance, he was also freelancing
as a member of a consort, providing entertainment
in the Middle Temple at Candlemas 1612 (2 February

1613, new style) alongside the lute-song composer William Corkine and one Richard Goosey.4
Elsewhere, Lynn Hulse has shown that Dowland
and his son Robert were amongst the lutenists
who received patronage at the London residence of
William Cavendish, First Earl of Devonshire (1551
1626).5 The discovery in the 1970s of the Margaret
Board Lutebook, apparently connected with
Dowlands teaching activities during the final years
of his life, also provided valuable new information
about his career.6
Together, these discoveries cast further light on
Dowlands pursuit of what we might now describe
as a portfolio careerthat is, a series of interlocking
and sometimes overlapping professional activities
rather than a single salaried post. Just as presentday composers and performers normally undertake
some teaching during their working week, the same
was evidently true for early modern musicians,
whether in household service or within collegiate
or ecclesiastical institutions. We are fortunate to
possess two surviving manuscript lutebooks which
contain first-hand evidence of Dowlands teaching
practices but, while both have been studied in
detail (regarding dating, provenance and musical
content), little attempt has been made to situate
Dowlands teaching within the broader context
of his career. This study attempts to do just that,
gathering together the numerous shreds of evidence
concerning the pedagogical activities of Dowland
and his closest colleagues, and considering how
this complemented and nourished their other
professional activities as performers and composers.
The resulting picture reveals a group of highly
sought-after lute tutors (whose reputations were
enhanced by their royal patronage) enjoying the
favourable market conditions of Elizabethan and
Jacobean London, a hotbed of musical commerce

Early Music, Vol. xli, No. 2 The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1093/em/cat027, available online at www.em.oup.com

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and consumption. Fitted around their other duties

in household service and at court, these teaching
activities served an important function in their
career development: their growing status as celebrity
figures carried enormous cachet for the wealthy
amateur musicians who engaged them, providing
these professional lutenists with another pathway to
further patronage and opportunity.

206Early MusicMay 2013

Dowland the teacher

What can be deduced about Dowlands teaching
from this evidence? The most striking facet is his
painstaking attention to notational detail. Both
his own Lady Hunsdons Allmande in the Folger
Lutebook and the Almande Ro[bert] Dowlande in
the Board Lutebook are annotated with a significant
number of diagonal hold-lines, both on the bass

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Two pedagogical manuscripts

It has long been recognized that the so-called
Dowland lutebook in the Folger Shakespeare
Library contains some musical material and several signatures in Dowlands autograph hand.7 This
pedagogical source was studied in detail by John
Ward who drew attention to content apparently
added by both student novices and various teachers.8 Moreover, Ward suggested that the composer
ascription attached to John Johnsons Delight Pavin
(f.15r) was in fact an autograph signature, a hunch
that he later confirmed through further archival
research.9 More recently, Ian Harwood convincingly argued on palaeographic grounds that both
the music and ascription to the Delight pavan are in
Johnsons own hand, along with a substantial portion of the rest of manuscript.10 Taking into account
its musical contents and the fact that Johnson died
in 1594, the earliest parts of the Folger Lutebook
probably date from c.1590.
Although the identity of Johnsons pupil remains
uncertain, it seems likely that the Folger Lutebook
belonged at one time to the young Anne Bayldon,
a Yorkshire gentlewoman who added her signature
to the rear flyleaf.11 At some point, the owner of
the Folger Lutebook seems to have had a few lessons with Dowland, who added one complete piece,
incomplete versions of two more, and a number of
musical fragments. He also signed a number of his
own works already present in the manuscript (see
Table1). John Ward also speculated that the four corantos on ff.24v25r are in Robert Dowlands hand, a
conjecture cautiously supported by Harwood.12 Since
Robert was not born until c.1591, this adds to the
likelihood that the Folger Lutebook was compiled
over the course of a couple of decades, during which
time the owner(s) enjoyed lessons with a number of
teachers including three prominent royal lutenists.

A second volume containing additions in

Dowlands hand, the Board Lutebook, only came to
light during the 1970s and was the subject of detailed
research by its then-owner Robert Spencer.13 Asubstantial source of almost 50 music folios, it was
probably compiled by Margaret Board (b.1600),
daughter of the wealthy Sussex gentleman Ninian
Board. The Board Lutebook appears to date from the
1620sSpencer noted both an ascription to Docter
Dowland and the use of Margarets married name
Borne (f.32v)although it may have been begun
earlier. The first 30 folios are in what is assumed to
be Margarets handwriting; they preserve a fine selection of late Elizabethan solo music, apparently copied from earlier sources for six- or seven-course lute
but frequently revised to show off the potential of
her larger nine-course instrument. Anumber of later
scribes added pieces in the so-called transitional
tunings popular during the 1620s and 30s, suggesting
that this manuscript also had a long usable life-span.
Again, Dowland contributed just a few pages of
material: some theoretical tables near the front of the
volume, a copy of an allemande by his son Robert
(f.12v), and (apparently) some notational details
(hold lines, fingering dots) added to some of his
own works elsewhere in the manuscript. As with the
Folger Lutebook, a few additional musical fragments
also appear to be in his hand, presumably jotted
down in order to illustrate a point mid-lesson. The
Board Lutebook also contains a number of otherwise
unknown works by Dowland (in Margarets hand)
and, although it is impossible to be sure, it may be that
these were acquired during the course of her studies
with him. Despite its obvious importance, however,
the Board Lutebook has not yet been explored in
terms of what it can reveal about Dowlands later
career, perhaps because it was discovered too late to
be considered fully by his biographers.14

