Iris Garden: February 2013

SWEETHEART!

Who said, “Sweets to the sweet”?

Queen:

[Scattering flowers] Sweets to the sweet, farewell!

I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife:

I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,

And not have strew'd thy grave.

Well, it’s not really what one would think. Actually, it comes from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. When Hamlet’s mother, the queen, was scattering funeral flowers on the grave of Ophelia, Hamlet’s former love, she says, “Sweets to the sweet.” Long story short, Hamlet murdered Ophelia’s father, which drove Ophelia mad, whereupon she committed suicide and Hamlet, who wass somewhat over attached to his mother, stumbles upon the funeral, ignorant of what has happened. The queen sprinkles flowers as she murmurs, ‘Sweets to the sweet.’

Seems somewhat strange that that string of words became a modern day description of the thrill of feeling the rush of an emotion, that of love. Or maybe NOT ?

The Searchers: Sweets For My Sweet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjNiIvUEtIw

Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
Your first sweet kiss thrilled me so
Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
I'll never ever let you go

If you wanted that star that shines so brightly
To match the stardust in your eye
Darling, I would chase that bright star nightly
And try to steal it from the sky
And I would bring

Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
Your first sweet kiss thrilled me so
Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
I'll never ever let you go

If you wanted a king to keep you smilin'
I'd tell the sandman you were blue
And I'd ask him to keep that sand a-pilin'
Until your dreams had all come true
And I would bring

Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
Your first sweet kiss thrilled me so
Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
I'll never ever let you go

And if you wanted a love to last forever
Darlin' I would send my love your way
And my love'd not only last forever
But forever and a day
And I would bring

Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
Your first sweet kiss thrilled me so
Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
I'll never ever let you go.

But, “How sweet it is!” Oh, that old feeling of love and trust and sometimes just winning. Remember Jackie Gleason, prevailing over every episode with this expected and anticipated announcement. It wasn’t a matter of if he was going to say it. It was just when ? was he going to say it. “How sweet it is!”

(The Honeymooners, the TV series, just in case you couldn’t remember!)

There are other word connections to ‘Love’ and ‘Sweet’. Like how we got the word

‘Sweetheart’. Here’s a little unreferenced take on ‘Sweetheart’.

(Unreferenced means I read it on a search on the Internet and they didn’t

give any reference to substantiate the description, but it’s makes

a good story so . . . take it or leave it.)

Anyway, in the old days, the heart was sort of viewed as the reflection of one’s personality. You might be considered ‘hard-hearted’, ‘soft-hearted’, ‘heavy-hearted’, ‘light-hearted’, or even ‘cold-hearted’. Well, the heart felt emotion of ‘love’, makes the heart beat faster and this was diagnosed as ‘swete hert’, a fast beating heart. So, if you are in love, your heart is beating faster and thus you are a ‘sweetheart’.

Out of this style of reference also came the term ‘Heart throb,’ obviously the one who made your heart beat faster. Then, eventually, that person became known as your ‘Sweetheart’. ‘Swete hert’ is referenced in an old Middle English story, The Life of St. Cecilia (from Ms. Ashmole 43 and Ms. Cotton Tiberius E. VII). It’s listed under Middle English phonology. So, there really was the term ‘swete hert’. As best I can tell from trying to read through, it was used to describe very romantic relationships. Even then!

Gee, who knew?

Well, ‘Sweetheart’ as a word, has come a long way. Along with describing the sweetheart who is your love, it is used for lots of other descriptors. The term is used fairly loosely to describe any cute, pretty, over the top, candy, song, dance, banquet, melody, shape or even the best deal that you can find.