The word “jig” nowadays is used normally to refer to a dance.
However in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it also referred
to a short musical farce which might include singing and slapstick
comedy as well as dance. These “jigs” were often performed at
the end of tragedies or at feasts and other functions. They survive
today in various collections and as broadsheets, in either case
with only the words given although sometimes with indications
of the tunes to which they were to be sung. This disc contains
a variety of “jigs” ranging from Singing Simpkin, first
published in 1656 but probably dating from much earlier, to The
Cheaters Cheated performed at the Mansion House “to the Sheriffs
of London” sometime in the early 1660s. To the general listener,
however, there is no sense of a developing or even changing style.
Rather, we have a series of brief interludes or playlets, most
featuring a set of stock characters including various kinds of
confidence tricksters, gullible countrymen and street traders.
As
usual with Hyperion, the presentation is immaculate, with a
lengthy general introduction by Lucie Skeaping - from which
much of the above is obtained - notes about the individual pieces,
a list of characters, and the text including a note as to the
tunes used and why they have been chosen. Without being able
to see the action, especially for “The Black Man”, the notes
and synopsis are very helpful, indeed probably essential. This
is not to criticise the performers in any way – their diction
and characterisation are admirable throughout. Perhaps subtlety
is not required to any significant degree but the ability to
interest and hold an audience is, and this is something that
the City Waites have achieved through long experience. Their
choice of tunes and instruments is always guided by the nature
of the piece and how it might be put across best. I cannot imagine
these pieces being better or more convincingly performed.
Clearly
if you have an interest in the byways of theatre and performance
in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries this is
an essential purchase, bringing to life something often referred
to in theatrical and other histories but which is not often
performed. However whether you enjoy it or not is perhaps another
matter. Humour is a very personal thing. I was often told when
young that “ITMA helped us win the war”, but listening to it
with my parents it seemed almost unbelievably unfunny. I dare
say the same kind of thing applies to more recent shows where
what I find comic will strike others as laboured and vice
versa. I will admit to finding few of Shakespeare’s comic
scenes funny – think of the Gobbos in “The Merchant of Venice”
or of the Porter in “Macbeth”, but they are the purest gold
compared with the crude and obvious plots and doggerel found
in these pieces. Yes, there is some enjoyment to be had here
but whether you would want to repeat the experience often is
another matter. Whilst I have listened to earlier discs by the
City Waites frequently and with increasing pleasure I am doubtful
about whether I will often want to return to any of these “jigs”.
Try this as a sample (from the end of Singing Simpkin):
Husband (who has just caught Simpkin
with his wife):
O sirrah, have I caught
you-
Now do the best you
can!
Your schoolmaster nere
taught you
To wrong an honest
man –
Simpkin:
Good sir, I never went
to schole
Then why am I abused?
The truth is I am but
a foole
And like a fool am
used
Husband:
Yet sirrah, you had
wit enough
To think to cuckold
me.
Wife:
I jested with him husband,
His knavery to see
Simpkin (who had earlier asked
the Husband to buy him a quart of sack):
But now you talk of
knaverie,
I pray where is my
sack?
Husband:
You shall want it in
your belly, sir,
And have it on your
back!
If this is for you then there is plenty more
like it on this disc.
John Sheppard
