by Thomas Dekker (c1572 - 1632)
O, the month of May, the merry month of...
Language: English
O, the month of May, the merry month of May, So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green! O, and then did I unto my true love say, "Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my summer's Queen." Now the nightingale, the pretty nightingale, The sweetest singer in all the [forest quire]1, Entreats thee, sweet Peggy, to hear thy true love's tale: Lo, yonder she sitteth, her breast against a briar. But O, I spy the cuckoo, the cuckoo, the cuckoo; See where she sitteth: come away, my joy: Come away, I prithee, I do not like the cuckoo; Should sing when my Peggy and I kiss and toy. O, the month of May, the merry month of May, So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green; And then did I unto my true love say, "Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my summer's Queen."
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Moeran: "forest's choir"
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Dekker (c1572 - 1632), "The first Three-Man's song", appears in The Shoemaker's Holiday [author's text not yet checked 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 Geoffrey Bush (1920 - 1998), "O, the Month of May", 1950 [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), "The merry month of May", 1921, published 1921 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "The merry month of May", R. 38 (1925), published 1925 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "O, the month of May", op. 24 no. 4 (1926), published 1927 [ voice and piano ], from Five English Love Lyrics, no. 4, London, Chappell [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "The merry month of May", published 1927 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 151