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More Stately Mansions

1939

The long draft of the sequel to A Touch of the Poet is a play about the inner working of greed and jealousy. Destructive forces in human nature gnaw fiercely at the relationships among the principals. There is no occasion or desire for song. The only music heard is a brief chorus of "Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young Charms" sung in the Epilogue after the battles are over. It is sung by the youngest son of Simon and Sara Harford, Owen Roe, known as "Honey." He will be one of those singing the song of the gold-seekers, "Sacramento," in The Calms of Capricorn.


(. . . Owen Roe "Honey" Harford, . . . squatting on his heels on the grass . . . playing a game with a jackknife, . . . As he plays he sings softly Thomas Moore's "Believe me if all those endearing young charms." He has a fine voice, clear and pure.) [III. 548]

Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young Charms - words by Thomas Moore, Tune: My Lodging Is on the Cold Ground, published 1807

 

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