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WHO WAS 
 
 "JACK WILSON," 
 
 THE 
 
 SINGER OF SHAKESPEARE'S STAGE? 
 
 AN ATTEMPT 
 
 TO PROVE THE IDENTITY OF THIS PERSON WITH 
 
 JOHN WILSON, 
 
 DOCTOR OF MUSICK, IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 A.D. 1644. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD F. RIMBAULT, L.L.D., F.S.A., 
 
 MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC IN STOCKHOLM, 
 ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN RUSSSELL SMITH, 
 OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO SQUARE. 
 
 MDCCCXLVT. 
 

WHO WAS JACK WILSON ? 
 
 IN the second volume of the " Shakespeare 
 Society's Papers," Mr. Collier has communicated 
 an article (p. 33.) upon " Jack Wilson," the per- 
 former of Balthazar in " Much ado ahout Nothing," 
 and consequently the singer of the song in that 
 play, 
 
 <4 Sigh no more ladies, sigh no more.'* 
 The fact of Wilson having performed the part of Bal- 
 thazar, is clearly proved by the folio of 1623, where 
 (Act ii. sc. 3.) the stage direction is "Enter Prince, 
 Leonato, Claudio, and Jack Wilson" the name of the 
 actor heing inserted instead of that of the character. 
 The object of Mr. Collier's paper is to prove that 
 " Jack Wilson was not merely a singer but a com- 
 poser, and in all probability the composer of " Sigh no 
 more, ladies, sigh no more," as sung by him in the 
 character of Balthazar." " He certainly was," con- 
 tinues Mr. Collier, "the composer of the song in 
 " Measure for Measure," Act iv. sc. 1. 
 
 " Take, ! take those lips away," &c. 
 as is proved by a book of manuscript music, as old in 
 some parts as the time of the Civil Wars, although 
 
in others it seems to have been written in the reign 
 of Charles II. That song is there found with 
 Wilson's name at the end of it, as the author of the 
 music : unluckily the manuscript says nothing 
 regarding the authorship of the words, or we might 
 from thence have been able to decide by whom they 
 were written. As it is, the case stands precisely 
 thus : one stanza is found in Shakespeare's " Measure 
 for Measure," while both are inserted in Beaumont 
 and Fletcher's " Bloody Brother," Act v. sc. 2. ; 
 but on the other hand, both are imputed to Shake- 
 speare in the edition of his poems, printed in 8vo. 
 1640. There is no doubt, however, that John 
 Wilson was the composer of the song ; and, as he 
 certainly belonged to the company of players to 
 which Shakespeare was attached, it may slightly 
 strengthen the belief that one member of the asso- 
 ciation wrote the words of a song, to which another 
 member wrote the music, especially when as far as 
 we know, it was not Shakespeare's practice (though 
 it was that of some dramatists of his time) to adopt 
 into his plays, songs which had been written by 
 others for other performances." 
 
 So far so good ; Mr. Collier has adopted a favou- 
 rite hypothesis of mine that Wilson was the com- 
 poser of much of the music to Shakespeare's plays, 
 but whether this can be established we shall see 
 anon. The song in question, " Take, O ! take those 
 lips away," was certainly composed by a John Wilson, 
 but by no less a personage than " Doctor John 
 
Wilson, Professor of Musick, in the University of 
 Oxford," A.D. 1644. My hypothesis therefore falls 
 to the ground unless I can prove the identity of the 
 Jack Wilson of Shakespeare's stage, with the 
 learned Oxford professor of half a century later. 
 
 The manuscript from which Mr. Collier derived 
 his information respecting the song in " Measure 
 for Measure," was probably the common-place book 
 of one of the Ferrers' family, at whose ancient seat 
 of Staunton Harold, it was long preserved. It now 
 forms one of the many musical rarities in my own 
 collection. The song in question is there entered, 
 but the name of the composer is not given at the 
 end, as stated by Mr. Collier. The music, however, 
 is undoubtedly Dr. Wilson's, and agrees with copies 
 printed by John Play ford in his " Select Musicall 
 Ayres and Dialogues," 1652 ; the " Select Ayres," 
 1659 ; and the " Treasury of Musick," 1669. 
 
