My banks they are covered with bees (Stephen Storace)

Music files

L E G E N D

Disclaimer

How to download

ICON	SOURCE
	Web Page
	File details
	Help

• (Posted 2022-08-11)  CPDL #70349: 

Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2022-08-11).   Score information: A4, 363 pages   Copyright: CC BY SA

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

General Information

Title: My banks they are covered with bees
Composer: Stephen Storace
Lyricist: William Shenstone
Number of voices: 2vv   Voicings: SS or TT
Genre: Secular, Glee

Language: English
Instruments: Keyboard

First published: c.1782 (n/d) Eight canzonets
Description: Accompaniment for piano or harp prescribed by the composer.

Original text and translations

English text

My banks they are covered with bees,
Whose murmur invites one to sleep.
My grottoes are shaded with trees
And my hills are white over with sheep.
I seldom have met with a loss,
Such health do my mountains bestow;
My fountains all border'd with moss,
Where the harebells and violets grow.

One would think she might like to retire
To the bow'r I had labour'd to rear;
Not a shrub that I heard her admire,
But I hasted and planted it there.
O how sudden the jessamine strove
With the lilac to render it gay;
Already it calls for my love,
To prune the wild branches away.

But where does my Phyllida stray,
And where are her grots and her bow'rs?
Are the groves and the valleys so gay,
Are the shepherds as gentle as ours?
The groves may perhaps be as fair,
And the face of the valleys as fine;
The swains may in manners compare,
But their love cannot equal mine.