Bring with you all the nymphes that you can heare,
Both of the rivers and the forrests greene,
And of the sea that neighbours to her neare,
All with gay girlands goodly wel beseene. 
And let them also with them bring in hand
Another gay girland,
For my fayre Love, of lillyes and of roses,
Bound truelove wize with a blew silke riband.
And let them make great store of bridale poses, 
And let them eke bring store of other flowers,
To deck the bridale bowers:
And let the ground whereas her foot shall tread,
For feare the stones her tender foot should wrong,
Be strewd with fragrant flowers all along, 
And diapred lyke the discolored mead.
Which done, doe at her chamber dore awayt,
For she will waken strayt;
The whiles do ye this song unto her sing,
The woods shall to you answer, and your eccho ring.

R. Vaughan Williams sets lines 1-11, 16-19

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume V, edited by Francis J. Child, London: Imprinted for William Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the Signe of the Bishops Head, 1591.

Notes in text:
Beseene, adorned.
Diapred, variegated.

Modernized spelling used in Vaughan Williams's music:

Bring with you all the Nymphs that you can hear
Both of the rivers and the forests green:
And of the sea that neighbours to her near,
All with gay garlands goodly well be seen.
And let them also with them bring in hand,
Another gay garland
for my fair love, of lilies and of roses,
Bound truelove wise with a blue silk riband.
And let them make great store of bridal posies,
And let them eke bring store of other flowers
To deck the bridal bowers.
...
Which done, do at her chamber door await,
For she will waken straight,
The whiles do you this song unto her sing,
The woods shall … answer and your echo ring.

Text Authorship:

• by Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599), no title, appears in Amoretti and Epithalamion, in Epithalamion, no. 3 [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):

[ None yet in the database ]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Wake now", 1957, published 1957 [ baritone, mixed chorus, orchestra ], from cantata Epithalamion, no. 2, London, Oxford University Press
  • View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]
    

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2020-01-12
Line count: 19
Word count: 149