Fine Knacks For Ladies: A Song History

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John Dowland's "Fine Knacks for Ladies" was printed in London in 1600 as the twelfth song in The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres.[1] George Eastland published the book, Thomas Este printed it, and it carries a dedication to Lady Lucie, Countess of Bedford.[2] At the time Dowland was lutenist to King Christian IV of Denmark, a post he held from 1598 until he was dismissed in 1606.[3]

Etching of a young street seller in a tricorn hat holding a pole hung with long laces

Anne Claude Philippe de Tubières, comte de Caylus, Laces Peddler, etching with some engraving, 1738. A street seller of laces, shown because the song is a pedlar’s cry; it has no connection to the song.

The poet is not named in the sources consulted here: LiederNet lists the author as unidentified,[4] and Poems on the Underground credits the text to "Anon (c1600)."[5] The Traditional Tune Archive describes it as a peddler's song.[6] The piece is scored for four voices with lute and viola da gamba.[7]

Edmund H. Fellowes's series The English School of Lutenist Song Writers included it in a Stainer & Bell volume that a library catalogue dates to about 1924.[8] It is also among the 65 four-voice ayres in David Greer's 2000 Musica Britannica edition of Dowland's music for SATB and lute.[9] Ivor Gurney set the same words for voice and piano around 1919 to 1922.[4] The Choral Public Domain Library offers editions of the song prepared by more than ten different editors.[10] Sting and lutenist Edin Karamazov recorded it on Songs from the Labyrinth, released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2006.[11] Ellen Pratt arranges it for five dulcimers, four in DAD tuning and one baritone in ADA tuning, in Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 7.[12]

Our book that contains the song "Fine Knacks For Ladies"

Sources

  1. Choral Public Domain Library: "The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (John Dowland)".
  2. IMSLP: "The Second Book of Songes (Dowland, John)".
  3. Britannica: "John Dowland".
  4. LiederNet Archive: "Fine knacks for ladies".
  5. Poems on the Underground: "Fine Knacks for Ladies".
  6. Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Fine Knacks for Ladies".
  7. IMSLP: "Fine Knacks for Ladies (Dowland, John)".
  8. swisscollections (University of Basel): "Second book of airs: 1600: part II, nos. 11-22".
  9. Stainer & Bell: "Dowland, John: Ayres for Four Voices".
  10. Choral Public Domain Library: "Fine knacks for ladies (John Dowland)".
  11. Technical University of Munich Library: "Songs from the labyrinth".
  12. Ellen Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 7".
  13. Image: Anne Claude Philippe de Tubières, comte de Caylus, Laces Peddler, etching with some engraving, 1738. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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