by Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661 - 1720)
Love, thou art best
Language: English
Love, thou art best of Human Joys, Our chiefest Happiness below, All other Pleasures are but Toys; Musick, without thee, is but Noise, And Beauty but an empty Show. Heav'n, who knew best what Man could move, And raise his Thoughts above the Brute, Said, Let him be, and let him love, That must alone his Soul improve, Howe'er Philosophers dispute.
Text Authorship:
- by Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661 - 1720) [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 Henry Purcell (1658/9 - 1695), "Love, thou art best", Z. 596 no. 1, from the incidental music to The Female Vertuosos, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Virginia Knight
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 10
Word count: 61