Tom Tyler (Anonymous, set by P. Warlock) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


I am a poor tiler in simple array,
And get a poor living, but eightpence a day,
My wife as I get it, doth spend it away;
And I cannot help it, she saith; wot we why?
[The proverb reporteth, no man can deny,]¹
[That]² wedding and hanging is destiny.

I thought when I wed her, she had been a sheep,
At board to be friendly, to sleep when I sleep.
She loves so unkindly, she makes me to weep;
But I dare say nothing, God wot! wot ye why?
[The proverb reporteth, no man can deny,]¹
[That]² wedding and hanging is destiny.

Besides this unkindness whereof my grief grows,
I think few tilers are match'd with such shrows;
Before she leaves brawling, she falls to deal blows
Which, early and late, doth cause me [to]¹ cry
[The proverb reporteth, no man can deny,]¹
That wedding and hanging is destiny.

The more that I please her, the worse she doth like me;
The more I forbear her, the more she doth strike me;
The more that I get her, the more she doth glike me;
Woe worth this ill fortune that maketh me cry
[The proverb reporteth, no man can deny,]¹
That wedding and hanging is destiny.

If I had been hanged when I had been married,
My torments had ended, though I had miscarried;
If I had been warned, then would I have tarried;
But now all too lately I feel and [I]¹ cry
[The proverb reporteth, no man can deny,]¹
That wedding and hanging is destiny.

View text without footnotes
¹ Added by Warlock.
² Original: "For"
Glossary: glike = gleek: trick or circumvent; shrows = shrews: railing or scolding women ; wot = know

Input by David K. Smythe

Authorship

Anonymous/Unidentified Artist

Tom Tyler and His Wife, An Excellent Old Play, As It was Printed and Acted about a hundred Years ago

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

Peter Warlock (1894-1930) [pseudonym]

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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