Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
[That hills and valleys, dales and field,
Or woods or steepy mountain yields]1.
[And we will sit upon the rocks]2
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
[And I will]3 make thee beds of roses
[And]4 a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and [a]5 kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.
A belt of straw and ivy buds
[With coral clasps and amber studs:]8
[And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love]9.
[ ... ]
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.
The Passionate Shepherd to his Love and Her Reply
Song Cycle by Vivian Fine (1913 - 2000)
1. The passionate shepherd to his love  [sung text checked 1 time]
Language: English
Authorship:
- by Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593), "The passionate shepherd to his love"
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)First published in England's Helicon, 1600
1 Fine: "That hills and valleys, dales and fields,/ Or woods or steepy mountain yields." ; Moeran: "That grove or valley, hill or field,/ Or wood and steepy mountain yield"; Webbe: "That grove and valley, hill and field/ Or woods and steepy mountains yield"
2 Moeran: "Where we will sit on rising rocks"; Webbe: "There will we sit upon the rocks"
3 Moeran: "Pleased will I"; Webbe: "There will I"
4 Moeran, Webbe: "And twine"
5 Moeran, Webbe: "rural"
6 Moeran: "A jaunty gown of finest"
7 Moeran: "And shoes lined choicely"
8 Webbe: "A coral clasp and amber studs"; omitted by Fine.
9 Moeran: "If these, these pleasures can thee move,/ Then live with me and be my love."; Webbe: "And if these pleasures may thee move,/ Then live with me and be my love
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. Her reply  [sung text checked 1 time]
Language: English
If [all]1 the world [and love were]2 young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.
[ ... ]
Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten-
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.
But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.
Authorship:
- by Walter Raleigh, Sir (1552? - 1618), "The nymph's reply to the shepherd"
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Adolf von Marées) , "Der Nymphe Entgegnung"
A response to Marlowe's The passionate shepherd to his love
Note: the first stanza was published in The Passionate Pilgrim after no. 20.
1 In The Passionate Pilgrim and Barker: "that"
2 Mayer: "were gay and"
3 Mayer: "But Time drives flocks"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 351