Summary
Summary of Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age
Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 2 h 40 min2 h 5 min fast, 3 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 37,900 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Song words can stand as poems
A. H. Bullen sets out to recover poems hidden inside Elizabethan songbooks. His starting belief is simple: the words deserve attention even when nobody sings them. Composers sought true lyric poets, rather than treating language as something merely there to carry a tune.
Bullen gathers these overlooked verses while admitting that his first attempt cannot be perfect. His work opens a way into songs about love, beauty and contentment, where a short poem can have a life beyond its music.
Key idea 2
A quiet mind is a kingdom
William Byrd's songs introduce a kind of wealth that does not depend on possessions.
Start free to read
Key idea 3
Sorrow finds a sweet voice
John Dowland's songs often place a lover between hope and fear.
Start free to read
Key idea 4
Campion joins poetry and music
Thomas Campion brings words and melody together in the same creative mind.
Start free to read
Key idea 5
Small songs hold whole moods
The other composers widen the anthology's emotional range.
Start free to read
Key idea 6
Love becomes someone to argue with
Love often walks into these poems as a troublesome character.
Start free to read
Key idea 7
Contentment matters more than ambition
Some songs step away from courtship to ask what makes a good life.
Start free to read
Key idea 8
The songs return to shared voices
With Thomas Ravenscroft's rounds, catches and ballads, the anthology turns toward shared play.
Start free to read
Key idea 9
Different moods share a musical home
Together, these poems preserve many ways of feeling.
Start free to read
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest free
Go deeper: the whole of Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age
About 2 h 40 min to read.Start freeWho it’s for
You will love this if you enjoy short poems you can read aloud, if lute songs and madrigals draw you in, or if you like shepherds, sailors, fairies and lovers.
What this book is
What would it feel like to sit in a room in 1588, the year of the Spanish Armada, and hear singers praise a man who rules a whole kingdom inside his own head? That is the year William Byrd published the first important English songbook. It began a rush of printed songs that gave England some of its sweetest short poems.
This anthology gathers the words of those songs. A. H. Bullen edited it, searching the old songbooks in the British Museum library for poems most readers had never met. You will meet madrigals, lute songs, rounds and comic ballads about love, beauty, a quiet mind and life as a play.
In this summary
- 1Song words can stand as poemsFree
- 2A quiet mind is a kingdom
- 3Sorrow finds a sweet voice
- 4Campion joins poetry and music
- 5Small songs hold whole moods
- 6Love becomes someone to argue with
- 7Contentment matters more than ambition
- 8The songs return to shared voices
- 9Different moods share a musical home
Bullen hunts the songbooks for lost poems
A. H. Bullen begins with a plain claim. In the years around 1600, English composers published songbooks, and the poems inside them are good enough to stand alone. Some match, in neat finish, the shortest and finest poems of the Greek Anthology. Few readers knew this, because the verse lay buried in old music books.
So he went looking. He examined every old songbook in the British Museum library. He admits that a first attempt of this kind must be imperfect.
Why did these songs read so well? In Elizabeth's time composers did not treat words as mere pegs for the music. They sought out true lyric poets. A reader today can meet the poetry without a note of the tune.
Bullen keeps back many humorous ditties, and he does not judge the music. He opens the book with one poem by an unknown author, from a book of airs by Captain Tobias Hume in 1605. It tells those who call love bitter that they do love wrong.
The book rests on one idea, that the words of these songs deserve to be read as poems.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Take this summary with you
Send to Kindle downloads the file and opens Amazon's page: drop the file there.
Check yourself
Why does Bullen gather words from the songbooks?
Right. “The book rests on one idea, that the words of these songs deserve to be read as poems.”Not quite. “The book rests on one idea, that the words of these songs deserve to be read as poems.”
What does Byrd's contented kingdom encourage people to value?
Right. “It asks you to value an easy mind over wealth or fame.”Not quite. “It asks you to value an easy mind over wealth or fame.”
How does Love often appear in these songs?
Right. “Love, in these songs, is often a character rather than a feeling.”Not quite. “Love, in these songs, is often a character rather than a feeling.”
Go deeper: the whole of Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age
About 2 h 40 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 37,900 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h 40 min
Questions about Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age
What is Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age about?
It collects the words of songs printed in English songbooks around 1600, by composers such as Byrd, Dowland, Morley, Weelkes and Campion. The poems cover love, loss, contentment, country life and playful rounds.
Who was Thomas Campion?
Campion was a composer, poet, doctor and masque writer who wrote both words and music for his songs. Bullen praises him as a lyric poet of the first rank, and the anthology includes many of his best poems.
What is a madrigal or a fa la la?
A madrigal is a song for several voices, and a ballet is a lighter, dancing kind. Fa la la is a nonsense refrain that singers join in on, and it marks the cheerful springtime songs.
Is the book easy to read?
The poems range from brief lyrics to longer songs and ballads, arranged by first line and headed with their source songbook and year. You can read a few at a time and enjoy each one alone.
Why are these Elizabethan songs still worth reading?
They give small, clear pictures of love, sorrow, country life and a calm mind in neat verse. Because they were meant to be sung, they also sound good when read aloud.
Cite this edition
Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/lyrics-from-the-song-books-of-the-elizabethan-age.
Lyrics from the song-books of the Elizabethan Age. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/lyrics-from-the-song-books-of-the-elizabethan-age
Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/lyrics-from-the-song-books-of-the-elizabethan-age.
@book{anonymous2026lyrics,
title = {Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/lyrics-from-the-song-books-of-the-elizabethan-age}
}
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
