Listen "Fair Rosamond - A Right Royal Scandal"
Episode Synopsis
This short ballad fragment from New England is a remnant of a lively strand of folklore going back 850 years. The characters are real but the stories are fanciful, so buckle up for a wild ride and a gratuitous quantity of early music.MusicThe Lamentable Ballad of Fair Rosamond on the English Broadside Ballad Archive - to the tune of Chevy ChaseSainte Nicholaes by Godric of Finchale (11th Century) - find out more hereO Viridissima Virga by Hildegard von Bingen (12th Century) Summer is Icumen In, anon (14th Century)Flow my Tears by that notorious Elizabethan Emo, John DowlandThe Unfortunate Concubine on the English Broadside Ballad Archive - to the tune of The Court Lady (also known as Confesse, his tune) Chevy Chase again, this time on recordersEn amours n'a si non bien, anon (15th Century)Alleluia, anon (in medieval style with organum)Fair Rosamund, based on the version in Folk Songs of New England by Eloise Hubbard LinscottReferencesFrench Chronicle of London: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-mayors-sheriffs/1188-1274/pp231-237 England’s heroical epistles, by Michael Drayton: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A20814.0001.001/1:5?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
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