Dear All,
I think it's necessary to look at the song as a whole -
the conceit is that music is personified here as "my lady"
and Dowland is exploring the paradox of sadness being
made beautiful in musical art. The song is almost sonnet
like in its structure and negotiates a very difficult about turn
in the last stanza, exactly where these tricky phrases occur.
The word "Inough" is very suggestive of its use in the
famous opening speech of "Twelfth Night" where Orsino
call for the music to stop ("Enough, no more; 'Tis not so
sweet now as it was before." ) - exactly what's happening here:"O fayrer then ought ells, The world can shew, leave off in time to grieve, Inough, inough, your ioyfull lookes excells, Teares kills the heart believe, O strive not to bee excellent in woe, Which onely breeds your beauties overthrow." Dowland, (if he is the poet), is trying to turn his idea around here while maintaining his metaphor about music, and he seems to be trying to say that true grief is different to the stylised sadness that brings pleasure in music. In this sense I think "your ioyfull lookes excells" means "your looks are best when expressing joy rather than sadness." Similarly "Teares kills the heart believe" means that true tears signify heartbreak rather than joy. In these senses I don't find what we might think of as being anomalies in the use of English quite so difficult. But it would be silly to be too dogmatic - they could be printers errors. Either way, it's a fascinating bit of writing to reflect on. Best wishes, Denys ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Durbrow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "LGS-Europe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "lute list" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Friday, March 17, 2006 10:29 AM Subject: [LUTE] Re: I saw my lady weep > We are talking about 400 year old English here. It is difficult for > many native speakers. The lute songs are not just normal English but > sometimes very deep. The syntax often blows my mind, - very hard to > hang on to sometimes. I wouldn't worry at all about such a detail. If > you can understand it, you are ahead of the game. I heard that > Shakespeare spelled his name 17 different ways or something like that! > > I am not an expert, maybe someone else has deep thoughts. > > cheers, > > On Mar 17, 2006, at 6:20 AM, LGS-Europe wrote: > > > third verse: > > > > ..joyful looks excells. > > Tears kills the heart... > > > > What's with the s-es after the verbs? 'Looks' and 'tears' (noun, > > for sure in > > the contaxt) are plural, so I would expect 'excell' and 'kill'. > > Someone told me these could 'abstract nouns' and have singelur > > verb. I can > > imagine something like that with the 'teares'. They are not just > > the salty > > drops > > coming from the eyes, but are an abstract image of sadness, and as > > such > > singular. But with the 'looks' it doesn't quite feel natural. Just > > early > > spelling, or sloppiness thereof? But an 's' behind both verbs... > > Any deep thoughts out there? I wish Bob Spencer was still around to > > ask. > > Sigh. > > > > David > > > > > > > > ************************************ > > David van Ooijen > > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Http://www.davidvanooijen.nl > > ************************************ > > > > > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > Ed Durbrow > Saitama, Japan > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ > > > > > > > -- > Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 268.2.1/279 - Release Date: 10/03/2006 > > -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 268.2.1/279 - Release Date: 10/03/2006
