"Autobiographies of great nations are written in three manuscripts – a book of deeds, a book of words, and a book of art. Of the three, I would choose the latter as truest testimony." - Sir Kenneth Smith, Great Civilisations
"I must write each day without fail, not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine." - Leo Tolstoy
I have never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again. - John Updike
"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it." - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
[Note - If any article requires updating or correction please notate this in the comment section. Thank you. - res]
during dark days of evil. Deliver Thy people who walk your love, from crimes of injustice and hate; guide thy creation its bounteous courses, from barrenness and childless joy. Do not abandon us
nor this frail earth,
to wickedness
and ruinous sin;
but come to us bringing
peace and goodwill,
during shameful days
of evil dreads. Thy worlds were made
in Thine own image;
self-creating worlds
of atoning goodness,
of soul redeeming love,
of resurrecting grace; all
sadly snared within webs
of sorrowful agency. Be Thou our Guiding Poet
over all our affairs; direct
Thy loving conviction
with holy compassion
upon those spewing hate;
whose lips speak lies daily
and restless slander; false
shepherds of undead souls. To those who seek
Thee not, who rage
within, who harm;
be not still Thy Spirit
which stills broken hearts,
which opens blinded eyes,
which unstops deaf ears,
raising lepers to walk. Such harlots to humanity
look not within but hate,
spinning lies and deceits
of every kind; such whores
of creation breed every kind
of evil, unrelenting their sin;
to these, close their mouths,
lay bare their nakedness. You have birthed worlds
promising Eden, yet we
destroy Thy holy earth,
denying its promise, by
unlove and fell deeds;
may Eden renew again
our hearts of hard clays, as
Thy yielded soils remade. R.E. Slater April 21, 2020 rev. June 2, 2020 @copyright R.E. Slater Publications all rights reserved
Joker - Call Me Joker - Hildur Guðnadóttir (Official Video)
Joker - Call Me Joker - (Main Theme) 2019
Song - Defeated Clown
Artist - Hildur Guðnadóttir
Album - Defeated Clown
Licensed to YouTube by:
WMG (on behalf of WaterTower Music); BMI - Broadcast Music Inc., UMPI, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA - UBEM, LatinAutor - UMPG, LatinAutor, UMPG Publishing, and 11 Music Rights Societies
Song - Call Me Joker
Artist - Hildur Guðnadóttir
Album - Call Me Joker
Licensed to YouTube by:
WMG (on behalf of WaterTower Music); UMPI, UMPG Publishing, BMI - Broadcast Music Inc., UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA - UBEM, LatinAutor - UMPG, and 11 Music Rights Societies
One of the things that makes this film different from the usual comic book formula is that the score isn't prominent. It's lurking in the background, adding to the audience's feeling of uneasiness. Except in this scene. In this scene, which is an important step on Arthur's journey towards becoming Joker, the score takes centre stage, albeit without much fanfare.
Joker: Explained
JOKER Ending Explained! Hidden Evidence of Final Twist Revealed!
(How does the final scene reframe the film's whole narrative?)
Joker Director Finally Explains That Last Crucial Scene
Arthur Fleck's biggest joke just might be the one he pulled on you. Joker director Todd Phillips recently made a few very interesting comments to the Los Angeles Times about the final scene of the movie comments that imply a bizarre truth about the story being presented. In case that's not warning enough, be advised that major spoilers for Joker lie ahead.
Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur is depicted early and often as having a tenuous grip on reality. The film eventually lets on that it's not always clear which events are fantasy and which are reality not to the audience, and presumably not to Arthur.
