Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
[That hills and valleys, dales and field,
Or woods or steepy mountain yields]1.
 
[And we will sit upon the rocks]2
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
 
[And I will]3 make thee beds of roses
[And]4 a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and [a]5 kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.
 
[A gown made of the finest]6 wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
[Fair linèd slippers]7 for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.
 
A belt of straw and ivy buds
[With coral clasps and amber studs:]8
[And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love]9.
 
The 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.

E. Moeran sets stanzas 1-5
S. Webbe sets stanzas 1, 3, 5, 7
V. Fine sets stanzas 1-3, 5, 7
P. Warlock sets stanzas 1-5, 7

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

First published in England's Helicon, 1600

¹ Fine: "That hills and valleys, dales and fields,/ Or woods or steepy mountain yields." ; Moeran: "That grove or valley, hill or field,/ Or wood and steepy mountain yield"; Webbe: "That grove and valley, hill and field/ Or woods and steepy mountains yield"
² Moeran: "Where we will sit on rising rocks"; Webbe: "There will we sit upon the rocks"
³ Moeran: "Pleased will I"; Webbe: "There will I"
⁴ Moeran, Webbe: "And twine"
⁵ Moeran, Webbe: "rural"
⁶ Moeran: "A jaunty gown of finest"
⁷ Moeran: "And shoes lined choicely"
⁸ Webbe: "A coral clasp and amber studs"; omitted by Fine.
⁹ Moeran: "If these, these pleasures can thee move,/ Then live with me and be my love."; Webbe: "And if these pleasures may thee move,/ Then live with me and be my love"

Text Authorship:

• by Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593), "The passionate shepherd to his love" [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 Vivian Fine (1913 - 2000), "The passionate shepherd to his love", 1938, first performed 1975, stanzas 1-3,5,7 [ SSA chorus a cappella ], from The Passionate Shepherd to his Love and Her Reply, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "The passionate shepherd", R. 69 no. 4 (1934), published 1934, stanzas 1-5 [ voice and piano ], from Four English Lyrics, no. 4, Winthrop Rogers [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930), "The passionate shepherd", 1928, published 1929, stanzas 1-5,7 [ voice and piano ], from Seven Songs of Summer, no. 1, London: Elkin [sung text not yet checked]
• by Samuel Webbe (1740 - 1815), "Come live with me", stanzas 1,3,5,7 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text checked 1 time]

Set in a modified version by William Sterndale Bennett, Henry Rowley Bishop, Alan Bullard, Johann Friedrich Hugo, Freiherr von Dalberg, Rubin Goldmark, William Mayer, Norman Houston O'Neill, Myron Silberstein, Mabel Nightingale Woodward.

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2011-04-01
Line count: 28
Word count: 185