Come live with me and be my Love, And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and valleys, dale and field, And all the craggy mountains yield. There will we sit upon the rocks And see the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. There will I make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. A gown made of the finest wool Which from our pretty lambs we pull, Fair linèd slippers for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold. A belt of straw and ivy buds With coral clasps and amber studs: And if these pleasures may thee move, Come live with me and be my Love. Thy silver dishes for thy meat As precious as the gods do eat, Shall on an ivory table be Prepared each day for thee and me. The shepherd swains shall dance and sing For thy delight each May-morning: If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me and be my Love.
Available sung texts: ← What is this?
• W. Bennett • H. Bishop • J. von Dalberg • R. Goldmark • W. MayerW. Bennett sets stanzas 1-3, 7
H. Bishop sets stanzas 1-2, 7
W. Mayer sets stanzas 1-2, 7
J. von Dalberg sets stanzas 1, 2, 7
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesConfirmed with The Golden Treasury, Francis T. Palgrave, ed., 1875.
See Raleigh's famous response, The nymph's reply to the shepherd.
See also the parody by Archibald Stodart-Walker.
Text Authorship:
- by Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593), "The passionate shepherd to his love", written 1580-1592? [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 William Sterndale Bennett (1816 - 1875), "Come live with me", 1846, stanzas 1-3,7 [ chorus ], partsong [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Henry Rowley Bishop (1785 - 1855), "Come live with me", stanzas 1-2,7 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Alan Bullard (b. 1947), "Come live with me and be my love", 1981 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Johann Friedrich Hugo, Freiherr von Dalberg (1760 - 1812), "Come Live with Me and Be My Love", op. 15 no. 2, stanzas 1,2,7, from Three English Songs and a Glee with an Accompaniment for the Pianoforte, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Rubin Goldmark (1872 - 1936), "The passionate shepherd to his love" [sung text checked 1 time]
- by William Mayer (b. 1925), "The passionate shepherd to his love", stanzas 1-2,7 [ satb chorus a cappella ], from Four Madrigals, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Norman Houston O'Neill (1875 - 1934), "Come live with me and be my Love" [ voice and orchestra ], from Shakespeare Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Myron Silberstein (b. 1975), "Come Live With Me and Be My Love", 2016, from No Life But This, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Mabel Nightingale Woodward (1876 - 1911), "The passionate shepherd to his love", published 1912 [ voice and piano ], from Songs, no. 12, Birmingham : Press of the Birmingham Printers [sung text not yet checked]
Set in a modified version by Vivian Fine, Ernest John Moeran, Peter Warlock, Samuel Webbe.
Another version of this text exists in the database.
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, adapted by Cecil Day Lewis (1904 - 1972) , "Come, live with me and be my love", a parody [an adaptation] ; composed by Edward Gregson.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Der feurige Schäfer zu seiner Liebsten", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Adolf von Marées) , "Der Schäfer an sein Lieb"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 28
Word count: 185