Beloved Alibi: An Air in Three Variations

"Not everybody agrees with us."


The White House
Washington
Welcoming remarks
  by the President
  of the United States
December 7, 2010 

The fact of Desertion 
I will not dispute; 
But its guilt, as I trust, is removed,
(So far as it relates to the costs of this suit),
By the Alibi which has been proved.

Though an host of men were laid against me,

yet shall my heart not be afraid;

though there rose up war against me,

yet will I put my trust in him.

                      .. But in these cases,

            We still have judgment here; that we but teach

            Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

            To plague th'inventor: this even-handed Justice

            Commends th'ingredients of our poison'd chalice

            To our own lips.

.. Besides, this Duncan

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been

So clear in his great office, that his virtues

Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongu’d, against

The deep damnation of his taking-off;

And Pity, like a naked new-born babe,

Striding the blast, or heaven’s Cherubins, hors’d

Upon the sightless couriers of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears shall drown the wind.

.. I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself

and falls on th’other.

Yves, oil on canvas, 1991

Joan Mitchell

You Have Been Here Sometime

Lewis Carroll

The Hunting of the Snark

1876

The Annoted Edition

Martin Gardner, editor

Norton, 1962©

The Book of Common Prayer

1662

Georg Frideric Händel

10th Anthem for the Duke of Chandos

1717-18

Harry Christophers

The Sixteen

Chandos Records, Ltd, 1994©

William Shakespeare

The Tragedie of Macbeth

I, vii, 7-28

1606, published 1623

The Arden Shakespeare

Kenneth Muir, editor

Methuen, 1951©