When Orpheus went down (Samuel Wesley)

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• (Posted 2022-05-14)  CPDL #69213: 

Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2022-05-14).   Score information: A4, 6 pages, 338 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

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

General Information

Title: When Orpheus went down
Composer: Samuel Wesley
Lyricist: Thomas Lisle^{create page}
Number of voices: 3vv   Voicing: TTB
Genre: Secular, Glee

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published:
Description: Composed 1781

Original text and translations

English text

When Orpheus went down to the regions below,
Which men are forbidden to see,
He tun'd up his lyre, as old histories show,
To set his Euridice free.

All Hell was astonish'd that a person so wise
Should rashly endanger his life,
And venture so far; but how vast their surprise,
When they heard that he came for his wife.

To find out a punishment due to his fault,
Old Pluto long puzzl'd his brain;
But hell had not torments sufficient, he thought,
So he gave him his wife back again.

But pity, succeeding, found place in his heart,
That, pleas'd with his playing so well,
He took her again, in reward of his art:
Such merit had music in hell.