You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.

Philomel, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
[Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.]1

Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
[Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.

Philomel, with melody, etc.]2

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ moved to the end by Křenek; moved to the beginning by Blitzstein (see text below).
² omitted by Křenek.
Text as set by Blitzstein (courtesy of Kyle Degraff):

Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm, Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.

You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.

Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you long-legged spinners, hence!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.

Philomele, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby.
Lulla, lulla, lullaby,
Lulla, lulla, lullaby.
Lullaby.

Authorship

• by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, 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 David Werner Amram (b. 1930), "Lullaby", 1986 [voice and piano], from Four Shakespeare Songs, no. 3, C. F. Peters [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867 - 1944), "Fairy lullaby", op. 37 (Three Shakespeare Songs) no. 3. [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Marc Blitzstein (1905 - 1964), "Lullaby", published 1958 [low voice, piano], from Six Elizabethan Songs, no. 5. [ sung text checked 1 time]
• by Julius Allan Greenway Harrison (1885 - 1963), "Philomel" [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by J. Frederick Keel (1871 - 1954), "You spotted snakes" [ sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ernst Křenek (1900 - 1991), "Fairies' song" [chorus], from Three Madrigals, no. 1, madrigal [ sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Lidy van Noordenburg) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo)

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 78

Slangen zwijg met je gespleten tong
Egels ga er stil vandoor
Salamander en worm ga voort
de koningin mag niet gestoord:

Philomel, melodietje,
zing ons lieve slaapliedje.
wiege, wiege, wiegelied.
Doe nooit zeer,
noch bezweer
Onze Vrouwe teer;
Welterusten, met 'n liedje.

Spin in 't web, kom niet hier;
Weg, jullie langpot'ge spinnen, weg!