Artwork • The Cambridge University Library copy of:
The fifth Marprelate Tract "Theses Martinianæ", published 22 July 1589.
Printed by John Hodgkins in Wolston Priory Warwickshire, at the residence of Roger Wigston. Exhaustive biblical references fill the margins, connecting passages with specific verses related to Christian brotherhood.
Music • Bradley Johnson plays Monsieur's Almain by Daniel Bacheler, - on guitar. Guitar arrangement by Phillip Woodfield. 2013.
Original Composer: Daniel Bacheler. 1572-1619.
Original Instrument: Lute.
Genre: Allemande, a popular dance form of the era.
Historical Context: Bacheler was a prominent court musician, serving as groom of the privy chamber to Queen Anne of Denmark. The tune of "Monsieur's Almain" is thought to predate Bacheler's variations and appears in other settings by composers like Thomas Morley and William Byrd.
This set of variations on a popular tune is found in Robert Dowland's Varietie of Lute Lessons.
The title is thought to refer to Francis Duke of Alençon and, later Anjou, youngest son of Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici and brother of two French kings (Charles IX and Henry III).
He paid suit to the English queen Elizabeth I and she referred to him on correspondence as ‘Monsieur’; Elizabeth also referred to Francis as 'The Frog’ - perhaps the origin of the title of John Dowland’s Frog Galliard.
Episode Notes:
For more than 4 centuries, scholars have been intrigued by the authorship of the Marprelate Tracts.
From their very beginning, the publications aimed to protect, both authors and printers, by purposefully concealing their identities.
A total of 7 anonymous Marprelate tracts, were secretly printed on a movable press, and transported across several counties in England, to avoid detection by the authorities, during Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
From October 1588 to September 1589, the press operated in the homes of Puritan sympathisers, in many counties across England.
