LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,138)
  • Text Authors (19,558)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637)

The owl is abroad, the bat and the toad
Language: English 
The owl is abroad, the bat and the toad,
And so is the cat-a-mountain;
The ant and the mole sit both in a hole,
And frog peeps out o' the fountain.
The dogs they do bay, and the timbrels play,
The spindle is now a-turning;
The moon it is red, and the stars are fled,
But all the sky is a-burning:
The ditch is made, and our nails the spade:

With pictures full, of wax and of wool,
Their livers I stick with needles quick;
There lacks but the blood to make up the flood.
Quickly, dame, then bring your part in!
Spur, spur, upon little Martin!
Merrily, merrily, make him sail,
A worm in his mouth and a thorn in's tail,
Fire above, and fire below,
With a whip i' your hand to make him go!

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   J. Smith 

H. Purcell sets lines 1-4

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637), "The Witches' Charms" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • misattributed to Henry Purcell (1658/9 - 1695) and by John Christopher Smith (1712 - 1795), "The Owl Is Abroad", lines 1-4 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "Witches' Charms", published 1928 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , T. P. (Peter) Perrin

This text was added to the website: 2004-12-30
Line count: 18
Word count: 137

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris