You meaner beauties

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a mere housewife

Not your cup of tea
This is one of my favorite pieces of early music -- not only is the poetry exquisite (the stars being addressed as 'you common people of the skies') but it reminds me so much of Psalm 45, and the transcendent beauty of the 'King's daughter' at her wedding described there. This piece was written for Elizabeth of Bohemia -- if I recall correctly, to celebrate her and her husband's (so brief) ascension to the throne. Somehow Elizabeth (described by Pepys as a 'plain lady') with the exile and trials her life held seems an apt symbol of a transfiguring beauty. For the church becomes more beautiful than all other created things in a hidden way, largely through its sufferings.

[video=youtube_share;HUMtplddJT8]http://youtu.be/HUMtplddJT8[/video]

You meaner beauties of the night,
Which poorly satisfy men's eyes
More by your number than your light,
You common people of the skies,—
What are you, when the Moon doth rise?

You violets that first appear,
By those, your purple mantles known,
Much like proud virgins of the year,
As if the spring were all your own,—
What are you, when Rose is blown?

You curious chanters of the wood
That fill the earth with Nature's lays,
Thinking your passions understood
By your weak accents,—what's your praise
When Philomel her voice doth raise?

So when my Princess shall be seen
In sweetness of her looks and mind,
By virtue first, then choice, a Queen,
O tell if she were not design'd
Th' eclipse and glory of her kind?

Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.

The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king's palace. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.
 
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