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[She sleeps, then, waking from the vision—] |
It would be of great interest if it were possible to identify Queen Katherine's 'Knell.'
There is an old song, given in Chappel's Popular Music, 'O Death, rock me to sleep,' which might be the very one, for both music and words are singularly appropriate. The Refrain is as follows:—
'Tole on thou passing bell
Ringe out my dolefull knell
Let thy sound my death tell,
For I must die,
There is no remedye.'
The song is most plaintive, and has a very striking feature in the shape of a real independent accompaniment, which keeps up a continual figure of three descending notes, like the bells of a village church. Hawkins gives the poem, with certain variations, and two extra verses at the beginning, the first commencing—
'Defiléd is my name full sore,
Through cruel spite and false report.'
and he says the verses are thought to have been written by Anne Boleyn. Hawkins also gives
