[In the following essay, Evans points out that Lawes set a version of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 to music, which she says establishes that the composer was the only contemporary who collaborated with both Milton and Shakespeare.]

That Henry Lawes set to music a version of Shakespeare's Sonnet CXVI “Let me not to the marriage of true mindes / Admit impediments,” has apparently never been mentioned in print. Lawes' version, which retains seven lines intact, alters seven, and adds two couplets to form three six-line stanzas, is found in John Gamble's commonplace book of songs. This volume was formerly the property of Dr. Edward F. Rimbault, but is now in the Drexel Collection of the New York City Public Library. The manuscript is described in the catalogue of the sale (1877) of Dr. Rimbault's library, as

A collection of upwards of 300 songs by Wilson, Lawes, Johnson, Gamble, and other English composers, containing also the autograph inscription, “John Gamble his book, Amen. 1659 Anno Domini,” thirteen guineas, for America.

The pages are in excellent condition, the writing clear, the ink for the most part unfaded. Gamble apparently copied into this volume the songs which he admired and wished to save, songs written by his fellow-musicians as well as those of his own composing.

The text of the sonnet and a transcription of the version follow. In the sonnet I have italicized those words which do not survive in the transcription; in the transcription I have italicized the words not in the sonnet.

SONNET CXVI

Let me not to the marriage of true mindes
Admit impediments, love is not love
Which alters when it alteration findes,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever fixed marke
That lookes on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandring barke,
Whose worths unknowne, although his higth be taken
Lov's not Times foole, though rosie lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickles compasse come,
Love alters not with his breefe houres and weekes,
But beares it out even to the edge of doome:
          If this be error and upon me proved,
          I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

TRANSCRIPT OF THE LAWES' VERSION¹

Selfe blinding error seazeth all those mindes:
who with falce Appellations call that loue
w(ch) alters when it alteration findes
or with the mouer hath a power to moue
not much vnlike y(e) hereticks p(re)tence
that scites trew scripture but p(re)vents the sence:

2

Oh noe Loue is an euer fixed marke
That lookes on tempests but is neuer shaken
It is the starr to euery wandring barke
Whose worth's vnknowne although his height be taken
Noe mowntebanke with eie-deludeing flashes
But flameing Martyr in his holly ashes

3

Loue's not tymes foole though Rosie lipps & Cheekes
Within his bynding Circle compas rownd
Loue alters not with his breife howers & weekes
But holds it out euen to the edge of doome
If this be errour & not truth approu'd
Cupids noe god nor Man nere lou'd

The Gamble manuscript gives but little direct evidence as to the date of the composition of this song. The water-mark is classified as undetermined.² The one date which might furnish a clue occurs on the present first page together with some ribald verse. The date is written 1-6-5-9, with dashes separating the figures, and the whole date repeated as if the writer were trying out his pen. This untidy page, the verse, and the repeated date fail to suggest a formal title-page inscribed when the book was fresh and clean, but rather the trial page to which the copyist resorted fairly late in the history of the manuscript when he had lost interest in preserving his volume in a neat and orderly condition. Consequently, too much importance ought not to be ascribed to this date in connection with the date of copying the song. It might be noted that the position of the song on folio 33 implies that it was among the earliest chosen by the copyist. The hand of at least the first forty songs is of the early seventeenth century.

How and when Henry Lawes came into possession of this version of the sonnet is a matter of conjecture. It is possible that one of, or some version of one of, the sugared sonnets to which Meres referred in 1598 eventually reached Lawes. It seems more probable that Lawes read the sonnet after its publication in 1609, and requested that changes should be made so that the lines could more easily be set to music.³

Whatever may be established concerning the date of the musical setting or the authorship of the variants, the discovery of this song establishes for the composer the unique distinction of being the only contemporary, who, in a sense, collaborated with both Milton and Shakespeare.

Notes

1. In this transcription I am indebted to Professor Carleton Brown for several important observations.

2. A fleur-de-lis, used in Fuller's Holy State, 1652, and Petavius, 1659; see Edward Heawood's article, “Papers used in England after 1600,” The Library, Fourth Series, XI (1929), p. 263.

3. For a discussion of Henry Lawes' life and works in relation to the poets, see author's work on this subject, in progress.