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The Sonnet Sessions continue...
You can reach me at [email protected]
William Shakespeare, Sonnet XVIIWho will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were filled with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say 'This poet lies;
Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.'
So should my papers, yellowed with their age,
Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be termed a poet's rage
And stretched metre of an antique song:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice, in it, and in my rhyme.Music:
Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928
Nino Rota, 'Love Theme' from Romeo and Juliet (1968) -
The Sonnet Sessions continue... (Don't know what was going on with the audio - or my voice - this week! )
Please get in touch any time: [email protected].
William Shakespeare, Sonnet XVI
But wherefore do not you a mightier way
Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time?
And fortify your self in your decay
With means more blessed than my barren rhyme?
Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
And many maiden gardens, yet unset,
With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers,
Much liker than your painted counterfeit:
So should the lines of life that life repair,
Which this, Time's pencil, or my pupil pen,
Neither in inward worth nor outward fair,
Can make you live your self in eyes of men.
To give away yourself, keeps yourself still,
And you must live, drawn by your own sweet skill.
Music:
Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928
Sergei Prokofiev, "Balcony Scene" from Romeo and Juliet, op. 64, 1938 -
Fehlende Folgen?
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The Sonnet Sessions continue.... Please get in touch any time: [email protected]. William Shakespeare, Sonnet XV
When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory;
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night,
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new. Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 Hector Berlioz, La Mort d' OphĂ©lie, Cecilia Bartoli (soprano), Myung-Whun Chung (piano) -
The Sonnet Sessions continue.... Please get in touch any time: [email protected]. William Shakespeare, Sonnet XIV Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck;
And yet methinks I have Astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find:
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself, to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date. Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 Nino Rota, Nocturne from The Taming of the Shrew (1967), conducted by Carlo Savina -
The Sonnet Sessions continue.... Please get in touch any time: [email protected]. William Shakespeare, Sonnet XIII O! that you were your self; but, love, you are
No longer yours, than you your self here live:
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give:
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination; then you were
Yourself again, after yourself's decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold,
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
And barren rage of death's eternal cold?
O! none but unthrifts. Dear my love, you know,
You had a father: let your son say so. Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 Opening to Act III of Sir John in Love, New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Meredith Davies. -
The Sonnet Sessions continue (with apologies for the audio issues this week!)
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet XII
When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; When I behold the violet past prime, And sable curls all silverâd oâer with white; When lofty trees I see barren of leaves Which erst from heat did canopy the herd, And summerâs green all girded up in sheaves Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard, Then of thy beauty do I question make, That thou among the wastes of time must go, Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake And die as fast as they see others grow; And nothing âgainst Timeâs scythe can make defence Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence. Music:
Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 -
The Sonnet Sessions continue...
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet XIAs fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st
In one of thine, from that which thou departest;
And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow'st,
Thou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest.
Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increase;
Without this folly, age, and cold decay:
If all were minded so, the times should cease
And threescore year would make the world away.
Let those whom nature hath not made for store,
Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish:
Look whom she best endowed, she gave the more;
Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish:
She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby,
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.
Music:
Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928
Ambroise Thomas, "Entr'acte" from Hamlet, opera adapted from William Shakespeare, 1868 -
The Sonnet Sessions continue...
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet X
For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any,
Who for thy self art so unprovident.
Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many,
But that thou none lov'st is most evident:
For thou art so possessed with murderous hate,
That 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire,
Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
Which to repair should be thy chief desire.
O! change thy thought, that I may change my mind:
Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love?
Be, as thy presence is, gracious and kind,
Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove:
Make thee another self for love of me,
That beauty still may live in thine or thee.Music:
Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928
Ambroise Thomas, "Entr'acte" from Hamlet, opera adapted from William Shakespeare, 1868
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The Sonnet Sessions continue...
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet IX
Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye,
That thou consum'st thy self in single life?
Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife;
The world will be thy widow and still weep
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep
By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind:
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unused the user so destroys it.
No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murd'rous shame commits.Music:
Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928
Benjamin Britten, Corpus Christi Carol - performed by boy soprano Sebastian Carrington
Thomas Tallis, Spem in Alium (1750)
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The Sonnet Sessions continue...
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet VIII
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:
Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,
Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.'Music:
Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928
Thomas Tallis, Spem in Alium (1750)
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The Sonnet Sessions continue...