 John Wilson " the Composer," was a native of 
 Feversham, in Kent, and born in the year 1594. 
 Anthony a Wood tells us, " that having an early 
 taste for music, he became one of the most eminent 
 masters of that science." Nothing is known of 
 him until the year 1 626, when I find by an entry in 
 the ancient cheque-book of the Chapel Royal, that 
 he was constituted a " Gentleman of the Royal 
 Chapel;" about the same time, according to Wood, he 
 was also appointed " Musician in Ordinary," to his 
 Majesty Charles I. " Being- in constant attendance 
 on his Majesty," says Wood, " he played on the 
 liite with such skill, as gave the King great satis- 
 
6 
 
 faction, who generally leaned on his shoulder during 
 his performance." He was created Doctor of Music, 
 in the University of Oxford, in 1644, at which time 
 he appears to have taken up his residence in the 
 University, for Wood says, " after the surrender of 
 Oxford, [1646], he spent some years in the family 
 of Sir William Walter, at Sarsden, in Oxfordshire." 
 In 1656, at the request of Mr. Thomas Barlow, 
 made to Dr. Owen, Vice-Chancellor of the Uni- 
 versity, who had been his pupil, he was constituted 
 Music- Professor, and had lodging assigned him in 
 Baliol College, where, being assisted by some of 
 the Royalists, he lived very comfortably, exciting in 
 the University, according to Wood, such a love of 
 music, as in a great measure accounts for that 
 flourishing state, in which it has long subsisted 
 there, and for those numerous private music-meet- 
 ings, of which this writer in his own life, has given 
 such an amusing relation. At the Restoration, Dr. 
 Wilson was appointed Chamber Musician to Charles 
 II., and on the death of the famous Henry Lawes, 
 in 1 662, was again received into the Chapel Royal. 
 Upon receiving the latter appointment, he quitted 
 the University, and took up his residence in London. 
 He died at his house near the Horse-ferry, West* 
 minster, in 1673, at nearly seventy-nine years of 
 age, and was buried in the little cloisters, adjoining 
 Westminster Abbey. 
 
 This is all that is known of the life of one whom 
 Wood says, was " the greatest judge of musick 
 
that ever was," and " the best at the lute in all 
 England," and if I can identify him with the famous 
 singer of Shakespeare's day, it will add ano^.T 
 laurel to the crown to which he is so justly entitled. 
 
 Wilson the composer was born, as I have stated, 
 in 1594, and until the year 1626, a period of thirty- 
 two years, we are entirely ignorant of any parti- 
 culars concerning his life. It is during this period 
 then, that we must look for his connection with the 
 theatre. 
 
 Shakespeare's play, " Measure for Measure," 
 according to Mr. Collier, was written either at the 
 close of 1603, or in the beginning of 1604, at 
 which period, Wilson was not more than ten years 
 old. It is therefore impossible that he could have 
 been the original composer of the song, " Take, 
 O ! take those lips away," although it is highly pro- 
 bable that he was the original singer. The stage 
 direction, it will be remembered, is " enter Mariana 
 and Boy singing." 
 
 The comedy of " Much ado about Nothing," was 
 performed probably in the autumn of 1599, or cer- 
 tainly in the beginning of 1600 ; it is therefore still 
 more unlikely that the music of Balthazar's song, 
 could have been composed by- the boy Wilson. He 
 might indeed have composed the song at a later 
 period, when (as we learn from the folio of 1623), 
 he performed the character of Balthazar; but the 
 composition is not found among his works which 
 have descended to us. 
 
8 
 
 From what has been said, it is clear that Jack 
 Wilson was not the original composer of the two 
 songs in question ; but that he was an early com- 
 poser, of one of them at least, is certain. 
 
