by Geoffrey Chaucer (c1343 - 1400)
Your eyën two See original
Language: Middle English
Your eyën two will slay me suddenly: I may the beauty of them not sustene, So woundeth it throughout my hertë ken. And but your word will helen hastily My hertës woundë, while that it is green, Your eyën two will slay me suddenly: I may the beauty of them not sustene, Upon my troth I say to you faithfully, That ye be my life and death the queen, For with my death the truthë shall be seen: Your eyën two will slay me suddenly: I may the beauty of them not sustene, So woundeth it throughout my hertë kene.
Composition:
- Set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Your eyën two", 1921 [ soprano or tenor, 2 violins, violoncello ], from Merciless Beauty, no. 1
Text Authorship:
- by Geoffrey Chaucer (c1343 - 1400), "Captivity", appears in Merciles Beaute: A Triple Roundel, no. 1
See other settings of this text.
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 99