As 1928 edged into summer, the sense of forces closing in became palpable. Living in Eynsford through accumulating debt loomed as insupportable and would drive him out in the fall. A spate of songs in July seemed to herald the rebirth of the pseudo-Elizabethan Peter Warlock—swagger balanced by incomparable depth of feeling—but none of these Songs of Summer, as he intended the collection of seven items to be called, were among his best. To a disturbing extent, he was living on the achievements of the past, with arrangement of such early songs as The Bayley Berith the Bell Away as a duet, The First Mercy and Lullaby for women's voices, motivated by the need for quick cash in a collapsing market. Youth was the third setting of Wever's lyric, "In an arbour green," and the least of them. Even the masterpieces, bespeaking the Warlock of legend, The Droll Lover and The Cricketers of Hambledon, have the character of liquidations with the Romantic ideal in the former ("I love thee for thy ugliness, And for thy foolery, For if thou had'st been fair or wise, Then thou had'st ne'er loved me") and rousing heartiness veering into satire in the latter. Passing By, another of the July harvest, was Warlock's fourth setting of this anonymous 17th century poem beginning "There is a Lady sweet and kind...." The first, composed in 1919, is straightforwardly inspired, though Warlock's attachment to the lyric is attested by evidence in letters of two other lost settings. The 1919 version sets the first two and the final stanzas of this six-stanza poem, while the later setting takes them all, thus changing the sentiment's complexion. Noting the "rather square-cut melody... and the accompaniment, mainly in four-part harmony... not without occasional banalities," Copley had it both ways: "...Passing By is an extremely subtle song. It begins romantically enough... but there are overtones of irony present when, to the mellifluous sweetness of the same tune and accompaniment, the singer goes on to point out that 'Her free behaviour, winning looks, Will make a lawyer burn his books; I touched her not, alas! not I, etc.' For Warlock includes those verses... which do not accord well with the romantic idealism of the first two and last verses." Hence, Passing By is another liquidation of sentiments formerly cherished. The song is dedicated to Hal Collins, Warlock's Maori manservant, a talented painter, accomplished wordsmith, and inspired but illiterate piano improviser.

© Adrian Corleonis, Rovi