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"My Lady Greensleeves" as depicted in an 1864 painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

"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.

It is widely thought that Lady Green Sleeves was a promiscuous young woman and perhaps a prostitute.1 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.2

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.2

In Nevill Coghill's translation of The Canterbury Tales,3 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."

Contents

Greensleeves and Henry VIII

There is a persistent myth that Greensleeves was composed by Henry VIII for his lover and future queen consort Anne Boleyn. Anne rejected Henry's attempts to seduce her and this rejection is apparently referred to in the song, when the writer's love "cast me off discourteously." However, Henry did not write "Greensleeves," which is probably Elizabethan in origin and is based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after his death.4

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

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 "Greensleeves" to a group of children on his recorder. He states to the children: "That was Greensleeves, the English ballad dedicated to the beheaded Anne Boleyn."
  • Snickers Aired a series of commercials featuring various characters on a car trip, what appears to be Henry VIII talks about minstrels serenading him, a Hawaiian-esque character sings the first half of the first verse, the characters pause, then sing the chorus. 5

Media

Greensleeves


See also

References

  1. ^ Brown, Meg Lota & Kari Boyd McBride. Women's Roles in the Renaissance, page 101, Greenwood Press, 2005, ISBN 0-31332-210-4
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ Chaucer, Geoffrey (2003-02-04). The Canterbury Tales, trans. Nevill Coghill (in Middle English), The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection. ISBN 0-140-42438-5. 
  4. ^ Weir, Alison. Henry VIII: The King and His Court, page 131, Ballantine Books, 2002, ISBN 0-34543-708-X
  5. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS2XLI8U9aw

External links

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