Court Odes: Come we shepherds, whose blest sight


 Selected item (#5018) = Come we shepherds, whose blest sight
 Attributes of this item 
incipit (first line(s), normalized): Come we shepherds, whose blest sight
version (if more than one exists):
the item's genre (general): ode
the item's genre (specific): Birthday, Charles II
the institution/place or purpose 
for which the work was first destined:
English court
the work's year (or focal date, if known): 1670 - 1672
author of the text: Richard Crashaw
composer of the music: Henry Cooke
Number of texts stored: 2  
  • Selected text (below): #297 / Source: GB-Bu 5001, ff. 19 - 30
    special title: ‘Come Shepherds’
  • Text #298 / Source: Steps to the Temple 1670, pp. 29 - 32
 Selected text (#297) / Source: GB-Bu 5001, ff. 19 - 30  
 Attributes of the selected text 
source for this text
(short title, or library & shelfmark):
GB-Bu 5001
location in the source?
(i.e. which vol., pp. or fols):
ff. 19 - 30
type of source: MS, music and words
the source online (if available):
modern edition of this text:
special title (if any): Come Shepherds
version (if more than one exists):
about this transcription: Transcribed by Estelle Murphy, April 2022.
Transcription:          
   File options:

Come wee shepherds whose blest sight,
hath met loves noon in natures night,
Come lift wee our loftier song,
and wake ye sun yt lies too long.

to all our world of well stolen joy,
Hee slept and dream’t of noe such thing
while wee found out Heaven’s fairer eye
and Kist ye Cradle of our King;
tell him hee Rises now too late
to shew us ought worth looking at

gloomye night Embract ye place
where ye noble Infant lay
ye babe look’t up and shewd his face
In spight of dark It was day
it was thy day sweet, and did rise
not from ye East but from thine Eies

Winter chid aloud and sent
ye angry north to wage his wars
ye north forgot his fierce Intent
and left perfumes Instead of skarrs
By those sweet Eies perswasive pow’rs,
wher hee meant frost, hee scatterd flowrs

Cho:
Wee saw thee, wee saw thee in thy Balmy nest
Bright dawn of our Eternall day;
Wee saw thine Eies Break from ye East
and chase ye trembling shades away
Wee saw thee and wee Blest ye sight
Wee saw thee by thine owne faire light.

poore world sayd I what wilt thou doe,
to Entertaine [ye] starrie stranger,
is this ye best thou canst bestow
a cold and not too cleanly manger,
Contend ye pow’rs of Heaven and Earth,
to fit a bed for this huge birth

I saw ye curld drops soft and slow,
Come hovering o’re ye places head
offering their whitest sheets of snow,
to furnish ye faire Infants Bed;
forbear, sayd I Bee not to bold,
your fleece is white but tis too cold

Cho:
Wee saw thee in thy balmy nest
Bright dawn of our Eternall day;
wee saw thine Eies Break from ye East
and chace ye trembling shades away
wee saw thee and wee Blest ye sight
wee saw thee by thine owne faire light.


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