by Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593)
Come live with me and be my Love
Language: English
Come live with me and be my Love, And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and valleys, dales and field, Or woods or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon the rocks And see the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. And I will make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. A gown made of the finest wool, Which from our pretty lambs we pull, Fair linèd slippers for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold. A belt of straw and ivy buds With coral clasps and amber studs: And if these pleasures may thee move, Come live with me and be my Love. The silver dishes for thy meat As precious as the gods do eat, Shall on an ivory table be Prepared each day for thee and me. The shepherd swains shall dance and sing For thy delight each May-morning: If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me and be my Love.
E. Moeran sets stanzas 1-5
S. Webbe sets stanzas 1, 3, 5, 7
V. Fine sets stanzas 1-3, 5, 7
P. Warlock sets stanzas 1-5, 7
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesFirst published in England's Helicon, 1600
Text Authorship:
- by Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593), "The passionate shepherd to his love" [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 Vivian Fine (1913 - 2000), "The passionate shepherd to his love", 1938, first performed 1975, stanzas 1-3,5,7 [ SSA chorus a cappella ], from The Passionate Shepherd to his Love and Her Reply, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "The passionate shepherd", R. 69 no. 4 (1934), published 1934, stanzas 1-5 [ voice and piano ], from Four English Lyrics, no. 4, Winthrop Rogers [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930), "The passionate shepherd", 1928, published 1929, stanzas 1-5,7 [ voice and piano ], from Seven Songs of Summer, no. 1, London: Elkin [sung text not yet checked]
- by Samuel Webbe (1740 - 1815), "Come live with me", stanzas 1,3,5,7 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text checked 1 time]
Set in a modified version by William Sterndale Bennett, Henry Rowley Bishop, Alan Bullard, Johann Friedrich Hugo, Freiherr von Dalberg, Rubin Goldmark, William Mayer, Norman Houston O'Neill, Myron Silberstein, Mabel Nightingale Woodward.
Another version of this text exists in the database.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2011-04-01
Line count: 28
Word count: 196