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John Dowland - an unsuccessful Elizabethan lobbyist

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John Dowland – an unsuccessful Elizabethan political lobbyist

This discussion will start with a brief history of the lutenist John Dowland
(1563 – 1626) and will attempt to address some of the difficulties in placing
him firmly in the political and social environ of late sixteenth and early
seventeenth century England while beginning to explore how this complex
environ shaped his music.

Dowland lived under three English monarchs at a time in British history that
was full of dangerous intrigue and sycophantic patronage. He was born five
years after Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England and Ireland: he lived
for twenty-two years under James VI of Scotland once James had received
this joint crown on Elizabeth’s death: and he died one year after Charles I

Elizabeth I James VI and I Charles I

had succeeded to the combined thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland.

It is unclear what circumstances surrounded his birth but it is likely that he

was born in London1 and Dowland indicated that this was in the year 1563.2
Nothing is known about his birth family or upbringing. In fact, we have little
knowledge of his private life at all. He did marry and this is assumed to have
been before 1586 but nothing is known about the background of his wife. In

1
Poulton, “John Dowland,” 21.
2
Dowland, “A Pilgrimes Solace.”

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1590, Dowland’s son, Robert, appears to have been born3 and, while it is
believed that there were other children, nothing is known about them.

When Dowland was seventeen and probably to advance his lute-playing, he

went to France4 and served under Sir Henry Cobman, the Ambassador to the
King of France. While there, he converted to Catholicism although he had
been brought up Protestant5. According to Poulton, it is likely he returned to
England in 15846 and, in 1588, he was admitted to his Mus.Bac from Christ
Church, Oxford7.

In 1594, Dowland applied to become one of Queen Elizabeth’s lutenists

when a post became vacant on the death of John Johnson but he was
unsuccessful8 and returned to the Continent, initially visiting the
Wolfenbüttel court of Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick before travelling to the
Court of Hesse to meet with the Landgrave, Maurice of Hesse-Kassel9. From
there he travelled to Venice, Padua, Genoa and Ferrara before reaching
Florence10.

Once there, Dowland was approached by some English Catholic exiles

including the priest John Scudamore from whom he requested a letter of
introduction to Nicholas Fitzherbert, a member of the household of Cardinal
Allen in Rome11. However, instead of travelling to Rome, Dowland went to
Nuremberg where he wrote a long letter to Sir Robert Cecil12, perhaps the
most powerful man in the court of Elizabeth and a man fiercely protective of
his Protestant Queen. This letter has been interpreted as being generated by
Dowland to assure Cecil that his Catholicism had been limited to his youth.

3
Poulton, “John Dowland,” 28.
4
Dowland, “The Firste Booke of Songse or Ayres.”
5
Pinto, “John Dowland, Letter to Robert Cecil (1595).”
6
Poulton, “John Dowland,” 27.
7
Ibid., 28.
8
Ibid., 30.
9
Ibid., 31.
10
Dowland, The Firste Booke of Songse or Ayres.
11
Pinto, “John Dowland, Letter to Robert Cecil (1595).”
12
Ibid.

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Nevertheless, Dowland does not apologise to Cecil for the Catholicism13

which gives rise to speculation that he might have remained true to that
persuasion for the remainder of his life.

By 1596, Dowland is back at the Landgrave’s Court14 but being urged to

return to England by Henry Noel, one of Queen Elizabeth’s courtiers, who
reported he would be welcomed by the Queen. Unfortunately and
unexpectedly, Noel died the following February while Dowland was on his
journey back to England. Thus, Dowland found himself without this
champion in the English court by 1597 and, for a second time, he was
unsuccessful in gaining a position at Elizabeth’s court. However, Dowland
was invited back to Hesse in 159815, the year he was appointed by Christian
IV of Denmark as a lutenist but in the Danish court16.

Dowland stayed in the service of Christian IV for 8 years, returning to

England once in 1601 at the request of Christian to engage new musicians
for the court and once in 160317 on private business. By then, Elizabeth had
died and James had succeded to her throne. Dowland remained in England
for a year on this occasion and was successful in meeting with the new
monarch and his wife at Winchester while in England18.

Dowland left the Danish court in 1606 for the final time19. It is unclear what
circumstances surrounded this departure but he no longer appeared to be in
favour at the court. Hauge20 speculates that it may have been due to
Christian’s displeasure over the length of time Dowland had been away in
England. However, an alternative suggestion centres on the existence of an
earlier letter in the Danish archives from the English diplomat Stephen
Lesieur to Dowland. This letter carried a request that Dowland forwarded

13
Ibid.
14
Poulton, “John Dowland,” 47.
15
Poulton, “John Dowland,” 50.
16
Ibid., 52.
17
Pinto, “John Dowland, Letter to Robert Cecil (1595).”
18
Poulton, “John Dowland,” 62.
19
Ibid., 65.
20
Hauge, “Dowland and his time in Copenhagen, 1598 – 1606.”

