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Here we must look at the latest references to William Lawes's connections
with the theatre before the Civil War. The latest autograph music in Add.
31432, and the last music he is known to have composed for the theatre, is his
setting of 'Come my Daphne' (fol. 43v) for Shirley's play The Cardinal, which
was licensed for performance at Blackfriars on 25 November 1641. The
theatres had been closed from August to late November 1641 owing to the
plague, and on 2 September 1642 Parliament prohibited public theatrical
performances. 30
The worsening political situation affected the lives of all the royal servants.
After the failed attempt to arrest the Five Members on 4 January 1642 Charles
I left London. In February he escorted the Queen to Dover (for Holland) via
Canterbury, but this was the briefest of visits and he was not accompanied by
the court musicians. The King then moved north by stages and arrived in York
on 19 March, where he set up his court until July. His servants, including some
of the musicians, were summoned to attend him there but it is not clear how
many were able to obey. A petition from musicians for the wind in March 1642
expressed their willingness to serve but asked for arrears of wages to be paid to
enable them to make the journey. Travel expenses to York and back to
London in April 1642 were paid to gentlemen of the Chapel Royal. It is not
known when William Lawes himself left London: the Civil War started
officially on 22 August 1642, when the King raised his standard at Nottingham,
but it is uncertain when Lawes became involved in active service. David Pinto
has argued that he was near York in 1643-4, and he was killed at the siege of
Chester on 24 September 1645. 31
There is therefore a narrow space of time in the early 1640s when Richard
Gibbon could have met Lawes and received the gift of Add. 31432. There is
one distinct possibility: the Inns of Court in London hired professional
musicians for some performances, notably at All Saints, Christmas and
Candlemas (2 February), 32 and the winter of 1641-2 may well have been a time
when the King's musicians were looking for paid employment or assistance in
other ways. Thomas Gibbon, elder brother of Richard, had been admitted to
Gray's Inn on 14 August 1640. 33
So did William Lawes make a gift of this autograph manuscript in return for
some favour or assistance? The wording of Richard Gibbons ownership
inscription [11] suggests a young man delighted with the gift of an autograph
manuscript of a famous musician 'all of his owne pricking and composeing'.
But, to put the gift in context, the detailed work of John Cutts and others
shows that theatre music was not highly regarded by composers or
30 J. Wood, 'William Lawes's Music for Plays', in William Lawes (1602-1645): Essays on his
Life, Times and Work, ed. A. Ashbee (Aldershot, 1998), 11-67, at pp. 41-2, 56-7.
31 RECM III, 115-6; V, 19; VIII, 128. D. Pinto, 'William Lawes at the Siege of York', The
Musical Times 127 (1986), 579-83, argues that Lawes was in or near York by 164311. See also L.
Ring, 'Wednesday 24 September, 1645: The Death of William Lawes during the Battle of
Rowton Heath at the Siege of Chester' in William Lazves, ed. Ashbee, 155-73.
32 W. Prest, The Inns of Court under Elizabeth I and the Early Stuarts 1590-1640 (1972); J.
Elliott, 'Invisible Evidence: finding musicians in the archives of the Inns of Court, 1446-1642',
Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle 26 (1993), 45-57.
33 . J. Foster, The Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn 1521-1889 (1889), 227.