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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Translation by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873)

You spotted snakes with double tongue
Language: English 
Our translations:  DUT
You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blindworms, do no wrong,
Come not near our Fairy Queen.

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

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, 
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, [lullaby:]2
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   M. Blitzstein •   E. Křenek 

M. Blitzstein sets lines 7-11, 1-4, 12-18
E. Křenek sets lines 1-7, 12-13, 8-11

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Křenek: "lullaby."
2 Blitzstein: "lullaby./ Lullaby."

Text 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]
  • by Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867 - 1944), "Fairy lullaby", op. 37 (Three Shakespeare Songs) no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Marc Blitzstein (1905 - 1964), "Lullaby", published 1958, lines 7-11,1-4,12-18 [ 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]
  • by J. Frederick Keel (1871 - 1954), "You spotted snakes" [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Ernst Křenek (1900 - 1991), "Fairies' song", lines 1-7,12-13,8-11 [ 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: 22
Word count: 106

Vous, serpents tachetés au double dard
Language: French (Français)  after the English 
Vous, serpents tachetés au double dard,
Hérissons épineux, ne vous montrez pas,
Salamandres, orvets, ne soyez pas malfaisants,
N'approchez pas de la reine des fées.

"Philomèle, avec ta mélodie,
Accompagne notre douce chanson ;
Lulla, Lulla, Lullaby ! Lulla, Lulla, Lullaby !
Que ni malheur,
ni charme, ni maléfice
N'atteigne notre aimable dame,
Et bonne nuit, avec Lullaby."

"Araignées fileuses, ne venez pas céans ;
Arrière, faucheux aux longues pattes, arrière !
Noirs escarbots, n'approchez pas.
Vers et limaçons, ne faites aucun dégât."

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873) [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 2
    • Go to the text page.

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 ]


Researcher for this page: Guy Laffaille [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2011-11-30
Line count: 15
Word count: 78

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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