Table1 John Dowlands contributions to the Folger and Board Lutebooks

Location

Dowlands contribution

Washington, DC, Folger Shakespeare

Library, Ms. v.b.280

f.9v

Signature added to existing (and

untitled) copy of Lord Willoughbys
Welcome Home
Signature added to existing copy
of his Lady Laitons Almain
Signature added to existing copy
of his Frog Galliard
Signature added to existing copy of
his Mr Smiths Almain; eight missing
tablature letters (obscured by a smudge
on f.13v) supplied.
Signature added to existing copy
of his Can she excuse
Autograph copy of his Lady
Hunsdons Almain
Setting of ballad tune What if a day
(unsigned)
Incomplete version of his Mrs Cliftons
Almain
(?) Short fragment based on What if a
day (staff notation and tablature)
(?) Short fragment (tablature)
Various theoretical tables
(?) Hold-signs added to existing
copy of his Lachrimae pavana
Copy of Almande Ro:[bert] Dowlande
(?) Hold-signs added to existing
copy of his Almande
(?) Brief fragments in tablature

f.11v
f.12v
f.14r

f.16r
f.22v
f.23r
f.23v
f.84v
London, Royal Academy of Music
Ms. 603 (the Margaret Board Lutebook)

f.86r
f.[i]v
ff.11v12r
f.12v
f.13r
f.83v

Elsewhere, a number of other pieces in the Board Lutebook include hold-lines that appear to have been added as an
after-thought, for example the Gallyard by Mr Jo: Dowland Bacheler of Museque (based on a galliard by Daniel Bacheler) on ff.16v17r. It is impossible to ascertain by whom.

courses and (more unusually) on the higher strings

(illus.1 and 2). Lute tablature notation only precisely locates the point at which each note begins,
not where it should end; unless the same string is
to be plucked again immediately afterwards, it falls
to the performer to judge when the pitch should be
stopped. Dowland, however, was clearly taking no
chances where his novice students were concerned;
he marked this information very precisely and, in
doing so, clarified the contrapuntal structures of
these works for his students (who were probably
blissfully unaware of the finer points of voice-leading being brought to the fore). Anumber of other

works in the Board Lutebook contain similar annotations: the setting of Lachrimae includes a number
of hold lines and two allemandes (one by Robert,
the other by John) also include other performancerelated details such as grace signs and right-hand
fingerings. Dowland clearly took great pride in the
preparation of his pupils study materials, but his
very prescriptive use of notation also suggests that
he was particularly concerned with how the music
would sound in performance.
It would be rash, however, to see this as an
attempt to maintain textual control over his works
it may simply reflect Dowlands anxiety that his

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Source

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1 John Dowland, My Lady Hunsdons Allmande (Folger Lutebook, f.22v), autograph copy (reproduced by permission of
the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC)

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2 Almande Ro[bert] Dowlande (Board Lutebook, f.12v), copy in John Dowlands hand, with alternative final strain added
by (?)Margaret Board (reproduced by permission of the Royal Academy of Music, London)

Early MusicMay 2013209

Dowlands twilight, and the end of Jacobean lute music,

is perhaps best symbolised by the Coranto by Doctor
Dowland ... the only coranto which bears his name as a
composer. The mature Dowland style of the great fantasias, pavans and galliards is almost entirely absent. There
is no melody, little imitation, few diminutions, and half the
piece is constructed of simple two-voice counterpoint...16

Ex.1 John Dowland, Lady Hunsdons Allmande (Folger

Lutebook, f.22v): (a) bar 4, revised version; (b) bar 4, first
version (deleted)

But this legitimate stylistic observation perhaps

misses the point of these works: this is relatively
simple music in an up-to-date style, most probably
designed to develop some aspect of Margarets technique. Perhaps the Coranto was intended to offer
her some practice at negotiating the difficult chord
shapes and tricky shifts frequently encountered in F
minor, an awkward key using few open courses.
Finally, the theoretical tables on the opening pages
of the Board Lutebook suggest that Dowland was also
teaching Margaret to sing. These diagrams, usefully
explicated by Robert Spencer, deserve more attention
than space will permit here but can be seen as evidence
of the wider use of lute pedagogy as a way into a
much more broadly conceived musical education.17
The largest of these shows the six courses of the lute
alongside the gamut, mapping sol-fa syllables against
corresponding tablature positions, and seems to
embody the same pedagogical approach that Thomas
Robinson was advocating when he promised:
Now, when you can play upon the Lute, Iwill (God willing) shew you how your Lute shall instruct you to sing;
insomuch that you may be your owne teacher, and save
the charge of a singing man.18

Overall, the image of Dowland that emerges is one of

a conscientious, holistically minded teacher, practising what he had preached when he protestedabout
simple Cantors, or vocall singers, who though they seeme
excellent in their blinde Division-making, are meerely
ignorant, even in the first elements of Musicke,and also
in the true order of the mutation of the Hexachord in the
Systeme. 19

