Instrumentation

• Voice
• Violin 1
• Violin 2
• Viola
• Violoncello

For the music director of His Majesty's Theatre in London, Bennett chose to set the three poems of "Merciless Beauty," ascribed to Geoffrey Chaucer, the "Father of English Literature" of "Canterbury Tales" fame. Bennett intended the work "for women's voice or voices," and it is here presented for soprano voice solo with string quartet. Bennett concurrently prepared a voice and piano version.