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet VII
Lo! in the orient when the gracious light
Lifts up his burning head, each under eye
Doth homage to his new-appearing sight,
Serving with looks his sacred majesty;
And having climbed the steep-up heavenly hill,
Resembling strong youth in his middle age,
Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,
Attending on his golden pilgrimage:
But when from highmost pitch, with weary car,
Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day,
The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are
From his low tract, and look another way:
So thou, thyself outgoing in thy noon
Unlooked on diest unless thou get a son.Music:
Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 -
The Sonnet Sessions continue...
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet VI
Then let not winter's ragged hand deface,
In thee thy summer, ere thou be distilled:
Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place
With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed.
That use is not forbidden usury,
Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
That's for thy self to breed another thee,
Or ten times happier, be it ten for one;
Ten times thy self were happier than thou art,
If ten of thine ten times refigured thee:
Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living in posterity?
Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair
To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.Music clips:
Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928Gerald Finzi, Nocturne from Love's Labour's Lost Op. 28
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The Sonnet Sessions continue...
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet V
Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,
Will play the tyrants to the very same
And that unfair which fairly doth excel;
For never-resting time leads summer on
To hideous winter, and confounds him there;
Sap checked with frost, and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty o'er-snowed and bareness every where:
Then were not summer's distillation left,
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,
Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft,
Nor it, nor no remembrance what it was:
But flowers distilled, though they with winter meet,
Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.Music clips:
Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy)Joseph Haydn, "She Never Told Her Love", after Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
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The Sonnet Sessions continue...
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet IV
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thy self thy beauty's legacy?
Nature's bequest gives nothing, but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to those are free:
Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee to give?
Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?
For having traffic with thy self alone,
Thou of thy self thy sweet self dost deceive:
Then how when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee,
Which, used, lives th' executor to be.Music clips:
Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy)
Joseph Haydn, "She Never Told Her Love", after Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
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The Sonnet Sessions continue... You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn. William Shakespeare, Sonnet III Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest Now is the time that face should form another; Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest, Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother. For where is she so fair whose uneared womb Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry? Or who is he so fond will be the tomb Of his self-love, to stop posterity? Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime; So thou through windows of thine age shalt see, Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time. But if thou live, remembered not to be, Die single and thine image dies with thee. Music clips: Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy) Nino Rota, âSarabandeâ from soundtrack to Zeffirelliâs âThe Taming of the Shrewâ, 1967 (Columbia Pictures, US / Italy) orchestra conducted by Carlo Savina
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The Sonnet Sessions continue... You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn. William Shakespeare, Sonnet II When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now, Will be a totter'd weed of small worth held: Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies, Where all the treasure of thy lusty days; To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes, Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise. How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use, If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,' Proving his beauty by succession thine! This were to be new made when thou art old, And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold. Music clips: Ralph Vaughan Williams, âFantasia on Greensleevesâ, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeareâs The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy) Nino Rota, âSarabandeâ from soundtrack to Zeffirelliâs âThe Taming of the Shrewâ, 1967 (Columbia Pictures, US / Italy) orchestra conducted by Carlo Savina
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"From fairest creatures we desire increase...."
Hello, friends! This is the first in my Sonnet Sessions.
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet I
FROM fairest creatures we desire increase,
That, thereby, beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.Music clips:
Sergei Prokofiev, âMontagues and Capuletsâ, from Romeo and Juliet (ballet), 1935
Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Fantasia on Greensleeves", from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy)
Nino Rota, "Sarabande" from soundtrack to Zeffirelliâs âThe Taming of the Shrewâ, 1967 (Columbia Picutres, US / Italy)
orchestra conducted by Carlo Savina -
Hello, friends! These are strange times, and I hope you are all well. This is a brief update to promise new content (you've heard that before!) and guarantee new-ish content over the next month.
You can contact me at: [email protected] or on Facebook and Twitter. Stay safe.
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âAre you a god? Would you create me new?â
New episode! In episode #14, why wonât anyone let Antipholus in? Weâre discussing Shakespeareâs lightest, tightest play: The Comedy of Errors. Wander through the town square of Ephesus at your leisure. But perhaps don't accept any gifts from strangers....
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn. The Patreon campaign is up and running, with bonus Sonnet episodes! We also have a Spotify playlist, which will be updated as we work through the plays.Key links below. You can also visit the bibliography page here, which is a work in progress.
