Scene 2: The pangs of Love
In the second scene we deal with the pangs of mature love, and appropriately
we concentrate on mature multi-section songs and dialogues by Henry
Purcell. We move from Abraham Cowley's introspective examination of
the psychology of Love: I came, I saw and was undone through
reconciliation: You say 'tis love; jealousy: She loves and
she confesses too; grief: The fatal hour; to a semi-humorous,
cynical second reconciliation While you for me alone had charms.
HE:
I came, I saw and was undone
Lightning did thro' my bones and marrow
run;
A pointed pain pierc'd deep my heart
A swift cold trembling seiz'd on ever'ry part;
My head turn'd round, nor could it bear
The poison that was enter'd there.
So a destroying angel's breath
Blows in the plague and with it hasty Death;
Such was the pain did
so begin,
To the poor wretch when Legion enter'd in.
'Forgive me, God, I cry'd,
for I
Flattered myself I was to die;
But quickly to my cost I found,
'Twas cruel Love, not death had made the wound.
Love
has a thousand ways to please
But more to rob us of our ease
For waking nights and careful days
From hours of pleasure he repays;
But absence soon, or jealous fears
O'er flows the joy with floods of tears.
But one soft moment makes amends
For all the torment that attends
