On a day -- alack the day! -- Love, whose month is ever May, Spied a blossom passing fair Playing in the wanton air: Through the velvet leaves the wind, All unseen, can passage find; That the lover, sick to death, Wish himself the heaven's breath. Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow; Air, would I might triumph so! But, alack, my hand is sworn Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn; Vow, alack, for youth unmeet, Youth so apt to pluck a sweet! Do not call it sin in me, That I am forsworn for thee; Thou for whom Jove would swear Juno but an Ethiope were; And deny himself for Jove, Turning mortal for thy love. [This will I send, and something else more plain, That shall express my true love's fasting pain. O, would the king, Biron, and Longaville, Were lovers too! Ill, to example ill, Would from my forehead wipe a perjured note; For none offend where all alike do dote.]1
A Garland of Shakesperian and Other Old-Fashioned Songs
Song Cycle by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918)
1. Love's perjuries  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- possibly by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, Scene 3
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
1 omitted by Parry.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. A spring song  [sung text checked 1 time]
It was a lover and his lass, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino That o'er the green [corn-field]1 did pass. In [the]2 spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding; Sweet lovers love the spring. Between the acres of the rye, [With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,]3 These pretty country [folks]4 would lie, [In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,]5 [When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.]3 This carol they began that hour, [With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,]3 How that a life was but a flower [In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,]5 [When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.]3 [And therefore take the present time]6 [With]7 a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, For love is crownéd with the prime In [the]2 spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in As You Like It, Act V, Scene 3
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Paavo Cajander)
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot)
- GER German (Deutsch) (Johann Heinrich Voss) , "Ein Bursch' und Mägdlein, flink und schön", first published 1819
1 Morley: "cornfields"
2 omitted by Barton, Bush, and Morley
3 omitted by Dring; omitted by Parry
4 Delius, Dring: "folk"
5 Barton, Bush, Morley: "In spring time, the only pretty ring time,"; omitted by Dring; omitted by Parry
6 Barton, Morley : "Then, pretty lovers, take the time"
7 Bush: "And with"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. A contrast
The merry bird sits in the tree . . . . . . . . . .— The rest of this text is not
currently in the database but will be
added as soon as we obtain it. —
4. Love is a sickness  [sung text checked 1 time]
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!
Authorship:
- possibly by Samuel Daniel (1562 - 1619), "Love is a sickness"
- possibly by Thomas Maske , "Love is a sickness"
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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"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
5. A sea dirge  [sung text not yet checked]
Full fathom five thy father lies, Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: [Ding-dong.]1 Hark! now I hear them, - ding-dong bell.
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Lidy van Noordenburg) , "Vijf vadem diep", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Guy de Pourtalès)
- FRE French (Français) (Maurice Bouchor)
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (David Paley) , "Voll Faden fünf", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Tuo padre giace a una profondità di cinque tese", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Andrea Maffei) , no title, first published 1869
- NOR Norwegian (Bokmål) (Arild Bakke) , "På fem favner", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SWE Swedish (Svenska) (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist)
1 omitted by Ives.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
6. Merry Margaret  [sung text checked 1 time]
Merry Margaret As midsummer flower, Gentle as falcon Or hawk of the tower: With solace and gladness, Much mirth and no madness, All good and no badness; So joyously, So maidenly, So womanly Her demeaning In every thing, Far, far passing That I can indite, Or suffice to write Of Merry Margaret As midsummer flower, Gentle as falcon Or hawk of the tower. As patient and still And as full of good will As fair Isaphill, Coliander, Sweet pomander, Good Cassander; Steadfast of thought, Well made, well wrought, Far may be sought, Ere that ye can find So courteous, so kind As merry Margaret, This midsummer flower, Gentle as falcon Or hawk of the tower.
Authorship:
- by John Skelton (1460 - 1529), "To Mistress Margaret Hussey"
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Isaphill = Hypsipylecoliander = coriander seed, an aromatic.
pomander = a ball of perfume
Cassander = Cassandra
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]