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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

The ousel cock, so black of hue
Language: English 
The ousel cock, so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill.

The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
The plain-song cuckoo grey,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay.

About the headline (FAQ)

Note: used in Matthew King's A Song of Byrds.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 3, Scene 1: Bottom's song [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):

    [ None yet in the database ]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767 - 1845) ; composed by Hugo Wolf.
    • Go to the text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo)


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-04-10
Line count: 8
Word count: 46

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–Emily Ezust, Founder

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