Distress'd Sources? A critical consideration of the authority of Purcell's Ayres for the Theatre

ONE of the most influential publications in the reception process of Henry Purcell was the Collection of Ayres, Compos’d for the Theatre, and upon other Occasions (henceforth Ayres). This posthumous collection was published by the composer’s widow, Frances, in the format of four partbooks and printed by Heptinstall in 1697.1 One can hardly overestimate the role of this collection, the first of its kind in England dedicated only to theatre suites,2 in providing us with information about the music that Purcell wrote for the London stage from 1690 to his tragic death in November 1695. The collection consists of 13 suites: it shares with the ‘Cambury’ manuscript3 authority for the incidental music of three plays (Distress’d Innocence, The Gordian Knot Unty’d and Amphitryon), serves as the main source for six others (The Married Beau, Abdelazer, Bonduca, The Double Dealer, The Old Bachelor and The Virtuous Wife) and has a somewhat more complicated relationship, on which I shall later elaborate, with Purcell’s four largest dramatic operas (Dioclesian, The Fairy Queen, King Arthur and The Indian Queen).