At the end, Arthur is seen with his psychiatrist in Arkham State Hospital after he has apparently killed his mother, incited a riot, shot Murray Franklin on live television, and escaped from police custody with the help of his clown-masked followers. As the shrink attempts to question him, Arthur simply laughs, telling her that she wouldn't get the joke. According to Phillips, it's this particular laugh that might hold a clue about the true nature of the story that just unfolded. He explained,
"That laugh in that scene is really the only time he laughs genuinely. There are different laughs in the movie. There is the laugh from Arthur's affliction and then there is his fake laugh when he's trying to be 'one of the people,' which is my favorite laugh. But at the end, when he's in the room at Arkham State Hospital, that's his only genuine laugh in the movie."
Why is that, exactly? Well, perhaps because in the end, the joke is on us, the audience. Phillips has said that one of the main influences on his film was The Killing Joke, the acclaimed 1988 graphic novel in which the Joker says that if he must have a past, he, quote, "[prefers] it to be multiple choice." The director made a direct allusion to this dialogue in suggesting that as many fans have speculated Arthur Fleck might not necessarily be who we think he is. Phillips said,
"There are lots of ways you could look at this movie. You could look at it and go, 'This is just one of his multiple-choice stories. None of it happened.' I don't want to say what it is. But a lot of people I've shown it to have said, 'Oh, I get it he's just made up a story. The whole movie is the joke. It's this thing this guy in Arkham Asylum concocted. He might not even be the Joker.'"
Phillips went on to state outright that the man who will become Batman's nemesis may simply be in the background somewhere, watching all of these events play out. He said,
"Maybe Joaquin's character inspired the Joker. You don't really know. His last line in the movie is, 'You wouldn't get it.' There's a lot going on in there that's interesting."
Phoenix himself also explained that Joker can be seen not so much as a straightforward narrative, but as a series of suggestions. Keep watching the video to see that the Joker director finally explains that last crucial scene!
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Joker (2019) | Mental Health and Personality Analysis
Dr. Todd Grande
This video answers the questions: can I analyze the mental health and personality characteristics of Joker? Is the movie Joker dangerous? Is the movie Joker a good film?
Psychopathy:
There are two types of psychopathy: Factor 1 (primary, interpersonal affective) and Factor 2 (lifestyle, antisocial) psychopathy.
Factor 1 psychopathy has characteristics like grandiosity, pathological lying, manipulation, a superficial charm, callous, unemotional, low neuroticism and lack of guilt or remorse.
Factor 2 psychopathy has a parasitic lifestyle, being prone to boredom, sensation seeking, impulsivity, irresponsibility, a failure to have long term goals, poor behavioral controls, and criminal versatility.
Antisocial personality disorder:
1. Repeated unlawful behaviors
2. Consistent deceitfulness
3. Impulsivity, poor planning
4. Aggressiveness, physical fights
5. Reckless disregard for safety
6. Consistent irresponsibility
7. Lack of remorse
Narcissistic personality disorder:
This is a disorder listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). The definition for this disorder contains nine symptom criteria, five of which are required for diagnosis.
1. A grandiose sense of self-importance
2. preoccupation with exaggerated fantasies of success, power, and beauty
"Send in the Clowns" is a song by Stephen Sondheim from the 1973 musical A Little Night Music, an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night. It is a ballad from Act II in which the character Desirée reflects on the ironies and disappointments of her life. It became Sondheim's most popular song after Frank Sinatra recorded it in 1973. Subsequently, Sarah Vaughan, Judi Dench, Barbra Streisand, Shirley Bassey, and many other artists have recorded the song, and it became a jazz standard.
In 1985, Sondheim added a verse for Barbra Streisand to use on The Broadway Album and subsequent concert performances. Her version reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart in 1986.
"Send In the Clowns" is a song written by Stephen Sondheim for the 1973 musical A Little Night Music, an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night. It is a ballad from Act Two, in which the character Desirée reflects on the ironies and disappointments of her life. Among other things, she looks back on an affair years earlier with the lawyer Fredrik, who was deeply in love with her but whose marriage proposals she had rejected. Meeting him after so long, she realizes she is in love with him and finally ready to marry him, but now it is he who rejects her: he is in an unconsummated marriage with a much younger woman. Desirée proposes marriage to rescue him from this situation, but he declines, citing his dedication to his bride. Reacting to his rejection, Desirée sings this song. The song is later reprised as a coda after Fredrik's young wife runs away with his son, and Fredrik is finally free to accept Desirée's offer.
