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O Mistress Mine
Words by William Shakespeare.
Dedicated to Charles Santley.
Published by Metzler & Co., 1866.


Music cover
O Mistress Mine, sung by Feste in Twelfth Night, is one of a set of five 'Shakespeare Songs' which Sullivan composed during 1863 and 1864. The others are Orpheus with his Lute, The Willow Song, Rosalind and Sigh No More, Ladies.Sullivan sold these songs to the publisher for five guineas each but it did not take him long to discover this was a mistake and that if he were paid for songs on a royalty basis, he could increase his income from them substantially.

Karaoke File


O mistress mine, Where are you roaming?
O stay and hear, Your true love's coming.
O stay and hear your true love's coming.
That can sing, that can sing both high and low.
Trip no further, pretty sweeting,
Journey's end in lover's meeting,
Ev'ry wise man's son doth know,
Ev'ry wise man's son doth know.

What is love? 'tis not hereafter.
Present mirth hath present laughter:
What's to come is still unsure:
What's to come, what's to come is still unsure.
In delay there is no plenty:
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty
Youth's a stuff will not endure,
Youth's a stuff will not endure!
Charles Santley
Charles Santley

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