IT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY TO PRESENT THE
results of an examination of the use of music,
both instrumental and vocal, as a dramatic de-
vice in seven comedies by Shakespeare: The
Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labour's
Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Mer-
chant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, and
Twelfth Night. ( The Taming of the Shrew is omitted because its po-
sition in sequence is uncertain.) By the term "dramatic device" is
meant the use of music as an aid not only to the intensification of
the impact of the language, but also to the forwarding of the action,
the portrayal of character, the delineation of settings, and the cre-
ation of an appropriate atmosphere, such as a mood of mystery
or awe. Also included in the term "dramatic device" is the use of
music in solving problems of stage production in instances where
music covers the sound of stage machinery, denotes a lapse of time,
or indicates off-stage action.

This study includes only those performances of the plays given
before the publication of the First Folio. I have used as texts the
Folio of 1623 and contemporary quartos, on the assumption that
a greater degree of eclecticism is justifiable in this study than in
the establishment of a severe and completely defensible verbal
text. Hence, I have taken my evidence wherever I could find it
clear. However, I have tried to assess the authority for each shred
of evidence and to avoid combining data, except with the justifica-
tion of a sound textual theory. For instance, I have never used as
the basis for any piece of evidence a text arrived at by a modern
editor.

In view of the admitted importance of music in the plays of
Shakespeare and his contemporaries, it is surprising that the sub-
ject has received slight attention from scholars. Several books have

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