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Three Shakespeare Songs

Song Cycle by Janet Oates (b. 1970)

Score: Janet Oates (external link)

1. Fairy Song  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Over hill, over dale,
  Thorough bush, thorough briar,
Over park, over pale,
  Thorough flood, thorough fire
I do wander everywhere.

Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1.

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Per colline e per valli", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. I have supped  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 
To the last syllable of recorded time; 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, 
And then is heard no more; it is a tale 
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
Signifying nothing.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), appears in Macbeth, Act V, scene 5

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot)
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Carlo Rusconi) , no title, first published 1858
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Domani, e domani, e domani", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. The Isle
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices,
That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me; that, when I wak'd,
I cried to dream again.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in The Tempest, Act III, Scene 2 (Caliban)

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot)
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Andrea Maffei) , no title, first published 1869

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 225
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