A Shakespeare Sequence

Song Cycle by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011)

1. It was a lover and his lass [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in As You Like It, Act V, Scene 3

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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

View original text (without footnotes)
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]

2. Who is Silvia? [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Who is Silvia? what is she?
That all our Swaines commend her?
Holy, faire, and wise is she.
The heavens such grace did lend her,
That she might admired be.

Is she kinde as she is faire?
For beauty lives with kindnesse:
Love doth to her eyes repaire,
To helpe him of his blindnesse:
And being help'd, inhabits there.

Then to Silvia, let us sing,
That Silvia is excelling;
She excels each mortall thing
Upon the dull earth dwelling.
To her let us Garlands bring.

Text Authorship:

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Song", appears in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act IV, Scene 2

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

DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (L. A. J. Burgersdijk)
FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , "Kuka on Silvia?", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "À Silvia", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Carlo Rusconi) , first published 1859
SPA Spanish (Español) (Juan Henríquez Concepción) , "¿Quién es Silvia?", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Confirmed with Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. Published according to the True Originall Copies. London. Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount. 1623 (Facsimile from the First Folio Edition, London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1876), page 33 of the Comedies.

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Peter Rastl [Guest Editor]

3. O mistress mine [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O stay and hear, your true love's coming 
That can sing both high and low.

[Trip]¹ no [further]², pretty sweeting;
[Journeys]³ end in lovers' meeting,
Ev'ry wise man's son doth know.

What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure:

[In]⁴ delay there lies no plenty;
Then [come kiss]⁵ me, sweet and twenty;
Youth's a stuff will not endure.

Text Authorship:

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Twelfth Night: or, What You Will, Act II, Scene 3

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

FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Paavo Cajander)
FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo)
GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (David Paley) , "O Fräulein meins! Woher du wanderst", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Paolo Montanari) , "O mia signora", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
POL Polish (Polski) (Józef Komierowski) , no title [an adaptation]

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Korngold: "O trip"
² [sic] ; and Hall: "farther"
³ Korngold: "For journeyes"
⁴ Korngold: "And in"
⁵ Korngold: "come and kiss"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. If music be the food of love, play on [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

Text Authorship:

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Twelfth Night: or, What You Will, Act I, Scene 1, Orsino's lines, first published 1601

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

FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo)

Note: quoted in a text by Heveningham.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

5. Take, o take those lips away [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Take, o take those lips away,
That so sweetly [were]¹ forsworn;
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights [that]² do mislead the morn:
But my kisses bring again;
Seals of love, [but]³ seal'd in vain, sealed in vain.

Hide, o hide those hills of snow
that thy frozen bosom wears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
are yet of those that April wears;
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee.

Text Authorship:

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

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

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (L. A. J. Burgersdijk)
FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Paavo Cajander)
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Sarah L. Weller) , "Nimm, so nimm doch Deine Lippen fort", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
POL Polish (Polski) (Jan Kasprowicz) , "Śpiew Pacholęcia", Warsaw, first published 1907

View original text (without footnotes)
Note: quoted by John Fletcher, in Bloody Brother, 1639 and by William Shakespeare, in Measure for Measure, Act IV, scene 1, c1604 (just one stanza)
¹ Bishop: "are"
² Bishop: "which"
³ Bishop: "tho'"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

6. Full fathom five [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

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

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy de Pourtalès)
FRE French (Français) (Maurice Bouchor)
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Andrea Maffei) , no title, first published 1869
SWE Swedish (Svenska) (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ omitted by Ives.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

7. Orpheus with his lute [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain-tops that freeze,
  Bow themselves, when he did sing:	
To his music, plants and flowers
Ever [sprung]¹; as sun and showers
  There had made a lasting spring.

Everything that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
  Hung their heads, and then lay by.
In sweet music is such art:
Killing care and grief of heart
  Fall asleep, or, hearing, die.

Text Authorship:

by John Fletcher (1579 - 1625), no title, appears in Henry VIII
sometimes misattributed to William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

See other settings of this text.

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

DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (L. A. J. Burgersdijk)
FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Paavo Cajander)

View original text (without footnotes)

Note: according to Miscellanies, Issues 3-4, published by the New Shakspere Society of Great Britain, "Shakspere wrote only 1168.5 of the 2822 lines of the play. The rest are Fletcher's." The song is part of the Fletcher portion of Henry VIII, and appears in Act III scene 1.

¹ Greene: "rose"; Blitzstein: "sprang"

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

8. Under the greenwood tree [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And [turn]¹ [his]² merry note
Unto the sweet bird's throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun,
And loves to live i' the sun,
Seeking the food he eats,
And pleas'd with what he gets,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

If it do come to pass
That any man turn ass,
Leaving his wealth and ease,
A stubborn will to please,
Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame:
Here shall he see
Gross fools as he,
An if he will come to me.
Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me.

Text Authorship:

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in As You Like It, Act II, Scene 5

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)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Quilter: "tune"
² Korngold: "the"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Total word count: 809