Faint means to make less or diminish, or miss the mark, or fall short. It has a resonance with the older meaning of feindre, which has a sense of avoiding one's duty, and is also a pun on the other meaning of faint, which is to fade, or die away. These themes are used again and again in Dowland, as in "His Golden Locks", to show a short of chivalrous vanitas. The themes of Farre from triumphing court and His Golden Locks are closely related. dt
At 07:22 AM 4/5/2011, you wrote: >A Musicall Banquet, song VIII, third stanza has: > >Ravisht with ioy so grac't by such a Saint, >He quite forgat his Cell and selfe denaid, >He thought it shame in thankfulnesse to faint, >Debts due to Princes must de duely paid: >Nothing so hatefull to a noble minde, >As finding kindnesse for to prove unkinde. > >Why 'faint' in the third line? Just because it rhymes with 'Saint' in >the first line? Is there another meaning apart from the swooning, >indeed not the most polite thing to do in Royal presence? > >David > > >-- >******************************* >David van Ooijen >davidvanooi...@gmail.com >www.davidvanooijen.nl >******************************* > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
