Greensleeves
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"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, a ground of the form called a romanesca.
A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves". It then 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."
The tune is found in several late 16th century and early 17th century sources, such as Ballet's MS Lute Book and Het Luitboek van Thysius, as well as various manuscripts preserved in the Cambridge University libraries.
A widely-believed (but unproven) legend is that it was composed by Henry VIII for his lover and future queen consort Anne Boleyn. Anne 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." However, it is unlikely that he is the author, as the song is written in a style which was not known in England until after Henry VIII died. That also might not be the case because the song states that she "broke their vows," meaning that she might have divorced him, but none of King Henry's wives divorced him, and divorce was not practiced until King Henry VIII separated from the Catholic Church.[1]
It is widely thought that Lady Green Sleeves was a promiscuous young woman and perhaps a prostitute.[2] At the time, the word "green" had sexual connotations, most notably in the phrase "a green gown", a reference to the way that grass stains might be seen on a lady's dress if she had made love outside.[3]
An alternative explanation is that Lady Green Sleeves was, as a result of her attire, incorrectly assumed to be immoral. Her "discourteous" rejection of the singer's advances supporting the contention that she is not.[3]
In Nevill Coghill's translation of The Canterbury Tales,[4] he explains that "green [for Chaucer’s age] was the color of lightness in love. This is echoed in 'Greensleeves is my delight' and elsewhere."
Lyrics
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.
Early literary 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 "Greensleeves," and Falstaff later exclaims:
- Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of 'Greensleeves'!
These allusions suggest that the song was already well known at that time.
Musicology
Greensleeves is in Dorian mode, though modern musicians sometimes play it in the natural minor scale instead.[citation needed]
In popular culture
Recordings
- Allan Sherman (Parody titled "Sir Greenbaum's Madrigal") - 1962 album My Son The Folk Singer.
- Elvis Presley - 1968 retitled as "Stay Away" B-side of "U.S. Male"; featured in film Stay Away Joe.
- Blackmore's Night - debut album Shadow of the Moon in 1997.
- Jeff Beck - 1968 album Truth.
- John Coltrane - album Africa/Brass.
- Flanders and Swann - The Greensleeves Monologue Annotated
- Loreena McKennitt - 1991 album The Visit.
- Vanessa Carlton - album Maybe This Christmas.
- Timo Tolkki - 1994 album Classical Variations and Themes.
- Olivia Newton-John - 1976 album Come on Over.
- Leonard Cohen - album New Skin for the Old Ceremony.
- Odetta - album At the Gate of Horn.
- James Taylor - 1968 debut Album James Taylor.
- Kevin Max - 2005 album Holly Night.
- Jethro Tull - 2003 album The Jethro Tull Christmas Album.
Television
- Blackadder II in the episode "Bells", as the backing track to a medieval style 'hits compilation' parody
- The Office episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" features Dwight Schrute playing "Greensleves" to a group of children on his recorder. He states to the children: "That was Greensleves, the English ballad dedicated to the beheaded Anne Boleyn."
Media
See also
References
- ^ Weir, Alison. Henry VIII: The King and His Court, page 131, Ballantine Books, 2002, ISBN 0-34543-708-X
- ^ Brown, Meg Lota & Kari Boyd McBride. Women's Roles in the Renaissance, page 101, Greenwood Press, 2005, ISBN 0-31332-210-4
- ^ a b Vance Randolph "Unprintable" Ozark Folksongs and Folklore, Volume I, Folksongs and Music, page 47, University of Arkansas Press, 1992, ISBN 1-55728-231-5
- ^ Chaucer, Geoffrey (2003-02-04). The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English). trans. Nevill Coghill. The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection. ISBN 0-140-42438-5.
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External links
- Transcription of A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584)
- Andrew Kuntz, The Fiddler's Companion: see under Greensleeves [2]