“From the land of the sky-blue water/they brought a captive maid!” – We hear Blanche singing this pseudo-Native American song as she prepares for her big date with Mitch. While it was originally set to music c. 1900 it was later recorded by such singers as Mildred Bailey and the Andrews Sisters, among others. Blanche is probably not simply singing a popular song, since she has already admitted to Stella that she feels trapped, at the end of her rope. The lyrics in their entirety are: “From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water” Text by Nelle Richmond Eberhart (1871-1944) Set by Charles Wakefield Cadman (1881-1946), published 1909, op. 45, from Cadman’s Four American Indian Songs no. 1. From the Land of the Sky-blue Water, They brought a captive maid; And her eyes they are lit with lightnings, Her heart is not afraid! But I steal to her lodge at dawning, I woo her with my flute; She is sick for the Sky-blue Water, The captive maid is mute.
“putting out” – an old expression meaning that a girl or woman would have sex with a man she was not married to. The Arabian Nights – Blanche is referring to the Middle Eastern fables told by Scheherezade; she means that the paper carrier has an exotic, romantic look to him. My Rosenkavalier – Blanche romanticizes Mitch by casting him as the hero of Strauss’ waltz opera of the same name, which character is an archetypal chivalrous object of desire of several of the women. delusion – a false belief. Pleiades - cluster of seven stars (also known as the Seven Sisters, esp. among Native Americans) in the constellation Taurus historically thought to symbolically represent “sweet influences.” joie de vivre – French: literally, joy of life; figuratively, to enjoy life, to live in a spirited way. Bohemian – not the ancient Eastern European province but referring to a “loose” lifestyle usually attributed to artists and freethinkers, in which people freely put out, for example. Je suis la Dame aux Camelias! Vous etes—Armand! – Blanche refers to Camille, the popular 19th century French melodrama of a high-class prostitute and her lover Armand, who remains true to her despite the fact that his family forbids the relationship. She ultimately dies of tuberculosis.
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