Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever;
[One foot in sea and one on shore;
To one thing constant never.]1
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny;
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no more,
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
[The fraud of men was ever so
Since summer first was leavy.]2
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny;
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Fisher: "To one thing constant never,/ One foot in sea and one on shore."
² Fischer: "Since summer first was leavy,/ The fraud of men was ever so."

Text Authorship:

• by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, Scene 3 [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), "Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more", published 1972 [ tenor and piano or orchestra ], from Five Shakespeare Songs, no. 5, New York, Peters [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Thomas Augustine Arne (1710 - 1778), "Sigh no more, ladies" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Joseph W. Baber (b. 1937), "Sigh no more, ladies", op. 9 no. ? (1953-6) [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Shakespearean Madrigals, Set 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Sigh no more", 2011 [ baritone and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Geoffrey Bush (1920 - 1998), "Sigh no more, ladies" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Sigh no more, ladies", 1922, published 1924 [ high voice and piano ], from Shakespeare Songs, Book IV, no. 1, London : Chester [sung text not yet checked]
• by George Whitefield Chadwick (1854 - 1931), "Inconstancy", 1910, published 1910, copyright © 1910 [ ssaa chorus and piano ], Boston, Schmidt [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Eric Coates (1886 - 1957), "Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Edward Dearle , "Sigh no more ladies", <<1892 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], glee [sung text not yet checked]
• by Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927), "Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more", 1960, published 1962, first performed 1960 [ SATB chorus and piano ], from Three Madrigals, NY : Boosey [sung text not yet checked]
• by William Arms Fisher (1861 - 1948), "Sigh no more, ladies", op. 5 no. 5, published 1897 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Stanley Fletcher , "Sigh no more, ladies", 1950, first performed 1950 [ baritone and piano ], from A Shakespeare Triad [sung text not yet checked]
• by Arthur Foote (1853 - 1937), "Sigh no more, ladies", published 1913 [ SSA chorus or vocal trio for 2 sopranos and alto with piano ], Boston : Schmidt [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "Sigh no more, ladies", op. 224 no. 5 (1996 ) [ SATB chorus and piano duet ], from Waltzsongs, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Mervyn, Lord Horder, the Second Baron of Ashford (1910 - 1998), "Sigh no more, ladies" [ vocal duet with piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "Sigh no more, ladies" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "Be you blithe and bonny" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by J. Frederick Keel (1871 - 1954), "Sigh no more, ladies" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Kenneth Leighton (1929 - 1988), "Sigh no more Ladies", from 5 Shakespeare Songs, no. 3, available from the Kenneth Leighton Trust, e-mail jo (DOT) leighton (AT) blueyonder (DOT) co (DOT) uk  [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "Sigh no more, ladies", R. 54 no. 5 (1930?), published 1933 [ chorus ], from Songs of Springtime, no. 5, Novello [sung text not yet checked]
• by Mary Plumstead (1905 - 1980), "Sigh no more, ladies" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "Sigh no more, ladies", op. 30 no. 4 (1933), published 1933 [ voice and piano ], from Four Shakespeare Songs (Third Set), no. 4, London, Boosey [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Sigh No More, Ladies", op. 369 (1952) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Sigh No More, Ladies", op. 519 (1958) [sung text not yet checked]
• by Betty Roe (b. 1930), "Sigh no more", published 1974 [ medium voice, flute, and piano ], from Four Shakespeare Songs, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Andrew Schneider (b. 1991), "Sigh no more, ladies" [ ttb chorus ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Donna Gartman Schultz (b. 1948), "Sigh no more, ladies" [ chorus a cappella ], from Two Shakespeare Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970), "Sigh no more, ladies", 1895-6 [ voice and piano ], from Six Songs, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Zane Randall Stroope (b. 1953), "Sigh no more, ladies", published 2005 [ voice and piano ], from Love's waning seasons, no. 5, Colla Voce [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Arthur Sullivan, Sir (1842 - 1900), "Sigh no more, ladies", published 1866 [ voice and piano ], from 5 Shakespeare Songs, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Virgil Garnett Thomson (1896 - 1989), "Sigh no more, ladies", 1957, published 1961 [ voice and piano ], from Five Shakespeare Songs, no. 5, New York, Southern [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "The conspiracy" [ SATB chorus ], from cantata In Windsor Forest, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930), "Sigh no more, ladies", 1927, published 1928 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in Danish (Dansk), a translation by Edvard Lembcke (1815 - 1897) ; composed by Peter Arnold Heise.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    
• Also set in Dutch (Nederlands), a translation by Emmanuel Hiel (1834 - 1899) , "O, meisjes, zucht niet ach en wee", appears in Gedichten, in Twaalf liederen van Shakespere, no. 4, first published 1868 ; composed by Petrus Leonardus Leopoldus "Peter" Benoit.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Jules Ruelle (1834 - 1892) ; composed by Akhilles Nikolayevich Alferaki.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
  • Go to the text.
    

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Pauline Kroger) , "De samenzwering", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Paavo Cajander)
• FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot)
• FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo)
• ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ITA Italian (Italiano) (Carlo Rusconi) , first published 1859
• POL Polish (Polski) (Jan Kasprowicz) , "Śpiew Baltazara", first published 1907

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 97