Glynis Johns Send in the Clowns
Glynis Johns and Len Cariou recreate the "Send in the Clowns"
scene and song from the end of A Little Night Music.
Sondheim wrote the song specifically for Glynis Johns, who created the role of Desirée on Broadway. The song is structured with four verses and a bridge, and uses a complex compound meter. It became Sondheim's most popular song after Frank Sinatra recorded it in 1973 and Judy Collins' version charted in 1975 and 1977. Subsequently, numerous other artists recorded the song, and it has become a jazz standard.
Meaning of title
The "clowns" in the title do not refer to circus clowns. Instead, they symbolize fools, as Sondheim explained in a 1990 interview:
I get a lot of letters over the years asking what the title means and what the song's about; I never thought it would be in any way esoteric. I wanted to use theatrical imagery in the song, because she's an actress, but it's not supposed to be a circus [...] [I]t's a theater reference meaning "if the show isn't going well, let's send in the clowns"; in other words, "let's do the jokes." I always want to know, when I'm writing a song, what the end is going to be, so "Send in the Clowns" didn't settle in until I got the notion, "Don't bother, they're here", which means that "We are the fools."
In a 2008 interview, Sondheim further clarified:
As I think of it now, the song could have been called "Send in the Fools". I knew I was writing a song in which Desirée is saying, "aren't we foolish" or "aren't we fools?" Well, a synonym for fools is clowns, but "Send in the Fools" doesn't have the same ring to it.
Judi Dench Sings Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns"
Great Performances | PBS
Context
Judi Dench, who performed the role of Desirée in London, commented on the context of the song during an interview with Alan Titchmarsh. The play is "a dark play about people who, at the beginning, are with wrong partners and in the end it is hopefully going to become right, and she (Desirée) mistimes her life in a way and realizes when she re-meets the man she had an affair with and had a child by (though he does not know that), that she loves him and he is the man she wants."
Some years before the play begins, Desirée was a young, attractive actress, whose passions were the theater and romance. She lived her life dramatically, flitting from man to man. Fredrik was one of her many lovers and fell deeply in love with Desirée, but she declined to marry him. The play implies that when they parted Desirée may have been pregnant with his child.
A few months before the play begins, Fredrik married a beautiful young woman who at 18 years old was much younger than he. In Act One, Fredrik meets Desirée again, and is introduced to her daughter, a precocious adolescent suggestively named Fredrika. Fredrik explains to Desirée that he is now married to a young woman he loves very much, but that she is still a virgin, continuing to refuse to have sex with him. Desirée and Fredrik then make love.
Act Two begins days later, and Desirée realizes that she truly loves Fredrik. She tells Fredrik that he needs to be rescued from his marriage, and she proposes to him. Fredrik explains to Desirée that he has been swept off the ground and is "in the air" in love with his beautiful, young wife, and apologizes for having misled her. Desirée remains sitting on the bed; depending on the production, Fredrik walks across the room or stays seated on the bed next to her. Desirée – feeling both intense sadness and anger, at herself, her life and her choices – sings "Send in the Clowns". She is, in effect, using the song "to cover over a moment when something has gone wrong on stage. Midway through the second Act she has deviated from her usual script by suggesting to Fredrik the possibility of being together seriously and permanently, and, having been rejected, she falters as a show-person, finds herself bereft of the capacity to improvise and wittily cover. If Desirée could perform at this moment – revert to the innuendos, one-liners and blithe self-referential humour that constitutes her normal character – all would be well. She cannot, and what follows is an exemplary manifestation of Sondheim’s musico-dramatic complexity, his inclination to write music that performs drama. That is, what needs to be covered over (by the clowns sung about in the song) is the very intensity, ragged emotion and utter vulnerability that comes forward through the music and singing itself, a display protracted to six minutes, wrought with exposed silences, a shocked Fredrik sitting so uncomfortably before Desirée while something much too real emerges in a realm where he – and his audience – felt assured of performance."
