Ophelia Sings

Song Cycle by Wolfgang Michael Rihm (1952 - 2024)

1.
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoon.

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, appears in Hamlet [an adaptation]
  • sometimes misattributed to William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

Based on:

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Note: this is often referred to as the Walsingham Ballad, and is quoted in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5. Ophelia is singing.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poem An old song ended refers to this song.

Quoted in Rhian Samuel's The Gaze.

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

2.
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass green turf,
At his heels a stone.
Oho! Oho! Nay, but ... mark

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
  • sometimes misattributed to William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

These words are sung by Ophelia in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5, but they are probably not by Shakespeare.

Quoted in Rhian Samuel's The Gaze.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3.
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
White his shroud as the mountain snow,
Larded with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the grave did go
With true-love showers.

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

These words are sung by Ophelia in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5, but they are probably not by Shakespeare.

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
Total word count: 64