Greensleeves

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"My Lady Greensleeves" as depicted in an 1864 painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Greensleeves is a traditional English folk song (or tune), basically a ground of the form called a romanesca; the widely believed legend is that it was composed by English King Henry VIII (1491 - 1547) for his lover and future Queen, Anne Boleyn. Anne, the youngest daughter of the earl of Wiltshire, rejected Henry's attempts to seduce her. This rejection is apparently referred to in the song, when the writer's love "cast me off discourteously." It is not known if the legend is true, but the song is still commonly associated with Anne Boleyn in the public's mind.

It likely circulated in manuscript, as most social music did, long before it was printed. A tune by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves." No copy of that printing is known. It appears in the surviving A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584) as "A New Courtly Sonnet of the Lady Green Sleeves. To the new tune of Green sleeves." It remains debatable whether this suggests that an old tune of "Greensleeves" was in circulation, or which one our familiar tune is.

Contents

1 References
2 Derivatives
3 Versions
4 Lyrics
5 Renaissance Lyrics
6 External links

References

In Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, written around 1602, the character Mistress Ford refers twice without any explanation to the tune of "Green Sleeves," and Falstaff later exclaims:

Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of 'Greensleeves'!

All of these allusions suggest that the song was well known at that time.

Derivatives

"Greensleeves" has inspired a number of derivative works. The British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) composed a Falstaff opera, Sir John in Love (1935), from which Ralph Greaves adapted a Fantasia on "Greensleeves." Another British composer, Gustav Holst, also used the "Greensleeves" melody in the fourth and final movement of St Paul's Suite. Its slow tempo has inspired modern languishing renditions. The Christmas carol "What Child is This?" by William Chatterton Dix (1837-1898) used the melody of "Greensleeves" (Bébé Dieu in French), while "I Saw Three Ships" uses a more upbeat variant of "Greensleeves."

Versions

Leonard Cohen reworked "Greensleeves" into his 1974 song "Leaving Green Sleeves" (off the album New Skin for the Old Ceremony).

The Smothers Brothers sang a modern version of "Greensleeves" with updated lyrics called "Where the Lilac Grows." It is found on their 1962 album The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers. The same year saw film composer Alfred Newman use the melody throughout the film How the West Was Won.

Many other contemporary artists recorded versions of this tune, whether vocal or instrumental, in their own style, including The Jeff Beck Group, Ritchie Blackmore, Timo Tolkki, Leona Boyd, John Coltrane, Enya, Marianne Faithfull, Jethro Tull, Kenny G, Loreena McKennitt, Oscar Peterson, The Scorpions, Derek Trucks, Stratovarius, Roger Whittaker, Vince Guaraldi, George Winston, Olivia Newton John, Neil Young, The Bill Smith Quartet, The Atlantics, Vanessa Carlton, Slime and others.

"Greensleeves" is also the authorized march of the Canadian Forces Dental Branch.

It also forms part of a contrapuntal section in the BBC Radio 4 UK Theme by Fritz Spiegl, in which it is played alongside What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?.

A piano rendition of "Greensleeves" is heard at one point during the video game Xenosaga:Der Wille zur Macht, and it was also featured in the much older game "Punchy" (a "Hunchback" clone), released by Mr. Micro in 1984.

During a "Stump the Band" segment on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, an audience member sang a ditty called "Green Stamps," about a grocery clerk, to that tune. The refrain began, Green Stamps were all she gave...

In HKCEE and HKALE, a version of Fantasia on "Greensleeves" performed by Sinfonia of London and conducted by Sir John Barbirolli is broadcast to ensure all candidates that they have turned to the correct channel before the English listening exam.

The Interactive Fiction computer game series King's Quest, produced by Sierra, used the main theme from "Greensleeves" as title music for the first and second game.

Greensleeves is a popular refrain for ice cream vans.

Lyrics

There are many versions of the traditional lyrics of "Greensleeves" as a conventional lover's lament, often varying simply in the syllabic density. The first printed version begins:

Alas my loue, ye do me wrong,

:to cast me off discurteously:

And I haue loued you so long

:Delighting in your companie.

Many versions use updated grammar, or a mix. Here is the same verse in a sparser version:

Alas, my love, you do me wrong

To cast me out discourteously,

For I have loved you for so long,

Delighting in your company.

The full lyrics, with updated grammar, are listed as follows.

Alas, my love, you do me wrong,

To cast me off discourteously.

For I have loved you well and long,

Delighting in your company.

