If love and all the world were young
Lyricist: Walter Raleigh. Written as a riposte to the somewhat cloying Come live with me by Christopher Marlowe. In editions by Vincent Novello (and nowhere else) the original words (parentheses, v. 6) were bowdlerized to avoid the word "breed" - deemed unacceptable to Victorian sensibilities.
Notes on selected settings
- Philip Hayes TTTB (minor textual variances; see work page.)
Settings by composers (automatically updated)
- John Liptrot Hatton — Come live with me English SATB
- Samuel Webbe — If love and all the world were young English ATTB,TTTB
Texts and translations
English text
1 If love and all the world were young,
And truth on ev'ry shepherd's tongue,
Thy fancied pleasures might me move,
And I might listen to thy love.
2 But time drives flocks from field to fold;
The rivers rage, and hills grow cold,
Then drooping Philomel is dumb,
And age complains of care to come.
4 Thy gowns, thy belts, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
All these to me can nothing move,
To live with thee and be thy love.
6 If youth could last, and love (still breed,/remain,)
Had joy no date, and age no (need,/pain,)
Then these delights my mind might move,
And I might listen to thy love.