[6] Vincent Duckles thought one reason for the negative attitude might have been the lack of published sources: Between 1627 (the publication date of John Hilton's Ayres or Fa-las) and 1651 (John Playford's Musical Banquet), there appeared only a single publication of British vocal music: Walter Porter's Madrigales and Ayres of 1632.

"[2] "The composers ... all belonged to the small world of court musicians that suffered disruption during the English Civil War and the Commonwealth of England.

[14] Folio 1 verso contains a bawdy lyric followed by the inscription written twice, "John Gamble his booke amen 1-6-5-9 an[n]o Domini.

"[18] The manuscript as currently bound (the date accompanying the binding information on the inside rear cover is stamped Dec. 6, 1944) has some songs out of sequence (nos.

[20] Charles W. Hughes believed the book was begun around the turn of the 17th century - a hypothesis rejected by Jorgens who notes that it contains works by Henry Lawes, born in 1596.

[3] Hughes believed the terminal date was at least 1660, as some of the songs refer to Charles II of England, who assumed the throne in the Stuart Restoration of 1660.

[2] Duckles felt that 1659 is close to the terminal date, noting that no songs had been added after the English Commonwealth period, and no younger composers were included in the collection.

Duckles surmised that Gamble came into possession of the book in 1642–43 when the musicians of the Royal Chapel were dispersed as a result of the English Civil War.

The first published reference to it comes in 1846, where it is mentioned in volume 19 of the Percy Society's Early English Poetry, Ballads, and Popular Literature of the Middle Ages as being in the possession of one of the editors of the series, Edward Francis Rimbault.

[26] An organist and musicologist, Rimbault took a keen interest in English music and voraciously collected rare books, scores, and valuable manuscripts.

1659 Anno Domini"[27]Hughes quotes a contemporaneous report of the hammer price and comment: "Thirteen guineas, for America.

"[14] The reference was to the Philadelphia-born financier Joseph W. Drexel who had already amassed a large music library and purchased about 300 lots from the Rimbault auction.

Similarly is the group of three songs set by John Wilson for Richard Brome's play "The Northern Lass" (nos.

[28] The first 47 songs are love lyrics by poets of the Jacobean Court, including Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, John Suckling, Beaumont and Fletcher.

[14] Hughes believed that this evidence suggested that the manuscript was begun by an unidentified person and was continued by John Gamble himself commencing with song no.

[35] One song, "Beat on, proud billows," was known to have been written by Roger L'Estrange while he was imprisoned in Newgate Prison during Oliver Cromwell's rule (1645–1648).

Other names mentioned include: Wilmot, Weston, George Symon, Steadlinge, Hugh Pollerd, and "Game" possibly John Gamble.

73: Ye giddy poets that purloin from sea and land the greatest store to deck her ffading wenches fine, what would you do with such a whore?

"[38] Hughes argued that, unlike a textbook compilation of exemplars, Drexel 4257 shows a variety of good and mediocre poetry.

[41] Similarly (with fewer political overtones), the song "Ladies you loose yor time" expresses preference for city life over that of the country.

[42] The song "Nor loue nor fate dare I" by John Wilson bears the inscription "composed for the comedy The Northern Lass".

Drolls were collections of "cavalier wit, much of it trivial, repetitious and derivative, but at the same time containing some work of genuine literary value.

In some of these songs, the bar is enlarged as it approaches the cadence, suggesting a ballad singer who briefly pauses to catch his breath.

253) shows expressive false relations and harmonic word painting, foreshadowing later developments in British sacred music.

[53]There are dance songs that contain elements of an ostinato bass, passamezzo antico and the romanesca—all characteristics of Renaissance rather than Baroque periods.

[56] Several tunes and texts are of 16th-century origin had long been in the repertoire, among them: "Greensleeves," "O mistress mine," and "Back and sides go bare.

[61] Warning that one must be wary of the fluid nature of musical genres,[54] Duckles categorized the following songs from Drexel 4257 as ballads: 46, 48, 49, 51, 53, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 70, 74, 76, 79, 92, 103, 104, 105, 116, 119, 120, 121, 123, 131, 142, 144, 145, 146, 147, 186, 214, 271, 272.

Printed versions of songs can not be entirely trusted to represent what was sung, since, in order to keep engraving costs manageable, they would economize on written vocal embellishments.

As a musician he was distinctly second-rate, but one can appreciate him as a man with a keen sense of the musical currents (page 138) of his time, an opportunist, who knew what the public wanted and how to turn public taste to his own professional uses ... By shrewdness and wit he managed to establish a place for himself in the rough-and-tumble world of mid-17th century music.

It is for this reason that an obscure court musician of some 300 years ago remains very much alive in the minds of students of English music history.