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Return to ' The First Booke 1600, Part 1 - Airs I to III'.
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Updated February 28, 2009, March 7, & February 29, 2004, & December 14, 2003. All materials are copyright © Patrick Thomas Connolly, 2004.

The Second booke of songes a ayres, set out to the lute the base violl the playne way or the base by tableture after the leero fashion ... Printed by P.S. for Mathew Selman by the assent of Thomas Morley, and are to be sold at the inner temple gate.1601.
[21 pieces] Composed by Robert Jones
The Second Booke - Part 3 - Airs XVI to XX1 (of 21 airs).
Return to 'The Second Booke, Part 1 - Title, Dedication, To the Reader and Ayre I to VI. '
Go back to 'The Second Booke, Part 2 - Airs V to XV'

Under Construction.
This is an unfinished page that I hope to edit sometime in the future.



XVI. MY LOVE IS NEITHER YOUNG NOR OLD

My love is neither young nor old,
Not fiery hot, nor frozen cold;
But fresh and fair as springing briar,
Blooming the fruit, blooming the fruit of love ' s desire.

Not snowy white nor rosy red,
But fair enough for shepherd ' s bed;
And such a love was never seen
On hill or dale or country green.

Source ; The English School of Lutenist Song-Writers Series 2, volume 5.The Second booke of ayres, 1601. Stainer & Bell (1926.).
Typed February 19, 2004.


XVI. My love is neither young nor old - Notes, Recordings and Comments.

Patrick T. Connolly recording of this song was Uploaded on Saturday, June 16, 2007 on SoundClick. Here is my info about the song from that site;

Charts position
- highest in charts: # 106 (26,920 songs currently listed in Classical)
- highest in sub-genre: # 4 (1,400 songs currently listed in Classical > Baroque)

About the song
This song has been hiding away for 400 years. This song is neither brilliant nor poor but just a modest song for an average guy like me. It has never gone on CD or record before. What think you it should have been left hidden and forgotten for another 400 years?

I started recording this song in January of 2002, just missing the 400th anniversary of publishing of the song by a few days. I did not get around to doing the vocal until August l, 2005. I was not happy with mixes of the song and did new mixes in November and then March of 2006. This June (2007) I have doubled the length of the song by editing 2 different mixes together.
It is a short lyric with no other verses where most other songs have so many verses that I can not play them all.



XVII. LOVE IS A BABLE

Love, love, love, love, love is a bable, love is a bable,
No man is able
To say ' tis this or ' tis that,
' tis full of passion
Of sundry fashion,
' Tis like, ' tis like, ' tis like, I cannot, I cannot, I cannot, ' tis like, ' tis like, I cannot tell what.

Love, love, love, love, love fair i ' the cradle, fair i ' the cradle, Foul in the sable,
' Tis either too cold or too hot,
An arrant liar,
Fed by desire,
It is, it is, it is, and yet it, and yet it, and yet it, it is, it is, and yet it is not.

Love, love, love, love, love is a fellow, love is a fellow,
Clad oft in yellow,
The canker worm of the mind,
A privy mischief,
And such a sly thief,
No man, no man, no man, knows which way, knows which way, knows which way, no man, no man knows which way to find.

Love, love, love, love, love is a wonder, love is a wonder,
That 's here and yonder,
As common to one as to moe,
A monstrous cheater,
Ev 'ry man 's debtor,
Hang him, hang him, hang him, and so let, and so let, and so let, hang him, hang him, and so let him go.

Source ; The English School of Lutenist Song-Writers Series 2, volume 5.The Second booke of ayres, 1601. Stainer & Bell (1926.). Typed February 19, 2004

XVII. Love is a bable - Notes, Recordings and Comments

This is certainly one of Robert Jones' most beautiful songs and the recording by Kirkbe and Rooley is wonderful.

