William Jackson (of Exeter)
(1730 - 1803)

Jackson (of Exeter) : Ye shepherds, give ear to my lay : illustration

Ye shepherds, give ear to my lay
(S./T.2Vn.Va.Continuo)
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Twelve songs set to music by William Jackson of Exeter. Op. 4. London, c.1775.
Lyrics: William Shenstone

Ye shepherds, give ear to my lay
And take no more heed of my sheep;
They have nothing to do but to stray,
I have nothing to do but to weep.
Yet do not my folly reprove;
She was fair, and my passion begun;
She smiled, and I could not but love;
She is faithless and I am undone.

She is faithless and I am undone;
Ye that witness the woes I endure,
Let reason instruct you to shun
What it cannot instruct you to cure.
Beware how ye loiter in vain
Amid nymphs of an higher degree:
It is not for me to explain
How fair and how fickle they be.

O ye woods! Spread your branches apace,
To your deepest recesses I fly;
I would hide with the beasts of the chase;
I would vanish from every eye.
Yet my reed shall resound through the grove,
With the same sad complaint it begun,
How she smiled, and I could not but love,
Was faithless, and I am undone.