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Francis Beaumont (ca. 1584-1616)
John Fletcher (1579-1625)

Lay a garland on my hearse


              1Lay a garland on my hearse,
              2    Of the dismal yew,
              3Maidens, willow branches bear,
              4    Say I died true.
              5My love was false, but I was firm
              6    From my hour of birth;
              7Upon my buried body lie
              8    Lightly, gentle earth.

Notes

1] There is considerable difference of opinion on the authorship of the songs in the plays on which Beaumont and Fletcher collaborated. The songs are often too readily attributed to Fletcher because there are many rather similar songs in the plays of which he is sole author. He is commonly agreed to be the sole author of Valentinian and The Nice Valour, first printed in the folio collection of Comedies and Tragedies, 1647.


Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy, 2nd edn. (London: F. Constable, 1622). Short-title Catalog 1678.
First publication date: 1622
RPO poem editor: N. J. Endicott
RP edition: 2RP.1.246; RPO 1996-2000.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/27

Composition date: 1610
Rhyme: abcbdefe


Other poems by Francis Beaumont
Other poems by John Fletcher