I’ve been given the Janet Arnold Award by the Society of Antiquaries to recreate clothing described in the Tudor song, Greensleeves.
Really excited to be working on this project with a team of superb costume historians.
Among other things, there will be a video to come in the future, and a book about Greensleeves & early modern clothing in music and song, but in the meantime, here is our recording of the words and music… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pej-PqWDJ4U&ab_channel=Passamezzo
My Little Sweet Darling
An anonymous Tudor lullaby (sometimes attributed to William Byrd.)
The song is found in multiple sources, and may originally have been sung in “A tragedy called Oedipus,” an Elizabethan translation of a Latin play by Seneca.
William Lawes: What should my mistress do with hair.
A 17th Century setting of James Shirley's poem 'One that loved none but deformed Women', which may have been sung in his 1636 play, The Duke's Mistress.
Richard de Winter: tenor
Emily Atkinson: soprano
Peter Willcock: bass
Alison Kinder: bass viol
Richard Mackenzie: lute
Images:
Drexel 4041 f88
Quentin Matsys - A Grotesque old woman, 1513
[The image is too early for the song, but matches the sentiments expressed]