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Un jour vis un foulon is a lively piece with a naïve but probably bawdy text. It was published in Paris in
1570 and, in the same year, with slightly modified French words in London by Thomas Vautrollier, a
French Protestant refugee. It was later given English words as a drinking song and, in this guise, appears
in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 2 as ‘Samingo'. (English words are fitted to Un jour vis un foulon qui
fouloit (as Monsieur Mingo) and sung by the drunken Justice Silence, in Act V, Scene iii. ) A 17th-century
manuscript in the National Library of Scotland preserves the melody with a version of these later words.
In whatever guise Thomas Wode knew what he called ‘ane mirry sang', its inclusion in what started off
as a psalter might seem rather incongruous!
This piece is from "Les Melanges" of 1576. The text is probably a suggestive double-entendre. This
chanson was reprinted several times, and appears in Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part II" as "Samingo," the
song of drunken silence.
This famous composer died right when young Shakespeare’s career was
beginning. I mention this because I just have to share the discovery I
made while writing this – it turns out that Shakespeare was a fan of
Roland de Lassus! He anglicized one of his French songs in the last act
of Henry IV, Part 2, where Falstaff is making merry while waiting for
the news that his old bosom buddy, Prince Hal, has become Henry V.
The original begins, “Un jour vis foulon qui fouloit,” “One day I saw a
fuller who was fulling [his fabric].” Justice Silence sings a snatch of the
English version: “Do me right and dub me knight!”
He then worked as a singer and a composer for Costantino Castrioto in Naples in the early 1550s,
and his first works are presumed to date from this time. Next he moved to Rome, where he
worked for Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who maintained a household there;
and in 1553, he became maestro di cappella of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the
ecumenical mother church of Rome and a spectacularly prestigious post indeed for a man only
twenty-one years old. However, he stayed there for only a year. (Palestrina would assume this
post a year later, in 1555.)
No solid evidence survives for his whereabouts in 1554, but there are contemporary claims that
he traveled in France and England. In 1555 he returned to the Low Countries and had his early
works published in Antwerp (1555–1556). In 1556 he joined the court of Albrecht V, Duke of
Bavaria, who was consciously attempting to create a musical establishment on a par with the
major courts in Italy. Lassus was one of several Netherlanders to work there, and by far the most
famous. He evidently was happy in Munich and decided to settle there. In 1558 he married
Regina Wäckinger, the daughter of a maid of honor of the Duchess; they had two sons, both of
whom became composers. By 1563 Lassus had been appointed maestro di cappella, succeeding
Ludwig Daser in the post. Lassus remained in the service of Albrecht V and his heir, Wilhelm V,
for the rest of his life.
By the 1560s Lassus had become quite famous, and composers began to go to Munich to study
with him. Andrea Gabrieli went there in 1562, and possibly remained in the chapel for a year;
Giovanni Gabrieli also possibly studied with him in the 1570s. His renown had spread outside of
strictly musical circles, for in 1570 Emperor Maximilian II conferred nobility upon him, a rare
circumstance for a composer; Pope Gregory XIII knighted him; and in 1571, and again in 1573,
the king of France, Charles IX, invited him to visit. Some of these kings and aristocrats
attempted to woo him away from Munich with more attractive offers, but Lassus was evidently
more interested in the stability of his position, and the splendid performance opportunities of
Albrecht's court, than in financial gain. "I do not want to leave my house, my garden, and the
other good things in Munich," he wrote to the Duke of Electorate of Saxony in 1580, upon
receiving an offer for a position in Dresden.
In the late 1570s and 1580s Lassus made several visits to Italy, where he encountered the most
modern styles and trends. In Ferrara, the center of avant-garde activity, he doubtless heard the
madrigals being composed for the d'Este court; however, his own style remained conservative
and became simpler and more refined as he aged. In the 1590s his health began to decline, and he
went to a doctor named Thomas Mermann for treatment of what was called "melancholia
hypocondriaca", but he was still able to compose as well as travel occasionally. His final work
was often considered one of his best pieces: an exquisite set of twenty-one madrigali spirituali
known as the Lagrime di San Pietro ("Tears of St. Peter"), which he dedicated to Pope Clement
VIII, and which was published posthumously in 1595. Lassus died in Munich on 14 June 1594,
the same day that his employer decided to dismiss him for economic reasons; he never saw the
letter.
……..
http://www.icloud-library.com/article/WHEBN0000185691/Orlande%20de%20Lassus
Double entendre! -
Foulon - fuller
fouler - Comprimer, presser quelque chose en appuyant de façon répétée avec les mains, les pieds ou
par un moyen mécanique.
fron – forehead
French
Etymology
From Middle French fouller (“to trample, mill, fordo, mistreat”), from Old French foler (“to
crush, act wickedly”), from Latin fullō (“I trample, I full”).
Verb
fouler