ALFREDO:
Oh, if I only had the right,
I’d be the most watchful guardian
Of your dear life.VIOLETTA:
What a thing to say!
Who cares what happens to me?ALFREDO:
(ardently)
For no one in the world loves youVIOLETTA:
No one?ALFREDO:
… except for me.
—Francesco Maria Piave (after Alexandre Dumas fils), “La Traviata”
I loved you since I knew you
I wouldn’t talk down to you
I have to tell you just how I feel
I won’t share you with another boy…
cf. Lesser Ury, Nocturnal Street Scene (ca. 1920)
John Sapiro 