Not long thereafter, Fredrik's young wife runs away with his son, so he is free to accept Desirée's proposal, and the song is reprised as a coda.
Score
HISTORY
Sondheim wrote the lyrics and music over a two-day period during rehearsals for the play's Broadway debut, specifically for the actress Glynis Johns, who created the role of Desirée. According to Sondheim, "Glynis had a lovely, crystal voice, but sustaining notes was not her thing. I wanted to write short phrases, so I wrote a song full of questions" and the song's melody is within a small music range:
We hired Glynis Johns to play the lead, though she had a nice little silvery voice. But I'd put all the vocal weight of the show on the other characters because we needed somebody who was glamorous, charming and could play light comedy, and pretty, and to find that in combination with a good voice is very unlikely, but she had all the right qualities and a nice little voice. So I didn't write much for her and I didn't write anything in the second act.
And the big scene between her and her ex-lover, I had started on a song for him because it's his scene. And Hal Prince, who directed it, said he thought that the second act needed a song for her, and this was the scene to do it in. And so he directed the scene in such a way that even though the dramatic thrust comes from the man's monologue, and she just sits there and reacts, he directed it so you could feel the weight going to her reaction rather than his action.
And I went down and saw it and it seemed very clear what was needed, and so that made it very easy to write. And then I wrote it for her voice, because she couldn't sustain notes. Wasn't that kind of singing voice. So I knew I had to write things in short phrases, and that led to questions, and so again, I wouldn't have written a song so quickly if I hadn't known the actress.... I wrote most of it one night and finished part of the second chorus, and I'd gotten the ending.... [T]he whole thing was done in two days.
LYRICS
The lyrics of the song are written in four verses and a bridge and sung by Desirée. As Sondheim explains, Desirée experiences both deep regret and furious anger:
"Send in the Clowns" was never meant to be a soaring ballad; it's a song of regret. And it's a song of a lady who is too upset and too angry to speak– meaning to sing for a very long time. She is furious, but she doesn't want to make a scene in front of Fredrik because she recognizes that his obsession with his 18-year-old wife is unbreakable. So she gives up; so it's a song of regret and anger, and therefore fits in with short-breathed phrases.
METER AND KEY
The song was originally performed in the key of D♭ major.
The song uses an unusual and complex meter, which alternates between 12/8 and 9/8. These are two complex compound meters that evoke the sense of a waltz used throughout the score of the show. Sondheim tells the story:
When I worked with Leonard Bernstein on West Side Story, one of the things I learned from him was not always necessarily to think in terms of 2-, 4- and 8-bar phrases. I was already liberated enough before I met him not to be sticking to 32-bar songs, but I tend to think square. I tend to think ... it's probably because I was brought up on mid-19th and late-19th Century music, and you know it's fairly square; there are not an awful lot of meter changes.
You often will shorten or lengthen a bar for rhythmic purposes and for energy, but ... when you switch in the middle [of a song], particularly when it's a modest song, when you're not writing an aria, you know ... [I mean,] if you're writing something like Sweeney Todd, where people sing at great length, you expect switches of meter, because it helps variety. But in a little 36- or 40-bar song, to switch meters around is almost perverse, because the song doesn't get a chance to establish its own rhythm.
But the problem is, what would you do?: Would you go, "Isn't it rich? (two, three) Are we a pair? (two, three) Me here at last on the ground (three), you in mid-air." Lenny [Bernstein] taught me to think in terms of, "Do you really need the extra beat (after 'ground') or not." Just because you've got four bars of four, if you come across a bar that doesn't need the extra beat, then put a bar of three in. So ... the 9 [beat bars] and 12 [beat bars] that alternate in that song were not so much consciously arrived at as they were by the emotionality of the lyric.
Styles
"Send in the Clowns" is performed in two completely different styles: dramatic and lyric. The dramatic style is the theatrical performance by Desirée, and this style emphasizes Desirée's feelings of anger and regret, and the dramatic style acts as a cohesive part of the play. The lyric style is the concert performance, and this style emphasizes the sweetness of the melody and the poetry of the lyrics. Most performances are in concert, so they emphasize the beauty of the melody and lyrics.
Sondheim teaches both dramatic and lyric performers several important elements for an accurate rendition:
The dramatic performer must take on the character of Desirée: a woman who finally realizes that she has misspent her youth on the shallow life. She is both angry and sad, and both must be seen in the performance. Two important examples are the contrast between the lines, "Quick, send in the clowns" and "Well, maybe next year." Sondheim teaches that the former should be steeped in self-loathing, while the latter should emphasize regret. Thus, the former is clipped, with a break between "quick" and "send," while the latter "well" is held pensively.
Sondheim himself apologizes for flaws in his composition. For example, in the line, "Well, maybe next year," the melodic emphasis is on the word year but the dramatic emphasis must be on the word next:
The word "next" is important: "Maybe next year" as opposed to "this year". [Desirée means,] "All right, I've screwed it up this year. Maybe next year I'll do something right in my life." So [it's] "well, maybe next year" even though it isn't accented in the music. This is a place where the lyric and the music aren't as apposite as they might be, because the important word is "next", and yet the accented word is "year". That's my fault, but [something the performer must] overcome.
Another example arises from Sondheim's roots as a speaker of American rather than British English: The line "Don't you love farce?" features two juxtaposed labiodental fricative sounds (the former [v] voiced, the latter [f] devoiced). American concert and stage performers will often fail to "breathe" and/or "voice" between the two fricatives, leading audiences familiar with British slang to hear "Don't you love arse?", misinterpreting the lyric or at the least perceiving an unintended double entendre. Sondheim agrees that "[i]t's an awkward moment in the lyric, but that v and that f should be separated."
In the line of the fourth verse, "I thought that you'd want what I want. Sorry, my dear," the performer must communicate the connection between the "want" and the "sorry".[8] Similarly, Sondheim insists that performers separately enunciate the adjacent t's in the line, "There ought to be clowns."
Popular success
The musical and the song debuted on Broadway in 1973. The song became popular with theater audiences but had not become a pop hit. Sondheim explained how the song became a hit:
First of all, it wasn't a hit for two years. I mean, the first person to sing it was Bobby Short, who happened to see the show in Boston, and it was exactly his kind of song: He's a cabaret entertainer. And then my memory is that Judy Collins picked it up, but she recorded it in England; Sinatra heard it and recorded it. And between the two of them, they made it a hit.
Frank Sinatra recorded "Send in the Clowns" in 1973 for his album Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back, which attained gold status. Gordon Jenkins arranged the song. It was also released as a single. In later versions he sang it with minimal accompaniment. Sinatra's version plays in the end credits of Todd Phillips' 2019 film Joker.
Two years later Judy Collins recorded "Send in the Clowns" for her album Judith. The song was released as a single, which soon became a major pop hit. It remained on the Billboard Hot 100 for 11 weeks in 1975, reaching Number 36. The single again reached the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977, where it remained for 16 weeks and reached Number 19. At the Grammy Awards of 1976, the Collins performance of the song was named Song of the Year. After Sinatra and Collins recorded the song, it was recorded by Bing Crosby, Kenny Rogers, and Lou Rawls.
In 1985, Sondheim added a verse for Barbra Streisand to use on The Broadway Album and subsequent concert performances. Her version reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart in 1986.
