Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawes, Henry
LAWES, HENRY (1596–1662), musician, was born at Dinton, Wiltshire, and baptised there 1 Jan. 1595–6. The statement that he was born in 1600 at Salisbury seems to be due to Warton's misquotation in his life of Milton of the inscription on Lawes's portrait at Salisbury. The composer's father, Thomas Lawes, was in all probability the person who was a vicar-choral at Salisbury (d. 1640). Lawes received his early education in music from Giovanni Coperario (Cooper) [q.v.]. He was sworn in as pisteller or epistler of the Chapel Royal, 1 Jan. 1625–6, and on 3 Nov. of the same year as gentleman; he afterwards became clerk of the cheque and a member of the king's band. It is not known when his connection with the household of the Earl of Bridgewater began, but it was probably before 1633, when the earl's sons, Lord Brackley, and his brother Thomas Egerton, took part in the masque 'Cœlum Britannicum,' written by Thomas Carew, and performed at Whitehall 18 Feb. 1633–4 with music, which is of slight importance, by Henry Lawes. There is no decisive proof that he had any share in the composition of the music for Shirley's 'Triumph of Peace' [see Lawes, William], produced in the same year. Peck's statement as to the origin of 'Comus' (New Memoirs, &c., p. 12), that Lawes, 'being desired to provide an entertainment' (for the Earl of Bridgewater), 'and being well acquainted with Mr. Milton's abilities, he pitched on him to compose the masque,' is possibly true; for Lawes was throughout his life familiar with literary men, and himself had a strong literary instinct; and the fact that the first edition of the masque was published without Milton's name, only that of Lawes appearing in the dedication, is more easily explained if the initiative in providing the entertainment belonged to the musician. The performance took place on Michaelmas night 1634, and Lawes and his three young pupils, the brothers just mentioned and Lady Alice Egerton, played prominent parts. In the lines allotted to the Attendant Spirit, afterwards Thyrsis, the part taken by the composer, are numerous allusions to his musical powers (lines 84–8, 499–501, 631–3, &c.). Apparently only five songs were provided with music. In the best-known of these, 'Sweet Echo,' the composer has not scrupled to give the last line a more technical character than the poet had done, by altering the words 'give resounding grace' to 'hold a counterpoint' (the music is in Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 11518). Burney's statement that the music of D'Avenant's masque, 'The Triumph of the Prince d'Amour,' produced in 1635, was written by both brothers, requires confirmation [see Lawes, William]. In 1636 Henry set to music the songs in Cartwright's 'Royal Slaves,' which was performed before the king at Oxford. In 1638 Lawes wrote to tell Milton that he had received permission to go abroad (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. p. 320). In 1637, the year in which Lawes's edition of 'Comus' appeared, there was issued George Sandys's 'Paraphrase vpon the Psalmes of David. By G. S. Set to new Tunes for private Devotion. And a thorow Base, for Voice or Instrument. By Henry Lawes.' The book contains twenty-four tunes by Lawes; these are different from the settings contributed by him to the 'Choice Psalmes put into Musick for Three Voices,' published in 1648. The latter work was issued in four part-books; it contains a portrait of Charles I, supposed to be the last issued in his lifetime, commendatory poems, among which is Milton's well-known sonnet, thirty psalm tunes by H. Lawes, as well as elegies and dialogues by Dr. J. Wilson and others, and finally many compositions by William Lawes. The dedication to the king by Henry Lawes contains the most important contemporary account of his deceased brother's works. The title of Milton's sonnet 'To Mr. H. Lawes on his Aires,' together with its date, 9 Feb. 1645–6 (see discussion as to original title in Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vi. 337, 395, 492), seems to point to an earlier publication, before 1648. Lawes mentions an unauthorised issue of twenty songs in his preface to his first book of 'Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two, and Three Voyces,' published in 1653; but this unauthorised publication is almost certainly Playford's 'Select Musical Ayres' of 1652, and cannot solve any difficulties connected with Milton's sonnet. 'Ayres and Dialogues', contains a fine portrait of Lawes by Faithorne; a dedication to his two former pupils, now the Countess of Carbury, and Lady Herbert of Cherbury; a preface 'To all Understanders or Lovers of Musick,' in which are some interesting remarks on the English and foreign music of the time, and an amusing account of the deception practised upon some ignorant admirers of Italian music, by his setting of an index of old Italian songs; a number of commendatory verses; and fifty-four compositions by Lawes, among them the 'Tavola,' referred to in the preface. Playford's 'Select Musical Ayres and Dialogues' of the previous year contained compositions by Henry Lawes, Dr. Wilson, Laniere, Smegergill (Cæsar), and others. The fact that Lawes's settings of the 'Psalmes' of 1637 and 1648 are without bars, while his 'Ayres' of 1652 and 1653 have them, makes it probable that Lawes was one of the first to adopt the invention.
