Singing History. Research Assistant Hailey Bachrach looks at then importance of songs in the Henriad
Singing History. Research Assistant Hailey Bachrach looks at then importance of songs in the Henriad. If you’ve seen our production of Hotspur (aka Henry IV Part One), you’ll have noticed—or soon will notice, if youhaven’t made it yet—that it begins with a song. This song was arranged by ourfantastic ensemble composer Tayo Akinbode, and adapted by director FederayHolmes from several famous ballads of Shakespeare’s time. Two in particular hadan influence on the opening song: a Scottish ballad called “The Battle ofOtterburn,” and an English ballad known by various titles, including “TheBallad of Chevy Chase” or “The Hunt of the Cheviot.”This second ballad was one of the mostpopular songs of Shakespeare’s day. Supposedly, playwright Ben Jonson said thathe would rather have written it than the entirety of his works. It tells thestory of a fictional encounter between the Scottish Earl of Douglas and theEnglish Percy, Earl of Northumberland that ends in both of their deaths.Word is come toEdinburgh,To Jamie the Scottish King,Earl Douglas, lieutenantof the Marches, Lay slain Cheviot within. His hands theKing did weal and wring,Said, ‘Alas! and woe is me!Such anothercaptain Scotland withinI’ faith shall never be!’ Word is come tolovely London Tothe fourth Harry, our King,Lord Percy,lieutenant of the Marches,Lay slain Cheviot within. ‘God have mercy on his soul,’ said King Harry,‘Good Lord, if thy will it be! I’ve a hundredcaptains in England,’ he said,‘Asgood as ever was he: But Percy, an Ibrook my life,Thy death well quit shall be.’ And as our Kingmade his avow Like a noble prince of renown,For Percy he didit well performAfter, on Homble-down; Where six-and-thirtyScottish knights On a day were beaten down; Glendaleglitter’d on their armour bright Over castle, tower and town. “Otterburn” is the Scottish version ofroughly the same story, though it’s much more rooted in actual facts—probablybecause, historically, the Scots won and Percy was captured, much to thefamily’s disgrace.It fell aboutthe Lammastide,When moor-menwin their hay,The doughtyDouglas bound him to rideInto England, todrive a prey.And he has burnedthe dales of Tyne,And part ofBamburghshire,And three goodtowers on Reidswire Fells,He left them allon fire.Then he’smarched on down to Newcastle,“Whose house isthis so fine?”It’s up spokeproud Lord Percy, “I tell you thiscastle is mine!”“If you’re thelord of this fine castle,Well it pleasesme.For, ere Icrossed the Border fells,The one of usshall die.”It’s hard to think of an exact modernequivalent to Renaissance ballads. The obvious comparison is hit pop songs, theones that play constantly on the radio in every shop and that everyone seems toknow, but even that doesn’t quite capture the communal, oral culture thatballads were part of. They were designed not just to be listened to, but to foreveryone to sing. New lyrics were produced to recycled tunes to make it easyfor anyone to learn them, and the lyrics conveyed not only historical orlegendary or fictional material, but current events and recent news. We seethis in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, whenthe thief Autolycus disguises himself as a peddler and sells the Bohemianshepherdesses ballads. ‘I love a ballad in print,’ the shepherdess Mopsagushes, ‘for then we are sure they are true’ (4.4.296).The Percys and the Douglas are prominentfamilies in Hotspur, and the playbegins with the very battle that “Chevy Chase” references in its final stanzas:the Battle of Homble-down, or Holmedon, where Harry ‘Hotspur’ Percy decimated aScottish force led by Douglas. Neither song should be seen as a direct prequelto Henry IV Part One—especially“Chevy Chase,” where Percy and Douglas wind up dead. But Shakespeare’sevocation of these familiar names and battles right in the first scene couldhelp audience members who may not know much about history understand therelationships between the two border families, and the political stakes andlegacies of the battles being discussed. Ballads were an important way forpeople who couldn’t access formal histories to learn about their nation’s past,and playwrights knew it.We wanted to try and let our audiences experiencethe same kind of familiarity that Renaissance audiences would have had withsome of the leading figures of the play they’re about to watch. Watching Hotspur with the military adventures ofthe daring Percy and the bold Douglas fresh in your mind is a very differentexperience than just reading a summary of the reign of Henry IV, or even havingwatched Richard II. It redirects yourfocus and sets up a series of expectations about plot and character, some ofwhich the play meets, and some of which it intentionally subverts. While it’snot quite the kind of pre-show background information that we’re used to gettingfor one of Shakespeare’s history plays, it’s the experience that many of hisoriginal audience members would have had.Further Reading:“TheHeyday of the English Broadside Ballad,” by Erik Nebecker for the EarlyEnglish Broadside Ballad Archive.BroadsideBallads Online from the Bodelian Libraries. Find out more about Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 and Henry V. Photography by Tristram Kenton -- source link