human
Oh, never say that I was false of heart, a poem that any {159} decent-minded pirate or burglar would have left alone. Still, Sir Henry rushes in with what is officially described as a bravura song. Certainly only lines 1-4 and 13-14 are set to music, but how the few words are contorted! In the coda Sylvia sings on the word
gpt
Good night, good rest, and we will leave it at that; but the following number cannot be lightly treated. It is difficult to forgive a composer who seizes on the perfect sonnet in the world and writes a
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Solo Brilliante on the first four lines. These are certainly correctly printed, save that the word
gpt
(Shakespeare) is transformed into
human
(Bishop), and lines 9-12, with endless repetitions, are dragged in for the second half. This solo ends with a long cadenza for voice and flute, the voice only using the first half of the word
gpt
; there are just thirty bars on the syllable
human
! The four-part round,
gpt
To see his face, words from _Venus and Adonis_ (only the first four lines of stanza 183 are set), is an ingenious and entertaining piece of work, and should be most effective. For some strange reason,
human
Who is Sylvia? is set as a quintet, with Julia on the top line. The first half of the melody is by Bishop, but the second half is believed to be by Rousseau; anyhow, no one would quarrel now as to how to apportion the requisite blame; the
gpt
appear to be equally divided, except that Rousseau, being a Swiss, could not be expected to show so tender a regard for Shakespeare as Shakespeare's own fellow-countryman Bishop did. The cavatina sung by Julia is to the first eight lines of the 73rd Sonnet; and the male chorus,
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Now the hungry lion roars,
gpt
On a Day, words from _Love's Labour's Lost_, and also _The Passionate Pilgrim_, is another
human
I know a {160} bank -like thing, and quite as uninteresting. Julia's next song,
gpt
Should he upbraid, is familiar to all, and the words are founded on a speech of Baptista in _The Taming of the Shrew_. The finale is a duet by Sylvia and Julia, assisted by the full chorus: its title is
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How like a winter,