On the breaking out of the civil wars Lawes lost his appointments; he 'betook himself to the teaching of ladies to sing, and by his irreproachable life and gentlemanly deportment contributed more than all the musicians of his time to raise the credit of his profession' (Hawkins, p. 581, ed. 1853). In the household book of Sir Edward Dering an entry is found showing that in June 1649 Lawes received the sum of 1l. 10s. for a month's teaching of Lady Dering, to whom he dedicated, in 1656, his second book of 'Ayres' (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. i. 162). In the preface to this book he refers to his having 'lost his fortunes with his master (of ever blessed memory).' In 1666 he contributed, with Captain H. Cooke, Dr. Colman, and G. Hudson, the music for D'Avenant's 'First Day's entertainment at Rutland House;' and in 1668 his third book of 'Ayres' appeared, with a dedication to Lord Cofraine, the aptness of whose son, Henry Hare, a pupil of the composer, is alluded to in the preface. At the Restoration Lawes was reappointed to his offices in the Chapel Royal and the king's band; his name appears as clerk of the cheque in the list of the chapel at the time of the coronation, for which he wrote an anthem, 'Zadok the Priest.' Two years afterwards, on 21 Oct. 1662, he died, and was buried on the 25th in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
In the various books of airs published by Playford, Lawes's compositions are of frequent occurrence, and the composer appeared on one occasion at least as a poet, in a set of commendatory verses prefixed to Dr. J. Wilson's 'Psalterium Carolinum,' 1657. He pays Wilson the same compliment that he himself had been paid by Milton twelve years before. 'Thou taught'st,' he tells Wilson, 'our language, first, to speak in Tone, Gav'st the right accent and proportion.' But Lawes himself will always be remembered as the first Englishman who studied and practised with success the proper accentuation of words, and who made the sense of the poem of paramount importance. This may have been either the cause or the result of his intimacy with so many of the best poets of his day. In the first editions of the poems of Hernck, Waller, W. Cartwright, T. Carew, Lovelace, and others, it is mentioned that Lawes set some of their words to music, and their admiration of his music is not gain-said by the failure of later writers like Burney to appreciate his compositions. His style was a reflection of the revolution in music which took place in Italy at the beginning of the seventeenth century ; it is quite true, as Hawkins says, that his airs differed very widely from the flowing melodies of Carissimi and Cesti, but this does not prove the composer to have been free from the influences or the earlier Italian writers, such as Monteverde. To modern ears his compositions seem a good deal less antiquated and conventional than many later works, the melodies of which are essentially symmetrical.
Besides the collections mentioned above, songs by Lawes are contained in manuscript collections — Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., Nos- 14399, 29386, 29396, 81441, 81462; Eg. 2013, and others. Add. 32343 contains a political song, 'Farewell to ye parlyamint,' in the composer's writing, as well as the words and disposition of parts for an anthem, 'Hearken, unto my voice.' Another set of anthem words, '0 sing unto the Lord,' is in Eg. 2603. The music of neither of these anthems is extant. Clifford's 'Divine Anthems,' 1664, include the words of an anthem by Lawes, 'My song shall be,' the music of which is in the library of Christ Church, Oxford. Clifford also gives the words of ten other anthems by Lawes, mostly taken from Sandys, and 'Choice Psalms.' Hullah's 'Part Music' contains an anthem, 'Lord, I will sing.'
The portrait referred to in Warton's 'Milton' is in the bishop's palace at Salisbury ; it was left as an heirloom by Bishop Barrington in 1791 ; it is painted on panel, and bears the inscription, 'H. Lawes. Ætat. suae 26, 1622.' Another portrait is at Salisbury, in the possession of A. R. Maiden, esq. It formerly belonged to William Lisle Bowles [q.v.] ; the name of the painter is apparently Charles Hambro. Besides these pictures, and the engraving by Faithorne in the 'Ayres' of 1658, two portraits were exhibited at South Kensington in 1866, one from the Music School at Oxford, and the other the property of the Rev. Richard Okes, D.D., provost of King's College, Cambridge. The latter has since become the property of Professor Stanford, Mus.D., but it does not resemble the other likenesses of Henry Lawes, and probably represents his brother.
[Information kindly supplied by the Bishop of Salisbury; Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians, ii. 106-7; parish registers of Dinton, Wiltshire; Hawkins's History of Music, ed. 1853, p. 580; Burney's Hist. iii. 880, 391 ff.; Lawes's Works and Playford's Musical Collections; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. iii. 70, 152, 462, 1205; Old Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal (Camden Soc.), pp. 208, &c.; Fenton's Observations on some of Mr. Waller's Poems, p. lvi; Stockdale's life of Waller, p. xlix; Chetham Soc. Publications, lxxi. 249, ci. 207; W. Cartwright's Comedies, Tragedies, &c., 1651; Warton's edit. of Milton, pp. 128 ff., 200; Dyce's Shirley, vi. 284; Musical Times, 1868, p. 519; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers ; authorities quoted above, many of which are referred to in a pamphlet, In Memoriam: Henry Lawes, by John Bannister (Manchester, Heywood).]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.178
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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