Recordings of this song are on;
- A Gardin For Delights - English Lutesongs From the Renaissance Ian Partridge (tenor) and Konrad Ragossnig (lute) Ayre No.2 on the CD. 1996 - Bayer Records 100 130
- The CD 'The Muses Gardin: Lute Songs by Robert Jones' by Emma Kirkbe and Anthony Rooley (1991), on Virgin Classics. Kirkbe and Rooley recorded four songs from all of Jones's bookes of ayers but his fifth (and last) where they only recorded one song. The other three song, on the CD, from this second booke are; 'I. Love winged my hopes and taught me how to fly', the ever popular 'IX. Now what is love', and 'X. Love's god is a Boy'.
- Another recording of this song can be found on 'A Russell Oberlin recital' (Decca DL 10032) if you can find this 1961 release. Russell Oberlin is a countertenor and he uses various people as accompaniments. Other Robert Jones songs on this album are; Go to bed, sweet muse [3rd book], Ite, caldi sospiri [4th book], and 'As I lay lately in a dream' [5th book].



XVIII. ARISE, MY THOUGHTS

Arise, arise my thoughts and mount you with the sun ...
Call all the winds, ... to make you speedy wings;
And to my fairest Ma ya see you run,
And weep your last, and weep your last, while wanton, ... while wantonly she sings.
Then if you cannot move her heart to pity,
Let "O alas! alas! ay me! ay me!" be all your ditty.

Arise, arise, arise, my thoughts, no more, if you return, no more, if you return
Denied of grace, denied of grace, which only you desire;
But let the sun your wings to ashes burn,
And melt your passions, melt your passions, your passions in his fire.
But if you move, you move, but if you move fair Maya 's heart to pity,
Let smiles and love, let smiles and love and kisses be your ditty.

Arise, arise, arise, my thoughts, beyond the highest star, beyond the highest star,
And gently rest, and gently rest you in fair Maya ' s eye,
For that is fairer than the brightest are,
But if she frown, but if she frown, but if she frown,
but if she frown to see you climb so high,
Couch in her lap, her lap, couch in her lap, and, with a moving ditty
Of smiles and love, of smiles and love and kisses beg for pitty.

XVIII. Arise, my thoughts - Notes, Recordings and Comments

...
# " Pictorialism is another aspect of the lyra accompaniment which distinguishes this style []. Occasionally, the viol plays a motive that musically depicts an idea or image described in the text and which is not part of the vocal line. In the song "Arise, my thoughts," for instance, the viol begins alone and makes a full ascent by step. The voice enters with a contrasting leaping motive to sing the text, "arise, arise." From this and other similar examples, it is clear that Jones provides pictorial material for the viol to establish a mood or create an image that is later expressed by the singer. " - p. 15. Deborah Teplow

# Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society of America, Lyra Viol Accompaniment In Robert Jones' The Second Booke of Songs and Ayres (1601) by Deborah Teplow



XIX. DID EVER MAN THUS LOVE AS I?

Did man thus love as I? 6
I think I was made, I think I was made,
I think I was made 5
For no other trade, 5
My mind doth it so hard apply, 8
And all fond courses,
and all fond courses else doth fly. 8

Undoing were a petty care,
Loosing my best hopes, loosing my best hopes,
loosing my best hopes
In their largest scopes.
Two loving when I do compare,
Methings I could,
methings I could as trifles spare.

All my sad thoughts, though wide begun,
In her still do meet, in her still do meet,
in her still do meet,
Who makes thinking sweet;
And then to me again they run
To tell me all,
to tell me all that they have done.

Thus do I spend my days and hours
In a pleasant round, in a pleasant round,
in a pleasant round
Where true joys are found,
And there alone my soul devours
All Love's dear food,
all Love's dear food with longing powers.

A heaven on earth is love well met;
There is more content, there is more content,
there is more content
Than can well be spent.
When in two fruitful hearts 'tis set,
Which will not be,
Which will not be in either debt.

Source ; The English School of Lutenist Song-Writers Series 2, volume 5.The Second booke of ayres, 1601. Stainer & Bell (1926.).

