Had I a heart for falsehood framed (James Brooks)

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• (Posted 2023-08-14)  CPDL #74865: 

Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2023-08-14).   Score information: A4, 5 pages, 244 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.

General Information

Title: Had I a heart for falsehood framed
Composer: James Brooks
Lyricist: Richard Brinsley Sheridan^{create page}
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: ATTB
Genre: Secular, Glee

Language: English
Instruments: Keyboard

First published: c.1798 (n/d)
Description: Brooks expanded a song, from The Duenna, to four voices with accompaniment, most probably for use at the Bath Philharmonic Society. The provision of the accompaniment is atypical: Bath P.S. seems generally to have adhered to the purist practice of unaccompanied glee singing. In performance, the accompaniment, with its short "symphonies", may be abandoned.

Original text and translations

English text

Had I a heart for falsehood framed
I ne'er could injure you;
For, though your tongue no promise claimed,
Your charms would make me true.
To you no soul shall bear deceit,
No stranger offer wrong,
But friends in all the aged you'll meet,
And lovers in the young.

But when they learn that you have blest
Another with your heart,
They'll bid aspiring passions rest
And act a brother's part;
Then, Lady, dread not their deceit,
Nor fear to suffer wrong,
For friends in all the aged you'll meet,
And lovers in the young.