by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
And would you see my mistress' face
Language: English
And would you see my mistress' face, It is a flow'ry garden place Where knots of beauties have such grace That all is work and nowhere space. It is a sweet delicious morn, Where day is breeding never born, It is a meadow yet unshorn, Whom thousand flowers do adorn. It is the heavens' bright reflex, Weak eyes to dazzle and to vex, It is th' Idaea of her sex, Envy of whom doth world perplex. It is a face of death that smiles, Pleasing, though it kills the whiles, Where death and love in pretty wiles, Each other mutually beguiles. It is fair beauty's freshest youth, It is the feign'd Elysium's truth, The Spring that winter'd hearts renew'th, And this is that my soul pursu'th.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [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 John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "And would you see my mistress' face" [voice and piano] [text not verified]
- by Philip Rosseter (1567?8 - 1623), "And would you see my mistress' face", published 1601, in A Book of Ayres [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-09-07
Line count: 20
Word count: 126