1
Call the Nymphs and the Fauns from the woods,
Call the Naids and Gods of the Floods;
Call Flora and Comus, Silenus and Momus;
Call Bacchus and his merry fellows;
Silvanis and Ceres and Tellus
All leave for awhile their abodes.
2
Let the Graces and Pleasures repair,
With the youthful, the gay, the witty and fair,
May all harmless delights,
floppy days and kind nights,
For ever attend this blest pair.
3
Come, come away, no delay,
No, no delay, come away!
All know 'tis his will,
Then all show their skill,
To grace Love's triumphing day.
4
Behold, O mighty'st of gods,
At thy command we come!
The gay, the sad, the grave, the glad,
The youthful and the old,
All meet as at the day of Doom.
5
6
Oh the sweet delights of love,
Who would live and not enjoy them?
I'd refuse the throne of Jove,
Should power or majesty destroy 'em.
Oh the sweet delights of live,
Who would live and not enjoy them?
Give me doubts or give men fears,
Give me jealousies and cares;
But let love remove 'em,
I approve 'em.
7
Let monarchs fight for power and fame,
With noise and arms mankind alarm.
Let daily fears their quiet fright,
And cares disturb their rest by night;
Greatness shall ne'er my soul entral,
Give me content and I have all.
Hear, mighty Love! To the I call;
Give me Astrea and I have all;
That soft, that sweet, that charming fair,
Fate cannot hurt whilst I have her
She's wealth and power, and only she,
Astrea's all the world to me.
8
Make room for the great God,
The great god of wine –
The Bacchanals come with liquor divine.
9
I'm here with my jolly crew
Come near we'll rejoice as well as you.
Give to ev'ry one his glass.
Then all together clash
Drink and despise the politic ass.
The mighty Jove who rules above
Ne'er troubl'd his head with much thinking,
He took off his glass, was kind to his lass,
And gain'd Heav'n by love and good drinking.
10
11
Still I'm wishing, still desiring;
Still she's giving, I requiring;
Yet each gift I think too small.
Still the morn I am presented,
Still the less I am contented,
Tho' she vows she has giv'n me all.
12
Can Drusilla give no more?
Has she lovish'd all her store?
Must my hopes to nothing fall?
O you know not half your treasure;
Give me more, give over measure,
Yet you can never, never give me all.
13
14
Shepherd: Tell me why, my charming fair,
Tell me why you thus deny me,
Can despair of these sighs and looks of care
Make Corinna ever fly me?
Tell me why my charming fair,
Tell me why you thus deny me.
Shepherdess: O Mirtillo! You're above me
I respect but dare not love ye,
She who hears, inclines to sin,
Who parlays half gives up the town,
And ravenous love soon enters in,
When once the outwork's beaten down:
Then my sighs and tears wont move ye;
I respect, but dare not love ye.
Shepherd: Could this lovely, charming maid
Think Mirtillo would deceive her?
Could Corinna be afraid
She by him should be betray'd?
No, too well I lave her.
0, let love with love be paid.
My heart, my life, my all I give her,
Let me now ah! now receive her.
Shepherdess and Shepherd: Oh! how gladly we believe,
When the heart is too, too willing;
Can that look, that face deceive?
Can he take delight in killing?
Ah! I die, if you deceive me,
Yet I will, I will believe ye.
15
16
All our days and nights
Shall be spent in delights,
'Tis a tribute, that's due to the young;
Let the ugly and old, the sickly and cold
Think the pleasures of love last too long
Begone, importunate reason,
Wisdom and counsel is now out of season.
17
18
Triumph victorious love,
Triumph o'er the universe!
The greatest heroes how to thee,
All nature owns thy deity,
Thou has tom'd almighty Jove;
Triumph victorious Love!
Then all rehearse in lofty verse,
The glory of almighty Love,
From pole to pole his fame resound;
Sing it, sing it the universe around.