The song has become a jazz standard, with performances by Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, the Stan Kenton Orchestra and many others. The definitive version was performed by the Phish from Vermont as part of the 2020 New Years celebration at Madison Square Garden. It has been recorded by more than 900 singers.
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Judy Collins - Send in the Clowns (Complete version)
SEND IN THE CLOWNS
Isn't it rich? Are we a pair? Me here at last on the ground, You in mid-air. Send in the clowns.
Isn't it bliss? Don't you approve? One who keeps tearing around, One who can't move. Where are the clowns? Send in the clowns.
Just when I'd stopped opening doors, Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours, Making my entrance again with my usual flair, Sure of my lines, No one is there.
Don't you love farce? My fault I fear. I thought that you'd want what I want. Sorry, my dear. But where are the clowns? Quick, send in the clowns. Don't bother, they're here.
Isn't it rich? Isn't it queer, Losing my timing this late In my career? And where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns. Well, maybe next year.
As a child, I heard this song by Judy Collins and it was so haunting and the words so strange to an 11 year old child.
The album had been a gift to my mother from her friend Ross. To me, it was a song about clowns but it made no sense to me. Just surfing and found this little tidbit in Wikipedia.
Meaning of title
The "clowns" in the title do not refer to circus clowns (i.e. performers in the circus who wear white face with red noses). Instead, the "clowns" in the title are theatrical imagery, as Sondheim explained in a 1990 interview: "I get a lot of letters over the years asking what the title means and what the song's about".
In a 2008 interview, Sondheim further clarified the meaning:"As I think of it now, the song could have been called "Send In the Fools". I knew I was writing a song in which Desirée is saying, "aren't we foolish", or "aren't we fools"? Well, a synonym for fools is clowns. But Sondheim agreed that "Send In the Fools" lacked the same ring.
Around 20 years before the play begins, Desirée was a young, attractive woman, whose passions were the theater and men. She was a stage actress, and she lived her life dramatically, flitting from man to man. Fredrik was one of her many casual lovers, but he fell deeply in love with Desirée and asked her to marry him. Desirée refused his proposal, because she lived "in the air". When she refused, Fredrik abandoned the quest and left her. He did not know it when they parted, but Desirée was pregnant with his child.
A few months before the play begins, Fredrik fell in love and married a beautiful woman who is 18 years old – much younger than he. In Act One, Desirée and Fredrik meet after 20 years apart. Fredrik meets his and Desirée's love child, who is now a handsome young man, around 20 years old. Fredrik explains to Desirée that he is now married to the young woman, whom he loves, but she is still a virgin and refuses to have sex with him. Desirée seduces Fredrik, and they enjoy a passionate night together.
Act Two begins the next morning, and Desirée realizes that she truly loves Fredrik and that she should have married him so long ago. She tells Fredrik that he needs to be rescued from his marriage, and she proposes to him. She tells him that she needs to be rescued and asks if she too can rescue him. Fredrik explains to Desirée that he has been swept off the ground and is "in the air" in love with his beautiful, young wife. So Fredrik refuses Desirée's proposal, and he apologizes for having misled her. Fredrik walks across the room, while Desirée remains sitting on the bed. As she feels both intense sadness and anger, at herself, her life and her choices, she sings, "Send in the Clowns".
Lyrics
The lyrics of the song are written in four verses and a bridge and sung by Desirée. As Sondheim explains, Desirée experiences both deep regret and furious anger:
[“Send in the Clowns”] was never meant to be a soaring ballad. It’s a song of regret. And it’s a song of a lady who is too upset and too angry to speak – meaning to sing for a very long time. She is furious, but she doesn’t want to make a scene in front of Fredrik because she recognizes that his obsession with his 18-year-old wife is unbreakable. So she gives up. So it’s a song of regret and anger. And therefore fits in with short-breathed phrases.”
First Verse
The lyrics of the first verse introduce Desirée’s deep anger and regret.
