music at dance

"Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JSnEPNbm2A

From Wikipedia:
"Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" is a popular folk song of early 19th century Ireland and America. Irish poet Thomas Moore wrote the words to a traditional Irish air in 1808. His lyrics are as follows:

Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,
Which I gaze on so fondly today,
Were to change by tomorrow and fleet in my arms,
Like fairy gifts fading away,
Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art,
Let thy loveliness fade as it will;
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart
Would entwine itself verdantly still.
It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,
And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,
That the fervor and faith of a soul can be known,
To which time will but make thee more dear.
No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close:
As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets
The same look which she turned when he rose.

The tune to which Moore set his words is a traditional Irish air, first printed in a London songbook in 1775. It is occasionally wrongly credited to Sir William Davenant, whose older collection of tunes may have been the source for later publishers, including a collection titled General Collection of Ancient Irish Music, compiled by Edward Bunting in 1796. Sir John Andrew Stevenson has been credited as responsible for the music for Moore's setting.

It is said that after Thomas Moore's wife contracted smallpox, she refused to let herself be seen by anyone, even her husband, due to the disfiguring effects of the disease to the skin on her body and because she believed he could not love her after her face had been so badly scarred. Despairing at her confinement, Moore composed the lyrics of this song to reassure her that he would always love her regardless of her appearance. He wrote later that, after hearing him sing to her from outside her bedroom door, she finally allowed him inside and fell into his arms, her confidence restored.

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I thought I heard a bit of "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes", but I can't be certain as this is a "fibrofoggy" day for my brain, which fibromyalgia often turns into muck. *sigh*

I especially wanted to pass on information about this because I love playing it on my bowed psaltery, keeping the lyrics in mind. I generally tell the people listening about the song; telling the story sometimes brings tears to my eyes because it's so sweet.


*** The trouble with reality is there is no background music. ***