Hot sun, cool fire, tempered with sweet air,
Black shade, fair nurse, shadow my white hair:
Shine, sun; burn, fire; breathe, air, and ease me;
Black shade, fair nurse, shroud me, and please me:
Shadow, my sweet nurse, keep me from burning,
Make not my glad cause, cause [of mourning]1.
  Let not my beauty's fire
  [Inflame]2 unstaid desire,
  Nor pierce any bright eye
  That [wandereth]3 lightly.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Dove: "of my mourning"
² Dove: "Enflame"
³ Dove: "wand'reth"

Text Authorship:

• by George Peele (1556? - 1596), "Bethsabe bathing", appears in The Love of King David and fair Bethsabe [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):

• by William Laurence Bergsma (1921 - 1994), "Bethsabe bathing" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jonathan Dove (b. 1959), "Hot sun, cool fire", 2000, from The Passing of the Year, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Betty Roe (b. 1930), "Hot sun, cool fire", published 1993 [ medium voice and piano or viol consort ] [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-07-03
Line count: 10
Word count: 70