Five Am’rous Sighs by Jonathan Dove (1959-), with text by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) and Matthew Prior (1664-1721)
Five Am’rous Sighs
I Between your sheets
Between your sheets you soundly sleep
And dream of Vigils that we Lovers keep.
While all the night, I waking sigh your name
The tender sound does every nerve inflame.
Imagination shows me all your charms
The plenteous silken hair, and waxen Arms,
The well turned neck, and snowy rising breast,
And all the Beauties that supinely rest
Between your sheets.
Ah Lindamira could you see my heart,
How fond, how true, how free from fraudful art.
The warmest glances poorly do explain,
The eager wish, the melting, throbbing pain,
Which through my very blood and soul I feel,
Which you cannot believe, nor I reveal,
Which every metaphor must render less
And yet, (methinks) which I could well express
Between your sheets.
I was first attracted to this song cycle by the bold suggestiveness of the text of this first piece, given the constraints on self-expression in the lives of women in the polite society of this era. The five works go beyond stereotypical concepts of romantic love and explore more earthy and adventurous emotional reactions to life events.
That this openly sensual text could have been written at this point in history by a woman blew apart my demure assumptions about women in the early 18th century. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was a remarkable and intriguing woman, however. Born in 1669, she was self-taught woman of letters, who spent many years as wife of the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, documented life in bathhouses and harems there and brought the idea of smallpox inoculation to Britain. Here is her Wikipedia entry
Dissatisfied by her marriage and emotionally cold husband, she openly sought solace elsewhere.
I Between your sheets
Between your sheets is one of a set of poems she wrote in early May 1739 to her much younger Italian lover, Count Francesco Algarotti.
Between your sheets is couched in a gently rocking, ascending 6/8 legato and then a more rhythmic dotted crotchet descent against a flowing at times minimalistic piano accompaniment. The juxtaposition of the historical text and the modern composition fascinates me.
Lindamira was a commonly used name for a romantic heroine in the literature of the time. It is unclear why Lady Mary used this name. It is possible that it’s a reference to a line in Dryden’s 1675 Restoration Drama Aurangzeb or a reference to Thomas Brown’s 1702 novel The Adventures of Lindamira, Lady of Quality. The text of the epistolary novel, Indamora to Lindamira written by Lady Mary (then Pierrepoint) at the age of 14 does not contain these phrases.
The fulsome sensuality with which the poet describes her lover does seem to delineate feminine rather than manly physical attributes. It is known that the object of her desire was bisexual and in a love triangle with her and Lord Hervey. Lady Mary’s sexuality is also the subject of much commentary, and her letters from within Turkish harems describe her erotic adventures with women there.
Approaching this song, then: The 6/8 time can be confusing, divided as it is into lilting ascending sections of this crochet quaver rhythm in 2 and a more marked rhythm of four dotted quavers to the bar in descent, sung against the lilting accompaniment, reminiscent, perhaps, of the lover’s breathing while asleep. It is this which makes this song tricky, in my view. It is far too tempting for the singer to be lulled into the more familiar crotchet/quaver rhythm, particularly if breathing at the suggested pauses. There is also a tension between the rhythmic, almost syncopated nature of this and trying to maintain a convincing legato through the phrases.
The way I attempt to get round this is to come off the held and tied notes a bit early in order to take a good breath and come in exactly on the beat. A relaxation of rhythm can also happen when I’m taking too much time to form the complex consonants or the G of “Yet.” I fear that this G has become my nemesis: while it is not high in my voice, I do have difficulty in getting it in tune and not going sharp. I’ve tried various remedies for this: throwing a pencil or soft toy at a screen is one I try to use to train my muscle memory; alternatively doing a plié seems to stop me going sharp.
Singing gently, with the sound at the front of the mouth rather than expressed behind the nose, also seems to help but I’m still working on this as it’s a paradigm shift for me. The final phrase of the two verses, though soft, demands directional firmness as it fades to a wistful nothingness.
II Finish
Finish!
Finish, these Langours make me sick,
of dying airs I know the Trick,
Long si once I’ve learnt to well explain th’unmeaning Cant of Fire and Pain
And see through all the senseless Lyes of burning darts from killing EYes,
I’m tired with this continual Rout of bowing low and leading out,
Finish.
Finish this tedious dangling Trade
By which so many Fools are made
For Fools they are, who you can please with such affected arts as these.
At Operas to stand
And slyly press the given hand,
Thus you may wait whole years in vain
But sure you would, were you in pain,
Finish.
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This next song in the cycle is the very next of the 1739 poems written to Count Algarotti.
III
My heart still hovering round about you
I thought I could not liven without you
Now we have lived three months asunder,
How I lived with you is the wonder.
Matthew Prior was a satirist, epigrammist and important poet of his time whose talents earned him a promotion to diplomat in The Hague and Paris. Here is a little about him.
I find the world-weariness and wry humour of this epigram appealing. Singing challenges include maintaining breath management over the long, first phrases and keeping hold of the romantic and wistful beginning though the opening legato and that descending dotted quiver rhythm. The rhythmically abrupt punchline of the piece must be exactly in time and convey the sudden surprise of the prosaic ending.
IV A Receipt to cure the Vapours
All these dismal looks and fretting
Cannot Damon’s life restore
Long ago the Worms have eat him
You can never see him more
Once again consult your Toilet
In the Glass your face review
So much weeping soon will spoil it
And no Spring your Charms renew
I like you was born a Woman
Well I know what vapours mean
The Disease at last is common.
Single we have all the Spleen.
All the Morals that they tell us
Never cured sorrow yet
Chuse among the pretty Fellows
One of Humour, Youth and Wit.
Prithee hear him ev’ry morning
At least an hour or two
Once again at Nights returning
I believe the Dose will do.
—————————————————
Oddly, the first stanza of this poem, addressed to “Delia” is omitted from the work, a piece of sisterly advice to a grieving woman. She cannot bring back her lost “Damon” with sadness and worry. He is dead and gone. Damon is possibly a reference to the story of the legendary inseparable friends, possibly lovers, Damon and Pythias. Damon is gone and Delia must move on.
Rigid codes of separation and morning as dictate by polite society will not ease her grief and lead only to loneliness and sadness.
In a fairly audacious twist, the final stanzas urge Delia to go and amuse herself in the company of a handsome, witty young man who will, require a modicum of personal attention.
V The Lady who offers her Looking Glass to Venus
VENUS, take my votive glass: Since I am not what I was, What from this day I shall be, Venus, let me never see.
Sources:
- Indamora to Lindamira
By Lady Mary Pierrepoint
(later Wortley Montagu)
edited by Isobel Grundy
University of Alberta 1994
- Friends and lovers Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Part 5
Exotic and Irrational Entertainment Blog
Monday August 29 2016
- The Verse of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Volume 2: a critical edition
By Isobel Grundy
Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of
Oxford 1971
- The party colour’d life of Matthew Prior (1664-1721)
Matthew Prior 2021
St John’s College Cambridge, 2021
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