XIX. Did ever man thus love as I? - Notes, Recordings and Comments



XX. TO SIGH AND TO BE SAD

To sigh and to be sad
To weep, and with to die,
Is it not to be mad,
If not hypocrisy?
Men of this sort
Are women ' s sport.
Beauty 's alluring looks rob wise men of their reason, [LIKE -A WOMAN S LOOKS]
That they speak nought at all, or speak all out of season.

Have all men eyes to see,
And have none wit to know
Blossoms commend no tree,
Where never fruit did grow?
Desire doth blind
A lover ' s mind.
He sees and doth allow that vice in his beloved
From which no woman can be free or be removed.

Let ev ' ry though of love
Mixed with a word of fears,
At last themselves remove;
Or let consuming tears,
Life blood distilled,
No more be spilled,
Since all that ' s ? cape the fall of womanish rejecting
Must yet be subject to the pride of thei[r] neglecting.

XX. To sigh and to be sad - Notes, Recordings and Comments

Recordings of this song is on;
- Musik fur Kaiser. Konig Bettemann. by Paul Elliott, (tenor) and Geoffrey Shaw, (baritone) The London Early Music group. RCA 25140, 1978. Also on this record is 'Whither runneth my sweet heart?' from this same second book.
- What pleasure have great princes: William Bird and his contemporaries. The London Music Group. RCA Red Seal CRL 2-2794, 1977. Also on this record is 'Whither runneth my sweet heart?' from this same second book.



XXI. COME, SORROWS, COME

Come sorrows, come, come, come, sorrows come, come sorrows, come
Come, sorrows, come, come, sweet scale,
By the which we assend, we assend to the heavenly place
Where virtue sitteth smilling
To see how some look pale
With fear to behold, With fear to behold thy ill favored face,
Vain shows their sense beguiling.
For mirth hath no assurance, for mirth hath no assurance
Nor warrenty of durance, nor warrenty, nor warrenty of durance.

Hence pleasures, hence, hence, hence, pleasures, hence hence, pleasures, hence
Hence, pleasures, hence; fly, sweet bait,
On the which they may justly, may justly be said to be fools
That surfeit by much tasting;
Like thieves you lie in wait,
Most subtly how, Most subtly how to prepare silly souls,
For sorrows everlasting.
Wise griefs have joyful turnings, wise griefs have joyful turnings,
Nice pleasures end in mourning, nice pleasures end, nice pleasures end in mourning.

Source ; The English School of Lutenist Song-Writers Series 2, volume 5.The Second booke of ayres, 1601. Stainer & Bell (1926.).

XXI. Come, sorrows, come - Notes, Recordings and Comments

I don't know of any recordings of this song.

Words like 'look pale' and 'beguiling' remind me of Thomas Campion but the author of these words is unknown.

Robert Jones likely knew the madrigalist John Milton, Senior, well. He was the father of the great poet and through this senior Milton, Jones could have met, and maybe influenced, the young poet. The works of Robert Jones show a keener interest in poetry than Milton's madrigalist father's work does.That great poet John Milton would write a famous poem called 'Il Penseroso' on the same theme as this song. I have quoted a bit of Milton's poem below and have highlighted some of the matching words of both poems in bold type.

#Hence, vain deluding joys, / The brood of folly ... Hail divinest melancholy, ... These pleasures melancholy give, / And I with thee will choose to live.

Patrick T. Connolly, December 14, 2003.



Edward Doughtie's 'Lyrics From Elizabethan Airs , 1596-1622' Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 1970.

The Muses Gardin: Lute Songs by Robert Jones' by Emma Kirkbe and Anthony Rooley (1991), Virgin Classics.

#Penguin English Verse: Volume 2 The seventeenth Century Donne to Rochester. page 40 - 45

M. P. Tilley, A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Ann Arbor, 1950)


All materials are copyright © Patrick Thomas Connolly, 2003.

Back to 'The second Booke, Part 2 - V to XV'.