Came upon this piece of music accidentally, and I thought it was Christmas music, well it is sort of. It came before the well known What Child is this? I have always thought it was just a Christmas song, but actually it was first a folk song that came from England. No one really knows who wrote it or what the words are referring to. Some people think that King Henry VIII wrote it to Anne Boleyn, of course there is nothing to suggest this, other then it is from around the same time.
Here are the lyrics:
- Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
- To cast me off discourteously.
- For I have loved you well and long,
- Delighting in your company.
- Chorus:
- Greensleeves was all my joy
- Greensleeves was my delight,
- Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
- And who but my lady greensleeves.
Aheart of wanton vanity,
So I must meditate alone
Upon your insincerity.
- (Chorus)
- Your vows you've broken, like my heart,
- Oh, why did you so enrapture me?
- Now I remain in a world apart
- But my heart remains in captivity.
- (Chorus)
- I have been ready at your hand,
- To grant whatever you would crave,
- I have both wagered life and land,
- Your love and good-will for to have.
- (Chorus)
- If you intend thus to disdain,
- It does the more enrapture me,
- And even so, I still remain
- A lover in captivity.
- (Chorus)
- My men were clothed all in green,
- And they did ever wait on thee;
- All this was gallant to be seen,
- And yet thou wouldst not love me.
- (Chorus)
- Thou couldst desire no earthly thing,
- but still thou hadst it readily.
- Thy music still to play and sing;
- And yet thou wouldst not love me.
- (Chorus)
- Well, I will pray to God on high,
- that thou my constancy mayst see,
- And that yet once before I die,
- Thou wilt vouchsafe to love me.
- (Chorus)
- Ah, Greensleeves, now farewell, adieu,
- To God I pray to prosper thee,
- For I am still thy lover true,
- Come once again and love me.
- (Chorus)
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