The Quotable Rhett Butler: The Bugles Sang Truce

One of the things I like the most about Rhett's speech is that you often find references where you wouldn't think there were any. It really speaks of Margaret Mitchell's ability to blend together various sources, both literary and historical, and relating to the specific background of her characters. Take for example this week's quote: 

"'Shall we let the bugles sing truce?' he smiled down at her, a wide flashing smile that had impudence in it but no shame for his own actions or condemnation for hers. "

--Gone with the Wind, Chapter XXXVI 

I, for one, had always assumed this was just another case of Rhett being eloquent. But a quick googling (this time done by my co-blogger, whose eye for details would make any detective envious) revealed that the expression Rhett uses was one made fashionable by a very popular Civil War song. A song that was actually mentioned in the novel before. Here's the relevant quote:

"Nightly the dark tree-lined streets resounded with dancing feet, and from parlors tinkled pianos where soprano voices blended with those of soldier guests in the pleasing melancholy of 'The Bugles Sang Truce' and 'Your Letter Came, but Came Too Late'--plaintive ballads that brought exciting tears to soft eyes which had never known the tears of real grief."

-- Gone with the Wind, Chapter VIII

"The Bugles Sang Truce" was the popular name of a song called "The Soldier's Dream," with lyrics from an early 19th century poet, Thomas Campbell.  But not only that this expression seeping into everyday speech was a sign of realism on Mitchell's part, but as I read the lyrics to the song, I was struck by how closely they resemble  another situation described in the book. In his letter to Melanie, Ashley Wilkes talks about the thoughts that preoccupy him at night, while his comrades are sleeping. Among those, the memory of the old times at Twelve Oaks, that he fears are gone forever:

"Instead, I see Twelve Oaks and remember how the moonlight slants across the white columns, and the unearthly way the magnolias look, opening under the moon, and how the climbing roses make the side porch shady even at the hottest noon. And I see Mother, sewing there, as she did when I was a little boy. And I hear the darkies coming home across the fields at dusk, tired and singing and ready for supper, and the sound of the windlass as the bucket goes down into the cool well. And there's the long view down the road to the river, across the cotton fields, and the mist rising from the bottom lands in the twilight. And that is why I'm here who have no love of death or misery or glory and no hatred for anyone."

--Gone with the Wind, Chapter XI

Read the lyrics to The Soldier's Dream and tell us if you don't find the atmosphere similar, though Ashley's tone is more subdued:

THE SOLDIER'S DREAM

Our bugles sang truce--for the night-cloud had lower'd,
And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky;
And thousands had sunk on the ground overpower'd,
The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die.

When reposing that night on my pallet of straw,
By the wolf-scaring fagot that guarded the slain,
At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw,
And thrice ere the morning I dreamt it again.

Methought from the battle-field's dreadful array,
Far, far, I had roam'd on a desolate track;
'Twas autumn,--and sunshine arose on the way
To the home of my fathers, that welcomed me back.

I flew to the pleasant fields traversed so oft
In life's morning march, when my bosom was young,
I heard my own mountain-goats bleating aloft,
And knew the sweet strain that the corn-reapers sung.

Then pledged we the wine-cup, and fondly I swore
From my home and my weeping friends never to part;
My little one kiss'd me a thousand times o'er.
And my wife sobb'd aloud in her fullness of heart.

Stay. stay with us,--rest, thou art weary and worn;
And fain was their war-broken soldier to stay;
But sorrow return'd with the dawning of morn,
And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.

Lorena Encore

If MM were still alive I suppose she would have better things to do with her time than read our blog. But if I spammed her mail hard enough if she somehow stumbled upon it, this would be the kind of comment she would leave for my Lorena post from some weeks ago.

"My dear Bugsie Mr. Otis:
"Thank you so much for your letter and the interest in 'Gone With the Wind' which prompted you and your mother to write to me. Yes, I knew that the Reverend H. D. L. Webster wrote the words of 'Lorena' but I did not know the history of the song and the circumstances under which it was written. Of course I found the information you sent me very interesting. 

"You asked if I would let you know 'how a copy of this song happened to come to my attention.' To tell the truth, I never saw a copy of 'Lorena' until last year. At that time a reader of 'Gone With the Wind' sent me a copy of it, published by the Oliver Ditson Company, Boston, Massachusetts. In my childhood I heard 'Lorena' sung by many elderly people. It was as familiar as 'Rock-a-bye Baby,' 'Dixie' and 'The Bonnie Blue Flag.' It was as great a favorite with the Confederate soldiers as 'Over There' was with the A.E.F. All the people I knew who had lived through the war and Reconstruction period were familiar with it and loved it. I included it in 'Gone With the Wind' for this reason. 

"Should you and your mother order a copy of 'Lorena,' you will discover only six verses. Perhaps your grandfather wrote only six verses but I have heard at least twenty verses sung. Perhaps poetically inclined young ladies of the sixties added other verses to his."

--excerpted from Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone with the Wind Letters edited by R. Harwell.

Well, there goes my childhood's theory that the lyrics were somehow connected to the story. But I love the insight into why she really chose the song. And the idea that fans had taken to doing her research for her, while probably very tiring for MM herself, is not without its humor.

The Years Creep Slowly By, Lorena...

