Rejoice in the Lamb - Britten

Rejoice in the Lamb
Music by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Words by Christopher Smart (1722-1771)

About the Music:

Britten's Festival Cantata "Rejoice in the Lam op. 30, composed and first performed in the summer of 1943, is based on a section of a lengthy religious poem by Christopher Smart, the 18the century poet, who wrote it wile he was inmate of an asylum.

About the Words:

A "Commission of Lunacy" was taken out against Christopher Smart, and he was admitted in St. Luke's Hospital on May 6, 1757 as a "Curable Patient" by his wife Anna's stepfather John Newbery.[1] It is possible that Smart was confined by Newbery over old debts and a poor relationship between the two.[2] Regardless, there is evidence that an incident took place in St. James’s Park in which he "routed all the company" (Jubilate Agno B89) and this incident may have provoked his being locked away.[3]

During this time, Smart was left alone, except for his cat Jeoffry and the occasional gawker.[4] It is very possible that he felt "homeless" during this time and surely felt that he was in a "limbo… between public and private space".[5] He had nothing else but to turn inwards and devote himself to God and his poetry.[6] No specifics are known about Christopher Smart's day-to-day activities, and he was released from the asylum on January 30, 1763, but his poem was not to be published until 1939.[