by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
Since first I saw your face
Language: English
Since first I saw your face I resolved to honour and renown ye, If now I be disdained I wish my heart had never known ye. What? I that loved and you that liked shall we begin to wrangle? No, no no, my heart is fast, and cannot disentangle. If I admire or praise you too much, that fault you may forgive me Or if my hands had strayed but a touch, then justly might you leave me. I asked you leave, you bade me love; is’t now a time to chide me? No no no, I’ll love you still what fortune e’er betide me. The sun whose beams most glorious are, rejecteth no beholder, And your sweet beauty past compare made my poor eyes the bolder, Where beauty moves, and wit delights and signs of kindness bind me There, O there! where’er I go I’ll leave my heart behind me.
Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. by A. H. Bullen, London, John C. Nimmo, 1887, pages 105-106.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Text 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 Thomas Ford (d. 1648), "Since first I saw your face", published 1607, from Musicke of Sundrie Kindes [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "Since first I saw your face", published 1947 [ voice and piano ], from The Arnold Book of Old Songs, no. 15, London, Boosey & Hawkes [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 151