YE FAIR MARRIED DAMES
Ye fair married dames, who so often deplore,
That a lover once blest is a lover no more;
No more, no more, is a lover no more.
Attend to my counsel, nor blush to be taught,
That prudence must cherish what beauty has caught.
Attend to my counsel, nor blush to be taught,
That prudence must cherish what beauty has caught.
Use the man that you wed like your favorite guitar;
Though music in both, they are both apt to jar;
How tuneful & soft from a delicate touch!
Not handled too roughly, nor play'd on too much.
The linnet & sparrow will feed from your hand,
Grow fond by your kindness, & come at command;
Exert with your husband the same happy skill;
For hearts, like your birds, may be tam'd to your will.
Be gay & good-humour'd, complying & kind;
Turn the chief of your care from your face to your mind;
'Tis there that the wife may her conquest improve,
And Hymen will rivet the fetters of love.
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From The Way to Keep Him by Dr. Arne.
Appears in Thomas Jefferson's music collection;
Collection of 18th-Century English Songs, New York Public Library;
The Compleat Tutor for the Guitar, 1763
The way to keep him a new song.... [London]. [1760?] 1 sheet: ill.; 1/20. British Library 1875.d.16(51). Trimmed on right edge Oxford University
Bodleian Library Harding New York Public Library RBR *KVB (Ballads) A slip-song - "Ye fair who shine thro' Britain's isle,". Not from Arthur
Murphy's play of the same name. REFERENCE: ESTCT52279. 2. [London]. [1760?] 1 sheet: ill.; 1/80. Two woodcuts. Harvard University
Libraries 25242.61F* 44v A slip-song - "Ye fair married dames who so often deplore,". 'The way to keep him', first presented at Drury Lane
Theatre in 1760, is by Arthur Murphy. REFERENCE: ESTCN20048.
Below is missing 2nd verse:
The bloom of your cheek, and the glance of your eye,
Your roses and lilies may make the men sigh
But roses and lilies and sighs pass away;
And passion wil die, as your beauties decay.
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Mozart transcription by Mary Van Deusen
Copyright © 2003, InterMedia Enterprises
