It was a lover and his lass,
  With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino
That o'er the green [corn-field]1 did pass.
  In [the]2 spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

[Between the acres of the rye,
  With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
These pretty country [folks]3 would lie,
  In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring. ]4

[This carol they began that hour,
  With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
How that [a life]5 was but a flower
  In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.]4

[And therefore take the present time]6
  [With]7 a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crownéd with the prime
  In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

B. King sets lines 4-6
G. Bush sets stanzas 1-2, 4
H. Clough-Leighter sets stanzas 1, 3
A. Foote sets stanzas 1, 4
T. Morley sets stanzas 1, 3-4
F. Delius sets stanzas 1-2, 4

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Morley: "cornfields"
² omitted by Barton, Bush, and Morley, passim.
³ Delius, Dring: "folk"
⁴ In Dring and Parry, only the first and third lines are set.
⁵ sometimes "life"?
⁶ Barton, Morley : "Then, pretty lovers, take the time"
⁷ Bush: "And with"

Authorship:

• by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in As You Like It, Act V, Scene 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):

• by Godfrey Edward Pellew Arkwright (1864 - 1944), "It was a lover", published [1902?] [ high medium voice and piano ], from Nine Songs from Shakespeare, London, Joseph Williams [sung text not yet checked]
• by Joseph W. Baber (b. 1937), "It was a lover and his lass ", op. 9 no. ? (1953-6) [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Shakespearean Madrigals, Set 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Joseph W. Baber (b. 1937), "It was a lover and his lass", op. 19 no. ? (1954-64), published 1976 [ high voice and piano ], from Shakespearean Songs, Lexington : Kelley ; note: not musically related to the madrigal in op. 9 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gerard Barton (1861 - ?), "It was a lover and his lass", published 1803 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Sir (1883 - 1953), "It was a lover", c1901 [ voice and piano ], from Two Songs of the Spring-Time, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Dudley Buck (1839 - 1909), "Spring Song", op. 76 (Five Songs) no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Alan Bullard (b. 1947), "Pretty ring time" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Winifred May Bury (1897 - 1977), "It was a lover and his lass ", 1927 [ boys' chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Geoffrey Bush (1920 - 1998), "It was a lover and his lass", 1956, stanzas 1-2,4 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Mary Grant Carmichael (1851 - 1935), "It was a lover and his lass", published 1886 [ vocal duet ], London: Boosey & Co. [sung text not yet checked]
• by Rebecca Clarke (1886 - 1979), "It was a lover and his lass", 1924, published 1925, from Three Old English Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Henry Clough-Leighter (1874 - 1956), "It was a lover and his lass", published 1906, stanzas 1,3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Frederick Delius (1862 - 1934), "It was a lover and his lass", 1916, published 1919, stanzas 1-2,4 [ voice and piano ], from Four Old English Lyrics, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Madeleine Dring (1923 - 1977), "It was a lover and his lass" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Donald Edeson , "It was a lover and his lass" [ TTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Richard Bruce Faith (b. 1926), "It was a lover and his lass" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956), "It was a lover and his lass", op. 18 no. 5 (1940), from Let Us Garlands Bring, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Arthur Foote (1853 - 1937), "It was a lover and his lass", op. 10 (Three songs) no. 1, published 1885, stanzas 1,4 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "It was a lover and his lass", op. 66 no. 1, published 1964 [ women's chorus, piano duet, and optional percussion ], from A Shakespeare Sequence, no. 1, London : Oxford University Press [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "It was a lover and his lass", op. 150 no. 7 (1980) [ high voice, oboe, and piano ], from Hebdomade, no. 7 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Mervyn, Lord Horder, the Second Baron of Ashford (1910 - 1998), "It was a lover and his lass", 1977 [ duet for soprano and baritone with piano ], from Four Shakespeare Duets, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "It was a lover and his lass " [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Sven Eric Emanuel Johanson (1919 - 1997), "Lovers love the spring", 1974, copyright © 1978 [ mixed chorus and piano ], from Fancies, no. 6, Stockholm : C. Gehrmans Musikförlag ; New York : Walton Music Corp. [sung text not yet checked]
• by J. Frederick Keel (1871 - 1954), "It was a lover and his lass" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Betty Jackson King (1928 - 1994), "In the springtime", lines 4-6 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 - 1957), "When birds do sing", op. 31 no. 4, from Four Shakespeare Songs, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "The Lover and his Lass", R. 76 no. 1 (1940), published 1940 [ high voice or medium voice and piano ], from Four Shakespeare Songs, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "The Lover and his Lass", R. 102 [ 2-part chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Thomas Morley (1557 - 1602), "It was a lover and his lass", stanzas 1,3-4 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Norman Houston O'Neill (1875 - 1934), "It was a lover", published 1922 [ voice and orchestra ], from Shakespeare Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "A spring song", op. 21 no. 2, published 1873 [ chorus ], from A Garland of Shakesperian and Other Old-Fashioned Songs, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "It was a lover and his lass", op. 23 no. 3 (1921), published 1921 [ voice and piano (or vocal duet with piano, 1919) ], from Five Shakespeare Songs (Second Set), no. 3, London : Boosey & Hawkes [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "It Was A Lover", op. 89 (1945) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "It was a lover", op. 204 (1948) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "It Was A Lover", op. 370 (1952) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "It Was A Lover And His Lass", op. 518 (1958) [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "It Was A Lover", op. 523 (1958) [sung text not yet checked]
• by Edmund Duncan Rubbra (1901 - 1986), "It was a lover", op. 13 (Three songs) no. 3 (1925), published 1925 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930), "Pretty ring time", 1925, published 1925 [ voice and piano or orchestra ] [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Camille de Sainte-Croix (1859 - 1915) ; composed by Paul Vidal.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist [an adaptation] ; composed by Johann Herbeck, Friedrich Silcher.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767 - 1845) , "Lied" ; composed by Ludwig Berger, Jan Karol Gall.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Ida Goldschmidt, née Livingston (1863 - 1933) ; composed by Roger Quilter.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    

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

• FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Paavo Cajander)
• FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot)
• GER German (Deutsch) (Johann Heinrich Voss) , "Ein Bursch' und Mägdlein, flink und schön", first published 1819

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 190

Ein Bursch' und Mägdlein, flink und schön,
  Mit hei, und mit ho,
  Mit hei nonino,
Durchs grüne Kornfeld beide gehn,
  Im wonnigen Mai,
  Im minnigen Mai,
Wann Vogelschlag ertönt im Hag.
Wer minnt, der liebt den Maientag. 

Auf schmalem Rain im Rocken nun,
  Mit hei, und mit ho,
  Mit hei nonino,
Da wählt das junge Paar zu ruhn,
  Im wonnigen Mai,
  Im minnigen Mai,
Wann Vogelschlag ertönt im Hag.
Wer minnt, der liebt den Maientag. 

Sie singen wohlgemut ihr Lied,
  Mit hei, und mit ho,
  Mit hei nonino,
Des Lebens Blum' ist schnell verblüht!
  Im wonnigen Mai,
  Im minnigen Mai,
Wann Vogelschlag ertönt im Hag.
Wer minnt, der liebt den Maientag. 

Geneuß des Lebens, weil es lenzt,
  Mit hei, und mit ho,
  Mit hei nonino,
Die Lieb' ist gerne frisch gekränzt,
  Im wonnigen Mai,
  Im minnigen Mai,
Wann Vogelschlag ertönt im Hag.
Wer minnt, der liebt den Maientag.