by Thomas Dekker (c1572 - 1632)
The merry month of May Matches base text
Language: English
O, the month of May, the merry month of May, So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green! O, and then did I unto my true love say, "Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my summer's Queen." Now the nightingale, the pretty nightingale, The sweetest singer in all the forest quire, Entreats thee, sweet Peggy, to hear thy true love's tale: Lo, yonder she sitteth, her breast against a briar. But O, I spy the cuckoo, the cuckoo, the cuckoo; See where she sitteth: come away, my joy: Come away, I prithee, I do not like the cuckoo; Should sing when my Peggy and I kiss and toy. O, the month of May, the merry month of May, So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green; And then did I unto my true love say, "Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my summer's Queen."
Composition:
- Set to music by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), "The merry month of May", 1921, published 1921 [ voice and piano ]
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Dekker (c1572 - 1632), "The first Three-Man's song", appears in The Shoemaker's Holiday
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 151