From Tudor miscellany lyrics to Johnson's masques and Shakespeare's plays, this book presents Elizabethan lyrics in their musical contexts in madrigals, ayres, consort songs, dances and royal entertainments. A detailed study of Shakespeare's songs links form to function; and Sidney's theory is compared with his practice. The first book of comparable scope for forty years, it correlates recent musicological research and literary sholarship, and provides many fresh insights. Scholars and students of Renaissance literature and music, all those interested in the relationship between Renaissance poetry or drama and music.