by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Some glory in their birth, some in their...
Language: English
Our translations: ITA
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
Some in their wealth, some in their body's force,
Some in their garments though new-fangled ill;
Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;
And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure,
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest:
But these particulars are not my measure,
All these I better in one general best.
Thy love is better than high birth to me,
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' costs,
Of more delight than hawks and horses be;
And having thee, of all men's pride I boast:
Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take
All this away, and me most wretched make.
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Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), appears in Sonnets, no. 91 [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 Grace Chadbourne , "Sonnet XCI" [ bass and piano ], from Shakespeare Song Cycle, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Wolfgang Fortner (1907 - 1987), no title, 1981, published c1982 [ tenor and piano ], from Widmungen : aus den Sonetten von William Shakespeare, no. 2, Mainz ; New York : Schott [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XCI", 1864 [ medium voice and piano ], first setting [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XCI", 1866 [ low voice and piano ], second setting [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Polish (Polski), a translation by Maciej Słomczyński (1922 - 1998) ; composed by Tadeusz Baird.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 91, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-09-16
Line count: 14
Word count: 114