Lawn as white as driven snow;
Cyprus black as e'er was crow;
Gloves as sweet as damask roses;
Masks for faces and for noses;
Bugle bracelet, necklace amber,
Perfume for a lady's chamber;
Golden quoifs and stomachers,
For my lads to give their dears:
Pins and poking-sticks of steel,
What maids lack from head to heel:
Come buy of me, come; come buy, come buy;
Buy lads, or else your lasses cry: 
Come buy.

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Text as set by Blitzstein (courtesy of Kyle Degraff):

Lawn as white as driven snow,
White as snow, driven snow;
Cyprus black as e'er was crow,
Black as e’er was crow:
Come buy of me, come, buy.

Gloves as sweet as damask roses,
Sweet as damask roses,
Masks for faces and for noses,
And for noses;
Come lads, buy of me, come, buy.

Diddle, diddle, diddle, diddle.
Diddle, diddle, diddle, diddle.

Bugle bracelet, necklace amber,
Bracelet, necklace amber;
Perfume for a lady's chamber,
For a lady’s chamber;
Come buy of me, come, buy.

Golden quoifs and stomachers,
For my lads to give their dears;
Pins and poking-sticks of steel,
What maids lack from head to heel.

Come, lads, buy, lads;
Come, lads, buy, lads;
Buy, or else your lasses cry.
Come, buy, buy, buy, buy.

Text Authorship:

• by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in A Winter's Tale, Act IV, Scene 4, Autolycus's song. [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 Marc Blitzstein (1905 - 1964), "Vendor's song", published 1958 [ low voice, piano ], from Six Elizabethan Songs, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "Lawn as white as driven snow ", op. 181 no. 1 (1988) [ counter-tenor, recorder, harpsichord, and violoncello ], from Six by Four, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "Lawn as white as driven snow", 2015, first performed 2016 [ counter-tenor and piano ], from O Mistress Mine -- 12 Songs for countertenor and piano on texts from plays by William Shakespeare, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by J. Frederick Keel (1871 - 1954), "Autolycus's song", published 1921 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Wilson (1595 - 1674), "Lawn as white as driven snow" [sung text not yet checked]

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

• FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 74