 Wilson was the composer of four other Shake- 
 spearian lyrics, a fact unknown to Mr. Collier, when 
 he wrote the article in the " Shakespeare Papers :" 
 Where the bee sucks"" Full fathom five" 
 " Lawn as white as driven snow" and "From the 
 fair Lavinian shore/' They are all printed in the 
 author's " Cheerfull Ayres or Ballads," Oxford, 
 1660. We have now evidence from this work, that 
 Wilson was the original composer of the music to 
 one of Shakespeare's plays. He says in his preface 
 " some of these ayres were originally composed by 
 those whose names are affixed to them, but are here 
 placed as being new set by the author of the rest." 
 The two songs, " Where the bee sucks," and 
 " Full fathom five," have appended to them the 
 name of " R. Johnson," who, upon this evidence, 
 we may undoubtedly conclude was the original com- 
 poser of the music in the play of the " Tempest." 
 The song " Lawn as white as driven snow," from 
 the " Winter's Tale," has the name of " John 
 Wilson" attached to it, from which it is equally cer- 
 tain that he was its original composer. In my own 
 mind, the circumstances connected with the Shake- 
 spearian lyrics in this book, are almost conclusive 
 as to the identity of John Wilson thecomposer, with 
 John Wilson the singer. Unless the composer had 
 
been intimately acquainted with the theatre of 
 Shakespeare's day, it is not likely that he would have 
 remembered, so long after, the name of one of its 
 composers. Nor is it likely, that being so well 
 acquainted with the original composers of the 
 Shakespearian drama, and so anxious as he appears 
 to have been, to do justice to their memory, that he 
 would have omitted informing us, who was the ori- 
 ginal composer of the song in the " Winter's Tale," 
 had it been any other than himself. The " Winter's 
 Tale" was not produced before 1610 or 1611, at 
 which period Wilson was sixteen or seventeen years 
 old, an age quite ripe enough for the production of 
 the song in question. 
 
 From Wilson's particular mention of R. Johnson, 
 one of the musicians of Shakespeare's company, it 
 seems not too much to imagine that young Wilson 
 may have been his pupil. 
 
 Robert Johnson was a celebrated performer on the 
 lute ; and if not so well known as his more fortunate 
 contemporary, John Dowland, he at least deserves 
 especial notice as one of the chief composers of 
 the musical drama of Skakespeare's Stage. The 
 first trace of Johnson's name occurs in the year 
 1573, when he was in the household of Sir Thomas 
 Kytson of Hengrave Hall, in the County of Suffolk. 
 In the book containing the expenses of the house- 
 hold, kept by one Thomas Fryer, I find under the 
 date January 1573 : 
 
 " Paid to Robert the musician, as so much by 
 
10 
 
 him paid for a coople staffe torches to alight my 
 M res home on Candlemas night, supping at Mr. 
 Townsends. ii s. vi d." 
 
 Again, under the date April 1575 : " In re- 
 ward to Johnson, the musician, for his charges in 
 away ting on my L. of Leycester, at Kennel worth, 
 
 xs." 
 
 The last item is extremely interesting, and re- 
 lates to an event which probably brought into re- 
 quest all the musical talent of the period the 
 grand entertainment given by the Earl of Leicester 
 to Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle, and 
 celebrated by Master Robert Laneham in his 
 " Letter," and by Sir Walter Scott in his ad- 
 mirable romance of Kenilworth. 
 
 How long Johnson remained in the service of 
 Sir Thomas Kytson, I have not been able to ascer- 
 tain. He probably came to London soon after the 
 Earl of Leicester's entertainment, and commenced 
 his career as a composer for the theatre. In June 
 1611, I find him in the service of Prince Henry, 
 receiving a stipend of 40/, annually ; and on the 
 20th of December, 1625, his name occurs in a 
 privy seal, exempting the musicians of the King 
 (Charles I.) from the payment of subsidies. 
 
 Johnson composed the music for Middleton's play 
 of the " Witch," a contemporary manuscript of 
 which is in my possession. His music to the 
 " Tempest," has shared the fatality which seems 
 to attend almost everything in connexion with our 
 
11 
 
 great bard ; nevertheless I have been fortunate 
 enough to recover some fragments of the instru- 
 mental music, which will be printed in my " Musi- 
 cal Illustrations of Shakespeare's Plays." 
 