In modern-day educational parlance, Dowland

appears to have been very student-centred: sensitive to the needs of his pupils and willing to adapt
and provide materials as required in order to aid
their progress effectively. This, of course, contrasts
starkly with the more frequently discussed aspects
of Dowlands professional persona, notably his
keenness to assert intellectual ownership over his
works and to maintain textual control over them.20
Yet as a teacher, Dowland evidently focused on his
students development and was keen to ensure that
the pieces they studied with him sounded right. But
in order to consider why he should be so concerned

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pupils should reflect well on him. Indeed, Dowland

was apparently willing to revise his works when his
pupils needs demanded it. For instance, the cadential figure which concludes the opening strain of
Lady Hunsdon in the Folger Lutebook has been
replaced with an easier alternativea simpler twopart solution with the awkward string-crossing of
the original removed (ex.1).15 In the Board Lutebook,
the end of the Robert Dowland allemande has been
reworked in the opposite vein; following its final
strain, Margaret has copied in a much more elaborate alternative version. Although possibly the work
of a subsequent teacher (or even Margaret herself),
we should also consider the possibility that Dowland
himself supplied this, keen to provide her with a
fresh challenge.
Elsewhere in the Board Lutebook, some of the
rather understated unica ascribed to Dowland also
create the impression of being short, functional
items conceived with specific didactic uses in mind.
In a recent history of the lute, one such work was
held up as an emblem of a dyingage:

about thishis credentials as a lutenist were already

impeccable, after allit is necessary to explore the
social contexts in which these lessons took place.

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Locating Dowlands teaching

In both of the manuscripts discussed, Dowland appears
to have provided just a few lessons within a broader
course of tuition from other musicians. Although
there is no firm evidence, it seems very likely that these
would have taken place in London, since both Johnson
and Dowland were tied to the capital due to their commitments at court. In a seminal 1948 article, F.J. Fisher
showed how London increasingly became an arena for
conspicuous consumption among the wealthy classes
during the 16th century.21 In this vein, it became commonplace for the nobility to rely upon local musicians
at their country estates but to engage more illustrious
practitionersparticularly those with royal posts
on a short-term basis while in London.22 And as the
capital gained in popularity amongst an increasingly
urban, cosmopolitan elite during the opening decades
of the 17th century, this provided additional opportunities for enterprising musicians, now sought after by
aspirant merchant-class and lower gentry families as
well as the established landed classes.23 It is well known,
of course, that musical skills came to be regarded as a
marker of refined social status during the 16th century,
but the procurement of lessons with prestigious music
teachersfamed through their royal appointments
and printed publicationsseems to have emerged as
a status symbol only during the final decades of this
century.
Unfortunately, it is notoriously difficult to trace
these kinds of ad hoc employment; even where
identifiable musicians are rewarded financially
(rather than by receiving benefits in kind), their duties
often remain hazily defined and regular monetary
payments are seldom recorded. There are no known
records of Dowland being paid in such a capacity, but
one previously unnoticed payment to his friend and
colleague Philip Rosseter has recently come to light.24
The Newdigate family account-books offer a detailed
view of the finances of one Warwickshire gentry
family, listing the expenses incurred by their sons (in
Oxford and London) and daughters, one of whom
studied at a boarding school in Deptford, just south
of the Thames. Amongst the entries for July 1620 is a

payment of 15 shillings to Roceter teaching Mistress

Letis upon lewte. The sheer size of Rosseters fee is
striking as, elsewhere in the Newdigate accounts,
much smaller payments to various unnamed lute
teachers are listed.25 Of course, it is possible that
Rosseters sum covered an extended course of lessons
but, given that it falls within a small group of entries
for expenditure in his home neighbourhood, this
seems unlikely.26 Instead, it suggests that this wellto-do family were supplementing their daughters
day-to-day musical education with a one-off lesson
with Rosseter whilst she was in London. Presumably
the kudos of learning with a man of Rosseters
reputation justified the highcost.
The likelihood that Lettice Newdigates lesson took
place within the vicinity of Rosseters home is notable since he lived in an area of London populated by
a number of musical professionals (illus.3). The titlepage of Rosseters 1601 lute-song collection advertised
that they were to be solde at his house in Fleetstreete
neere to the Grayhound, and he later moved around
the corner to Fetter Lane.27 Following his death there
in 1623, Rosseter was buried in the local parish church
of St Dunstan-in-the-West. John Dowland also lived
in Fetter Lane, as the title-pages of his later publications reveal, and for these working musicians it was
an ideal base.28 Lying just outside the city walls, Fetter
Lane connects two important suburban thoroughfaresHolborn to the north and Fleet Street to the
southand is very close to the various Inns of Court
where, as we have seen, Dowland undertook work as
a freelance. For Rosseter, it was only a short walk to
Whitefriars on the north bank of the Thames, where
he maintained a professional association with a theatre company between 1609 and 1617. Nor was it far to
court at Westminster and, while travelling there, both
men might have passed the succession of fine riverside town-houses that belonged to the highest-ranking
courtiers in the land (including Essex House, Arundel
House and Leicester House). These certainly provided
employment for talented musicians, but there were
plenty of opportunities closer to home too. William
Byrds patron Thomas Paget held property in Fetter
Lane itself during the 1580s, and other households close
by also supported prominent musicians.29 The preface
to Michael Easts Second set of madrigales (1606) is
signed from Ely house in Holborne and, when dedicating his First Set of Madrigals and Motets (1612) to Sir

