Tell me where is Fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head? How begot, how nourishèd? Reply, reply. It is engender'd in the eyes, With gazing fed; and Fancy dies In the cradle where it lies. Let us all ring Fancy's knell: I'll begin it, - Ding, dong, bell.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, written 1596, appears in The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene 2 [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 Joseph W. Baber (b. 1937), "Tell me where", op. 9 no. ? (1953-6), published 1971, first performed 1970 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Shakespearean Madrigals, Set 1, Cincinnati : Canyon [sung text not yet checked]
- by Joseph W. Baber (b. 1937), "Tell me where is fancy bred ", 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 Homer Newton Bartlett (1845 - 1920), "Tell me where is fancy bred", op. 241 (Two Songs with Piano Accompaniment) no. 2, published 1912 [ voice and piano ], G. Schirmer [sung text not yet checked]
- by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "Fancy", 1964 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Mary Grant Carmichael (1851 - 1935), "Tell me where is fancy bred", 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. 1, London : J. Curwen & Sons [sung text not yet checked]
- by Benjamin Carr (1769 - 1831), "Tell me where is fancy bred ", published [1794] [ voice and piano ], from Four Ballads. Three from Shakespear and one by Harwood [sung text not yet checked]
- by Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. (1908 - 2012), "Tell me where is fancy bred" [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Fancy" [ high voice and piano ], from Shakespeare Songs, Book I, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Barney Childs (1926 - 2000), "Tell me where is fancy bred ", 1958 [ soprano, tenor, clarinet, percussion, violin, viola, and piano ], from Septet for Voices (Soprano and Tenor) and Instruments, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Eric Coates (1886 - 1957), "Tell me where is fancy bred", 1912 [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John H. Corina (1928 - 2014), "Tell me where is fancy bred", 1975, first performed 1976 [ tenor or soprano and piano ], from Three Shakespeare Madrigals [sung text not yet checked]
- by Louis Crerar , "Fancy", 1952 [ high voice and piano ], from Four Shakespeare Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by William Faulkes , "Tell me where is fancy bred ", op. 204 no. 1 (1920) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard J. Felciano (b. 1930), "Tell me where is fancy bred ", 1954-5, published 1973, first performed 1955 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Three Madrigals from Wm Shakespeare, Boston : E. C. Schirmer [sung text not yet checked]
- by Hans Gál (1890 - 1987), "Tell me where is Fancy bred", op. 75 no. 3, published 1959, copyright © 1959 [ women's chorus ], from Songs of Youth, no. 3, Boosey & Hawkes [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "Tell me where is fancy bred ", op. 33 (1956 ) [ SSATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Steven R. Gerber (b. 1948), "Tell me where is fancy bred ", 1988 [ medium voice and piano ], from Six Songs of William Shakespeare, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "Tell me where is Fancy bred", 2015, first performed 2016 [ counter-tenor and piano ], from O Mistress Mine -- 12 Songs for countertenor and piano on texts from plays by William Shakespeare, no. 8 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Andrew Welch Imbrie (1921 - 2007), "Tell me where is Fancy bred", 1964 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Sven Eric Emanuel Johanson (1919 - 1997), "Fancy", 1974, copyright © 1978 [ mixed chorus and piano ], from Fancies, no. 4, Stockholm : C. Gehrmans Musikförlag ; New York : Walton Music Corp. [sung text not yet checked]
- by Zoltán Kodály (1882 - 1967), "Fancy", 1959 [ women's chorus ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Liza Lehmann (1862 - 1918), "Tell me, where is fancy bred", published 1908 [ high voice and piano ], from Liza Lehmann Album, no. 5, London : Chappell & Co. Ltd. [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Matthew-Walker (b. 1939), "Tell me where is fancy bred?", op. 40 no. 5 (1980) [ voice and piano ], from Music to Hear (five Elizabethan Songs for soprano and piano), no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ann Sheppard Mounsey (1811 - 1891), "Tell me, where is fancy bred?" [ mixed chorus and piano ad libitum ], In: The Musical Times vom 1. April 1864, p.261-265; London: Novello & Co. [sung text not yet checked]
- by Norman Houston O'Neill (1875 - 1934), "Tell me where is Fancy bred" [ voice, chorus, and orchestra ], from Shakespeare Songs, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Fancy", FP 174 (1959) [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Humphrey Procter-Gregg (1895 - 1980), "A casket song" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "Tell me where is fancy bred", 1946, published 1951 [ voice and piano ], London, Boosey & Hawkes [sung text not yet checked]
- by Virgil Garnett Thomson (1896 - 1989), "Tell me where is fancy bred", 1956/7, published 1961 [ voice and piano ], from Five Shakespeare Songs, no. 3, New York, Southern [sung text not yet checked]
- by William Walton (1902 - 1983), "Tell me where is Fancy bred", 1916 [ vocal duet for soprano and tenor with 3 violins and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Danish (Dansk), a translation by Edvard Lembcke (1815 - 1897) ; composed by Peter Arnold Heise.
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- Also set in Dutch (Nederlands), a translation by Emmanuel Hiel (1834 - 1899) , "Langs waar komt het lustbegin", appears in Gedichten, in Twaalf liederen van Shakespere, no. 9, first published 1868 [an adaptation] ; composed by Petrus Leonardus Leopoldus "Peter" Benoit.
- 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.]
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- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Friedrich Ludwig (Wilhelm) Meyer (1759 - 1840) , no title ; composed by Friedrich Heinrich Himmel.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Victor Hugo)
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Dimmi dove nasce amore", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 9
Word count: 50
Woher kam die Phantasie? Aus dem Kopf, dem Herzen? wie? Wer erzog, wer nährte sie? Sag', o! sag' es, kennst du sie! In der Augen Thau erzeugt, Unter Seufzern aufgesäugt, Ward die Wiege, die sie trägt, Schon als Grab ihr beigelegt; Weinend läut' ich, ach! wie früh! Todtenglöckchen über sie!
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1796, ed. by Friedrich Schiller, NeuStrelitz: Michaelis, 1796, page 170.
Text Authorship:
- by Friedrich Ludwig (Wilhelm) Meyer (1759 - 1840), no title [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, written 1596, appears in The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene 2
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Friedrich Heinrich Himmel (1765 - 1814), "Fantasie", published 1798 [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Melanie Trumbull
This text was added to the website: 2019-03-29
Line count: 10
Word count: 50