It's tantalizing to theorize about the PDT (potentially detachable tail) style of countersubject in connexion with Forlorn Hope, as the countersubject breaks off and leads the toccata like charge. I find this almost persuasive given what we know about Dowland's sophisticated hexachord manipulation in the chromatic fantasies.
Since the OED is not specific as to Dowland's time, only later, and as the words of course had their own individual meaning, there is not enough evidence to rationalize which interpretation is Dowland's, nor is there any reason to think that to a well read Elizabethan that both meanings would not apply. Certainly Dowland's lines about "fortune being thrown from the highest spire" or the "black walls of marble" is consistent with a literal interpretation. To take this interpretation a step further, it is clear that there is a motivic relationship between the song, "in Darkness let me dwell" and Forlorn Hope Fancy, and thus the affect of "buried alive", or perhaps a more metaphysical conceit of "anti ecstasis" is the clue to the title, rather than the musket-toting, ladder-free countersubject leading the charge. Either way, intriguing: and perhaps both ways, refelecting a dual meaning in the title. Hoop incidentally, has the meaning of band, as in Merry Band or Hula Hoop. The double oo is still pronounced today similar to hope, as in "groot", though the 16th century version might have had a stronger dipthong in English as well as Dutch. dt At 08:47 AM 1/25/2008, you wrote: >Well, maybe... > >On Jan 25, 2008, at 5:47 AM, Stewart McCoy wrote: > > > I have been told, I hope reliably, that, if, at the time of > > Dowland, you wanted to attack an army of soldiers armed with > > muskets, you would first send a small group of soldiers ahead to > > draw their fire. Before the enemy could reload, the rest of your > > army attacked them. Needless to say, the men in that small group > > stood little chance of surviving. > >Perhaps you overestimate the accuracy of 16th-century muskets. > >The Oxford English Dictionary devotes about a column to "forlorne >hope." It does indeed trace it to Dutch "verloren hoop", meaning >"lost troop." >But it referred to any advance detachment of troops. The OED cites >an example of a "forlorne hope" with scaling ladders attacking a >castle wall. These soldiers were not just musket-fodder, but were >expected to accomplish something. Otherwise, they'd have left the >ladders behind with the second wave. > >In Dowland's day it also had a looser meaning of "persons in a >desperate condition." > >And, of course, it naturally developed the sense of "faint hope." >The earliest such use in the OED is 1641, but I suspect it was >current well before then. The OED relies on written examples >(obviously) and is weighted toward printed ones. "Forlorne hope" in >the sense of "faint hope" started as a mistake, much like "hopefully" >used to mean "I hope," "beg the question" used to mean "pose the >question" or "it's problematic" used to mean "it's a problem" are >now, and such erroneous uses percolate a lot in spoken use before >they make it to print in the new sense. > >So the Big D might have been using "Forlorne Hope" in the military >sense, but he might have been using it in the sense of "hope against >hope" or despairing hope that a modern person would assume. > >I suppose David Tayler will suggest that the title came from someone >else entirely, along with half the piece. >-- > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
