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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

When that I was and a little tiny boy
Language: English 
Our translations:  CAT
When that I was and a little tiny boy,
[With]1 hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,
[With]1 hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came, alas! to wive,
[With]1 hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
With toss-pots still had drunken heads,
For the rain it raineth every day.

A great while ago the world [begun]2,
[With]1 hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   D. Amram 

D. Amram sets stanzas 1-2, 5

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Amram: "With a"
2 Amram: "began"

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Twelfth Night: or, What You Will, Act V, Scene 1 [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 David Werner Amram (b. 1930), "The wind and the rain", published 1972, stanzas 1-2,5 [ tenor and piano or orchestra ], from Five Shakespeare Songs, no. 4, New York, Peters [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Garth Baxter (b. 1946), "When that I was and a little tiny boy" [ voice and guitar ], from Four Songs from Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Mary Grant Carmichael (1851 - 1935), "When that I was a little tiny boy", published 1885 [ SA chorus (or vocal duet for soprano and alto) with piano ], from Six Songs for two voices, from Shakespeare (reissued as Six Shakespeare Songs), no. 5, London : J. Curwen & Sons [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "For the rain it raineth every day" [ high voice and piano ], from Shakespeare Songs, Book III, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by (Henry) Walford Davies, Sir (1869 - 1941), "When that I was and a little tiny boy", op. 13 no. 3, published 1902 [ voice and piano ], from The Clown's Songs in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "When that I was a little boy", op. 181 no. 6 (1988) [ counter-tenor, recorder, harpsichord, and violoncello ], from Six by Four, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Clown's song", 1920 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Lee Hoiby (1926 - 2011), "When that I was and a little boy", 1955 [ voice and lute ], from Songs of the Fool, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Mervyn, Lord Horder, the Second Baron of Ashford (1910 - 1998), "When that I was and a little tiny boy", alternate title: "The wind and the rain", 1977 [ voice and piano ], from Seven Shakespeare Songs, London : Lengnick [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Mervyn, Lord Horder, the Second Baron of Ashford (1910 - 1998), "When that I was and a little tiny boy" [ duet for soprano and baritone with piano ], from Four Shakespeare Duets, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "When that I was and a little tiny boy " [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 - 1957), "For the rain, it raineth every day", op. 29 no. 5, published 1937 [ voice and piano ], from Songs of the Clown, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Elizabeth Maconchy (1907 - 1994), "The wind and the rain", 1965 [ voice and piano ], from Four Shakespeare Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "Hey, ho, the wind and the rain", op. 23 no. 5 (1919), published 1921 [ voice and piano ], from Five Shakespeare Songs (Second Set), no. 5, London, Boosey [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957), "With hey, ho, the wind and the rain", op. 60 no. 2 (1909) [ voice and guitar or piano ], from the incidental music to Loppiaisaatto = Trettondagsafton (Twelfth Night), no. 2, also set in Swedish (Svenska) [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "The rain it raineth every day", op. 65 no. 3 (1896), published 1897 [ voice and piano ], from The Clown's Songs from Twelfth Night, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in Bulgarian (Български), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Pančo Haralanov Vladigerov.
    • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
  • Also set in Danish (Dansk), a translation by Edvard Lembcke (1815 - 1897) , no title ; composed by Peter Arnold Heise.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767 - 1845) , no title ; composed by Paul Angerer, Walter Braunfels, Wilhelm Killmayer, Wilhelm Petersen, Robert Schumann.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in Norwegian (Bokmål), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Catharinus Elling.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Mikhail Leonidovich Lozinsky (1886 - 1955) ; composed by Georgiy Vasil'yevich Sviridov.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Carl August Hagberg (1810 - 1864) ; composed by Jean Sibelius.
    • Go to the text.

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Paavo Cajander)
  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo)
  • POL Polish (Polski) (Józef Komierowski) , no title


Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 154

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