If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more: 'Tis not so sweet now as it was before. O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou, That, notwithstanding thy capacity Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there, Of what validity and pitch soe'er, But falls into abatement and low price, Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy That it alone is high fantastical.
Sonnets and Soliloquies
Song Cycle by Lee Hoiby (1926 - 2011)
1. If music be the food of love  [sung text not yet checked]
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Twelfth Night: or, What You Will, Act I, Scene 1, Orsino's lines, first published 1601
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo)
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. Sonnet 116  [sung text not yet checked]
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 116
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 116, first published 1857
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Sonett CXVI", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Mai non avvenga che io ponga impedimento", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
3. Sonnet 128  [sung text not yet checked]
How oft when thou, my music, music play'st, Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway'st The wiry concord that mine ear confounds, Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap, To kiss the tender inward of thy hand, Whilst my poor lips which should that harvest reap, At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand! To be so tickled, they would change their state And situation with those dancing chips, O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait, Making dead wood more bless'd than living lips. Since saucy jacks so happy are in this, Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 128
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 128, first published 1857
- GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Quando tu , musica mia, musica ricavi", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
4. Portia's Plea  [sung text checked 1 time]
The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: ‘T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown: His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s When mercy seasons justice. [Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation:]1 we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. [I have spoke thus much To mitigate the justice of thy plea; Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice Must needs give sentence ‘gainst the merchant there.]1
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title
- POL Polish (Polski) (Józef Paszkowski) , no title
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo) , no title
1 omitted by Hoiby.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]