LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,109)
  • Text Authors (19,482)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

Ophelia Sings

Song Cycle by Kim Borg (1919 - 2000)

1. How should I your true‑love know  [sung text not yet checked]

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:

  • a text in English possibly by Walter Raleigh, Sir (1552? - 1618)
    • Go to the text page.

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Friedrich Ludwig Schröder) , no title, appears in Dramatische Werke, in Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark. Ein Trauerspiel in sechs Aufzügen. Nach Shakesspear [sic]
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Karl Joseph Simrock) (Ludwig Wilhelm Friedrich Seeger) , no title, appears in Shakespeare in deutscher Übersetzung, in 6. Hamlet, first published 1868
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Ludwig Wilhelm Friedrich Seeger) , no title, appears in Shakespeare in deutscher Übersetzung, in 6. Hamlet [an adaptation]
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , no title, copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • POL Polish (Polski) (Krystyn Ostrowski) , no title

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. To‑morrow is Saint Valentine's day   [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
  [To-morrow is]1 Saint Valentine's day,
  All in the morning [betime]2,
  And I a maid at your window,
  To be your Valentine.
  Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
  And dupp'd the chamber-door;
  Let in the maid, that out a maid
  Never departed more.

[Indeed, without an oath, I'll make an end on't!]3
  By Gis and by Saint Charity,
  Alack, and fie for shame!
  Young men will do't, if they come to't;
  By cock, they are to blame.
  Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
  You promised me to wed.

  [So]4 would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
  An thou hadst not come to my bed.

Text Authorship:

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

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo)
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Ludwig Wilhelm Friedrich Seeger) , no title, appears in Shakespeare in deutscher Übersetzung, in 6. Hamlet

View original text (without footnotes)

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

1 Quilter: "Good morrow, 'tis "
2 Quilter: "time"
3 omitted by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Grill
4 Castelnuovo-Tedesco: "He answers,/ So"

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

3. They bore him barefaced on the bier   [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
They bore him barefaced on the bier;
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny;
And in his grave rain'd many a tear:--
[Fare you well, my dove!]1

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, no title, appears in Hamlet
  • sometimes misattributed to William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Karl Joseph Simrock) (Ludwig Wilhelm Friedrich Seeger) , no title, appears in Shakespeare in deutscher Übersetzung, in 6. Hamlet, first published 1868
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Ludwig Wilhelm Friedrich Seeger) , no title, appears in Shakespeare in deutscher Übersetzung, in 6. Hamlet
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Friedrich Ludwig Schröder) , no title, appears in Dramatische Werke, in Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark. Ein Trauerspiel in sechs Aufzügen. Nach Shakesspear [sic]
  • HEB Hebrew (עברית) (Hamutal Atariah) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • POL Polish (Polski) (Krystyn Ostrowski) , no title

View original text (without footnotes)

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

1 omitted by Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 158
Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris