[78-L] ^Have some Madeira, M'Dear was: Venuti!

[Mike Richter]

Howard Friedman wrote:
> It's a verse fragment from a Flanders and Swann song; the line is
> completed with "It's simply a case of chasun a son GOWT", to rhyme with
> the rest of it.
> 
> Oh, then it has nothing to do with a "henge"?

These unending tangles of threads were the reason I left 78-L some years 
ago - and they may drive me out again (to the dismay of few, I'm 
certain). The context of the line may have been discussed in one of the 
posts I discarded, but in the event it was not, here we go.

Undoubtedly, the song is correct: Madeira is "ever so much nicer than 
beer". But "Chacun a son gout" (circumflex on the 'u') is Orlovsky's 
line in Die Fledermaus. Where Strauss's Prince is nominally young, he is 
... adaptable. On recordings in my library, he is sung by a mezzo, alto, 
tenor and bass - and is represented as any convenient age. In any event, 
he is jaded and lecherous, properties also essential to the F&S song.

For the record, I also bought the Limelighters' version when it was new. 
That would have been soon after I finished university, so I may be not 
only the group's grouch but also a contender as its greybeard.

Mike
-- 
mrichter at cpl.net
http://www.mrichter.com/