shake the cloud from off your brow

BELINDA

Shake the cloud from off your brow,

Fate your wishes does allow;

Empire growing, pleasures flowing,

Fortune smiles and so should you.

CHORUS

Banish sorrow, banish care,

Grief should ne'er approach the fair.

***

The piano-vocal score I borrowed from the library conveniently has notes to the singer that have been erased, but I can still see them. For example, there are notes on when to breathe. I should have taken them. Of course, when do you have time to breathe if this song is going at a brisk tempo? (I may have been rushing...)

Also, the score points out (obviously) that Purcell uses text painting on the word "shake" and mirrors it again on the word "flowing." My question is, why does Purcell reverse the dotted-eighth sixteenth rhythm for the very first "shake?" Does this perk the listener's ears? Or, does this even matter because the singer should be embellishing the melody anyway?

I particularly like the choral writing. The chorus's line is homophonic at first, but when they repeat their line, the alto and bass lines are delayed a bit, thus causing the fricatives to pop.