My own vintage piece of sheet music for ‘It was a Lover and His Lass’. Those who know their Shakespeare will recognize it as that sung in As You Like It, first performed, it is thought, around 1603. The tune was composed by Shakespeare’s contemporary, Thomas Morley.

I enhanced the aging of the original sheet in Photoshop and added a bronze heart originally drawn by hand in gold pen.

It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino
That o’er the green cornfields did pass.
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
These pretty country folks would lie,
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

This carol they began that hour,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
How that a life was but a flower
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

Then, pretty lovers, take the time
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crownéd with the prime
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

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