Christopher Hatton, Orlando Gibbons wrote that they

were most of them composed in your owne house, and
doe therefore properly belong unto you.30
This geographical area left its musical residents well
placed to pursue opportunities across various different spheres of employment, so it is unsurprising that
a number of other professionals also chose to make it
their home. For instance, Rosseters collaborator and
long-time friend Thomas Campion also lived in Fleet

212Early MusicMay 2013

Street and was buried at St Dunstan-in-the-West,31 and

John Jeffreys has noted the presence of several other
lesser-known professional musicians in the parish
registers there.32 Other musical tradesmen operated
within the same area too. In his personal manuscript
miscellany, the Surrey gentlemen John Ramsey (b.1578)
compiled a list of the London traders with whom he
did business, including an entry for Instruments of
Musicke to be solde at St tandros [Andrews] church

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3 Map of London, from John Norden, Speculum Britanniae. The firste part ([London], 1593), insert between pp.267. Detail
showing the western wall of the city (in the centre of the image) and the suburban areas immediately beyond it. Locations
mentioned in the text include: St Pauls Cathedral (11); Fleet Street (13, running horizontally); Fetter Lane (14); St Dunstanin-the-West (15); Aldersgate Street (h); Holborn (n, running horizontally); St Andrews, Holborn (p); Temple (for the Middle
Temple; bottom-left corner); Whitefriars (alongside); St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield (top centre) (Oxford,
Bodleian Library, Gough Cornw. 21 (2)) (reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford)

Michael East, Michael Cavendish and John Dowland

into his miscellany. But it is with these last two figures that he shows a particular affinity and, crucially,
some degree of personal acquaintance. Elsewhere in
his manuscript, Ramsey demonstrates his awareness
of both the hierarchical nature of Elizabethan society and the encroachment of new spheres of practice
(and the power of celebrity) upon the lower rungs
of that hierarchy. After recording the historical kings
of England (ff.96r97v), Ramsey provides lists of
Lords, Knights, Gentlemen and Familia, Captains,
and finally English ladyes & gentleweomen admirable for learning (tactfully adding Mrs Ramsey at
the very end).40 Amongst the gentlemen, Ramsey
includes not only bona fide nobles but also representatives of the whole gentlemans curriculum: scholars, poets, travellers, antiquaries, riders, fencers and
of course musicians. It is here, alongside many other
luminaries of the day (John Stow, William Camden,
Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton inter alia), that
Ramsey includes Mr Dowland an excellent Musitian
and Mr Ca[ve]ndishe a fine Musitian (illus.4).
Most interesting of all, however, is that Ramsey
professes to know these men personally. Anumber
of names listed, including those of both composers, are accompanied by a symbol which Ramsey
explains thus: Acquainted with theise personages
noated with this marke (f.97r). Elsewhere Dowland
and Cavendish are also listed again as familiares
and Personages to converse with (f.91v); again, they
are listed here as celebrities, the figureheads of their
chosen profession. It seems that Ramsey was not
merely interested in what Dowland and Cavendish
could teach him about music, but also in the prestige
that personal contact with them could generate.
It is in the light of this that Iwould like to return
briefly to the Folger Lutebook and, in particular, the
signatures of Johnson and Dowland that it bears,
since they represent the material traces of somebodys encounter with these musical celebrities. The
fact that Dowland signed some of his own works
here has unsurprisingly led to suggestions that
these were in some way approved texts for those
piecesperhaps the inevitable outcome of a tradition of textual scholarship that teaches us to look for
autograph documents as a means of getting closer
to our subjects.41 This mode of thought is tacitly
reinforced throughout Poulton and Lams edition

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in holborne. & in Fetter Lane.33 Since Ramseys preferred lute-maker was Mr Augustine in Crouched [=
Crutched] friars, this entry must refer to a maker of
other instruments, possibly the viol-maker Richard
Blunt, who is known to have been working in Fetter
Lane at around this time.34 Afew years previously, the
manuscript copy of Dowlands Second Booke of Songs
had been sold through George Eastland, another
resident of Fleet Street, to the printer Thomas East
who then hired John Wilbye (probably staying at the
Kytsons town-house in Austin Friars at the time) and
the lutenist Edward Johnson to undertake the proofreading.35 The ensuing legal melee, well documented
by Margaret Dowling, also saw none other than
Philip Rosseter asked to give evidence. This region of
London was evidently a hive of professional musical
activity, and it is difficult to suppress a mental image of
this close-knit circle of lutenists meeting in one of the
local taverns in between appearances at court, other
gigs and giving lessons in order to swap gossip and flag
up forthcoming opportunities.
Among all this, firm evidence of John Dowlands
teaching is difficult to come by, but it seems likely
that both he and Robert provided tuition during their
visits to the Cavendish household in Aldersgate Street
(again, just up the road from Holborn). There is also
circumstantial evidence that Dowland was acquainted
with John Ramsey, whose London town-house was
located in the neighbouring parish of St Bartholomew
the Great.36 In fact, Cavendish and Ramsey apparently
patronised the same circle of musiciansLynn Hulse
has noted Cavendishs 1613/14 payments to one Mr
Pierce and that the lute-song composer Michael
Cavendish was employed within his household, and
there is some evidence that Ramsey engaged these
men too.37 Ramseys list of tradesmen also includes
a consorte from Powles [i.e. St. Pauls] where ye
boyes play. Mr Sturt. Mr Pearce.38 The mention of
John Sturt (d.1625) is of particular interest since, like
Dowland and Rosseter, he was a royal lutenist living
in Fetter Lane. Furthermore, he has been suggested
as the main scribe of another extant pedagogical
lute manuscript, the so-called M.L.lutebook, and it
seems likely that he too supplemented his income by
giving lute lessons in the area.39
John Ramsey also showed a keen broader interest in musical culture, copying lyrics from madrigal
and lute-song prints by Robert Jones, John Wilbye,

