Country Squires (Matthew Doodson)

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• (Posted 2023-10-10)  CPDL #76209:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-10-10).   Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 475 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Country Squires
Composer: Matthew Doodson
Lyricist: Sidney Newman Sedgwick
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1895 J. Curwen & Sons
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

Oh, vainly they prate who raise the chaunt
Of a life in a dirty town,
With red-tiled roofs and a cobbled street,
And skies of a smoky brown.
But give to me the green grass sward,
And gallant squires to follow hard,
And a loud ‘tally ho’ for the cunning Reynard,
With the dew all fresh at dawning.

Oh, loudly they sing who drain red wine
From a glass or a silver cup;
Who pass the nights in un-sating mirth,
And sleep when the sun is up.
But give to me a draught of mead
Drawn straight from cask, with foaming head,
In a good pewter pot as I saddle my steed,
With the dew all fresh at dawning.

Oh, deeply they sigh who spend their love
On a dame like a lily white,
With cheeks so pale and a slender waist,
In costliest satins dight.
But give to me a buxom mayde,
In russet kirtle plain array’d,
With an eye like a sloe and a cheek so redde,
In the dew all fresh at dawning.