Near Thames' green banks, a love-lorn nymph reclin'd (William Boyce)

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• (Posted 2022-08-11)  CPDL #70352: 

Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2022-08-11).   Score information: A4, 4 pages, 240 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download. Figured bass realised editorially

General Information

Title: Near Thames' green banks, a love-lorn nymph reclin'd
Composer: William Boyce
Lyricist: John Lockman^{create page}
Number of voices: 1v   Voicing: solo high
Genre: Secular, Aria

Language: English
Instruments: Basso continuo

First published: c.1748
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

Near Thames' green banks, a love-lorn nymph reclin'd
Thus tax'd her Thyrsis, various as the wind:
"Hast thou, perfidious youth, thy oaths forgot,
And must the mournful willow be my lot?
Since thou condemning gods thy vows hast broke,
Thus play'd with love and made my fame thy joke,
A dire revenge on thee I now have chose,
For soon these waves shall end my life and woes".

This said, she hasted to the sounding flood,
And shudd'ring o'er its flow'ry margin stood,
The tear of anguish starting in her eye,
Resolv'd to plunge, she vents a dismal sigh.
But, in his terrors whilst grim death appears,
She cries (her wav'ring mind o'erspread with fears):
"'Tis madness all, I'll fly back to the plains;
I've but one life, and there's a choice of swains".