Collection of Caroline music, containing religious and secular songs and dialogues, copied over a period of years, mid-17th century

Collection of Caroline music, containing religious and secular songs and dialogues, copied over a period of years, mid-17th century. Fols. 81v-9 were used in the reign of George I for copies of scurrilous verse and other notes. Between the staves on fols. 2-54 is an index of plants with 'time of sowing and planting', c.1800. Verse in Crum.

A considerable proportion is not found in the printed song books: but a section on Poll. 75-79v appears to have een copied from John Wilson's Cheerful Ayres, 1660, and scattered pieces are found, usually with variants, amongst the books listed by Day and Murrie in English Song-Books, 1651-1702.

The original plan of the manuscript, seen in the arrangement of staves, was for three sections! songs with bass accompaniment, fol1.2-b63 lute music, fol1.87-91v; and songs with lute accompaniment, fol1.92-117v. This plan was not fully carried out: the first section occupies fol1.2-bl!; the second is represented only by a page of 'Stops upon the Theorbo,' arranged by key, fol.91v; the third occupies fol1.92-99. On fol.l is an incomplete list of contents, including fol1.2-66v, which (with fol.67r) were paginated by the original copier.

The songs are listed here with the composers' names in round brackets where they are given in the manuscript, and in square brackets where they are known from other sources. Names of poets appear only exceptionally in the manuscript, and in such cases are given here sivithin inverted commas:

Changes in the hand suggest that the copying extended over some years, and that the extracts from Cheerful Ayres (1660) are relatively late. The contents of the manuscript suggest a connection with Cambridge during the Civil War. Fol. lv, formerly a separate leaf, contains notes on music from the old Testament and classical authors, in a differnt hand. Blank pages were used in the reign of George I for copies of scurrilous verse and other notes, not catalogued in detail here. The book was used c.1800 for an index of plants with 'Time of sowing and planting:' this is written chiefly betaeen staves, on fol1.2-54.