*Warning: vile mood blogging ahead* 

Internets, three things stand at the forefront: 

1. Blogger should have something like those mood icons on LiveJournal. (If it already does, don't tell me. I enjoy being wrong.)
2. This is a crappy melancholy Sunday.
3. It is generally unwise to tackle depressing Civil War songs on crappy melancholy Sundays, but that's precisely what I am going to do. 

So, if this is your shiny happy day, wait till the Monday blues hit to read. If not, join me for a blog post discussing Lorena, one of Civil War's saddest and most popular songs. I'll try to keep it reasonably short (famous last words).

Lorena was an antebellum song, but there is not much to say about its history before the war. The lyrics were written in 1857 by a Northern reverend for a real sweetheart who chose to marry another. She was nicknamed Lorena in the poem, presumably as an allusion to Edgar Allan Poe's much quoted The Raven ("sorrow for the lost Lenore" vs. "a hundred months have passed, Lorena, since last I held your hand in mine." It's pretty obvious which one was written by a literary genius, but other than that, the connection is not that far-fetched, I guess). The music was written by Joseph Philbrick Webster, a songwriter and composer famous at the time.

During the war, the ballad became wildly popular in both the Confederate and the Union camps. What's more interesting, and a testament to its popularity, is that a few years after its publication a version with altered lyrics, known as Lorena's Answer, A Sequel to Lorena or Paul Vane, became available. In this new version, written by the same reverend, now happily married himself, Lorena pledged she hadn't forgotten her lover. (Someone call Andrew Cohen! We just found the perfect idea for his next passive-aggressive rant article.) You can read those lyrics as well as a nice though somewhat poetically  embellished history of the song on the Ohio Historical Society site. 

Joseph Webster

Lorena was perhaps the best-known love-song of its time, and as such, a reference to it couldn't be missing from Gone with the Wind. Besides being the inspiration behind Ella's middle name, the ballad is mentioned directly in the bazaar scene: 

"Then the fiddles, bull fiddles, accordions, banjos and knuckle-bones broke into a slow rendition of 'Lorena'--too slow for dancing, the dancing would come later when the booths were emptied of their wares. Scarlett felt her heart beat faster as the sweet melancholy of the waltz came to her: 

'The years creep slowly by, Lorena! 

The snow is on the grass again. 

The sun's far down the sky, Lorena . . .'

One-two-three, one-two-three, dip-sway--three, turn--two-three. What a beautiful waltz! She extended her hands slightly, closed her eyes and swayed with the sad haunting rhythm. There was something about the tragic melody and Lorena's lost love that mingled with her own excitement and brought a lump into her throat." 

--excerpted from Gone with the Wind, Chapter IX

When I was little and openly inclined to cheesiness, I was convinced that the only reason Margaret Mitchell chose this song was because its lyrics, melodramatic as they are, bear some resemblance to lines from Rhett's final speech. Now that I am older and only secretly inclined to cheesiness, I still think it could have been one of the reasons for her using it, besides how well it spoke for the period of course. It just works so well within the theme of lost love and missed chances. What do you think?

You'll find the lyrics after the jump if you're interested in making that comparison. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go fix myself up with some chocolate and Jane Austen (Crappy Sundays Remedy™). I am your typical girl, what do you know?

Ben Bolt: A Song to Sing the Morning After

"Oh she wept with delight when he gave her a smile and trembled with fear at his frown."

--Scarlett O'Hara, movie version of Gone with the Wind

Right up until the point Rhett walks in the door and things go dramatically down hill, one of my favorite scenes from Gone with the Wind the movie is the "morning after" one, with Scarlett finding herself so giddy over the prior night's turn of events that she spontaneously breaks into song. But even after countless viewings, I must say Scarlett's little ditty still strikes me as both an endearing and odd selection. (Maybe it's just me, but I can't envision Scarlett O'Hara trembling with fear at any man's frown, not even the Devil's himself.)

So because it's a point that intrigues me, today the song in question finds itself as the topic of a blog post. In the scene you can watch below (double-click on the picture to watch the video), Scarlett is singing slightly modified lyrics to Ben Bolt (the original lyrics are "Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile/And trembled with fear at your frown?").  Written first as poem in 1843 by Thomas Dunn English, Ben Bolt was  later arranged into song by composer Nelson Kneass in 1848. It was a tremendously popular song in its day--and quite a sad one, too, for in it the narrator nostalgically mourns the passing of days gone and loved ones lost to his friend, Ben Bolt.  A recording of the complete song is available here and original sheet music here, and full lyrics are after the jump at the end.

From GWTW Videos

Edgar Allen Poe himself described Ben Bolt as possessing a "simplicity of diction and touching truthfulness of narrative." Not bad praise, especially considering Poe and English were bitter rivals. (Things got so intense between the two that Poe eventually sued the Evening Mirror for publishing an article with English's claims that Poe committed forgery.) 

And there you have it--the history behind Scarlett's "morning after" song. Looked at in context, it becomes an even more interesting musical choice for Selznick & Co. to have picked. For as Scarlett jubilantly sings some of the few upbeat lyrics from a song about loss, it's a subtle tell that we all won't get our happy ending here either--Rhett's about to walk in that door, kicking off another round of Butler marital dysfunction and moving us one step closer to the inevitable "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" conclusion.