A dialogue (Carew, set by H. Lawes) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


Shepherd:
 This mossy bank they prest.

Nimph:
 That aged oak did canopy the happy pair
 All night from the dark air.

Chorus:
 Here let us sit and sing the words they spoke,
 When the day breaking their embraces broke.

Shepherd:
 See Love the blushes of the morn appear,
 And now she hangs her pearly store
 Robb'd from the Eastern shore,
 In Cowslips-bell and Roses ear:
 Sweet, I must stay no longer here.

Nimph:
 Those streaks of doubtful light usher not day,
 But show my sun must set, no morn'
 Shall shine, till thy return,
 The yellow planet, and the grey
 Dawn shall attend thee on thy way.

Shepherd:
 If thine eyes gild my paths, they may forbear
 Their useless shine.

Nimph:
 My tears will quite
 Extinguish their faint light.

Shepherd:
 Those drops will make their beams more clear:
 Love's flames will shine on ev'ry tear.

Chorus:
 They wept and kist, and from their lips and eyes
 In a mixt dew of briny sweet
 Their joys and sorrows meet:
 But she cries out:

Nimph:
 Shepherd arise,
 The sun betrays us else to spies.

Shepherd:
 The winged hours fly fast whilst we embrace;
 But when we want their help to meet,
 They move with leaden feet.

Nimph:
 Then let us pinion Time, and chase
 The day for ever from this place.

Shepherd:
 Hark!

Nimph:
 Ah me! Stay

Shepherd:
 For ever.

Nimph:
 No no, arise, we must be gone.

Shepherd:
 My Nest of Spice.

Nimph:
 My Soul.

Shepherd:
 My Paradise.

Chorus:
 Neither could say farewell, but through their eyes,
 Grief interrupted speech, with
   Tears supplies.

Authorship

Thomas Carew (1595?-1639?)

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

Henry Lawes (c1595-1662)

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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