Shakesong Lyrics & Scores

Welcome to the lyrics page! On the menu to the left are links to all of the Shakesongs currently available on the site. Simply click on each song title, and its accompanying lyric will appear. In future, I hope to add musical notations of the melody lines and piano accompaniments on this page as well, for those who would like to play the songs themselves.

Some of these Shakesongs, such as “Under the Greenwood Tree” are actual song texts (meaning they were intended to be sung and written as song lyrics), while others are based on famous passages of text (such as the Palmer’s Sonnet from Romeo & Juliet). There was no copyright in Shakespeare’s day, and Elizabethan dramatists frequently borrowed songs from a common fund of popular ballads, drinking songs, and ayres. If a popular tune suited the dramatic situation, it might be appropriated for dramatic purposes, as seems to be the case with the famous Willow song in Othello. In other situations, professional composers may have written the music to existing lyrics, much as I have done. Whatever their origin, all of these Elizabethan song lyrics bear The Bard’s seal of approval.