ΜΟΥΣΙΚΕΣ ΠΟΥ ΑΓΑΠΗΣΑ

ANONYMOUS (17TH CENTURY)
"Greensleeves"

to a ground for a treble instrument and basso continuo in G major

Performed by Hesperion XXI
Directed by Jordi Savall

*"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." 

It remains debatable whether this suggests that an 'old' tune of "Greensleeves" was in circulation, or which one the familiar tune is. 

Many surviving sets of lyrics were written to this tune.

The tune is also 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. 

This particular recording is based from one of those manuscripts

Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you well and long,
Delighting in your company.


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.


Well I will pray, I will pray to God
that thou my constancy mayst see,
For I am still thy lover true
Oh come once again and love me