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Whilst inconstant fortune smiled, words freely adapted from _The Passionate Pilgrim_. There is nothing much to say about it: it seems quite innocuous, but very dull. Rosalind's song, which she sings after having fallen in love with Orlando, is a setting of the 148th Sonnet, minus the two last lines. It is again quite dull. Celia has a long and depressing aria in praise of friendship, the words taken from the 123rd Sonnet. After these numbers it is quite refreshing to come across a cheerful male-voice hunting glee--
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Even as the sun is the title--the words being taken from _Venus and Adonis_. There are the usual horn effects, _fortissimo_ chorus effects, and _pianissimo_ echoes, all the old tricks, but put together by a good old hand, Bishop. Dr Arne's setting of
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Under the greenwood tree follows for Amiens, and a beautiful setting it is. Touchstone, in this version, is a tenor (somehow I never fancied him as a tenor), and sings a bright little {8} song,
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Fair was my love, from _The Passionate Pilgrim_. This is followed by a trio for Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone, beginning
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Crabbed age and youth, the words again taken from _The Passionate Pilgrim_ (what a useful poem it is to pasticcio opera composers!). This trio is a very simple one. The first verse consists of alternate phrases by the three singers, who then all sing together, over and over again, the line
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For methinks thou stay'st too long. A welcome relief is Dr Arne's broad, flowing setting of
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Blow, blow, thou winter wind, by far the best to these words. The next number is a terrible setting by Bishop of the first eight lines of the 7th Sonnet,
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Low in the Orient when the gracious light, for male voices. Silvius now has a sentimental song to words taken, slightly altered, from _Venus and Adonis_. The situation is inverted: Silvius sings Venus's words reproaching Adonis, to Phoebe; but Bishop is undaunted, and
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Oh thou obdurate flint, hard as steel is addressed to a woman! (By the way, Shakespeare wrote
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Art, not
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Oh. ) Rosalind sings a sentimental ballad to the words from _Venus and Adonis_ beginning
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If love had lent you twenty thousand tongues, of no great importance. Dr Arne's beautiful setting of
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When daisies pied, from _Love's Labour's Lost_, is another welcome relief, and I remember in several modern revivals of this play managers introducing this song when they had a Rosalind able to sing well enough. The next number is a march and dance for the procession of Hymen, and is for orchestra only. It is a good example of absolutely straight writing, with no bother about the romance or mystery of the masque of Hymen--a good workaday march in D major and common time. This is followed by the last number, words actually from _As You Like It_. Hymen, who in the original production was played by a boy, sings
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Then is there mirth in heaven, a long, tedious, florid song, full of endless repetitions of single words. It is a curious fact that the beautiful lyric,
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It was a lover and his lass,
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Woodland Dance in the minor, beginning very quietly, but working up to twelve _ff_ bars in the middle, and then dying away. The second number is a very graceful
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Children's Dance, _piano_ throughout, most melodious, and very delicately scored. The last number,
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Rustic Dance, is the longest and most important. It begins _allegro con spirito_ and _fortissimo_, and keeps it up till the first episode, which is in the same time, but _pianissimo_ and in the minor. Soon this is worked up to a big _forte rallentando_ effect, which leads into the last theme, _pianissimo_ to begin with, getting quicker and quicker and more _crescendo_ to the coda, which is _presto fortissimo_. This is by far the most effective of the movements, but the
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Children's Dance is the most beautiful. Mr German's setting of
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It was a lover and his lass,