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

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."