Love is a sickness full of woes, All remedies refusing; A plant that [with most]1 cutting grows, Most barren with best using, Why so? More we enjoy it, more it dies; If not enjoy'd, it sighing cries -- Heigh ho! Love is a torment of the mind, A tempest everlasting; And Jove hath made [it of]2 a kind Not well, nor full, nor fasting. Why so? More we enjoy it, more it dies; If not enjoy'd, it sighing cries -- Heigh ho!
Two Elizabethan Songs , opus 44
by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960)
1. Love is a sickness  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- possibly by Samuel Daniel (1562 - 1619), "Love is a sickness"
- possibly by Thomas Maske , "Love is a sickness"
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , "Lieb' ist ein Siechtum", appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
1 Parry: "most with"
2 Ireland, Moeran, Raynor: "of it"
2. In youth is pleasure  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
In an harbour1 grene aslepe whereas I lay The byrdes sang swete in the middes of the day: I dreamèd fast of mirth and play. In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure. Me thought I walkèd still to and fro, And from her company I could not go, But when I wakèd it was not so. In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure. Therefore my heart is surely pyght2 Of her alone to have a sight Which is my joy and hearte's delight. In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure. Modernized spelling In an arbour green asleep whereas I lay The birds sang sweet in the [middis]3 of the day: I dreamed fast of mirth and play; In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure. Methought I walked still to and fro, And from her company I could not go, But when I waked it was not so. In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure. Therefore my heart is surely pight 4 Of her alone to have a sight Which is my joy and heart's delight. In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure. Original version, Lusty Iuventus of youth he syngeth In a herber grene a sleep where as I lay, The byrdes sang swete in y middes of the day, I dreamed fast of myrth and play, In youth is plesure, in youth is pleasure. Me thought I walked stil to and fro, And from her company I could not go, But when I waked it was not so, In youth is plesure, in youth is plesure. Therfore my hart is surely pyght Of her alone to have a sight. Which is my joy and hartes delyght, In youth is plesure, in youth is pleasure. Finis.
Text Authorship:
- by R. Wever, probably Richard Wever (c1500? - 1560?), appears in An Enterlude called Lusty Juventus, first published 1565
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 presumably "arbour" (note from score)
2 old past participle of pitch := resolved, set upon. (note from score)
3 Moeran: "middes"; Warlock (in "Youth"): "middès"
4 Note from score: pight: fixed, determined.