"to sweat [something] out" -- 146-year antedating, I hope

[James A. Landau <JJJRLandau@netscape.com>]

On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 14:23:38 +0000 "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:

<quote>
This obscure poem has a striking resemblance to If Ever I Would Leave
You, from Camelot.  I wonder if Alan Jay Lerner was somehow aware of it.
Or was there some kind of literary tradition of writing poems or songs
in this style?

<snip>

[Begin excerpt]

I Would Not Die at All

(Second stanza)

I would not die in summer,
When trees are filled with fruit
And every sportsman has a gun,
The little birds to shoot,
The girls then wear the bloomer dress,
And half distract the men,
It is the time to sweat it out,
I would not perish then.
<end quote>

I doubt there is a connection between the two.  The only similarity is that both first stanzas specify not doing something in summer.  The quoted poem goes on to give details much more relevant to the season tan does Lerner's lyrics:

If ever I would leave you
It wouldn't be in summer;
Seeing you in summer, I never would go.
Your hair streaked with sunlight...
Your lips red as flame...
Your face with a luster
That puts gold to shame.

Stylistically, Lerner had the intention of writing lyrics that sounded medieval, or compatible with medieval personalities.  The other poem is much more comtemporary to the date it was written, referring to "the bloomer dress"

Alan Jay Lerner _The Street Where I Live_ (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1978, ISBN 0-393-07532-X, page 205) states that he was working on the lyrics to this song when his then-wife walked out on him.

     - Jim Landau


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