"When You Play the Violin" is the fifth track on The Tragic Treasury, performed by The Gothic Archies. It coincides with the fifth book, The Austere Academy.
Lyrics[]
- I have known little civility, sir
- Few have been kind, fewer truthful
- And though within my ability, sir
- I remain dutifully youthful
- I go gray, then bald, with chagrin
- When you play the violin
- How I pray for death to begin
- When you play the violin
- True, there's been trouble and trickery, sir
- Trembling and tribulations
- Twitches from switches of hickory, sir
- You, sir, and your usurpation
- But my patience wears very thin
- When you play the violin
- How I stay, I can't imagine
- When you play the violin
- I've endured struggling and thuggery, sir
- Physical Ed and psychosis
- Sculleries, skulls, and skullduggeries, sir
- Haplessness, hype and hypnosis
- But, oy vey! The horrible din
- When you play the violin
- You betray an ear made of tin
- When you play, when you slay the violin
References to A Series of Unfortunate Events[]
- I have known little civility, sir
Few have been kind, fewer truthful
And though within my ability, sir
I remain dutifully youthful- The Baudelaires have met few kind people, and even less who are helpful to them, throughout their previous adventures. Similarly, the Quagmire triplets have met with nothing but bullying since their orphaning. Nevertheless, they continue to remain hopeful.
- How I pray for death to begin
When you play the violin- Vice Principal Nero is infamously horrible at playing the violin, though he does not seem to know this, and makes his students attend mandatory, nightly violin recitals.
- True, there's been trouble and trickery, sir
Trembling and tribulations- Mostly from Count Olaf.
- Twitches from switches of hickory, sir
- Rather darkly, a hickory switch is a flexible rod made for wood, used for corporal punishment- the beating of someone under you care, likely a child. This likely references the physical abuse the Baudelaires suffered under Olaf, though the books never describe him beating them with switches directly.
- You, sir, and your usurpation
- Though Nero is only the Vice Principal, he acts as the head of the school.
- I've endured struggling and thuggery, sir
- Likely a reference to Count Olaf's acting troupe- "thugs."
- Physical Ed and psychosis
- "Physical Ed" references Olaf's plot to steal the Baudelaire fortune by tiring out the children with a faux gym class.
- "Psychosis" is a blanket term for a mental disorder in which thought and emotions are impaired- possibly referring to the mental trauma beginning to take its toll on the orphans. It could also be referencing the paranoia of Josephine Anwhistle that nearly got the Baudelaires killed.
- Haplessness, hype and hypnosis
- "Hypnosis" references Georgina Orwell and her hypnotism. As this event only occurred to the Baudelaires, it excludes the Quagmires from the possibility of narration.
- But, oy vey! The horrible din
- "Oy vey" is a Yiddish term, akin to "oh no!", referencing the Baudelaires' Jewish identity.[1]
- When you play, when you slay the violin
- Merritt says here that Nero slays the violin as he plays it. Everybody but Nero thinks that he slays the violin in that he is lavishly murdering both his instrument, and the act of both playing and enjoying violin music. However, Vice Principal Nero thinks he slays the violin in the word’s other definition: to immensely delight. He believes the audience is being blessed by the sheer genius of his violin abilities. Everyone but him knows that in reality, the first meaning of the word is true, creating dramatic irony.[2]
Gallery[]
When You Play The Violin The Gothic Archies-1
Sources[]
| |||||||||||||||||