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Greensleeves

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Image:Greensleeves-rossetti.jpg "Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, basically a ground of the form called a romanesca.

The widely-believed legend is that it was composed by King Henry VIII of England (1491-1547) for his lover and future queen consort Anne Boleyn. Anne, the youngest daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st 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 Boleyn in the public 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.

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[edit] 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,"

[edit] 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.

Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote his Fantasia on Greensleeves for his opera Sir John in Love (1924-28).

Many other contemporary artists recorded versions of this tune, whether vocal or instrumental, in their own style, including Timo Tolkki, John Coltrane, Jethro Tull, Enya, The Scorpions, Neil Young, Slime, Vanessa Carlton, Blackmore's Night, Sarah McLachlan and others.

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

It also formed part of a contrapuntal section in the BBC Radio 4 UK Theme by Fritz Spiegl, in which it was played alongside What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?. The UK Theme, including "Greensleeves", was broadcast each day at the start of Radio 4's morning programmes from 1973 until 2006, when it was dropped from the schedule.

A piano rendition of "Greensleeves" is featured during the PlayStation 2 Role Playing Game Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (entitled "Green Sleeves") and was rearranged by the game's composer, Yasunori Mitsuda. It was also featured in the much older game "Punchy" (a "Hunchback" clone), released by Mr. Micro in 1984. The tune was also whistled by either Garcian or Con Smith near end of the Gamecube game Killer 7.There's some speculation that both characters actually whistle the song at different times in the finale of the game.

A refrain of the melody is heard at the very end of the Beatles song, 'All You Need Is Love', amid the lyrics to 'She Loves You', sung by John Lennon. In a cross-reference to Capcom's Killer7, one of the messages that pops up during gameplay when chaining critical hits is 'All you need is blood.' This may or may not be connected to the usage of the song 'Greensleeves' near the climax of the game, as it's used near the end of 'All You Need Is love'.

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 adventure computer game King's Quest series used the main theme from "Greensleeves" as title music for the first and second game.

"Greensleeves" is a popular refrain for ice cream vans.

A famous Christmas song, "What Child Is This?", combines the melody of "Greensleeves" with lyrics hailing the newborn Christ, "whom angels greet with anthems sweet while shepherds watch are keeping".

[edit] 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 love, ye do me wrong,
to cast me off discourteously:
And I have loved 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)

[edit] 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 joy,
Greensleeues was my delight:
Greensleeues was my heart of gold,
And who but Ladie Greensleeues.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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