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by Thomas Lisle, Dr. (1709 - 1767)

When Orpheus went down to the regions...
Language: English 
When Orpheus went down to the regions below,
  Which men are forbidden to see,
He tun'd up his Lyre, as old histories show,
  To set his Euridice free.

All Hell was astonish'd a person so wise
  Should rashly endanger his life,
And venture so far -- but how vast their surprise,
  When they heard that he came for his Wife!

To find out a punishment due to his fault
  Old Pluto long puzzl'd his brain;
But Hell had not torments sufficient, he thought,
  So he gave him his Wife back again.

But pity, succeeding, found place in his heart,
  And, pleas'd with his playing so well,
He took her again, in reward of his Art:
  Such merit had Music in Hell!

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   W. Boyce 

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes
Note: A version of this exists as copied down (or possibly written down from memory given the discrepancies) by Benjamin Franklin.

Text Authorship:

  • by Thomas Lisle, Dr. (1709 - 1767), "The Power of Music", subtitle: "Imitated from the Spanish" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by William Boyce (1710 - 1779), "Orpheus and Euridice" [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 120

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