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by Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637)

Follow a shadow
 (Sung text for setting by C. Parry)
 Matches base text
Language: English 
Follow a shadow, it still flies you;
Seem to fly it, it will pursue:
So court a mistress, she denies you;
Let her alone, she will court you.
Say, are not women truly, then,
Styled but the shadows of us men?

At morn and even, shades are longest;
At noon they are or short or none:
So men at weakest, they are strongest,
But grant us perfect, they're not known.
Say, are not women truly then,
Styled but the shadows of us men?

Composition:

    Set to music by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "Follow a shadow", 1888-1906, published 1907, from English Lyrics, Seventh Set, no. 2

Text Authorship:

  • by Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637), "That women are but men's shadows", appears in The Forest

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

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , "Die Schatten", appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-06-09
Line count: 12
Word count: 83

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