Due fra le melodie del diciassettesimo secolo inglese

Questa prima Packington’s Pound è stata accoppiata a molti testi:

la Beggar’s Opera di John Gay (1728)

 

e soprattutto Bartholomew Fair (1614) di Ben Jonson.

Non ho presentato anche versioni cantate perché le migliori sono protette da copyright ed anche perché credo che la ricerca possa esser divertente.

La seconda, più antica, è stata a lungo attribuita ad Enrico VIII, in dedica ad Anna Bolena.

Tuttavia l’origine della musica, di tipo italiano, farebbe pensare ad epoca più tarda. Del resto le prime registrazioni documentate sono del 1580.

Questo il testo rinascimentale più diffuso.

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.

Alas, my love, that you should own

A heart of wanton vanity,

So I must meditate alone

Upon your insincerity.

(Chorus)

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)

 

E qui la bella versione della canadese Loreena McKennitt