ABSTRACT
It may be mere coincidence that one of Shakespeare’s few possible references to the ruins of Walsingham Priory1 mentions birds, but there seems little doubt that William Byrd (1539/43-1623) sang of “bare ruin’d quiers” in his variations on “Have with Yow to Walsingame.”2 A host of esteemed scholars has, since the 1960s, revealed Byrd’s masterful use of musical cues directing his audience of fellow recusants to read into his vocal works subversive subtexts contrary to the meaning taken by casual listeners.3 His adherence to the Old Faith has not had much impact on criticism of his instrumental music, however, much of which is laden with implicit texts.4 This chapter advances the theory that a Catholic reading of Byrd’s “Walsingham” variations5 reveals not only the charred embers of its subtext, leveled by scholarly inattention as surely as the Reformation laid
waste the shrine, but also much about the stylistic decisions Byrd made in setting the “Walsingham” tune, as well as a deeper level of metaphor in which memory of the holy site and memory of the musical traditions of the Old Religion interrogate one another.
