Over hill, over dale

Over hill, over dale,
  Thorough bush, thorough briar,
Over park, over pale,
  Thorough flood, thorough fire
I do wander everywhere.

Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

Authorship

by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) , title unknown, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1.

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

by John Linton Gardner (1917-) , "Over hill, over dale", op. 181 no. 3 (1988) [counter-tenor, recorder, harpsichord, and violoncello], from Six by Four, no. 3.
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) , "Over hill, over dale", 1951 [partsong], from Three Shakespeare Songs, no. 3.

ITA Italian (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Per colline e per valli", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

Notes about green, red, and white dots

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Per colline e per valli

Per colline e per valli,
tra rovi e boscaglie,
per siepi e per campi
fra piogge e fra lampi
io vado vagando.
 
Più lieve e leggero della sfera lunare
La regina delle fate io debbo servire,
Rugiada spargo sui magici cerchi nel prato.
Le primule intorno da scorta le fanno;  
i loro abiti d'oro sono punteggiati
da rossi rubini, doni fatati,
vi sta racchiuso il loro profumo:
E ora perle di rugiada io vado a cercare,
orecchini a ogni primula voglio donare.

Authorship

Translation from English to Italian copyright © 2008 by Ferdinando Albeggiani, f (DOT) albeggiani (AT) gmail (DOT) com, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. Please contact the copyright-holder(s) when requesting permission to reprint and be sure to give proper credit.

a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) , title unknown, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1.

Text added to the website: 2008-10-26.