Macidol Mac music community

Song Information:

Another from the archives. This was based on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", Act III, Scene 5. After the characters first consumate their love, Romeo lingers in Juliet's bedroom. Romeo claims to hear the song of a lark, signifying morning and Juliet tries to persuade him that what he heard was a nightingale.

JULIET

Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree:
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

ROMEO

It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.

As you can hear, I didn't sing the dialogue from the play, but merely used that scene as the inspiration for the lyrics, trying to capture a lyrical sense of language, as well as the interplay between the two characters.

Song Lyrics:

Rise not, my love
'Twas only the nightingale
Sings he the nightingale
'Til dawn wakes the lark

Fear not my love
For stars continue shining
Stars are only shining
When the skies are dark

Stay ye, my love
And give me warmth embracing
Lips not part embracing
We're lovers at night

Hear ye, my love
The song is not the nightingale
Claim ye not the nightingale
And dawn steals my right

Quickly my love
And hasten from my warm embrace
O get ye from my warm embrace
And flee into the dawn

Alone without my love
And wishing songs of nightingale
The morrow brings the nightingale
And with it loving one.