Sweet, let me go! Sweet, let me go!
What do you mean to vex me so?
[Cease, cease]1, cease your pleading force.
Do you think thus to extort remorse?
[Now no more; alas]2, you overbear me;
And I would [cry, but some would hear, I fear me]3.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Oxford Book of Short Poems, in the section "Anonymous (printed 1599-1610)"

¹ omitted by Walker.
² Walker: "Now, now! No more! Alas"
³ Bush, Walker: "cry but some, I fear, might hear me"

Text as set by Corkine:

Sweete sweete let me goe,
What do you meane to vexe mee so,
Cease, cease, your Pleading force,
Doe you thinke thus, to extort remorce,
Now, now, no more, alas you ouer beare me,
And I would crie, but some would heare I feare mee.

Text Authorship:

• by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, no title [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 Geoffrey Bush (1920 - 1998), no title, 1976 [ tenor and soprano ], from A Little Love Music, no. 5, Confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
• by William Corkine (flourished 1610-2), "Sweete sweete let me goe", published 1610 [ voice, lute, bass viol ], from Airs to sing and play to the Lute and Bass-viol, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by George Theophilus Walker (b. 1922), "Sweet, let me go", copyright © 1971 [ voice and piano ], General Music Publishing [sung text checked 1 time]

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , John Glenn Paton [Guest Editor] , Bertram Kottmann , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2012-02-13
Line count: 6
Word count: 53