LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,465)
  • Text Authors (20,241)
  • 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 (1,120)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Thomas Stanley (1625 - 1678)

The Tomb
 (Sung text for setting by J. Gamble)
 See original
Language: English 
When, cruel fair one, I am slain
      By thy disdain,
And, as a trophy of thy scorn,
   To some old tomb am borne,
Thy fetters must their pow'r bequeath
      To those of Death;
   Nor can thy flame immortal burn
Like monumental fires within an urn;
Thus freed from thy proud empire, I shall prove
There is more liberty in Death than Love.

And when forsaken lovers come
      To see my tomb,
Take heed thou mix not with the crowd,
   And, as a victor, proud
To view the spoils thy beauty made,
      Press near my shade,
   Lest thy too cruel breath or name
Should fan my ashes back into a flame.
And thou, devour'd by this revengeful fire,
His sacrifice, who died as thine expire.

 ... 

But if cold earth or marble must
      Conceal my dust,
Whilst hid in some dark ruins, I
   Dumb and forgotten lie,
The pride of all thy victory
      Will sleep with me;
   And they, who should attest thy glory,
Will, or forget, or not believe this story.
Then to increase thy triumph, let me rest,
Since by thine eye slain, buried in thy breast.

Composition:

    Set to music by John Gamble (d. 1687), "The Tomb", published 1657, stanzas 1,2,4 [ voice and bass continuo ], from Ayres and dialogues, no. 3, Confirmed with Ayres and dialogues (to be sung to the theorbo-lute or bass-viol) by John Gamble. Printed by W. Godbid for Humphry Mosley at the Princes-Arms In St. Paul's Church-yard, London 1657.
        Score: IMSLP [external link]

Text Authorship:

  • by Thomas Stanley (1625 - 1678), "The Tomb"

See other settings of this text.


Research team for this page: Ted Perry , Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 40
Word count: 251

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