The Penguin Book of English Song

by Richard Stokes

  1. The song is sung in Chapter XVII by King Richard, who tells of his exploits.

  2. battlefield.

  3. a saint allegedly born in Iconium and the first woman Christian martyr. The minstrel implies that it is to Tekla, a Western woman, that the Crusader returns.

  4. ‘listed field’ implies a place that has been prepared for a tournament. Richard’s army was for some time at Ascalon, south-west of Jerusalem.

  5. Iconium was the medieval name for the Turkish town of Konja.

  6. Sultan.

  7. Paynim = non-Christian, especially Muslim.

  8. In the nineteenth century Syria included all the countries along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, including the Holy Land.

  1. Written in 1800, ‘Hypochondriacus’ was printed at the end of the volume containing Lamb’s play John Woodvil, where it is called ‘A Conceipt of Diabolical Possession’ – from Curious Fragments from a Common-place Book of Robert Burton.

  2. men-eaters, cannibals.

  3. the spirits of the departed.

  4. ‘those who dwell directly opposite to each other on the globe, so that the soles of their feet are as it were planted against each other’ (OED).

  5. feigned evil spirits or demons ‘(originating in personified representations of the nightmare) supposed to descend upon persons in their sleep, and especially to seek carnal intercourse with women’ (OED).

  6. destroyer, angel of the bottomless pit. Cf. Rev. ix. 11; and Milton in Paradise Regained.

  7. the name of a devil. Cf. Lear, Act III, sc. iv, 149: ‘The Prince of Darknesse is a Gentleman. Modo he’s called and Mahu.’

  8. ‘Jesus! Mary! deliver us from the dreadful temptations of our adversary the Devil.’

  1. The poem was written on the death of Robert Emmet, an Irish nationalist sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered by the British in 1803 for his part in the Dublin uprising. As Moore wrote in a later edition of the Irish Melodies, the song was suggested by the ‘well-known passage in Robert Emmet’s dying speech, “Let no man write my epitaph […] let my tomb remain uninscribed, till other times and other men shall learn to do justice to my memory.” ’ The choice of this poem was possibly suggested to Duparc by his Irish-born wife, Ellie MacSwiney.

  1. The background to this ballad is as follows: ‘The people were inspired with such a spirit of honour, virtue, and religion, by the great example of Brien, and by his excellent administration, that, as a proof of it, we are informed that a young lady of great beauty, adorned with jewels and a costly dress, undertook a journey alone, from one end of the kingdom to the other, with a wand only in her hand, at the top of which was a ring of exceeding great value; and such an impression had the laws and government of this monarch made on the minds of all the people, that no attempt was made upon her honour, nor was she robbed of her clothes or jewels’ (Warner’s History of Ireland, Vol. I, Book X].

  1. From Moore’s National Airs, where it is subtitled ‘Venetian Air’.

  1. From Moore’s National Airs, where it is subtitled ‘Venetian Air’.

  1. From Moore’s National Airs.

  1. The theme of this subversive poem, masquerading as a flower poem, is the slaughter of many young Irish lives in their struggle against the English – wonderfully suggested by Britten in the jarring chords and lugubrious harmonies of the accompaniment.

  2. The melody in its earliest form dates from c.1660 and was sung by itinerant harpers across Ireland. Richard Alfred Milliken used it in The Groves of Blarney (c.1798), and Moore accepted it as an ancient song. Count Frederick von Flotow included the melody in Martha (1847), increasing its popularity still further.

  1. George Thomson of Edinburgh, influenced by Herder’s Stimmen der Völker in Liedern (1807), approached many leading poets of the day to supply texts for his folk song collections. Robert Burns and Thomas Moore were the most prolific, and Walter Scott contributed eleven poems that were written expressly to fit existing melodies; Byron too was approached, but when Thomson sent him five Irish melodies, the poet was compelled to write (on 10 September 1813): ‘I have repeatedly tried since you favoured me with your first letter, and your valuable musical present which accompanied it, without being able to satisfy myself.’ Nothing daunted, Thomson selected three existing poems of Byron (‘The kiss, dear maid’, ‘Oh! had my fate’ and ‘Lochnagar’) and asked the poet in 1813 if these could be used, and Byron gave his consent. Between 1809 and 1823, Beethoven arranged for Thomson 164 existing song melodies, initially without knowing the words – a circumstance that irritated the composer, who, on 29 February 1812, wrote to Thomson: ‘I beg you always to add immediately the text for the Scottish songs. I fail to understand how you, who are a connoisseur, cannot realize that I would produce completely different compositions if I had the text to hand, and the songs can never become perfect products if you do not send me the text; and you will eventually force me to refuse further orders.’

