"Lay a garland" is a popular English poem from the play ''

The Maid's Tragedy ''The Maid's Tragedy'' is a play by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. It was first published in 1619. The play has provoked divided responses from critics. Date The play's date of origin is not known with certainty. In 1611, Sir George Buck ...

'' (Act II, Scene I) written in 1608-11. The poem was famously set to music by

Robert Lucas de Pearsall Robert Lucas Pearsall (14 March 1795 – 5 August 1856) was an English composer mainly of vocal music, including an elaborate setting of "In dulci jubilo" and the richly harmonic part song '' Lay a garland'' of 1840, both still often performed to ...

on 4 June 1840, scored for SSAATTBB in Eb. In 1854, Pearsall produced a

contrafactum In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this procedure (sometimes referred to as ''adaptation''), date back ...

of Lay a Garland, to the Latin text Tu es Petrus, dedicating it to the first bishop of

St Gallen St. Gallen or traditionally St Gall, in German language, German; it, San Gallo; rm, Son Gagl) is a Switzerland, Swiss List of cities in Switzerland, city and the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of St. Gallen, St ...

, John Peter. This is more often performed by choirs in a liturgical setting, as the original words for the music are more appropriate to a secular occasion.

Lyrics

The song is sung by Aspasia where her betrothed is forced into a

marriage of convenience A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than that of love and commitment. Instead, such a marriage is entered into for personal gain, or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as a political marriage. There are ...

to the king's mistress. The original words are as follows:

Lay a garland on my hearse of the dismal yew. Maidens, willow branches wear, say I died true. My love was false, but I was firm from my hour of birth. Upon my buried body lie lightly, gentle earth.

However Pearsall's music is set to these adapted words changed from

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

third person Third person, or third-person, may refer to: * Third person (grammar), a point of view (in English, ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', and ''they'') ** Illeism, the act of referring to oneself in the third person * Third-person narrative, a perspective in p ...

Lay a garland on her hearse of dismal yew. Maidens, willow branches wear, say she died true. Her love was false, but she was firm Upon her buried body lie lightly, thou gentle earth.

:I: These words were present in the original poem by Beaumont and Fletcher but omitted in the composition :II: Word was added to the into the composition.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lay A Garland Choral compositions 1840 compositions