 The last named Shakespearian lyric, connected 
 with Wilson's music " From the fair Lavinian 
 shore," is " Shakespeare's rime which he made 
 at the Mytre in Fleete Streete," a fact which we 
 learn from the manuscript collection of poetry, 
 copied before the year 1631, and quoted in Mr. 
 Collier's " Annals of the Stage," Vol. iii. p. 276. 
 
 I shall here quote an anecdote from the Le- 
 strange MS. (Harl. MS. No. 6395) which goes far 
 to prove the identity of the learned Doctor, with 
 the Jack Wilson of Shakespeare's stage, who, though 
 dubbed by the learned, was still " Jack" with his 
 familiars. 
 
 " Jack Willson and Harry and Will. Lawes were 
 at a taverne one night. Wilson being in worst 
 case of the three, swore he would quarrell with the 
 next man he mett, who was a meere stranger, and a 
 sober gentleman ; whom he thus accosted, ' Are you 
 not a Catholicke ?' ' Yes marry am I.' * Then 
 y're a knave,' sayes he. The gentleman having 
 pass't by a little way, stepps backe to him, and bids 
 him not swallow an error, * for, 5 sayes he, * I am 
 no Catholicke !' * Why then, y're a scurvy lying 
 knave/ sayes Willson. Upon that out flew their 
 swords, but the Lawes' parted them presently." 
 
 Dr. Wilson was a man of facetious temper ; and 
 
12 
 
 styled by Wood " a great humorist, and a pretender 
 to buffoonery." Henry Lawes, one of his companions 
 in the present drunken frolic, has given a much 
 more amiable, and probably a truer portrait of him 
 in the following lines, part of a poem prefixed to 
 Wilson's " Psalterium Carolinum," L657 
 
 " From long acquaintance and experience, I 
 Could tell the world thy known integrity 
 Unto thy friend ; thy true and honest heart, 
 Ev'n mind, good nature, all but thy great art, 
 Which I but dully understand." 
 
 This is good evidence, coming from one so cele- 
 brated as " Harry Lawes," of Wilson's character, 
 as well as a type of the high estimation in which 
 his musical abilities were held by his professional 
 brethren. Respecting the latter, Dr. Burney has 
 most unjustly pronounced that Wilson " set words 
 to music more clumsily than any composer of equal 
 rank in the profession ;" but he afterwards admits 
 that he " was respected by his cotemporaries, and 
 held an exalted rank in his art." 
 
 The work (before mentioned) containing the 
 Shakespearian lyrics is of such interest that I sub- 
 join its description. It is entitled " Cheerfull Ayres 
 or Ballads. First composed for one single voice, and 
 since set for three voices. By John Wilspn, Dr. in 
 Musick, Professor of the same in the University of 
 Oxford. Oxford, Printed by W. Hall, for Ric. 
 Davis, Anno Dom. 1660.'' Eight copies of verses 
 with the following initials of the writers at the end, 
 ^E. D., A. C., N. M., R. R., and J. H. O. C. The 
 
13 
 
 latter speaks of some of the ayres having been per- 
 formed at Court before the King, and concludes in 
 the following manner : 
 
 t I do not wonder that the King did call, 
 
 Wilson, there's more words, let's heare them all : 
 
 Such was your skill, that what the rest o' the Court, 
 
 Perhaps thought long, judicious ears thought short. 
 
 Excellent Artist ! whose sweet strains devour, 
 
 Time swift as they, and make days seem an hour. 
 
 But what need more, since 'tis enough to tell 
 
 But this ; King Charles hath heard, and lik'd them well." 
 
 The songs contained in this collection (69 in 
 number) are as follows : 
 
 When Troy towne for ten years war. 
 
 From the faire Lavinian shore. 
 
 Will you buy any honesty. 
 
 Full fathome five. 
 
 Where the bee sucks. 
 
 When love with unconfined wings. 
 
 Have you any work for a sow gelder. 
 
