The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.0429  Tuesday, 8 March 2005

From:           Hannibal Hamlin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Saturday, 05 Mar 2005 13:50:48 -0500
Subject: 16.0406 Thomas Morley
Comment:        Re: SHK 16.0406 Thomas Morley

In response to Peter Bridgman's very interesting note, the possibility
of a connection between Morley and the courtier Henry Nowell (or Noel --
if indeed this is the man) is most intriguing, since this courtier was
also connected to John Dowland.  Dowland, always desperate for a court
position, was on the verge (it seems) of getting one through Henry Noel.
  Noel's untimely death in 1597 shattered Dowland's hopes, however, and
the composer's disappointment is powerfully expressed in "Mr. Henry
Noell his funerall psalmes," sophisticated four-part settings of
metrical Psalms from Sternhold and Hopkins and elsewhere, which may have
been performed (speculation really, but tantalizing) at Noel's funeral
in Westminster Abbey.  Like Morley, Dowland was also Catholic, though
how long and to what extent he remained so is open to debate.  There
seem to be lots of interesting question here worth pursuing further.

Hannibal

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