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4 Part of John Ramseys list of Gentlemen, including composers John Dowland and Michael Cavendish (Oxford, Bodleian
Library, Douce 280, f.103v) (reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford)

214Early MusicMay 2013

the source was (at some stage) close to the composer,

offering us the hope that it is relatively free from gross
textual error. But it is a large leap from this to talking
about approved versions of Dowlands works. Rather
than accepting Dowlands signature as bestowing his
approval upon a particular item, perhaps the most that
can be said is that it suggests he did not disapprove of
itwhich is not quite the samething.
In any case, this distracts us from the possibility
that these signatures served an altogether different
purpose. We have observed that personal encounters
with famed musicians were becoming increasingly
prized so, whilst the Board and Folger Lutebooks
were undoubtedly useful as musical documents,
they had also become objects invested with a value
far beyond that: these autograph materials stood out
as the material residues of those prestigious social
interactions. In this light, it is notable that the turn
of the 17th century also saw famed English musicians participating in other forms of socialized scribal
activity, such as contributing to the alba amicorum of
passing travellers. Originally popular amongst 16thcentury northern European university students, the
album amicorum was a receptacle for signatures and
inscriptions entered by esteemed scholars and other
notable personalities. As June Schlueter has pointed
out, the signing of such books was a mutually beneficial act, honouring both the donor and the recipient.46 John Dowlands contribution to the album of
German traveller Johannes Cellarius is already well
known,47 but the volume compiled by Prussian traveller Hans von Bodeck (15821658) is equally important
in the context of this study.48 Von Bodeck spent time
in England between April 1602 and September 1604,
collecting an entry from Dowland dated 9 May 1604
(accompanied by a short lute piece), a signature and
song from Campion (24 August 1604), and another
entry by Rosseter. Elsewhere, an inscription dated 21
August 1604 by one Hanns von Garyn was signed in
Londens Fletstrets Mr. Rosseters Haus. Once again,
this small cohort of professional musicians was using
its home parish as the venue for all kinds of ad hoc
professional activity, including one-off lessons for
wealthy passing travellers. For von Bodeck, these
material traces of his encounter with Londons most
prestigious lutenists must have been highly valued.
Elsewhere, there is additional evidence that
Dowland and his colleagues were beginning to be

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of Dowlands lute music, a fundamental editorial

principle of which was the use of a single source as
the main copy-text for each work.42 For instance, the
incomplete autograph copy of Mrs Cliftons Almaine
is selected as their copy-text and spliced to the rest
of a setting from Cambridge, University Library
dd.5.78.3, thus relegating the first eight bars of that
complete version to the critical commentary. And,
where Dowland signed copies of his works already
present in the Folger Lutebook, the editors present
three of these as alternate versions. Whilst acknowledging the independence of these from the main
streams of textual transmission, a methodological
exception is made nonetheless; we can only surmise
that these settings were privileged due to the presence of Dowlands signature. The fourth of these
signed works, Mr Smiths Almaine, is an exception.
When selecting the copy-text, the Folger Lutebook
version was trumped by the setting printed in the
Varietie of Lute-Lessons (1610), perhaps because that
was felt to represent Dowlands final revisedtext.
Strangely, however, Poulton and Lam did not use
the complete autograph setting of Lady Hunsdon,
preferring the dd.5.78.3 setting instead as it more
closely resembles other extant settings. Their uneasiness about this decision is plain to see, however, and
it is telling that they also felt some discomfort about
rejecting the Folger Lutebook version of Dowlands
Lachrimae pavan, itself a good setting that stands apart
from the central stream of transmission (and therefore
a worthy candidate for inclusion as another alternate
version).43 In the latter case, Poulton simply remarked
suggestively that it is significant that Dowland did not
put his signature to this version in spite of the fact that
he added his name to six other pieces in the MS.44
Even John Ward, who eloquently discussed the multiple texts for Dowlands works (and, in doing so, mercilessly exposed Poultons editorial inconsistencies),
occasionally slips back into a more traditional mode
of thinking: he refers to the Folger Lutebook versions
of Can she excuse and Mr Smiths almain as settings
of which Dowland approved and elsewhere cites his
signature as evidence that Dowland laid claim to
another of his works.45 For some, then, these autograph
signatures are inextricably bound up with notions of
authorial ownership and approval; old scholarly habits, it seems, die hard. This is not to deny the significance of these signatures, of coursethey show that

