Origin: Tomorrow Is St. Valentine's Day

Subject: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: Allan S
Date: 16 Feb 02 - 02:10 PM

What is the history of the song that starts "Tomorrow is St. Vallentine Day, and all the morning betied Here is a maid at your window who'd be your Valentine" I was told it was from a Shakespere Play???? Any ideas??

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Feb 02 - 02:19 PM

I believe Ophelia sings it in Hamlet.

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: masato sakurai
Date: 16 Feb 02 - 02:21 PM

Ophelia's song in Hamlet.

~Masato

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 02 - 02:35 PM

Song and tune are in the thread 'BS: Valentine's Day'

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: masato sakurai
Date: 16 Feb 02 - 11:19 PM

"Tune 'Who list to lead a soldier's life' mentioned by peele in his Edward III (1593). The traditional tune has survived and been used for several songs. It remains one of the most charming, simple melodies in English balladry." (Tom Kines, Songs from Shakespeare's Plays, Oak, 1964, p. 33).

From Hamlet, Act IV, Scene V:

Enter KING.

Queen. Alas! look here, my lord.
Oph. Larded with 'sweet flower;
Which bewept to the grave did go
With true-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?
Oph. Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord! we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!
King. Conceit upon her father.
Oph. Pray you, let쳌fs have no words of this; but when they ask you what it means, say you this:

To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine:

Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.

King. Pretty Ophelia!

~Masato

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: Allan S
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 10:38 AM

Thanks a million everyone you are all fantastic Allan.S

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 10:58 AM

Errata: let's have no words of this

"TO-MORROW IS ST. VALENTINE'S DAY. This is one of Ophelia's songs in Hamlet. It is found several of the ballad operas, such as The Cobblers' Opera (1729), The Quakers' Opera (1728), &c., under this name. In Pills to purge Melancholy (1707, ii. 44) it is printed to a song in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, beginning, 'Arise, arise, my juggy, my puggy.' Other versions will be found under the names of 'Who list to lead a soldier's life,' and 'Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor.'" (William Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. 1, 1857; reprint Dover, 1965, p. 227)

~Masato

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 01:20 PM

Simpson in The British Broadside Ballad And Its Music in a footnote to the entry for Who List To Lead A Soldier's Life quotes: "Rollins, Anal. Index, No. 2120, queries the possibility that a lost ballad licenced in 1591 "...Two stamering lovers...pleasaunt meetinge on Sainct Valentines daie" might be the basis of Shakespeare's verses.

Mick

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 02:27 PM

But the ballad entered in 1591 is lost, and there's no stammering in Ophelia's song. Rollins didn't usually go so far in speculation.

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: Desdemona
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 03:09 PM

"Betimes" means early; the thing about Ophelia's "musical choices" that makes them interesting (especially as they occur during her madness) is that several are undeniably bawdy in content; where did Polonius' sheltered daughter come by such material?

Another thing that gets a lot of discussion is whether or not Ophelia had indeed already her "chaste treasure open[ed] To his unmaster'd importunity", before Hamlet becomes "mad in craft". I've always felt that she must have done, because of the intensity of what follows between she & Hamlet later in the play, and it FEELS as if they have; the combination of her having had such an intimate relationship with someone so very much beyond her social sphere, certainly according to her father & brother, his later madness (real or feigned?), rejection, & murder of her father, would be enough to unhinge any young girl!

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: GUEST,MCP, Lyric Add, Tune Add
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 06:03 PM

The verses quoted above and in the BS Valentine's Day thread omit the following 2 quatrains:

By Gis and by Saint Charity,
Alack, and fie for shame!
Young men will do't, if they come to't;
By Cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promis'd me to wed:
So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.


F.W.Sternfeld in Music In Shakespearean Tragedy lists two tunes for the song, differing from the version from The Quaker's Opera given in the BS thread. One is from The English Dancing Master 1651 (same as the one in Simpson) and the other from The Illustrated Shakespeare 1839-42 (based on oral memory from The Drury Lane Theatre tradition). I give all three below for comparison.

Mick


X: 1
T:Tomorrow is St. Valentines Day
S:Quaker's Opera, Air #13, 1728
Q:120
L:1/4
M:6/4
K:G
G|(B/c/d)c(BA)G|D2BD2G|(B/c/d)c(BA)G|(A3A2)A|\
(B/c/d)c(BA)G|D2BD2G|(GA)Bc"tr"A2|(G3G3)|]

X: 2
T:Tomorrow Is Saint Valentine's Day
M:6/4
L:1/4
S:Dancing Master 1651
K:C
c|e> f g e> d c|d2 B G2 d|e> f g c> d c|d3 d2 d|
e> f g e> d c| d2 B G> F E| F G A G> A B|c3 c3||

X: 3
T:Tomorrow Is St Valentine's Day 3
M:6/4
L:1/4
S:Pictorial Shakespeare 1839-42
K:C
e|(e g) f (e d) c|G G E G2 f|(e g) f e d c|d3- d2 e|
(e g) f (e d) c|G2 E G2 c|(c d) e (f e) d|c3-c2||

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 06:15 PM

The tune in the Dancing Master, p. 65, 1651, is entitled "Souldiers Life", not "Tomorrow is St. Valentine's Day".

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 07:39 PM

I think both of the latter tunes are titled Soldier's Life. Again, quoting Sternfeld: "Lacking an authentic Elizabethan source for this lyric we turn again to the Drury Lane Theatre, whose tradition favoured a melody that was used in several ballad operas of the early eighteenth century, strikingly similar to an older tune called "Soldier's Life". This ballad, though not printed until 1651, was referred to by playwrights and ballad writers of Shakespeare's time"

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the entry for TISVD in Simpson is under "Who List To Lead A Soldier's Life", and quotes the Dancing Master Tune, 2nd of the tunes above.
(I put in TISVD as a title for all of them when typing them up - it's a fair cop guv).

Mick

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Feb 02 - 08:12 PM

What ballad was printed in 1651? Sternfeld could be pretty obtuse at times. Note that the one I gave from Quaker's Opera is directly from that, not a reprint or facsimile.

I've seen an edition of the Cobler's Opera of 1729, but that one didn't have the music, and I don't have that tune.

Simpson's tune in BBBM is in the key of D major (as is the Dancing Master tune). An ABC of it is B516 among the broadside ballad tunes at www.erols.com/olsonw

Subject: RE: History of Tomorrow is St. Valentine da
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 09:15 AM

I had checked that the version from Sternfeld, although in C, not D as in BBBM and DM, was the same tune as those, and gave the notation from Sternfeld, along with his 2nd tune. (Small exception being the long notes at the end of each couplet, which Sternfeld gives as separate notes (d3 d2 and c3 c2), but BBBM/DM give as tied (d3-d2, c3-c2 as in the Pictorial Shakespeare version above). I note that in the Quaker Opera version and the BBBM version on your site these are given as same note slurs rather than ties).

Mick