Chorus:

Greensleeves was all my joy

Greensleeves was my delight,

Greensleeves was my heart of gold,

And who but my lady greensleeves.

Your vows you've broken, like my heart,

Oh, why did you so enrapture me?

Now I remain in a world apart

But my heart remains in captivity.

(Chorus)

I have been ready at your hand,

To grant whatever you would crave,

I have both wagered life and land,

Your love and good-will for to have.

(Chorus)

If you intend thus to disdain,

It does the more enrapture me,

And even so, I still remain

A lover in captivity.

(Chorus)

My men were clothed all in green,

And they did ever wait on thee;

All this was gallant to be seen,

And yet thou wouldst not love me.

(Chorus)

Thou couldst desire no earthly thing,

but still thou hadst it readily.

Thy music still to play and sing;

And yet thou wouldst not love me.

(Chorus)

Well, I will pray to God on high,

that thou my constancy mayst see,

And that yet once before I die,

Thou wilt vouchsafe to love me.

(Chorus)

Ah, Greensleeves, now farewell, adieu,

To God I pray to prosper thee,

For I am still thy lover true,

Come once again and love me.

(Chorus)

Renaissance Lyrics

Alas my loue, ye do me wrong,

to cast me off discurteously:

And I haue loued you so long

Delighting in your companie.

Chorus:

Greensleeues was all my ioy,

Greensleeues was my delight:

Greensleeues was my heart of gold,

And who but Ladie Greensleeues.

I haue been readie at your hand,

to grant what euer you would craue.

I haue both waged life and land,

your loue and good will for to haue.

(Chorus)

I bought three kerchers to thy head,

that were wrought fine and gallantly:

I kept thee both boord and bed,

Which cost my purse wel fauouredly.

(Chorus)

I bought thee peticotes of the best,

the cloth so fine as might be:

I gaue thee iewels for thy chest,

and all this cost I spent on thee.

(Chorus)

Thy smock of silk, both faire and white,

with gold embrodered gorgeously:

Thy peticote of Sendall right:

and thus I bought thee gladly.

(Chorus)

Thy girdle of gold so red,

with pearles bedecked sumptuously:

The like no other lasses had,

and yet thou wouldst not loue me,

(Chorus)

Thy purse and eke thy gay guilt kniues,

thy pincase gallant to the eie:

No better wore the Burgesse wiues,

and yet thou wouldst not loue me.

(Chorus)

Thy crimson stockings all of silk,

with golde all wrought aboue the knee,

Thy pumps as white as was the milk,

and yet thou wouldst not loue me.

(Chorus)

Thy gown was of the grossie green,

thy sleeues of Satten hanging by:

Which made thee be our haruest Queen,

and yet thou wouldst not loue me.

(Chorus)

Thy garters fringed with the golde,

And siluer aglets hanging by,

Which made thee blithe for to beholde,

And yet thou wouldst not loue me.

(Chorus)

My gayest gelding I thee gaue,

To ride where euer liked thee,

No Ladie euer was so braue,

And yet thou wouldst not loue me.

(Chorus)

My men were clothed all in green,

And they did euer wait on thee:

Al this was gallant to be seen,

and yet thou wouldst not loue me.

(Chorus)

They set thee vp, they took thee downe,

they serued thee with humilitie,

Thy foote might not once touch the ground,

and yet thou wouldst not loue me.

(Chorus)

For euerie morning when thou rose,

I sent thee dainties orderly:

To cheare thy stomack from all woes,

and yet thou wouldst not loue me.

(Chorus)

Thou couldst desire no earthly thing.

But stil thou hadst it readily:

Thy musicke still to play and sing,

And yet thou wouldst not loue me.

(Chorus)

And who did pay for all this geare,

that thou didst spend when pleased thee?

Euen I that am reiected here,

and thou disdainst to loue me.

(Chorus)

Wel, I wil pray to God on hie,

that thou my constancie maist see:

And that yet once before I die,

thou wilt vouchsafe to loue me.

(Chorus)

Greensleeues now farewel adue,

God I pray to prosper thee:

For I am stil thy louer true,

come once againe and loue me.

Chorus:

Greensleeues was all my ioy,

Greensleeues was my delight:

Greensleeues was my heart of gold,

And who but Ladie Greensleeues.

External links

[Renaissance and Modern Versions of Greensleeves]
[Andrew Kuntz, The Fiddler's Companion:] see under Greensleeves [2]
[Easybyte] - piano music for Greensleeves / What Child is This

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