William Boyce
(1711 - 1779)

Boyce : When Orpheus went down : illustration

When Orpheus went down
(Song)
Full score (PDF), €0.00 for unlimited copies   Download this item
Printable cover page (PDF), €0.00 for unlimited copies   Download this item

If you have any problem obtaining a PDF, please see our help page. If that does not resolve the issue, please click here.

Click on the illustration to display a larger version
Page 1 of 2
Creative Commons Licence
This work, Boyce : When Orpheus went down : scoreid 148339, as published by notAmos Performing Editions, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. All relevant attributions should state its URL as https://www.notamos.co.uk/detail.php?scoreid=148339. Permissions beyond the scope of this licence may be available at https://www.notamos.co.uk/index.php?sheet=about.
A song probably written for performance in the London pleasure gardens. Published in The Muses Delight, Liverpool, 1754.
Lyrics: Thomas Lisle

When Orpheus went down to the regions below,
Which men are forbidden to see,
He tun'd up his lyre, as old histories shew,
To set his Euridice free.

All Hell was astonish'd a person so wise
Should rashly endanger his life,
And venture so far; but how vast their surprise,
When they heard that he came for his wife.

To find out a punishment due to his fault,
Old Pluto long puzzl'd his brain;
That Hell had not torments sufficient, he thought,
So he gave him his wife back again.

But pity, succeeding, soon vanquish'd his heart,
And, pleas'd with his playing so well,
He took her again, in reward of his art:
Such power had music in Hell.