Here's a fascinating slice of 17th-century musical life as it might have been sampled in the courts, streets, and byways of London. The focus is on the active commerce between "high" and "low" culture, specifically, verses written for kings, which filtered down to the public. Disseminated on printed broadsheets, verses were hawked by song pluggers working the streets and countrysides. Popular songs, simple dance tunes, bawdy or satirical numbers were heard and appropriated by "serious" composers, who wrote elaborations or variations on them.