Conclusion
So what did those participating in these social transactions hope to gain from them? For wealthy young
ladies like Margaret Board or Lettice Newdigate, the
musical skills they acquired played an important
role in their performance of widely held notions
of femininity and domesticity.51 By studying with
a prestigious teacher, they could also stay in touch
with the latest musical trends being shaped at court
and across the higher echelons of society. But above
all, the engagement of so famous a music-master was
a status symbol, a testament to the students good
taste, wealth and connectionsand so well worth
displaying both through musical performances and
the ownership of associated material objects.
For Dowland and his colleagues, the arrangement was no less advantageous. Giving lute lessons
represented both an additional income stream
and was, just as importantly, another way of getting seen and heard in the right circles. It provided
access to patronage networks, and the evidence

216Early MusicMay 2013

discussed above reminds us that Dowland and his

contemporaries evidently visited numerous households across their careersnot just those of the few
noblemen deemed important enough to receive the
dedication of a printed songbook. It is tempting, of
course, to suppose that Rosseter was teaching so
late in life due to financial hardship; after all, his
theatre company had been disbanded in 1617 and
perhaps times were getting tough. But the fact that
Dowland chose to teach Margaret Board, a young
girl from an unremarkable Sussex gentry family,
long after securing his court appointment suggests
that this work was nevertheless considered well
worth doing. Teaching was not a last resort for ageing musicians in decline but a crucial part of the
portfolio careers pursued by the most famous practitioners of theage.
Recent scholarship has shown how Dowland
astutely harnessed the power of print in order to
advance his professional status, using it both to
impart authorial authority upon his corpus of lutesongs and to publicize himself to would-be patrons.
But he also understood the importance and value
of personal contact, and how manuscript culture
with the physical remnants of his presence offering an alternative form of authoritycould play an
important part in his self-advancement. In this light,
perhaps we should not be surprised that Dowland
failed to issue his lute works in print or to produce
a tutor book, despite proclaiming his intention to
do so more than once.52 When he did finally publish something in Robert Dowlands Varietie of LuteLessons (London, 1610), it was a translation of earlier
pedagogical instructions by Jean-Baptiste Besard
which, significantly, began by stressing the importance of studying with a real teacher rather than relying on a book as a surrogate.53 The original material
Dowland provided here concerned purely practical
mattersstringing, fretting and suchlikeinformation which he was probably tired of repeating verbally anyway. But Dowland understood that, rather
than committing his lute works or his pedagogical
insights into print, there was much greater value in
offering access to himself in person for those willing to pay for the privilege. By commodifying himself rather than his works, Dowland forged another
important (yet frequently overlooked) component
of his musical career.

Downloaded from http://em.oxfordjournals.org/ at Vienna University Library on August 18, 2013

seen as figures in the public eye rather than merely

as professional musicians. For instance, copies of letters associated with royal musicians were included
in a manuscript letter-book dated c.1615two
addressed to Dowland and one written by Anthony
Holborne (d.1602).49 Although the importance of
this source for fleshing out the sketchy biographies
of both men has already been noted, there is another
important point to be made here: the inclusion of
their correspondence suggests that these musical
figures were now deemed newsworthy enough for
their business to be copied and recirculated alongside letters by prominent figures of the age such as
Robert Cecil, Francis Bacon and Ben Jonson.50
So the Folger Lutebook signatures, rather than
conferring approved status upon a musical text,
might be seen instead as providing a different kind
of certificationthat a particular social encounter
had taken place, perhaps even that certain pieces
had been studied with the signatory. Whilst the
musical benefits of these lessons would hopefully be
evident in any case, the physical mementos of these
sessions (in the form of signatures or musical annotations) provided another means of advertising ones
own encounter with musical celebrity.

Michael Gale is a PhD candidate at the University of Southampton and a Research Affiliate in the
Music Department at the Open University, UK. His thesis is a study of lute instruction in England,
c.1550c.1640, exploring the ways in which this musical accomplishment was used in constructions of
socialstatus. Between 2001 and 2006, he was involved with the Electronic Corpus of Lute Music project
(www.ecolm.org). His wider research interests include English musical culture 15001700, jazz studies,
and computer-assisted methodologies for musicological research. mdg@soton.ac.uk

6 London, Royal Academy of Music, Ms.

603. For a facsimile reproduction, see The

Board Lute Book, with an introductory

study, ed. R.Spencer (Leeds, 1976).
7 Washington, DC, Folger
Shakespeare Library, Ms.v.b.280. For
a facsimile and introductory study,
see The Folger Dowland Manuscript,
ed. C.Goodwin and I.Harwood, Lute
Society Facsimiles, iii (Albury, 2003).
8 J. Ward, The so-called Dowland
Lute Book in the Folger Shakespeare
Library, Journal of the Lute Society of
America, ix (1976), pp.529. See also
Ward, Dowland miscellany, pp.4651.
9 For comparison with authenticated
examples of Johnsons signature, see
J.Ward, Music for Elizabethan lutes
(Oxford, 1992), i, p.68, n.186.
10 I. Harwood, Aspects of the Folger
Dowland Lute Book (MS v.b.280),
paper presented at Folger Institute
seminar Harmonys Entrancing Power:
Music in Early Modern England, 234
September 2005. Iam indebted to the
late Mr Harwood for sending me a
copy of this important study which
(to the best of my knowledge) remains
unpublished. However, his identification
of Johnson as one of the main the Folger
Lutebook scribes is discussed in The
Wickhambrook lute manuscript, ed.
I.Harwood, Lute Society Facsimiles, vi
(Albury, 2008), pp.ixx.
11 For a persuasive identification
of Anne Bayldon, see Poulton, John
Dowland, pp.1034.
12 Ward, The so-called Dowland Lute
Book, pp.1617; Harwood, Aspects of the
Folger Dowland Lute Book, pp.2930.
13 First described in R.Spencer, Three
English lute manuscripts, Early Music,
iii (1975), pp.11924, at pp.1224.
14 Poulton added a short appendix
listing the unica (John Dowland (2/1982),
pp.4512), and transcribed them in later
editions of The collected lute music

