by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620)
Harke all you ladies
Language: English
Harke all you ladies that do sleep, The fairy Queene Proserpina Bids you awake and pitie them that weep, You may doe in the darke What the day doth forbid, Feare not the dogs that barke Night will have all hid. But if you let your lovers mone, The fairie Queene Proserpina Will send abroad her Fairies ev'ry one, That shall pitch lack and blew, Your white hands, and faire armens, That do not kindly rue Your Paramours harmes. In Myrtle Arbours on the downes, The fairy Queene Proserpina, This night by moone-shine leading merrie rounds Holds a watch with sweet love, Downe the dale, up the hill, No plaints or groanes may move their holy vigill. All you that will hold watch with love, The fairy Queene Proserpina, Will make your fairer than Diones dove, Rosese red, Lilies white, And the cleare cheekes alight, Love will adorne you. All you that love, or lov'd before, The fairy Queene Proserpina, Bids you encrease that loving humour more, They that yet have not fed On delight amorous She vowes that they shall lead Apes in Avernus.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620) [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 Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620), "Harke all you ladies", published 1601, from the collection A Booke of Ayres = A Book of Airs, no. 19. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Linda Godry
This text was added to the website: 2006-05-04
Line count: 34
Word count: 185