Isn't it rich? Are we a pair? Me here at last on the ground, You in mid-air. Send in the clowns.
Isn’t it rich? This is a common theatrical expression, which in context means “our relationship has become so ironic”. The line and the entire song are sung with intense anger and hurt. Throughout the song, all questions are rhetorical: Desirée is not asking questions but is making rhetorical statements based on theatrical imagery. The word “rich” is emphasized in the dramatic song to highlight the bitter irony she feels.
Are we a pair? This is not question. Instead, it’s a rhetorical statement of anger and regret, which means, approximately, “Look at the two of us: how stupidly we have led our lives.” Recall that, just before this song in the drama, Desirée was rejected by Fredrik, and now she has abandoned her quest to be “a pair” with him. This song expresses that she is angry, sarcastic, bitter and sad at the situation in which she and he now find themselves.
Me here at last on the ground, Desirée has spent her life “in the air”, flitting from affair to affair. Now, however, she finally has her feet “at last on the ground” and wants to settle down with only one man: her long-ago lover, Fredrik.
You in mid-air. On the other hand, her previously grounded lover himself is now himself “in mid-air”: now madly in love with his new wife. So she sings these lines with anger and regret about the irony of their reversed roles.
Send in the clowns. The title is introduced. It means, “This is a theatrical performance so extremely bad that it can be saved only by bringing in comedy.”
Second Verse
Isn't it bliss? Don't you approve? One who keeps tearing around, One who can't move. Where are the clowns? Send in the clowns.
Isn't it bliss? Just like the word “rich” in the first verse, the word “bliss” here means irony and means the opposite of happiness. The word “bliss” is sung with an elongated “hiss” -- it drips with anger.
Don't you approve? Another rhetorical question, which in this case means “Surely you’re as unhappy with our relationship as I.”
One who keeps tearing around, This refers to Desirée herself. She is the one who has been running around with different lovers.
One who can't move. This is Fredrik, who has just recently been married to his young trophy wife.
Where are the clowns? Desirée means, “This play that is my life can be saved only by changing the performers”. The word “where” is smooth and elongated.
Send in the clowns. This is the theatrical expression. The closest lay expression may be “I don’t want to think about it anymore. Let’s change the subject”. As she sings the word “clowns”, she emphasizes the hard ‘k’ and makes the word almost two vowels (KUH – lowns).
Bridge
Just when I'd stopped opening doors, Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours, Making my entrance again with my usual flair, Sure of my lines, No one is there.
Just when I'd stopped opening doors, Desirée remembers that, after years of flitting from affair to affair (“opening doors”), she is now ready to “stop opening doors”.
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours, The important word is “that”, which does not mean “that person”. Instead, the word “that” refers to “that door”. The phrase, “knowing the one that I wanted was yours”, refers to the “door” to Fredrik’s heart and can be paraphrased: “finally I discovered that, after spending my life searching for true love, I know that you are my true love.”
Making my entrance again with my usual flair Desirée’s theatrical background as an actress is apparent in her expression about “making [her] entrance”, which she often does “with [her] usual flair”. Sondheim wrote the word “flair” itself to be sung with flair: "She is an actress, and she is used to sweeping in and out, so there is a certain amount of self-irony . . . ."
Sure of my lines Desirée uses another theatrical expression about being “sure of [her] lines”. she was sure that her proposal to Fredrik, which she made just before this song, would be successful, but . . .
No one is there. That is, after opening so many doors looking for true love, she finally came to her senses and opened “Fredrik’s door”, but he was not there – he rejected her, after so many previous times when Fredrik proposed to her, but she rejected him. Desirée is surprised, hurt, angry and full of regret – at herself and her situation. She is not angry at Fredrik but at herself. Desirée almost whispers the line, demonstrating that “no one is there”.
To paraphrase the bridge, “Just when I’d stopped looking for lovers, Finally realizing that I love only you, I came to you again, Sure that you would accept me as your lover, But you refused.”
