{"id":447,"date":"2016-01-25T13:12:55","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T12:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/?page_id=447"},"modified":"2016-09-05T17:50:50","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T15:50:50","slug":"a-tabloid-on-the-high","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/contents-summaries\/three-elizabethan-partsongs\/part-2-complete\/a-tabloid-on-the-high\/","title":{"rendered":"a tabloid on the high"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

And thus we arrive at the dramatic collapse of quality, mentioned in the\u00a0prelude. True love is the summit of poetry, causing \u2018True Love\u2019 to adress his\u00a0mistress in nothing but first rate lines, even when some of them may hide a\u00a0suspect double bottom. And his song culminates in this marvellous\u00a0statement:<\/p>\n

Journeys end in lovers meeting<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The deeper meaning may be rather sensed than understood, but there is no\u00a0doubt Shakespeare in just five words touches the heart of all what really\u00a0matters in life. But then in sharp contrast the next triplet, adressed to the\u00a0other lady, proposes a one-night stand under the thinnest of covers:<\/p>\n

What is love? \u2018t is not hereafter;
\n<\/i>What is love? it will not outlive this encounter,<\/span><\/p>\n

Present mirth hath present laughter;
\n<\/i>Like a laugh will not outlive a pleasant mood,<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s to come is still unsure.
\n<\/i>What comes after this, you’ll find out soon enough.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/i>And in the final triplet even this transparant veil of imagery is bluntly torn\u00a0away. Look as carefully as you like, these lines have nothing to do with\u00a0poetry. Rhyme and meter are perfect, yet no word adds anything to the bare\u00a0truth it spells out:<\/p>\n

In delay there lies no plenty;
\n<\/i>Then come kiss me sweet-and-twenty,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Youth\u2019s a stuff will not endure.<\/i>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/i>The choice of words may soften the impact a little, but the message for the\u00a0young lady, who is not even adressed by name, is clear:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Delay adds nothing to it:
\n<\/i>Therefore kiss me nice young thing,<\/span><\/p>\n

Youth must be consumated fresh.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I can be wrong of course, but I always thought that true love gets enriched\u00a0by postponing things. And, as if this opposing opinion is not stated bluntly\u00a0enough already, the final line allows this interpretation as well:<\/p>\n

\n

You can\u2019t stay young for ever.<\/p>\n

Which suggests \u2018youth\u2019 to represent that inexperience in adult matters, which is spelled out as \u2018virginity\u2019. Making the triplet to sound\u00a0like some kind of encouragement to an apprentice girl in a brothel. It is just\u00a0a personal interpretation, so think twice before deriving your opinion on\u00a0\u2018True Love\u2019 from it, but the initial rephrasing already betrays him to sing a\u00a0very low part indeed. His tune is not uncommon, is a traditional even, but\u00a0still, he would not like some musician to write it down in order to preserve\u00a0this piece of cultural heritage for future generations. Making it a real\u00a0embarrassment to hear a renowned composer proclaim:<\/p>\n

My music shows ye have your closes<\/i><\/p>\n

And what is even worse; all words of SD are carefully chosen to make the Part\u00a0Songs a coherent story dealing with lack of virtue. H\u00eds lack of virtue to be\u00a0precise: The chapter\u00a0Two short pieces for children<\/i>\u00a0demonstrates which way\u00a0the outer pair become one, when linked by music that exactly reveals the\u00a0kind of intercourse between them. And this, again, is to be taken literally. \u2018To\u00a0become one\u2019 is the poetic phrasing of \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0CENSORED<\/span><\/p>\n

It is even under today\u2019s liberal vice laws not recommendable to proceed this\u00a0line of reasoning any further in public cyberspace. A setback providing me\u00a0with a marvellous opportunity to set you another challenge (see postlude).\u00a0Meanwhile something tells me that this tuning in by SD with OMM\u2019s music,\u00a0to be rather a-typical to the works of a reverend minister of the Gospel, who during his life time, was known in his parish as \u2018Holy Mr. Herbert\u2019. The words\u00a0\u2018my music\u2019 on the other hand, are not really a-typical to a composer. Which\u00a0leads irresistably to the notion that unreliable datings have not necessarily be restricted to the music of these songs only. And this incorrect line of\u00a0reasoning (later\u00a0inquiries into the origins of SD proved it to be a genuine Herbert)<\/span>, answers the question correctly which I have untill now carefully\u00a0avoided:<\/p>\n

WHY WAS ALL THIS DONE?<\/p>\n

Sweet Day supplies in its ambiguity all information needed for a good\u00a0explanation, but only in entanglement with OMM; three quatrains are no\u00a0reversion of four triplets for nothing. So it is time to turn two verses upside\u00a0down again. And to notice that a mistress in late Victorian time used to be\u00a0\u2018the other woman\u2019:<\/p>\n

Virtue Reduced<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet season of love, full of sweet days and girls,<\/i>
\nA season overcrowded with sweethearts,<\/i>
\nMy music shows your have your secrets;<\/i>
\n——-<\/span>And all must \u2018die\u2019.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,<\/i><\/span>
\nUniting high and low\u00a0<\/i>(in an impossible love-song).<\/i><\/span>
\nThe \u2018dew\u2019\u00a0<\/i>(only)\u00a0will weep your fall\u00a0<\/i>(into sin)\u00a0tonight,<\/i><\/span>
\n——-<\/span>For you must \u2018die\u2019.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/i>These two verses, featuring love in an unforced order, preceed a statement\u00a0with a sharp contrasting final word: \u2018to live\u2019 against \u2018to die\u2019. This final word is\u00a0combined with \u2018chiefly\u2019; a little odd to express eternal life, but very to the\u00a0point in discussing people whose private affairs certainly do matter.\u00a0This is a limited field, the more as, according to SD anyway, the person it\u00a0accuses must be elderly – the calm and bright day being cool indicates a late\u00a0season of life – and ranking high in two very different worlds. But this\u00a0authority does not allow him to exercise power on society at will. He seems\u00a0to be only other people\u2019s \u2018bridle of both earth (read: state) and sky (read:\u00a0heaven, meaning: church)\u2019.<\/p>\n

Only a sweet and virtuous soul
\nhas the strength to resist temptation.
\nAnd even when everybody blackens himself,
\n——-<\/span>Lives in a way that befits a ruler.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore it is very likely that \u2018THREE ELIZABETHAN PART SONGS\u2019 were as a\u00a0cycle first performed somewhere in the years 1901-1910; in honour of King\u00a0Edward VII of England.<\/p>\n

—<\/span><\/p>\n

Klaas Alberts
\n21 March 1991
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/span><\/p>\n

go to postlude<\/a>\u00a0– \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/span>\u00a0back to the previous chapter<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And thus we arrive at the dramatic collapse of quality, mentioned in the\u00a0prelude. True love is the summit of poetry, causing \u2018True Love\u2019 to adress his\u00a0mistress in nothing but first rate lines, even when some of them may hide a\u00a0suspect … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1078,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":908,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/447\/revisions\/908"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}