Voici le printemps, nous portant des fleurs
Pour orner le front des guerriers vainquers!
Melons nos accents aux parfums des roses
A peine ecloses!
Avec l'oiseau chantons, mes soeurs!


[figure: a musical score excerpt sung to the words "Now Spring's
generous band, Brings flowers to the land]

Dalila is here and it is become necessary to say something of her,
having said so much about the man whose destruction she
accomplished. Let the ingenious and erudite Philip Hale introduce
her: "Was Delilah a patriotic woman, to be ranked with Jael and
Judith, or was she merely a courtesan, as certain opera singers who
impersonate her in the opera seem to think? E. Meier says that the
word 'Delilah' means 'the faithless one.' Ewald translates it
'traitress,' and so does Ranke. Knobel characterizes her as 'die
Zarte,' which means tender, delicate, but also subtle. Lange is
sure that she was a weaver woman, if not an out-and-out 'zonah.'
There are other Germans who think the word is akin to the verb
'einlullen,' to lull asleep. Some liken it to the Arabic dalilah, a
woman who misguides, a bawd. See in 'The Thousand Nights and a
Night' the speech of the damsel to Aziz: 'If thou marry me thou
wilt at least be safe from the daughter of Dalilah, the Wily One.'
Also 'The Rogueries of Dalilah, the Crafty, and her daughter,
Zayrah, the Coney Catcher.'"

We are directly concerned here with the Dalila of the opera, but