Two Latin Play Songs

Abstract

Musical settings of lyrics from Latin plays written by Englishmen during the Caroline period are extremely rare. Only two such songs survive: ‘Dulcis somne’ from William Johnson's university play Valetudinarium, and ‘Astrorum iubar’ from Joseph Simons's school play Zeno sive Ambitio Infelix. Unusually, both songs are known only from copies bound into the play-texts themselves rather than from exclusively musical sources. This article sets out to evaluate both the songs themselves and their dramatic functions.