In the merry month of May (John Baldwin)

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• (Posted 2024-11-06)  CPDL #82628: 

Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2024-11-06).   Score information: A4, 60 pages   Copyright: CC BY SA

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

General Information

Title: In the merry month of May
Composer: John Baldwin
Lyricist: Nicholas Breton
Number of voices: 3vv   Voicing: ATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published:
Description: A freeman's song, dated 1591, from John Baldwin's Commonplace Book. Roger Bray (Grove) surmises that this is probably the 'pleasant song of Coridon and Phyllida, made in three parts of purpose' for the visit of Elizabeth I to the Earl of Hertford at Elvetham on 22 September 1591.

Original text and translations

English text

In the merry month of May,
In a morn by break of day,
Forth I walk'd by the wood-side
Whereas May was in his pride;
And there I spied all alone
Phillida and Coridon.
Much ado there was, God wot!
He would love and she would not.
She said, Never man was true;
He said, None was false to you.
He said, He had loved her long;
She said, Love should have no wrong.
Coridon would kiss her then;
She said, Maids must kiss no men,
Till they did for good and all.
Then she made the shepherd call
And call the heavens to witness truth
Never loved a truer youth.
Thus with many pretty oaths,
Yea and nay, faith and troth,
Such as silly shepherds use
When they will not love abuse,
Love, which had been long deluded,
Was with kisses sweet concluded;
And Phillida, with garlands gay,
Was made the Lady of the May.