of John Dowland, ed. D.Poulton and

B.Lam (London, 1974, 3/1981).
15 This textual amendment was
discussed by Ward, Dowland miscellany,
p.50, who suggested various scenarios
which might have given rise to it. More
recent scholarship, however, has stressed
the likelihood that composer-performers
simply memorized a gist for the works
in their repertories, altering the details
whenever they played or committed
them to paper, for example P.Holman,
Dowland: Lachrimae (1604) (Cambridge,
1999), p.37; M.Spring, The lute in Britain:
a history of the instrument and its music
(Oxford, 2001), p.111.
16 D. A.Smith, A history of the lute from
Antiquity to the Renaissance (n.p.: Lute
Society of America, 2002), pp.2823.
17 Spencer, Three English lute
manuscripts, pp.1223.
18 Thomas Robinson, The Schoole of
Musicke (London, 1603), sig.ciiv.
19 John Dowland, A Pilgrimes Solace
(London, 1612), sig.[a]v.
20 See Gibson, How hard an
enterprise, especially pp.4658.
21 F. J.Fisher, The development of
London as a centre of conspicuous
consumption in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, Transactions of
the Royal Historical Society, 4th series,
xxx (1948), pp.3750.
22 See L.Hulse, The musical
patronage of the English aristocracy,
c.15901640 (PhD diss., University of
London, 1992), pp.514.
23 For more on this general economic
development, see L.L. Peck, Building,
buying, and collecting in London, 1600
1625, in L.C. Orlin, Material London,
ca.1600 (Philadelphia, 2000), pp.26889.
24 The undergraduate account book
of John and Richard Newdigate,
16181621, ed. V.Larminie, Camden

Early MusicMay 2013217

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I am grateful to the UK Arts &

Humanities Research Council for funding
this research, and to Jeanice Brooks and
Elizabeth Kenny for their supervision
and support. Iwould also like to thank
Susanne Rupp and an anonymous
reviewer for their helpful comments on
an earlier draft of this article.
1 S. Rupp, John Dowlands strategic
melancholy and the rise of the composer
in early modern England, Shakespeare
Jahrbuch, cxxxix (2003), pp.11629;
K.Gibson, How hard an enterprise
it is: authorial self-fashioning in John
Dowlands printed books, Early Music
History, xxvi (2007), pp.4389.
2 D. Poulton, John Dowland (London,
2/1982): It is odd that inspiration should
have died on the achievement of a lifelong
ambition, but as we have seen, the volume
of his output had perceptibly lessened
during his later years and it seems likely
that A Pilgrimes Solace was the last
magnificent flowering of his genius
(p.79); Rupp, Strategic melancholy, p.121:
King James Icalled him to court, where
he spent the remaining 14years of his
lifein silence (as far as publications are
concerned). The public did not hear from
him again; instead, he had become the
Kings private musician.
3 J. Ward, A Dowland miscellany,
Journal of the Lute Society of America,
x (1977), pp.5153.
4 P. Frank, A new Dowland
document, Musical Times, cxxiv
(1983), pp.1516.
5 L. Hulse, Hardwick MS 29: a new
source for Jacobean lutenists, The Lute,
xxvi/2 (1986), pp.6272. The elder
Dowland received a gold standish
(valued at 33s) in May 1612 while
Robert received a number of payments
up until January 1616.

Miscellany, xxx, 4th series, vol.xxxix

(1990), pp.149269, at p.210.
25 For example, in London, 22 June
1621: 6s 10d to him that teacheth the
lute (Undergraduate account book,
p.249); 2s to another unnamed teacher
in Oxford (p.163).
26 This included meals at the Black
Swan, Holborn and at the White Horse,
Fleet Street (pp.21011).

28 John Dowland, Lachrimae or Seaven

Teares (London, [1604]), title-page;
Andreas Ornithoparcus his Micrologus,
trans. J.Dowland (London, 1609), sig.[a2v].
29 J. Harley, The world of William
Byrd: musicians, merchants and
magnates (Farnham, 2011), p.194.
30 Michael East, Second set of
madrigales (London, 1606), sig.aiir;
Orlando Gibbons, First Set of Madrigals
and Motets (London, 1612), sig.[a2r].
The Hatton family held property in the
neighbouring parish of St Bartholomew
the Great; see J.Harley, Orlando
Gibbons and the Gibbons family of
musicians (Aldershot, 1999), pp.378.
31 Campions works, ed. P.Vivian
(Oxford, 1909), pp.xlvixlvii.
32Jeffreys, Life and works, p.82.
33 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce
280, f.116r. For a useful introduction to
this fascinating source, see E.Doughtie,
John Ramseys manuscript as a
personal and family document, in
New ways of looking at old texts:
papers of the Renaissance English Text
Society, 19851991, ed. W.Speed Hill
(Binghampton, 1993), pp.2818.
34 A tenor viol now in the Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford, once contained a
handwritten label: Richard Blunt/
Dwelling in London/in Fetter
Lane/1605; see M.Fleming, Violmaking in England c.15801660 (PhD
diss., Open University, 2001), i, p.208.
35 M. Dowling, The printing of John
Dowlands Second Booke of Songs or
Ayres, The Library, 4th series, vii/4
(1932), pp.36580.

