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It likely circulated in manuscript, as most social music did, long before it was printed. A tune by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves." No copy of that printing is known. It appears in the surviving ''A Handful of Pleasant Delights'' ( 1584 ) as "A New Courtly Sonnet of the Lady Green Sleeves. To the new tune of Green sleeves." It remains debatable whether this suggests that an ''old'' tune of "Greensleeves" was in circulation, or which one our familiar tune is. REFERENCES In Shakespeare's '' The Merry Wives Of Windsor '', written around 1602 , the character Mistress Ford refers twice without any explanation to ''the tune of "Green Sleeves"'', and Falstaff later exclaims: Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of 'Greensleeves'! All of these allusions suggest that the song was well known at that time. Pop culture reference to the song was made in the 'Take Your Daughter to Work Day' episode of NBC 's The Office (US) by Dwight playing the tune to entertain his co-workers' children. DERIVATIVES "Greensleeves" has inspired a number of derivative works. The British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams ( 1872 - 1958 ) composed a Falstaff Opera , ''Sir John in Love'' ( 1935 ), from which Ralph Greaves adapted a ''Fantasia on "Greensleeves."'' Another British composer, Gustav Holst , also used the "Greensleeves" melody in the fourth and final movement of '' St Paul's Suite .'' Its slow Tempo has inspired modern languishing renditions. The Christmas Carol " What Child Is This? " by William Chatterton Dix ( 1837 - 1898 ) used the melody of "Greensleeves" (''Bébé Dieu'' in French), while " I Saw Three Ships " uses a more upbeat variant of "Greensleeves". VERSIONS Leonard Cohen reworked "Greensleeves" into his 1974 song "Leaving Green Sleeves" (off the album '' New Skin For The Old Ceremony ''). The Smothers Brothers sang a modern version of "Greensleeves" with updated lyrics called "Where the Lilac Grows". It is found on their 1962 album ''The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers''. The same year saw film composer Alfred Newman use the melody throughout the film '' How The West Was Won ''. Many other contemporary artists recorded versions of this tune, whether vocal or instrumental, in their own style, including The Jeff Beck Group , Ritchie Blackmore , Timo Tolkki , Leona Boyd , John Coltrane , Enya , Marianne Faithfull , Jethro Tull , Kenny G , Loreena McKennitt , Oscar Peterson , The Scorpions , Derek Trucks , Stratovarius , Roger Whittaker , Vince Guaraldi , George Winston , Olivia Newton John , Neil Young , The Bill Smith Quartet , The Atlantics , Vanessa Carlton and others. "Greensleeves" is also the authorized March of the Canadian Forces Dental Branch . It also forms part of a contrapuntal section in the '' BBC Radio 4 UK Theme '' by Fritz Spiegl , in which it is played alongside '' What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor? ''. A piano rendition of "Greensleeves" is heard at one point during the video game Xenosaga :Der Wille zur Macht. During a "Stump the Band" segment on '' The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson '', an audience member sang a ditty called "Green Stamps", about a grocery clerk, to that tune. The refrain began, ''Green Stamps were all she gave...'' In HKCEE and HKALE , the song is broadcast to ensure all candidates that they have turned to the correct channel before the English listening exam. LYRICS There are many versions of the traditional lyrics of "Greensleeves" as a conventional lover's lament, often varying simply in the syllabic density. The first printed version begins: :Alas my loue, ye do me wrong, ::to cast me off discurteously: :And I haue loued you so long ::Delighting in your companie. Many versions use updated grammar, or a mix. Here is the same verse in a sparser version: :Alas, my love, you do me wrong :To cast me out discourteously, :For I have loved you for so long, :Delighting in your company. The full lyrics, with updated grammar, are listed as follows. :Alas, my love, you do me wrong, :To cast me off discourteously. :For I have loved you well and long, :Delighting in your company. :Chorus: :Greensleeves was all my joy :Greensleeves was my delight, :Greensleeves was my heart of gold, :And who but my lady greensleeves. :Your vows you've broken, like my heart, :Oh, why did you so enrapture me? :Now I remain in a world apart :But my heart remains in captivity. :(Chorus) :I have been ready at your hand, :To grant whatever you would crave, :I have both wagered life and land, :Your love and good-will for to have. :(Chorus) :If you intend thus to disdain, :It does the more enrapture me, :And even so, I still remain :A lover in captivity. :(Chorus) :My men were clothed all in green, :And they did ever wait on thee; :All this was gallant to be seen, :And yet thou wouldst not love me. :(Chorus) :Thou couldst desire no earthly thing, :but still thou hadst it readily. :Thy music still to play and sing; :And yet thou wouldst not love me. :(Chorus) :Well, I will pray to God on high, :that thou my constancy mayst see, :And that yet once before I die, :Thou wilt vouchsafe to love me. :(Chorus) :Ah, Greensleeves, now farewell, adieu, :To God I pray to prosper thee, :For I am still thy lover true, :Come once again and love me. :(Chorus) EXTERNAL LINKS
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