Weep you no more, sad fountains; What need [you]1 flow so fast? Look how the snowy mountains Heaven's sun doth gently waste! But my sun's heavenly eyes View not your weeping, That now lies sleeping, [Softly now, softly]2 lies Sleeping. Sleep is a reconciling, A rest that peace begets; Doth not the sun rise smiling When fair at [e'en]3 he sets? Rest you, then, rest, sad eyes! Melt not in weeping, While she lies sleeping, [Softly now, softly]2 lies Sleeping.
Seven Elizabethan Lyrics
Song Cycle by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953)
1. Weep you no more  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author ( 16th century )
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Julia Hamann) , "Tränen", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 van Dieren: "ye"
2 van Dieren, Holst, Moeran: "Softly, now softly"
3 Parry: "eve"; Moeran, Quilter, van Dieren: "even"; Holst: "ev'n"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
2. My life's delight  [sung text checked 1 time]
Come, O come, my life's delight! Let me not in languor pine: Love loves no delay, thy sight The more enjoyed, the more divine. O come, and take from me The pain of being deprived of thee. Thou all sweetness dost enclose, Like a little world of bliss: Beauty guards thy looks: the rose In them pure and eternal is. Come then! and make thy flight As swift to me as heavenly light!
Authorship:
- by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620), first published 1617
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Viens, oh viens, délice de ma vie", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
3. Damask roses  [sung text checked 1 time]
Lady, when I behold the roses sprouting, Which clad in damask mantles deck the arbours, And then behold your lips where sweet love harbours, My eyes present me with a double doubting; For, viewing both alike, hardly my mind supposes Whether the roses be your lips or your lips the roses.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]4. The faithless shepherdess  [sung text checked 1 time]
While that the sun with his beams hot
Scorchèd the fruits in vale and mountain,
Philon, the shepherd, late forgot,
Sitting beside a crystal fountain,
In shadow of a green oak tree,
Upon his pipe this song play'd he:
Adieu, Love, adieu, Love, untrue Love,
Untrue Love, untrue Love, adieu, Love!
Your mind is light, soon lost for new love.
So long as I was in your sight
I was your heart, your soul, [and]1 treasure;
And evermore you sobb'd and sigh'd
Burning in flames beyond all measure:
-- Three days endured your love to me
And it was lost in other three!
Adieu, Love, adieu, Love, untrue Love,
Untrue Love, untrue Love, adieu, Love!
Your mind is light, soon lost for new love.
[ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, "The unfaithful shepherdess"
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "La bergère infidèle", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Byrd, Quilter: "your"
2 Byrd: "my"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
5. Brown is my Love  [sung text checked 1 time]
Brown is my Love, but graceful: And each renowned whiteness, Matched with her lovely brown loseth its brightness. Fair is my Love, but scornful, Yet have I seen despisèd Dainty white lilies, and sad flowers well prizèd.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, "Brown is my Love"
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Sharon Krebs) , "Braun ist meine Geliebte", copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Confirmed with Rare Poems of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, collected and edited with notes by W.J. Linton, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1883, page 175.
Research team for this page: Ted Perry , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]
6. By a fountainside  [sung text checked 1 time]
Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears: [Yet slower, yet; O faintly,]1 gentle springs: List to the heavy part the music bears, Woe weeps out her [division]2 when she sings. Droop herbs and flowers, Fall grief in showers, Our [beauties are]3 not ours; [O, I could still,]4 Like melting snow upon some craggy hill, [Drop, drop, drop, drop,]5 Since [nature's]6 pride is, now, a withered daffodil.
Authorship:
- by Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637), from Cynthia's Revels, Act I Scene 2.
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Horsley: "O slower yet, O fainter"
2 Horsley: "division"
3 Horsley: "beauty is"
4 Quilter: "Or I could still"; Horsley: "O could I still"
5 Horsley: "Fall down, fall down."
6 Horsley: "summer's"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
7. Fair house of joy  [sung text checked 1 time]
Fain would I change that note To which fond Love hath charm'd me Long, long to sing by rote, Fancying that that harm'd me: Yet when this thought doth come 'Love is the perfect sum Of all delight!' I have no other choice Either for pen or voice To sing or write. O Love! they wrong thee much That say thy [fruit]1 is bitter, When thy [rich]2 fruit is such As nothing can be sweeter. Fair house of joy and bliss, Where truest pleasure is, I do adore thee: I know thee what thou art, I serve thee with my heart, And fall before thee.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
- sometimes misattributed to Tobias Hume (c1569 - 1645)
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Hume, Mulholland, Orr, Quilter: "sweet"
2 Hume: "ripe"
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Ted Perry