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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

Being your slave what should I do but...
Language: English 
Our translations:  ITA
Being your slave what should I do but tend,
Upon the hours, and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend;
Nor services to do, till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour,
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour,
When you have bid your servant once adieu;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are, how happy you make those.
    So true a fool is love, that in your will,
    Though you do anything, he thinks no ill. 

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 57 [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 Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Sonnet LVII - Being your slave", op. 125 (Shakespeare Sonnets), Heft 1 no. 8 (1944-7) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet LVII", 1865-6 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Joel Weiss , "Sonnet 57", 1995 [ voice and piano ] [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. 57, first published 1857
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-08-11
Line count: 14
Word count: 117

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