[Bg-dance] Fwd: If All the World Were Paper

[Susan Scott]

Why that verse in particular?  It seems to make as much sense as any other, and more than some.

Gwenneth

Tim McDaniel <tmcd at panix.com> wrote:

On Mon, 30 Apr 2012, Thomas <gemartt at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Strangely enough these lyrics remind me
> of a song that was first published in 1643:
> THE WORLD TURN'D UPSIDE DOWN.  There are
> variations; yet both songs seem to question
> the current order of the world:

Thank you for adducing another song, and a comparison at that.

I see a difference.  Interrogativa Cantilena / "If all the world were
paper" just seems like silliness, so far as I can tell.  For example,
I can't think of a meaning for

> If all the world were sand-o,
> Oh, then what should we lack-o?
> If, as they say, there were no clay,
> How should we take tobacco?

In contrast, 1643 is near the start of the English civil war.
"The world turn'd upside down" looks to me like a
Cavalier-sympathizing conservative satire/protest song:

> They count it a sin, when poor people come in.
> Hospitality it selfe is drown'd.
...
> The serving men doe sit and whine,
> and thinke it long ere dinner time:
> The Butler's still out of the way,
> or else my Lady keeps the key,
> The poor old cook, in the larder doth look,
> Where is no goodnesse to be found,

That's decrying the loss of old generosity and charity, but also
decrying the lower classes (serving men) getting above themselves,
which was classic old-style conservatism.  It's also condemning
economic disorders.

Dannet de Lincoln
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com
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