  2. The token refers to a picture of Mary Chaworth which she had given to Byron before her marriage in 1805. The poem was probably written in late 1806.

  1. The poem was almost certainly addressed to Teresa Macri, the girl whom Byron was ‘near bringing away’ with him when he left Athens, as he wrote to John Cam Hobhouse from Malta on 15 May 1811: ‘I was near bringing away Theresa [sic] but the mother asked 30 000 piastres! – I had a number of Greek and Turkish women, and I believe the rest of the English were equally lucky, for we were all clapped.’

  1. From Hebrew Melodies. When asked by Nathan whether the poem addressed the moon or the evening star, Byron replied facetiously: ‘I see, Nathan, you have been star gazing, and are now in the clouds; I shall therefore leave the Astronomer Royal to direct you in that matter.’

  1. Byron sent the poem to Moore to accompany a letter of 10 July 1817. It was printed with four pages of sheet music as ‘ “My Boat is on the Shore”. Written and Addressed to Thomas Moore Esq. By Lord Byron. The Music by Henry R. Bishop. Published by J. Power, 34, Strand [1818].’ The letter contained these two sentences: ‘This should have been written fifteen moons ago – the first stanza was. I am just come out from an hour’s swim in the Adriatic; and I write to you with a black-eyed Venetian girl before me, reading Boccac[c]io.’

  1. From Hebrew Melodies.

  2. A reference, perhaps, to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster (see ‘When we two parted’). The two ‘Sonnets to Genevra’, which were addressed to her, refer respectively to ‘Thine eyes’ blue tenderness’ and ‘thy deep-blue eyes’.

  1. From Hebrew Melodies. According to Nathan, Byron wrote the poem to ‘try how a Madman could write; seizing the pen with eagerness, he for a moment fixed his eyes in majestic wildness on vacancy; when like a flash of inspiration, without erasing a single word, the above verses were the result, which he put into my possession with the remark: “if I am mad who write, be certain that you are so who compose!” ’

  2. Byron based the poem on 1 Samuel xvi. 14–23. Körner’s translation has the minstrel (David) play a lute instead of a harp in his attempt to cure Saul of his melancholy. Schumann, who was prone to violent mood swings, must have empathized with this poem.

  1. The poem is addressed to Teresa Macri, the twelve-year-old youngest daughter of Mrs Tarsia Macri, in whose house Byron lodged in Athens during late 1809. In a letter to Hobhouse, dated Athens, 23 August 1810, Byron writes: ‘Intrigue flourishes, the old woman Teresa’s mother was mad enough to imagine I was going to marry the girl, but I have better amusement, Andreas [Byron’s servant] is fooling with Dudu [daughter of a French merchant living in Athens] as usual, and Mariana [the eldest of the Macri sisters] has made a conquest of Dervise Tahiri, Viscillie Fletcher and Sullee my new Tartar have each a mistress, “Vive l’Amour!” ’

  2. Byron’s note: ‘Romaic expression of tenderness: if I translate it, I shall affront the gentlemen, as it may seem that I supposed they could not; and if I do not, I may affront the ladies. For fear of any misconstruction on the part of the latter, I
shall do so, begging pardon of the learned. It means, “My life, I love you!” which sounds very prettily in all languages, and is as much in fashion in Greece at this day as, Juvenal tells us, the two first words were amongst the Roman ladies, whose erotic expressions were all Hellenised.’ Byron’s parsion was greater than his grasp of Greek.

  3. ‘In the East (where ladies are not taught to write, lest they should scribble assignations) flowers, cinders, pebbles, &c. convey the sentiments of the parties by that universal deputy of Mercury – an old woman. A cinder says, “I burn for thee”; a bunch of flowers tied with hair, “Take me and fly”; but a pebble declares – what nothing else can.’

  1. Written by Byron in 1817, having exhausted himself physically and sexually during his first Carnival in Venice. Two letters are of interest. In the first, to Augusta Leigh from Venice on 19 February 1817, Byron writes: ‘The Carnival closed last night, and I have been up all night at the masked ball of the Fenice, and am rather tired or so […] There has been the same sort of thing every night these last six weeks […] I went out now and then, but was less dissipated than you would expect.’ And just over a week later he wrote to his dear friend Thomas Moore, enclosing ‘So we’ll go no more a roving’, and telling him: ‘If I live ten years longer, you will see, however, that it is not over with me – I don’t mean literature, for that is nothing; and it may seem odd enough to say, I do not think it my vocation. But you will see that I shall do something or other – the times and fortune permitting […] But I doubt whether my constitution will hold out. I have, at intervals, exercised it most devilishly.’

  1. Byron’s manuscript reads ‘Stanzas’ – another hand added ‘for Music’ in pencil. The poem was first published in 1816, the year in which Byron’s relations with Claire Clairmont began, and she is possibly the subject of Byron’s lines: we know she possessed a beautiful voice from Shelley’s ‘To Constantia singing’. Marchant suggests that the poem is associated with John Edleston, the beauty of whose voice was a constant theme in the ‘Thyrza’ poems. The poem was written six months after the death of Edleston, who perished from consumption on 16 May 1811. In a letter to Elizabeth Pigot, dated 5 July 1807, Byron had written of Edleston: ‘his voice first attracted my notice, his countenance fixed it, & his manners attached me to him forever’.

  1. A reference to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster, with whom Byron had a platonic relationship in late 1813. Though she was married to Sir James Wedderburn Webster, Byron pursued her with great determination; when she finally offered him the chance of seducing her, however, Byron declined – after which she bombarded him with a flurry of lovelorn letters. This deeply felt but bitter poem was written in 1815 when Byron learned through gossip of her liaison with the Duke of Wellington in Paris.

  2. This stanza was considered so offensive that it was omitted from the published version of the poem.

  1. an idol temple; an image of a deity.

  2. Milo of Cortona was a celebrated Athenian athlete who died as a result of the oak’s ‘rebound’.

  3. Lucius Sulla, a Roman dictator who resigned his office.

  4. Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and also Charles I of Spain. He abdicated in 1556.

  5. Marie Louise of Austria, Napoleon’s second wife.

  6. Dionysius the Younger (fl. 368–344 BC). A tyrant from Syracuse, he was banished for the second time in 344 BC, and later died at Corinth. Byron uses him here as a symbol for someone who has suffered a great reversal of fortune.

  7. A reference to Tamerlane, who, having conquered Bajazet I, Sultan of Turkey, in 1402, imprisoned him in a cage.

  8. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.

  9. Prometheus.

  10. Rumour had it that Napoleon had a casual affair shortly before leaving for Elba.

  1. Byron wrote this poem to his half-sister shortly before leaving England, and did not wish it to be circulated, since it deals with his separation from Augusta. On 15 April 1816, Byron wrote with some anger to his publisher, John Murray: ‘I wished to have seen you to scold you – really you must not send anything of mine to Lady C[aroline] L[amb] – I have often sufficiently warned you on this topic – you do not know what mischief you do by this. –– Of the copies of late things written by me – I wish more particularly the last not to be circulated – at present – (you know which I mean – those to A[ugusta]) & there was a short epigram some time ago – of which I trust you have given no copies as it never was intended for publication at all. ––’. There is also an undated letter from Caroline Lamb to Byron which refers to ‘some beautiful verses of yours’ that Murray had shown her. ‘I do implore you’, she wrote, ‘for God sake not to publish them […] Of course, I cannot say to Murray what I think of those verses, but to you, to you alone, I will say I think they will prove your ruin.’ She was clearly aware of the rumours that were circulating concerning Byron and his half-sister.