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any information he could glean concerning negotiations between the English

and Danish diplomats and, in return, Lesieur indicated that Dowland would
be favourably treated by Queen Elizabeth, presumably by being given a
position in the English court. For a third time, Dowland’s courtly ambitions
were thwarted as the Queen died in 1603 and before Dowland could be
rewarded for any information he was able to provide21.

Dowland returned to England finally in 1606 and in 1612 he was appointed

lutenist to the English court of James22 having spent at least some of the
intervening years in the service of Lord Howard of Walden23, one of James’
courtiers. Thus, finally, he had successfully gained a court appointment in
England but the appointment was granted by King James rather than from
Queen Elizabeth.

From 1612 and alongside his court duties, Dowland freelanced with various
other instrumentalists including his son, Robert, and evidence exists that he
was instructing pupils probably on an ad hoc basis during his latter years24.
Dowland died early in 1626 and was buried at St. Anne, Blackfriars in London
on the 20th of February25.

Like all musicians at this time, Dowland was heavily dependent on the
patronage of those in power. He chose to take advantage of the early
printing industry to showcase his work and claim authorship of his music.
Much of his known biography comes from his publications and,
between1592 and 1612, Dowland contributed to eleven known anthologies.

While there were compositions published by Est in the “Whole Book of

Psalms” (originally 1592)26 and Barley in the “New Book of Tabliture”

21
Hauge, “Dowland and his time in Copenhagen, 1598 – 1606.”
22
Poulton, “John Dowland,” 68.
23
Ibid., 66.
24
Gale, “John Dowland, celebrity lute teacher,” 205.
25
Poulton, “John Dowland,” 88.
26
Est, “The Whole Booke of Psalmes.”

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(1596)27, the first of Dowland’s own publications was “The First Booke of
Songes or Ayres of fowre partes with Tabliture for the Lutes”28 29 in 1597.
He dedicated this work to “The Right Honovrable Sir George Carey, of the
Most Honorable Order of the Garter Knight: Baron of Huntdon, Captaine of
her Maiefties Penfioners, Gouernor of the Ifle of Wight Lieutenant of the
countie of Southt. Lord Chamberlaine of her Maiefties moft Royall haufe,
and of her Highnes moft honourable priuie Counfell.”

His “Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, of 2.4. and 5. Parts: with Tableture for
the Lute or Orpherian,30 with the Violl de Gamba”31 was printed in 1600 and
dedicated to “The Right
Honorable the Lady Lucie
Compteffe of Bedford”.
Briefer, it is signed by
Dowland from Denmark.
The dedication in the “Third
and Last Booke of Songs or
Aires newly composed to
fing to the Lute, Orpharion,
Opharians
or viols, and a dialogue for a
bafe and meane Lute with fine voices to fing thereto”32 is of a similar length
and was dated 1603. The dedication was to “My Honorable Good Friend Iohn
Souch Efquire, for many curtefies for which I imbolden my felfe, perfuming
of his good fauour, to prefent this fimple worke, as a token of my
thankefulnes”.

Perhaps the best known work by Dowland is his “Lachrimae, or Seaven

Teares Figured in Seaven Passionate Pauans, with diuers other Pauans,

27
Barley, “A New Booke of Tabliture.”
28
Dowland, “The Firste Booke of Songes or Ayres.”
29
The text is transcribed as written.
30
An orpharion was a plucked stringed instrument somewhat similar to the lute.
31
Dowland, “The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres.”
32
Dowland, “The Third and Last Booke of Songes or Aires.”

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Galiards, and Almands, fet forth for the Lute, Viols, or Violons, in five
parts”33 which was published in 1605. It was dedicated to “The Most
Graciovs and Sacred Princeffe Anna Qveene of England, [S]cotland34, France,
and Ireland”. The composer states, however, that it was begun in Denmark
suggesting that his original intention had been to dedicate the work to
Queen Elizabeth with the published dedication to Queen Anne being a
timeously revision of this intention35.

In 1609, Dowland published his translation of “Andreas Ornithoparcvs His

Micrologvs, or Introduction: Containing the Art of Singing” 36. He dedicated
this to “The Right Honorable Robert Earle of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne,
Baron of Essingdon, Lord High Treasurer of England, Principall Secretarie to
the Kings most excellent Maiestie, Maister of the Courts of Wards and
Liueries, Chancellor of the most famous Vniversitie of Cambridge, Knight of
the most Noble Order of the Garter, and one of his Maiesties most
honourable Priuic Counsell.”

