Take all my loves, my love, yea, take...
Language: English
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all;
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;
All mine was thine before thou hadst this more.
Then if for my love thou my love receivest,
I cannot blame thee for my love thou usest;
But yet be blamed, if thou thyself deceivest
By wilful taste of what thyself refusest.
I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,
Although thou steal thee all my poverty;
And yet, love knows, it is a greater grief
To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury.
Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites; yet we must not be foes.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Sonnet XL - Take all my loves", op. 125 (Shakespeare Sonnets), Heft 4 no. 2 (1963) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Leslie Crabtree (b. 1941), "Sonnet XL", 2003 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XL", 1865 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Rudi Spring (b. 1962), "Sonnet XL", op. 72 no. 1 (1999) [ vocal quintet: five solo voices a cappella (s-mez-a-t-bar) ], from Drei Shakespeare-Gesänge, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 40, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Prenditi ogni mio amore, amore, sì, prenditi tutto", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2004-08-09
Line count: 14
Word count: 120
Prenditi ogni mio amore, amore, sì, prenditi tutto
Language: Italian (Italiano) after the English
Prenditi ogni mio amore, amore, sì, prenditi tutto;
Che cosa avrai, più di prima, in tuo possesso ora?
Nessun amore, amore, che tu possa chiamare perfetto
Ogni mio amore era già tuo prima di questo ancora.
Se quindi per amor mio tu l'amor mio accogli
Non posso biasimarti per l'uso che ne fai;
Ma sii biasimato se te stesso imbrogli
Assaggiando ostinato ciò che tu stesso non vuoi.
Ladro gentile, io ti perdono il reato
Anche se quel poco che avevo tu me lo hai rubato;
E tuttavia Amore sa che è dolore più acuto
Essere ferito d'amore piuttosto che per essere odiato.
Grazia lasciva, le cui malignità sembrano beni,
Fai pure di me scempio ma amico mio rimani.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2007 by Ferdinando Albeggiani, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2007-10-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 119
