Inspired by Midsummer Nights Dream, by William Shakespeare. The words are taken directly from Act 1 Scene 1, and set to music by The Bookshop Band.
lyrics
Her: God speed fair Helena, wither away?
Hel: Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!
Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The rest I'd give to be, to you translated.
O, teach me how you look, and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.
Her: I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
Hel: O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!
Her: I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
Hel: O that my prayers could such affection move!
Her: The more I hate, the more he follows me.
Hel: The more I love, the more he hateth me.
Her: His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
Hel: None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!
Her: Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;
Lysander and myself will fly this place.
credits
from Happy 450th Birthday, Shakespeare,
released May 2, 2014
Words by William Shakespeare
Music by The Bookshop Band
Recorded, mixed and produced by The Bookshop Band
Mastered by Marco Migliari.
The Bookshop Band write songs inspired by books and play them in bookshops. They started as a collaboration between a group
of musicians in Bath and their local independent bookshop, Mr B's Emporium. Now they are about to go on tour, sponsored by Vintage Books and Independent Booksellers Week, around other bookshops and lit fests. Catch them if you can. Details at www.thebookshopband.co.uk...more
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