Meaning & Analysis
To perform a different musical piece than one was singing before.
Insights
Change of Stance
To dramatically alter one's opinion, story, or attitude, often due to new information, pressure, or a shift in circumstances.
Forced Recantation
To be compelled to retract a previous statement or abandon a defiant attitude, typically under duress or in the face of severe consequences.
Reversal of Fortune
Symbolizes a significant change in one's situation, where a previously confident or boastful demeanor is replaced by humility or sorrow due to an adverse turn of events.
Psychology of Coercion
The proverb reveals a psychological truth about how authority and adversity can force individuals to change their expressed beliefs, shifting from a 'song' of defiance to one of submission or regret.
Punishment and Confession
Historically, the phrase was linked to public punishment, such as at Tyburn, where a defiant person would be forced to 'sing another song' of lament or confession, transforming their tune from rebellion to sorrow.
Musical Metaphor for Expression
The use of 'song' as a metaphor for one's viewpoint is culturally significant, framing personal expression as a performance that can be changed, either voluntarily or by force, akin to changing a musical tune.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The central device where a 'song' metaphorically represents a person's stated opinion, argument, or attitude, making the concept of changing one's mind more vivid and memorable.
Idiom
The phrase functions as a deeply ingrained idiom, where the figurative meaning of a complete reversal of opinion has entirely superseded its literal sense.
Implied Narrative
The expression creates a concise narrative of transformation, implying a past state (the old song) and a present reversal (the new song), effectively capturing the drama of a significant change.
Transcription
Quotations
Nay everyman I synge a nother songe.
My mayster . . hathe thaught me to synge a newe songe to daye.
I woll make the chaung that song, ere wee pas this place.
At there returninege hither they will sing an other song.
The wyfe singes an other songe.
If they had euen my experience, they would sing another song.
Theyle change their note, and sing an other song.
Madame, The Queen must heare you sing another song.
You shall at Tiburne, sing another song to a sorrowfull tune.
Oh, sir, you sung another song, in my mother's dairy.
To sing a new song.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.