Purcell: Dido and Aeneas

This morning I listened to Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, and I noticed something about "Come away, fellow sailors" at the beginning of Act 3.  The text is:

Come away, fellow sailors, come away
Your anchors be weighing
Time and tide will admit no delaying
Take a bowsey short leave of your nymphs on the shore
And silence their mourning
With vows of returning
But never intending to visit them more

This continues with some variation on "But never intending to visit them more," but otherwise that's the entirety of the text.  I guessed at the line breaks, judging by what words receive capital letters in the notation I have (found here).

"Mourning" and "returning" don't rhyme perfectly.  At best, it's a slant rhyme.  That imperfection in rhyming seems to betray the sailors' "never intending to visit them more."  If there were a perfect rhyme there, it would imply the sailors' faithfulness to their "nymphs on the shore."

Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas

I just listened to Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas for the first time.  I noticed that the repeated bass part in "Ah! Belinda, I am prest with torment" is a variation of the first musical phrase of "Dies Irae."

(notation found here)

This quotation makes sense, as "Dies Irae" is about Judgement Day and the end of the world.  To some degree, it matches the emotional tone in "Ah! Belinda, I am prest with torment."