What shepherd or nymph of the grove (Theodore Aylward)

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• (Posted 2023-01-30)  CPDL #72447: 

Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2023-01-30).   Score information: A4, 5 pages, 308 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.

General Information

Title: What shepherd or nymph of the grove
Composer: Theodore Aylward
Lyricist: Anonymous
Number of voices: 2vv   Voicing: SS
Genre: Secular, Glee

Language: English
Instruments: Harpsichord, Violoncello The bass line is for either Violoncello or for Harpsichord (not both).

First published: c.1790 (n/d)
Description: "Eight canzonets for two soprano voices, dedicated by permission to their Royal Highnesses Princess Augusta and Princess Elizabeth" (and, one assumes, intended for domestic performance by the Royal Family).

Original text and translations

English text

What shepherd or nymph of the grove
Can blame me for dropping a tear,
Or lamenting aloud as I rove,
Since Phoebe no longer is here?
My flocks, if at random they stray,
What wonder? since she's from the plain;
Her hand they were wont to obey;
She rul'd both the sheep and the swain.

Can I ever forget how we stray'd
To the foot of yon neighbouring hill,
To the bow'r we had built in the shade,
Or the river that runs by the mill?
There, sweet by my side as she lay
And heard the fond stories I told,
How sweet was the thrush from the spray,
Or the bleating of lambs from the fold.

How oft I would spy out a charm,
Which before had been hid from my view;
And while arm was enfolded in arm,
My lips to her lips how they grew;
How long the sweet contest would last,
'Til the hour of retirement and rest;
What pleasures and pains each had past,
Who longest had lov'd and who best:

She was all my fond wishes could ask,
She had all the kind gods could impart;
She was nature's most beautiful task,
The despair and the envy of art.
There, all that was worthy to prize
In all that was lovely was dress'd;
For the graces were thron'd in her eyes
And the virtues all lodg'd in her breast.