What started as lovely music on an haphazard choice of poetry, appeared to be a singular box where sweets compacted lie; and dallying with the innocence of love, Ralph Vaughan Williams combined this pieces to a message for the ears of King Edward VII only.
So it stands to reason to assume this music was composed to be performed in the presence of the adulterous king himself, in order to confront him with his guilty concience. But this possibility causes a very nasty problem, for things are hidden far to well to serve this purpose. Even worse; Vaughan Williams would have served poisoned sweets if he ever had informed Edward VII that only a virtuous soul is like seasoned timber:
The woodwork supporting a roof is usually as rigid as a poem’s structure. But at this occasion both the overall song and all three assembling parts are equally moving; they spin round like roofs blown away in a tempest. And this way at least the shape of the message is straight about the consequences of royal misconduct:
the king must go.
—