 Come hither you that love. 
 
 Young Thirsis lay in Phillis' lap. 
 
 Kawasha comes in majestie. 
 
 Cast your capps and cares away. 
 
 Doe not feare to put thy feet. 
 
 Thoughts doe not vex me. 
 
 Whoso complaineth gaineth. 
 
 Come, silent night. 
 
 Come, constant hearts. 
 
 Love and disdain. 
 
 In a season all oppressed. 
 
 Cupid, thou art a wanton boy. 
 
 Though your strangenesse. 
 
 Ask me no more. 
 
Clora's false love made Cloris weep. 
 I love, alas, but cannot shew it. 
 If I die be this my will. 
 Greedy lover pause awhile. 
 Thine eyes to me like sunnes. 
 Awake, awake, the morne. 
 I would have thee merry. 
 In the merry month of May. 
 Faine would I, Cloris. 
 Deere give me a thousand kisses. 
 Lawne as white as driven snow. 
 Goe weather beaten thoughts. 
 Goe restlesse thoughts. 
 
 If my lady bid beginne. 
 
 Tell me where the beauty lyes. 
 
 Boast not, blind boy. 
 
 Come thou father of the spring. 
 
 Sir, this my little mistresse here. 
 
 No, no, I tell thee no. 
 
 For ever let thy heavenly tapers. 
 
 Fly hence, shadows. 
 
 Since love hath in thine and mine. 
 
 Since love hath bought thee. 
 
 Yon herauld of my mistresse heart. 
 
 Why think 1 st thou foole. 
 
 When the cleer sunn. 
 
 What would any man desire ? 
 
 Thou that excellest. 
 
 I swear by muskadell. 
 
 Fondnesse of man to love. 
 
 Downe, be still, you seas. 
 
 You say you love me. 
 
 Hence with this wedlock chaine. 
 
 So have I seen a silver swann. 
 
 View'st thou that poore penurious payre. 
 
 If I must tell you what I love. 
 
 When on mine eyes. 
 
15 
 
 Be not them so foolish nice. 
 
 Come, I faint. 
 
 God Lycus ever young. 
 
 Nor roses coucht within a lilly bed. 
 
 So many lovers have I neglected. 
 
 Now the lusty spring is seen. 
 
 Wherefore peep'st thou envious day. 
 
 Turne thy beauteous face away. 
 
 When I behold my Mistres face 
 
 My love and I for kisses plaid. 
 
 In a vale with flowrets spangled. 
 
 From the above list it is evident that Dr. Wilson 
 was intimately acquainted with the works of the 
 poets of the time of James I., Shakespeare, Jonson, 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, Breton, &c. a further proof 
 of the correctness of my position. Many other of 
 Wilson's compositions (and also some of those 
 printed in the above collection) are to be found in 
 the following rare musical works, all of which are 
 in my library: "Catch that catch can," 1652 ; 
 " Select Musicall Ayres and Dialogues," 1652 ; 
 "Select Ayres and Dialogues, 1659; "The 
 Musical Companion," 1667 ; " The Treasury of 
 Musick," 1669, &c. 
 
 Upon a careful consideration of the various cir- 
 cumstances adduced in the course of this paper, 
 I cannot but consider that my position is pretty 
 clearly established. The Doctor's settings of the 
 Shakespearian Lyrics his knowledge of the original 
 composer of the music in the " Tempest" his 
 companionship with the great dramatic composers, 
 
16 
 
 the two Lawes's his familiar appellation of " Jack 
 Wilson" and, above all, the thirty-two years gap 
 in the early history of his life, all these circum- 
 stances combined are evidences not to be slighted, 
 and, until these evidences can be set aside by some- 
 thing more conclusive, I shall rest satisfied in my 
 own mind, that " Jack Wilson," the singer of 
 Shakespeare's stage, and Doctor John Wilson, the 
 learned Professor of the University of Oxford, were 
 one and the same person. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 G. NORMAN, PRINTER, MAIDEN LANE, COVENT .GARDEN, 
 
M147556 
 
 ^ 'It 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY