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A plague on both your houses. They've made worm's meat of me.
In The Heart Of Juliet
In 1977 Franco Zeffirelli’s film entitled Jesus of Nazareth was released. Olivia Hussey played the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Nine years earlier she starred in the most famous film directed by Zeffielli. Together with Leonard Whiting they performed the roles of the most passionate lovers ever – Romeo and Juliet. At the time, she was fifteen.
For the first time Romeo meets Juliet at the party organized at Capulet House. This is the famous scene during which we can listen to the song entitled What Is a Youth? composed by Nino Rota and performed by Glen Weston. In the film the man whose name is Leonardo sings the song while Romeo and Juliet are running among the listeners trying to attract each other’s attention. The song goes like this:
What is a youth?
Impetuous fire.
What is a maid?
Ice and desire.
The world wags on
A rose will bloom,
it then will fade
So does a youth.
So does the fairest maid.
Comes a time when one sweet smile
Has its season for awhile
Then Love’s in love with me
Some may think only to marry.
Others will tease and tarry.
Mine is the very best parry,
Cupid he rules us all.
Caper the caper; sing me the song
Death will come soon to hush us along
Sweeter than honey and bitter as gall,
Love is the past time that never will pall.
Sweeter than honey and bitter as gall,
Cupid he rules us all.
The beginning of the song provoked a controversy over the word ‘youth’ among some of my colleagues. Some of them stated (fortunately, the smaller part) that this word means the period of time when we are young (e.g. He used to play golf in his youth). However, in the lyrics there is the article ‘a’ before the word which indicates that the author meant a young boy (‘youth’, the period of time, is uncountable). So, a boy is described as an impulsive (impetuous) person. This impetuousness is marked with one of the elements – fire. On the other hand, a maid (girl) is characterized as being cold and unapproachable. She is desire ‘the world wags on’. This line provides me with some difficulty. Numberless sources offer quotations and sentences in which the word ‘world’ comes together with the phrase ‘wag on’. There is an Italian proverb which says: ‘The world wags on with three things: doing, undoing, and pretending.’ Charlotte Bronte and Thackeray wrote in their works: ‘Let the world wag as it will’. It is said that Anne Bonny, an Irish pirate, is the author of a song in which we can read: ‘Drain, drain the bowl, each fearless soul. Let the world wag as it will. Let the heavens growl and the devil howl. Drain, drain the bowl and fill.’ In As You Like It Shakespeare writes: ‘It is ten o'clock: Thus we may see (…) how the world wags.’ Each quotation presented here is related to proceeding of the world (wag = get along, proceed, move, totter, you name it). But the verb ‘wag’ also means moving something from side to side (for instance, the dog wags its tail or you can wag your finger at somebody). Nevertheless, I guess the line saying that ‘a maid is desire the world wags on’ means that the world needs desire to proceed and this desire occurs under the veil of a woman. Here you are.
Sir Walter Raleigh wrote that ‘the flowers do fade.’ Isn’t that true? I mean, with one single sentence the author of the song was able to present the whole human life – we are born, we grow (bloom) and then we die (the flower withers). People are young and beautiful but after some time they skin becomes wrinkled and dried out. Even the most attractive and alluring maid is to become old one day. There is nothing we can do about it. I can only add here my fave quotation taken from the third part of Alien: ‘Within each seed, there is a promise of a flower, and within each death, no matter how small, there is always a new life. A new beginning.’ It is easy to understand this quote within the context of the film but I’d like to suggest you go back to the end of my piece of writing entitled Eternity – waste of time and try to associate the final line of the prayer by Francis of Assisi with the quotation taken from Alien 3 and the line from the song (‘a rose will bloom, it then will fade’). If you have some exceptional ideas, please, mail it to me.
To be honest with you I have to admit that now, when I’m writing this analysis, I’m cursing the day I decided to write ‘bout this song… I mean, I don’t get it… How is it possible for a smile to ‘have its season for awhile?’ OK, the smile is not usually a long-lasting result of our happiness and we need special occasions or situations which can put it on our faces, but can we talk about the season for a smile? Can you imagine that? The grouse season – from August until December. From March till August – the oyster season. February, March, April – the smile season. And what about the line ‘love’s in love with me’? If you have got the slightest idea how to interpret this line then let me know (I’m definitely in no mood to analyse this song today).
The speaker claims that for some young people the only crucial thing is marriage. They do not think about love. They are concerned about, for instance, the dowry. They may be forced to marry each other by their bossy parents. On the other hand, some of them ‘tease and tarry’ – they do not long for the marriage. They tease and delude their partners. The speaker himself tries to ‘parry’ (deflect) the felling of love. But he seems to be aware of the fact that we may all become victims of Cupid’s arrows.
The speaker suggests we should ‘dance the dance’ of joyfulness (‘caper the caper’) and sing songs before we pass away. Well, when you kick the bucket there isn’t much to be happy about, is it? He says that love is both sweet and bitter (as bitter as bile or anger). And now something really special. May I have your attention, please? I have something really important to communicate. Since love is both sweet and bitter it may mean only one thing. Are you ready? Just one little thing… Ready? LOVE IS BITTERSWEET! Well, nice job Sherlock… You can now light your pipe…
The next line suggests that love never grows old. It is like ‘the past time that never will pall’. Like the good memories. It is always young and fresh. It will last forever, blah, blah, blah.
I’m glad that I’m coming to the end of this article. You have to admit that the song is pathetic. I mean, the tune is quite all right but the lyrics… Words fail me to express my disappointment with them.
Zbyszek
PS
The title of today’s article has been sponsored by Liv Kristine.
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