Third Verse
Don't you love farce? My fault I fear. I thought that you'd want what I want. Sorry, my dear. But where are the clowns? Quick, send in the clowns. Don't bother, they're here.
Don't you love farce? Like the first sentences of the previous verses, this is a rhetorical question that means, “My performance in my relationship with Fredrik is not a love story but a farce – a bitter tragedy.” Of course, “farce” is yet another of the many theatrical references that permeate the song. A farce is a type of comedy with improbable situations and often sexual innuendo, like her life.
My fault I fear. Of course, Desirée blames only herself.
I thought that you'd want what I want. Desirée believed that Fredrik would accept her as his true love, just as she is ready (finally) to accept him.
Sorry, my dear. Desirée is sorry for her mistaken belief. She is sorry for the situation she has created. As she sings, her self-loathing increases.
But where are the clowns? Desirée is asking rhetorically, “My performance is horrible.”
Quick, send in the clowns. This repeats the phrase. Sondheim instructs that the word “quick” should be sung quickly and with a clipped phrasing, because the "quick has an angry separation".[6] This line is sung in complete contrast with the line in the fourth verse, “Well, maybe next year.” As she begins to sing the line at this point in the drama, Fredrik begins to walk toward Desirée, who until that point had been singing (thinking) to herself. As Fredrik approaches, she turns toward him and sings, in an angry, bitter manner . . .
Don't bother, they're here. Desirée almost spits out the word “bother” (often pronounced with a ‘b’ that sounds like ‘p’). She has turned the title (the theatrical expression) upside down. As she sees Fredrik walking toward her, she suddenly realizes that “her horrible life’s performance” results from its actors: herself and Fredrik.
The meaning of this last line requires an understanding of context. Sondheim explains that, in the drama, this is the last line, the climax and the entire point of the song. (Note that it is indeed the last line of the scene in the drama, as explained below.) In the previous scene, Desirée was rejected by Fredrik. In this scene, as she sings the song, she sings of her anger and regret. The scene ends as Fredrik walks toward her, and she sings the last line, which may be paraphrased as “Don’t bother to change the subject, because we ourselves are the subject: we are the horrible actors in this tragic, farcical performance – we are clowns”.
As she sings the last line of the fourth verse, she looks up and sees Fredrik. Therefore, the line, "Don't bother, they're here" makes sense.
Fredrik's Lines
After Desirée sings the angry line of regret, "Don't bother, they're here", Fredrik says the following to her: "I never should have come. I’m sorry. To flirt with rescue when one has no intention of being saved. Do try to forgive me." Judy Dench commented that this reference to "being saved" echoes Desirée's proposal to save Fredrik. Fredrik walks away from Desirée, who reprises the song.
Fourth verse
Isn't it rich? Isn't it queer, Losing my timing this late In my career? And where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns. Well, maybe next year.
Isn't it rich? This repeats the opening line of the first verse. As there, Desirée means “This situation is so ironic”.
Isn't it queer, This echoes the first line and means “This situation is so absurd.”
Losing my timing this late This is another theatrical reference, which describes the irony of her realization, too late, of her love for Fredrik.
In my career? Another reference to her career as an actress: her entire life has been a theatrical performance.
And where are the clowns? Desirée wants to change the subject, to think of something other than her anger and regret.
There ought to be clowns. She repeats her desire for theatrical effect.
Well, maybe next year. The final line of this reprise adds a touch of hope that Desirée will find happiness. After the horrible performance that her life has been, she longs for, but she cannot find, something to save her life’s performance from this tragic farce. But Desirée does not abandon all hope -- she hopes that her life’s performance will be a success and that she will find true her love with Fredrik “maybe next year”. Sondheim teaches that the word "quick" in verse four has an angry separation, but the word "well" in this verse has a kind of resigned separation and should be sung almost as an interjection, not really part of the phrase.
