The Flea - Chapman, Mark

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"This setting was made as part of a concert of madrigals and related partsongs, titled "Miracles From Times of Plague". The grotesque nature of the poem is evoked by the frequent use of descending diminished intervals."

◈ Genre → Partsongs

♯ Key E minor

⁄ Time Signature 3/4

♬ Voicing → SATB

◆ Difficulty

Elementary

↕ Range E2 – F#5

♩ Tempo 96

◷ Duration ~2 min 37 sec

¶ Language → English

Measures 70

Texture mixed texture

Parts 4

Instruments A cappella

Pages 5

CPDL # 61707

Editor Mark Chapman

Posted 2020-11-29

License Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

♫Pitch Ranges

Soprano

D4 – F#5

Alto

A#3 – B4

Tenor

D3 – E4

Bass

E2 – B3

¶Lyrics / Text

Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is; It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be; Thou know’st that this cannot be said A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead, Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pampered swells with one blood made of two, And this, alas, is more than we would do. Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare, Where we almost, nay more than married are. This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is; Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met, And cloistered in these living walls of jet. Though use make you apt to kill me, Let not to that, self-murder added be, And sacrilege, three sins in killing three. Cruel and sudden, hast thou since Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence? Wherein could this flea guilty be, Except in that drop which it sucked from thee? Yet thou triumph’st, and say'st that thou Find’st not thy self, nor me the weaker now; ’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be: Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me, Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.