How should I your true love know From another one? By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon.
How should I your true love know
Set by Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897), "How should I your true love know", WoO posth. 22 no. 1 (1873), from Ophelia-Lieder, no. 1, also set in German (Deutsch)  [sung text checked 1 time]
Note: this setting is made up of several separate texts.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, appears in Hamlet [an adaptation]
- sometimes misattributed to William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Based on:
- a text in English possibly by Walter Raleigh, Sir (1552? - 1618)
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title
- GER German (Deutsch) (Friedrich Ludwig Schröder) , no title, appears in Dramatische Werke, in Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark. Ein Trauerspiel in sechs Aufzügen. Nach Shakesspear [sic]
- GER German (Deutsch) (Karl Joseph Simrock) (Ludwig Wilhelm Friedrich Seeger) , no title, appears in Shakespeare in deutscher Übersetzung, in 6. Hamlet, first published 1868
- GER German (Deutsch) (Ludwig Wilhelm Friedrich Seeger) , no title, appears in Shakespeare in deutscher Übersetzung, in 6. Hamlet [an adaptation]
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , no title, copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- POL Polish (Polski) (Krystyn Ostrowski) , no title
Note: this is often referred to as the Walsingham Ballad, and is quoted in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5. Ophelia is singing.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poem An old song ended refers to this song.
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone; At his head a grass green turf, At his heels a stone.1
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
- sometimes misattributed to William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo)
- GER German (Deutsch) (Karl Joseph Simrock) (Ludwig Wilhelm Friedrich Seeger) , no title, appears in Shakespeare in deutscher Übersetzung, in 6. Hamlet
- GER German (Deutsch) (August Wilhelm Schlegel)
- GER German (Deutsch) (Friedrich Ludwig Schröder) , no title, appears in Dramatische Werke, in Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark. Ein Trauerspiel in sechs Aufzügen. Nach Shakesspear [sic]
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , no title, copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- POL Polish (Polski) (Krystyn Ostrowski) , no title
These words are sung by Ophelia in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5, but they are probably not by Shakespeare.
1 Rihm adds (using some words that are spoken in the Hamlet play): "Oho! Oho! Nay, but ... mark"Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]