Boast not, mistaken swain (James Oswald)

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•  Posted on 2023-09-12(Posted 2023-09-12)  CPDL #75335: 

Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2023-09-12).   Score information: A4, 3 pages, 349 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

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

General Information

Title: Boast not, mistaken swain
Composer: James Oswald
Lyricist: Ambrose Phillips^{create page}
Number of voices: 1v   Voicing: solo high
Genre: Secular, Aria

Language: English
Instruments: Basso continuo, Violin

First published: 1758
Description: Titled The Blind Lover. Written for performance at Ranelagh pleasure gardens and sung by Catherine (Kitty) Fourmantel.

Original text and translations

English text

Boast not, mistaken swain, thy art,
To please my partial eyes;
The charms that have subdued my heart
Another may despise.

Thy face is to my humour made,
Another it may fright;
Perhaps, by some fond whim betray'd,
In oddness I delight.

Vain youth, to your confusion know
'Tis to my love's excess
You all your fancied beauties owe,
Which fade, as that grown less.

For your own sake, if not for mine,
You should preserve my fire;
Since you, my swain, no more will shine,
When I no more admire.

By me indeed you are allow'd
The wonder of your kind;
But be not of my judgment proud,
Whom love has render'd blind.