by John Gay (1685 - 1732)
When my Hero in court appears
Language: English
When my Hero in court appears, And stands arraign'd for his life; Then think of poor Polly's tears; For ah! Poor Polly's his wife. Like the sailor he holds up his hand, Distrest on the dashing wave. To die a dry death at land Is a bad a wat'ry grave: And alas, poor Polly! Alack and a-well a day! Before I was in love, Oh, ev'ry month was May.
Text Authorship:
- by John Gay (1685 - 1732) [author's text not yet checked 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):
- by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827), "When my Hero in court appears", WoO 158c no. 1 (1816-7), from Six Songs of various Nationalities, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Christopher Pepusch (1667 - 1752), "When my Hero in court appears", from opera The Beggar's Opera [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani
This text was added to the website: 2006-10-04
Line count: 12
Word count: 69