Although Robert Dowland published two books in 1610 containing works by

his father, “Varietie of Lute-leffons”37 and “A musicall banquet Furnished
with varietie of delicious ayres, collected out of the best authors in English,
French, Spanish and Italian”38, the last work that Dowland published himself
was “A Pilgrimes Solace”39 in 1612, the year he was appointed to the English
court. This publication he dedicated to “the Right Honorable, Theophilvs,
Lord Walden, Sonne and Heire to the Most Noble, Thomas, Baron of Walden,
Earle of Svffolke, Lord Chamberlaine of his Maiesties Hovsehold, Knight of
the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and one of his Maiefties moft
Honourable Priuie Counsell”. Thus, Dowland chose patrons on which he
could reasonably rely for preferments.

33
Dowland, “Lachrimae or Seaven Teares.”
34
The original is missing the "S" from Scotland.
35
Hauge, “Dowland and his time in Copenhagen, 1598 – 1606.”
36
Dowland, “Andreas Ornithoparcvs His Micrologvs.”
37
Dowland (Robert), “Varietie of Lute-leffons.”
38
Dowland (Robert), “A Musical Banqvet.”
39
Dowland, “A Pilgrimes Solace.”

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However, the Dowland legacy is enigmatic and it is impossible to know who

the man was in any depth. His music suggests a deeply depressive character
– but Dowland cultivated that image by the music he chose to publish and
the texts he chose to set. His three unsuccessful attempts at advancement
in England have been interpreted40 as causing disillusionment which then
gave rise to the tone of his publications. However, at least in the earlier part
of his career, he would be only one of several realistic potential appointees
to the court and he must have been aware he was competing for coveted
positions. With what appears to have been a keen sense of how he was
received as evidenced in his publications, Dowland was unlikely to have been
surprised by a lack of success at this comparatively early stage in his career.
Wells writes, “Dowland was the product of an age which did not expect to
find in a poet’s or composer’s work an intimate record of his emotional
life,41 melancholy being fashionable in all the arts in Elizabethan England.

Perhaps the epitome of these difficulties surrounds Dowland’s relationship

to the Catholic faith. Was he a life-long Catholic following his French
conversion? His letter to Cecil is ambiguous on that point. His contention
that his unsuccessful attempts to gain a court position were due to his
Catholicism may be argued. He certainly seemed to have little difficulty
gaining positions in Protestant environs such as Hesse and openly Catholic
composers such as William Byrd did not have the same difficulty 42.
Nevertheless, his eventual appointment to the court may have arisen at the
behest of Queen Anne who had been secretly converted to Catholicism43 and
this might suggest that Dowland’s apparent perception had been correct.

40
Ruff and Wilson, “The Madrigal, the Lute Song and Elizabethan Politics,” 29.
41
Wells, “John Dowland and Elizabethan Melancholy,” 524.
42
Goodell, “Music in the English Reformation,” 23.
43
Pinto, “John Dowland, Letter to Robert Cecil (1595).”

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Because a large part of the published Dowland compositions consist of set

texts, much work has been done on the implications of his ayres, those
apparently pretty little pieces as they can appear to naïve twenty-first
century ears44. The ayres that are
believed to be related to the Essex events
carried much more meaning to
contemporaneous listeners. While
Dowland’s settings seem to follow the
vicissitudes of Essex’s relationship with
Queen Elizabeth, sometimes in favour
and sometimes banished from her
presence45, such an interpretation is
fraught with difficulty. Dowland
produced several different settings of the
same melodies46 which makes
attempting to establish the original
version of any setting problematic and
scarsely not possible some four hundred Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
years later.

In illustration, the multiple settings of the melody Dowland used for the text
“Can she excuse” is a demonstration of this which is discussed by Gibson in
her 2005 PhD thesis in some detail47, arguing that the text is likely to have
been penned by Essex. Although Dowland published a setting in 1597 48, the
melody is found in Barley’s publication the year before in 1596 49 entitled “A
Galliard by I.D.” and even then it may have already been in existence before
that. A solo lute version was published around 160050 and

44
Kristine Hurst-Wajszczuk, “Dowland Lute Songs and the Cult of Elizabeth.”
45
Ruff and Wilson, “The Madrigal, the Lute Song and Elizabethan Politics.”
46
Gibson, “John Dowland’s Printed Ayres: Texts, Contexts, and Intertexts.”
47
Gibson, “John Dowland’s Printed Ayres: Texts, Contexts, and Intertexts.”
48
Dowland, “The First Booke of Songes or Ayres.”
49
Barley, “A new Booke of Tabliture.”
50
Dowland, “Can She Excuse.”

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“Can You Excuse”

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Robert Dowland publishes a further solo lute version 51 in 1610 with the title
“The Right Hounarable Robert, Earl of Essex, his Galliard”.

It is difficult for us from our twenty-first century viewpoint to imagine what

it would have been like for a musician who, in all likelihood, was born into
relatively lowly circumstances in an age that was full of intrigue, danger and
patronage as Dowland was and into a country reigned over by an unmarried
female monarch, an anachronism at the time. While he may have been an
unsuccessful Elizabethan lobbyist, he manages to achieve respect and
acclaim from his contemporary peers52 and his music has endured far
beyond that of many who did receive courtly honour.

Works Cited

Barley, William. A new Booke of Tabliture. London: William Barley, 1596.

Accessed 24 November 2017.
imslp.org/wiki/A_New_Book_of_Tabliture_(Barley,_William)

Dowland, John. The First Booke of Songes or Ayres. London: Peter Short,
1597. Accessed 21 November 2017.
imslp.org./wiki/The_Firste_Booke_of_Songes_(Dowland%2C_John)

- The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres. London: Thomas Este, 1600.

Accessed 21 November 2017.
imslp.org./wiki/The_Second_Booke_of_Songes_(Dowland%2C_John)
- “Can She Excuse”. In Collection of Songs and Dances for the Lute
[manuscript], ca.1594 – ca.1600. Folger Digital Image Collection.
Folger Shakespeare Library. Accessed 22 November 2017.
https://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/detail/FOLGERCM1~6~6~6583
32~144806:Collection-of-songs-and-dances-for

51
Dowland (Robert), “A Mvsicall Banqvet.”
52
Goodell, “Music of the English Reformation,” 22.

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- The Third and Last Booke of Songs or Aires. London: Thomas

Adams, 1603. Accessed 21 November 2017.
imslp.org./wiki/The_Third_Booke_of_Songes_(Dowland%2C_John)
- Lachrimae or Seaven Teares. London: Iohn Windet, 1604.
Accessed 24 November 2017.
imslp.org/wiki/Lachrimae%2C_or_Seven_Tears_(Dowland%2C_John)
- (trans.) Andreas Ornithoparcvs His Micrologvs. London: Thomas
Adams, 1609. Accessed 21November 2017.
imslp.org/wiki/Musicae_activae_micrologus_(Ornithoparchus%2C_A
ndreas)
- A Pilgrimes Solace. London: William Barley, 1612. Accessed 21
November 2017.
imslp.org/wiki/A_Pilgrimes_Solace_(Dowland%2C_John)

Dowland, Robert. Varietie of Lute-leffons. London: Thomas Adams, 1610.

Accessed 24 November 2017.
imslp.org/wiki/A_Varietie_of_Lute_Lessons_(Dowland%2C_Robert)

- A Mvsicall Banqvet. London: Thomas Adams, 1610. Accessed 24

November 2017.
https://bable.hathitrust,org/cgi/pt?id=chi.16982982;view=1up;seq

Est, Thomas. The Whole Booke of Psalmes. London: Thomas Est, 1592.
Accessed 24 November 2017.
imslp.org/wiki/The_Whole_Booke_of_Psalmes_(Various) (1604 edition)

Gale, Michael. “John Dowland, celebrity lute teacher.” Early Music XLI No. 2
(2013): 205-218.

Gibson, Kirsten. John Dowland’s Printed Ayres: Texts, Contexts, Intertexts.

PhD thesis. University of Newcastle upon Tyne (2005).

Goodell, Brian. Music of the English Reformation. BA thesis. Wesleyan

University (2013).

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Hauge, Peter. “Dowland and his time in Copenhagen, 1598 – 1606.” Early
Music 41(2) (2013): 189-203.

Hurst-Wajszczuk, Kristine. “Dowland Lute Songs and the Cult of Elizabeth.”

Journal of Singing. National Association of Teachers of Singing vol. 63 no. 5
(2007): 523-530.

Pinto, David (2004). John Dowland, Letter to Robert Cecil (1595) – a critical
hypertext edition. Accessed 20 November 2017.
http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/dowland/

Poulton, Diana. John Dowland. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of

California Press, new and revised edition, 1982.

Ruff, Lillian and Wilson, Arnold. “The Madrigal, the Lute Song and
Elizabethan Politics.” The Past and Present Society No. 44 (1969): 3-51.

Wells, Robin. “John Dowland and Elizabethan Melancholy.” Early Music 13

no. 4 (1985): 514-528.22-23

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