Links mentioned:
Plautus, Menaechmi
Harold Bloom, The Invention of the Human (1998)
1988 TV network promo from Australiaâs Channel Nine: âStill the Oneâ
Syphilis: the âFrench diseaseâ
Audio:
The Comedy of Errors, produced as part of the Caedmon Shakespeare (1962), with Finlay Currie (Aegeon), Alec McCowen (Antipholus of Syracuse), John Moffatt (Antipholus of Ephesus) and Mary Miller (Luciana)
The Comedy of Errors, produced as part of the Arkangel Shakespeare, with David Tennant (Antipholus of Syracuse), Jason OâMara (Dromio of Ephesus), and Alan Cox (Dromio of Syracuse)
The Comedy of Errors, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 1950, with Patricia Norman (Courtesan) and unknown actors (Antipholus of Syracuse, Dromio of Syracuse, Adriana, Luciana)
The Comedy of Errors (1983), produced for the BBC by Shaun Sutton, directed by James Cellan Jones, with Michael Kitchen (Antipholus of Ephesus), Roger Daltrey (Dromio of Ephesus), Suzanne Bertish (Adriana), Joanne Pearce (Luciana), Wendy Hiller (Aemilia), David Kelly (Balthazar)
Music:
The Boys from Syracuse (1963 cast) with Cathryn Damon singing âOh, Diogenes!â
The Boys from Syracuse (1997 cast):
âSing for your Supperâ ballet The Twins ballet âLet Antipholus In!â (finale from Act I)Stephen Storace, Gli Equivoci (The Misunderstandings), opera after Shakespeareâs The Comedy of Errors (1786) with libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
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âDefer no time, delays have dangerous ends.â
â Alençon, Act III, scene ii
In episode #13, a quick jaunt through the critical fortunes of Henry VI, Part 1, not an historically beloved play. From the âprequelâ question to the plays role as a barometer of Britainâs feelings on nationalism, to just how many times a play can cut Talbot, Joan, or both! Come join me.
Listen to episodes at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Castbox, or download direct from Libsyn. The Patreon campaign is up and running, with bonus Sonnet episodes! You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. We also have a Spotify playlist, which will be updated as we work through the plays.Key links below. You can also visit the bibliography page here, which is a work in progress.
Links mentioned:
E.M.W Tillyard and the âTudor Mythâ
Key source: Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and Yorke (1548)
Key source: Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland ,and Ireland (1577)
E.K. Chambers, William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems, 1930
Thomas Nashe, Defence of Plays from âPierce Pennilessâ (1592)
Emrys Jones, Origins of Shakespeare, 1977
Jonathan Bate, Genius of Shakespeare, 1997
Marjorie Garber, Shakespeare After All, 2004
âShakespeare And Marlowe: Attributing Henry VI Authorshipâ â Folger Library
Festival of Britain, 1951
Birmingham Rep Theatre:
BBC An Age of Kings (1960)
Royal Shakespeare Company
John Barton and Peter Hall, RSC Wars of the Roses (1963): âThe Inheritanceâ and âMargaret of Anjouâ on Youtube
Jane Howell, BBC The First Part of Henry the Sixt (1983) at BFI Screenonline
English Shakespeare Company: Wars of the Roses (1988) d: Michael Bogdanov
Jan Kott (1914-2001), Shakespeare Our Contemporary (1961) â profiled by Michael Billington in The Guardian
Edward Hall, Rose Rage (2001), Propeller Theatre Company
Shakespeareâs Rugby Wars: Toronto Fringe Festival
Michael Boyd, This England (2001) â Royal Shakespeare Company
Yushi Odashima, complete translations of Shakespeare into Japanese: at Oxford Reference
Bell Shakespeare, Wars of the Roses (2005 â 2008), reviewed by Alison Croggon
Benedict Andrews, Wars of the Roses (2010) for Sydney Theatre Company, reviewed by Alison Croggon
Globe Theatre: Wars of the Roses Battlefield Performances, review in Telegraph
Seattle Shakespeare Company, Bring Down the House (2016), review in Seattle Times
Dominic Cooke, Henry VI, BBC Hollow Crown cycle (2016)
Audio:
Donald Sinden (Plantagenet), RSC Wars of the Roses âThe Inheritanceâ (1965)
Music:
Sergei Prokofiev, âMontagues and Capuletsâ, from Romeo and Juliet (ballet), 1935
Armand Broshka, The Sadness of King Henry VI
Tchaikovsky, The Maid of OrlĂ©ans , 1881, Jeanneâs aria performed by Elena Obraztsova
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Serenade to Music (1938) from Shakespeareâs Merchant of Venice
Giuseppe Verdi, Overture from Giovanna dâArco (Joan of Arc), 1845
Henry Ley, The Prayer of King Henry VI (c. 1940), The Kingâs Singers
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