Sonnet XX | A woman's face with nature's own hand painted

A woman's face with nature's own hand...

Language: English

Our translations: ITA

A woman's face with nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion:
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
  But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
  Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 20 [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 Wolfgang Fortner (1907 - 1987), "A woman's face with nature's own hand painted", 1981, published c1982 [ tenor and piano ], from Widmungen : aus den Sonetten von William Shakespeare, no. 1, Mainz ; New York : Schott [sung text not yet checked]
by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XX", 1864 [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

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

FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 20, first published 1857
FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title, appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 20, first published 1863

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2007-10-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 114