The Dumpe (from Swedish Dialect, _dumpa_, to dance awkwardly) was a
slow, mournful dance. [See Appendix.] There is another quibble in l.
1131, on _strain_. A 'strain' is the proper Elizabethan word for a
formal phrase of a musical composition. For instance, in a Pavan,
Morley (Introduction to Practical Music, 1597) says a 'straine' should
consist of 8, 12, or 16 semibreves (we should say 'bars' instead of
'semibreves') 'as they list, yet fewer then eight I have not seene in
any pauan.'
'Diapason' meant the interval of an octave. Here Lucrece says she will
'bear the diapason' with deep groans, _i.e._, 'hum' a 'burden' or
drone an octave lower than the nightingale's 'descant.' The earliest
'burden' known is that in the ancient Round 'Sumer is icumen in,' of
the 13th century. Here four voices sing the real music in canon to
these words--
'Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing Cuccu,
Groweth seed and bloweth mead and springth the wde nu,
Sing Cuccu,
Awe bleteth after lomb, lhouth after calve cu,
Bulluc sterteth, Bucke verteth, murie sing cuccu,
Cuccu, Cuccu,
Wel singes thu cuccu, ne swik thu naver nu.'--
while all the time two other voices of lower pitch sing a monotonous
refrain, 'Sing cuccu nu, Sing cuccu,' which they repeat _ad infinitum_
till the four who sing the Round are tired. This refrain is called Pes
(or 'foot'), and this is the kind of thing which Lucrece means by
'burden.
Pages:
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35