On Dec 3, 2009, at 7:34 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > The poem is not quite up to the eloquent heights of desperation > evinced in a line like "cigarettes and ice cream," but "Darkness" > is still a pretty decent tune. > > The poem's definitely about depression. Not truly debilitating > clinical depression, but the sort of narcissistic, "Woe is me! > Everyone _look_ at me wallowing in my own special brand of > Weltschmertz! Don't you feel such great sorrow and respect for my > poor poet's soul that feels everything so much more deeply than > y'all?" > > Its important to keep in mind that melancholy was a fashionable > artistic conceit at the time. It really was a game of "I can out- > sad you." Thus, a lot of this rep has its tongue firmly implanted > in its cheek and there are excursions into outright cheesiness. > C'mon, can anyone _really_ take that "jarring, jarring sounds" bit > seriously??? > > Melancholy was a fad precisely because it was a lot of fun to camp > it up play the sad boy. In essence, they're mocking true > depression with a wink and a nudge. Knowing this does not > invalidate the repertoire, but it can help to add insights into > performance. There are enough subtle twists and turns in Dowland's > settings of these poems to let us know that he was in on the "joke" > as much as anyone else. So taking everything with deadpan > seriousness is a mistake. I've always found performances that do > this to be the most disappointing.
I think you're right to call melancholy a fad, but that doesn't necessarily mean it shouldn't be taken seriously. For those who aren't as up on this as Chris is, I should explain that melancholy wasn't just sadness, and shouldn't be confused with the modern use of the word, or modern depression. It was considered a basic temperament (something akin to the modern "personality type") and physical condition caused by an excess of black bile. Here's a quick explanation: http://elsinore.ucsc.edu/melancholy/MelBile.html It was particularly appealing to creative artists because it was associated with inspiration. See, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dürer_Melancholia_I.jpg So in the Elizabethan view, to take Dowland's melancholy as a joke might be, to ridicule his pretension to inspiration. Or to take an example from an obscure contemporary of Dowland: when Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Act II: "I have of late,but wherefore I know not,lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises;" he may be putting on an act for a couple of spies, but when he launches into the "To be or not to be" monologue in Act III, he's alone and speaking only to himself, not posing for anyone. I can't see playing that scene for laughs, though Lord knows, some director has probably tried it. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