218Early MusicMay 2013

(2009), pp.289305. Although Stewarts

discussion focuses on manuscript letters,
many of his observations are pertinent
to the study of musical documents.
42 Collected lute music (3/1982), p.xvi.
43 On the Folger Lutebook Lady
Hunsdon: Curiously this is a much less
satisfactory text possibly an early
version. Collected lute music, p.332, n.54.
44Poulton, John Dowland, p.130.
45 Ward, Dowland miscellany, pp.37,
51, 46.
46 J. Schlueter, The album amicorum &
the London of Shakespeares time (London,
2011), p.28. On musicians contributions
to these albums, see pp.1013.
47Poulton, John Dowland, p.60.
48 Von Bodecks album was lost during
World War II but a number of earlier
descriptions survive; see K.Sparr, Some
unobserved information about John
Dowland, Thomas Campion and Philip
Rosseter, The Lute, xxvii (1987), pp.357.
49 A. R.Braunmuller, A
seventeenth-century letter-book:
a facsimile edition of Folger MS.
v.a.321 (Newark, 1983).
50 Ward, Dowland miscellany, pp.117
18; Poulton, John Dowland, pp.4750.
51 For a useful overview, see R.H.
Trillini, The gaze of the listener: English
representations of domestic musicmaking (Amsterdam, 2008), pp.1331.
52 John Dowland, The First Booke
of Songs or Ayres (1597), sig.a1r: but
Ipurpose shortly my selfe to set forth
the choisest of all my Lessons in print,
and also an introduction for fingering;
Ornithoparcus (1609), sig.[a2]v: My
industry and on-set herein ... shall
encourage me shortly to divulge a more
peculiar worke of mine owne: namely,
My Obseruations and Directions
concerning the Art of Lute-playing.
53 John Dowland, Necessarie
Observations belonging to the lute
and lute-playing, in Robert Dowland,
Varietie of Lute-Lessons (London, 1610),
sig.br: yet thinke not Iset it forth to
the end to draw thee away from the
lively teaching of thy Maister, (whose
speach doth farre exceede all writing ...).
Despite this, Robert still refers elsewhere
to [when] my Father hath finished his
greater Worke, touching the Art of Luteplaying (sig.[a]2v).

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27 Philip Rosseter and Thomas

Campion, A Booke of Ayres (London,
1601). For biographical information, see
J.Jeffreys, The life and works of Philip
Rosseter (Wendover, 1990).

36 Douce 280 mentions my house in

greate St Bartlemewes London (f.8r).
37 Hulse, Hardwick MS 29, pp.635.
38 Douce 280, f.115v. On John Sturt,
see A.Ashbee and D.Lasocki, A
biographical dictionary of English court
musicians, 14851714 (Aldershot, 1998),
ii, p.1065. The identity of Mr Pearce
is more difficult to establish. The man
included in Ramseys list (which cannot
be dated conclusively and was probably
compiled in several stages) could be
either Walter Pierce, a royal lutenist from
1588 until his death in 1604 (when he
was replaced by Rosseter; see Ashbee
and Lasocki, Biographical dictionary,
ii, p.892), ormore likelyEdward
Pearce (p.890), Master of the Children
at St Pauls during the early 1600s and
revered by Thomas Ravenscroft who,
when discussing Pearces compositions
to the Lute, described him as the Maister
of that Instrument (A Briefe Discourse
(London, 1614), sig.a2v). Cavendishs Mr
Pierce is rather more problematic since,
as Hulse has observed, Edward Pearce
had died in 1612 (Hardwick MS 29, p.67,
n.22). Perhaps Cavendishs musician
was a kinsman of one (or both) of these
namesake lutenistsand, of course, he
may also have been the same figure that
played in a consort with Sturt.
39 London, British Library, Add.
Ms. 38539, a source notable for the
highly prescriptive approach to
notation (particularly ornamentation)
it preserves. As Elizabeth Kenny has
recently remarked, it represents the
preservation in tablature form of
personal playing styles now considered
too idiosyncratic to reconstruct [i.e.
without additional textual information];
E.Kenny, Revealing their hands: lute
tablatures in early seventeenth-century
England, Renaissance Studies, xxvi/1
(2012), pp.11237, at p.113, but also
see pp.12731. In this sense, Sturts
pedagogical approach is congruent with
Dowlands, as he attempts to notate
almost every imaginable nuance in the
music that he copied for this student.
40 Douce 280, ff.98r105r.
41 For a recent study that perceptively
traces the tradition of investing
authority in autograph sources, see
A.Stewart, Early modern lives in
facsimile, Textual Practice, xxiii