  1. The theme of the poem is Byron’s separation from his wife, and he was anxious for his publisher, John Murray, to be cautious with printing it. From Diodati on 5 October 1816 he writes: ‘Be careful in the printing the Stanzas beginning – “Though the day of my destiny’s &c.” ’

  2. The manuscript reads ‘betray me’. Murray presumably made the change to secure a perfect rhyme with ‘defame me’.

  1. This still underrated composer wrote some 150 songs in English, French, German, Italian and Latin which were performed by some of the finest singers of the age, including Harry Plunket Greene, Liza Lehmann and Charles Santley. Quilter dedicated ‘Oh, the month of May’ to her, and her best songs, with their inventive accompaniments and beautiful melodies, are memorable. The first edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1899) wrote of White’s ‘My soul is an enchanted boat’: ‘it is not too much to say that the song is one of the best in the language’. White herself wrote in her Memoirs: ‘The ethereal loveliness of the words affected me so strongly, they evoked a vision of such ideal beauty, such ineffable happiness, that a burning longing arose in me to capture if only one drop of that essence, to make that one drop my own – my very own. I longed to make a casket to enshrine those words – a casket of music.’

  2. a small light vessel, generally two-masted and schooner-rigged.

  1. Elgar sets the first four words and the final five stanzas of Shelley’s poem. Shelley gives the following account of its gestation: ‘This poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when that tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting the vapours which pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at sunset with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by that magnificent thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions.’

  2. ‘new birth’ refers to a regeneration of Shelley’s poetry, mankind in general and, tangentially perhaps, to the birth of Mary Shelley’s child, the future Sir Percy Florence Shelley, who was born on 12 November 1819, a few weeks after the completion of Shelley’s poem.

  1. Arethusa was a nymph, named after the fountain of that name in Ortygia, Sicily.

  2. Acroceraunia is the name of the mountains of Acroceraunium, a promontory of Epirus between the Ionian and Adriatic seas.

  3. Alpheus was the river god of the Alpheus, which rises in Arcadia. He fell in love with Arethusa and pursued her till she was changed into a fountain by Diana.

  4. a mountain in Arcadia.

  5. Enna, 3,110 feet high, stands on a plateau that rises precipitously from this high region of Sicily. The town looks down on a beautiful plain, and it was from here that Proserpina was carried away by Pluto.

  1. The title suggests the theme of the poem: the Platonic antithesis between light and darkness.

  2. ‘Isabel’ refers to Isabel Baxter, one of Mary Shelley’s closest friends, to whom Shelley was clearly attracted. When she was forbidden to communicate with Shelley, she was deeply upset. Shelley reacted to the veto by writing the ‘eclogue’ Rosalind and Helen �
� the manuscript of which shows that ‘Rosalind’ was a later substitution for the original ‘Isabel’.

  1. ‘Love’s philosophy’ was published by Leigh Hunt in 1819 and presented to Sophia Stacey on 29 December 1820. She was the ward of one of Shelley’s uncles and arrived with her chaperone in Florence, where Shelley, his wife, Mary, and their little baby were living. Since the weather was extremely cold and Mary remained indoors, Shelley spent a great deal of time with Sophia, visiting the Uffizi and other galleries. The attraction was mutual, and it is likely that ‘Love’s philosophy’ and ‘I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden’ were written for her. According to Mary Shelley, Sophia ‘sings well for an English dilettante’. Quilter’s song, dedicated to Gervase Elwes, also exists in a version for piano quartet.

  1. ‘Music, when soft voices die’, titled ‘To —’ by Shelley, is addressed to Emilia Viviani, a nineteen-year-old woman whom her parents had confined in a convent prior to an arranged marriage. Shelley met her in late 1820, his compassion for her predicament was immediate, and his indignation inspired the Epipsychidion (‘Verses addressed to the noble and unfortunate lady, Emilia V— now imprisoned in the convent of —’). By June 1822, however, his infatuation had dwindled, as we see in a letter to John Gisborne: ‘The Epipsychidion I cannot look at; the person whom it celebrates was a cloud instead of a Juno […] I think one is always in love with something or other; the error, and I confess it is not easy for spirits encased in flesh and blood to avoid it, consists in seeking in a mortal image the likeness of what is, perhaps, eternal.’ The theme of Shelley’s poem is not so much music as memory and, by extension, love. ‘Music’, ‘violets’ and ‘rose leaves’ symbolize sound, smell and sight – all metaphors for love.