{"id":559,"date":"2016-02-02T15:04:52","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T14:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/?page_id=559"},"modified":"2017-10-19T11:17:11","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T09:17:11","slug":"murder-by-suicide","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/the-art-of-understanding\/the-art-of-song-writing\/murder-by-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"murder by suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dido\u2019s Lament by Nahum Tate (1652 – 1715) makes no exception. If only to produce the negative test result on metaphorical death that the context of the libretto for Purcell\u2019s opera Dido & Aeneas predicts. But\u00a0this lament<\/a>\u00a0appears to be surprisingly erotical for a straightforward suicide note :<\/p>\n

\n

Dido<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Thy hand Belinda, darkness shades me,
\nOn thy Bosom let me rest,
\nMore I would but Death invades me.
\nDeath is now a Welcome Guest,
\nWhen I am laid in Earth, may my Wrongs create
\nNo trouble in thy Breast.
\nRemember me, but ah! forget my Fate.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Chorus \u00a0<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

With drooping Wings ye Cupids come,
\nAnd scatter Roses on her Tomb.
\nSoft and Gentle as her Heart,
\nKeep here your Watch and never part.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Cupids Dance.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The \u2018Oh\u2019 that stands for metaphorical death may not be there, the replacing \u2018Ah\u2019 cannot be told apart by its expression in Purcell\u2019s music (\u2018Oh\u2019 is melismatic by nature). And the metaphor of the Last Lover is evidently strong enough to charge Dido\u2019s parting from Belinda with suggestion. The more because the dance of the cupids was to all likelyhood performed by pupils of the girl\u2019s school that hosted the opera\u2019s original production. This while the roses that these cupids are scattering around can be seen as powerful symbols of metaphorical death. In such a setting Dido\u2019s lament makes a worthy expression of a young lover\u2019s death wish. At least as far as the original audience was concerned : unnatural rather than unilateral. One should almost forget that Dido kills herself because her heart is broken by Aeneas.<\/p>\n

Having escaped the burning ruins of Troy, this hero is to become a founding father of the Roman empire, and Carthage is to him just a temporary place of refuge.<\/p>\n

\n
Come away, fellow sailors, your anchors be weighing.
\nTime and tide will admit no delaying.
\nTake a bouzy short leave of your nymphs on the shore,
\nAnd silence their mourning
\nWith vows of returning
\nBut never intending to visit them more.<\/span><\/em><\/h5>\n

Act Three ; scene one<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Even if it needs Dido’s enemies to remind him of his destiny.\u00a0<\/span>The massacre he survived, interestingly, was triggered by a certain Paris, who eloped with another man\u2019s wedded wife. And Nahum Tate therefore knew exactly what he was doing, when he referred to the final scene of Shakespeare\u2019s\u00a0Romeo & Juliet.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
In the famous tragedy\u2019s original 1594 production (faithfully copied\u00a0by the\u00a0‘corrupt’ Q1-edition), the flowers were\u00a0apparently strewn by a boy soprano. This \u2018cupid\u2019 probably was thirteen year old Thomas Belte.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/h5>\n

Klaas Alberts :\u00a0The Original Romeo & Juliet<\/a>\u00a0 a\u00a0reconstruction of the play’s first night<\/span><\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Once again logic arrives at a simple, single, and irrefutably correct interpretation of a piece of poetry. Even if the touchstone proves its message slightly different from the one of\u00a0Let down the Bars<\/i>\u00a0:<\/p>\n

\n

if \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Death<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0= \u00a0\u00a0better than \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0the unilateral lover<\/span><\/strong>
\nand \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Death \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>= \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0the \u2018Oh\u2019 in \u2018love\u2019<\/span><\/strong>
\nthen \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Death<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0= \u00a0\u00a0still \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0worse than Death<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Cutting short some increasingly intimate touches, the Last Lover appears, as far as the original audience was concerned, just in time to save Dido – or rather Belinda – from worse. Which softens the impact of her fate with the notion that even the darkest cloud has a silver lining. But dark clouds only feature in a tragedy, and under the fair blue sky of comedy fate can be merciless.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

go to next chapter<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/span>\u00a0back to the previous chapter<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Dido\u2019s Lament by Nahum Tate (1652 – 1715) makes no exception. If only to produce the negative test result on metaphorical death that the context of the libretto for Purcell\u2019s opera Dido & Aeneas predicts. But\u00a0this lament\u00a0appears to be surprisingly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":679,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/559"}],"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=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1703,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/559\/revisions\/1703"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}