The knight and the yeoman (Henry Ernest Nichol)
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- (Posted 2023-11-21) CPDL #77516:
- Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-11-21). Score information: Letter, 20 pages, 784 kB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes:
General Information
Title: The knight and the yeoman
Composer: Henry Ernest Nichol
Lyricist:
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong
Language: English
Instruments: Piano
First published: 1904 J. Fischer & Bro.
Description:
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
A maiden was loved by a great gallant knight,
And a yeoman kind and true;
And both came by chance in the moonshine bright,
With their thrumming guitars, so joyous and light,
To warble their love anew.
And first sang the courtier, invoking her pity,
The strains of the following excellent ditty:
“O list to me, my lady fair,
If thou wilt now be mine;
Bright silks and lace and jewels rare
Shall deck that form of thine;
Thy feet shall tread the mazy dance,
With princes in the hall;
Thy glorious eyes shall hold in trance,
All those on whom they fall;
And thou shalt drink of the ruddiest wine
That sleeps in the purple clustered vine.”
And then sang the yeoman in low loving tone,
With his young heart beating fast;
For all he could offer was love alone,
And a heart that was loyally all her own,
As long as his life would last.
And thus sang he tenderly, dwelling upon it,
The words of this somewhat melodious sonnet:
“My love, I cannot shower wealth,
In splendor at thy feet;
But I can give thee happy health,
Where winds blow warm and sweet;
Thy dances on thy lawn shall be
Thy footsteps on the hill;
The skies above thee stretching free,
Thy lover by thee still;
And thou shalt drink of the rippling stream,
And live all thy life in a happy dream.”
And the maid fled away with the yeoman free
To the far off woods and hills,
Where birds sing a carol on every tree,
And the water leaps down from the rocks in its glee,
In thousands of sparkling rills,
In thousands of sparkling rills.
And the knight wandered off to dominions alien,
And drowned all his griefs in delights Bachanalian:
Ponki ponki ponki pong pong,
pong pong pong, pong.
“Colin Sterne”