Fortune My Foe
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
Fortune, my foe, why dost thou frown on me?
And will thy favors never lighter be?
Wilt thou, I say, forever breed my pain?
And wilt thou not restore my joys again?
In vain I sigh, in vain I wail and weep,
In vain my eyes refrain from quiet sleep;
In vain I shed my tears both night and day;
In vain my love my sorrows do bewray.
Then will I leave my love in Fortune's hands
My dearest love, in most unconstant bands
And only serve the sorrows due to me:
Sorrow, hereafter, thou shalt my Mistress be.
Ah, silly Soul art thou so sore afraid?
Mourn not, my dear, nor be not so dismayed.
Fortune cannot, with all her power and skill
Enforce my heart to think thee any ill.
Live thou in bliss, and banish death to Hell;
All careful thoughts see thou from thee expel:
As thou dost wish, thy love agrees to be
For proof thereof, behold, I come to thee.
Die not in fear, not live in discontent;
Be thou not slain where blood was never meant;
Revive again: to faint thou hast no need.
The less afraid, the better thou shalt speed.
"Fortune My Foe", also known as "The Hanging Tune", "Aim Not Too High" or<br> "Dr. Faustus" is an Irish or English Slow Air in 4/4 time and G Minor<br> (Merryweather), G Dorian (Chappell) or E Minor (Kines).<br> The parts are played: One part (Kines), AAB (Merryweather) or ABCD (Chappell).<br> It appears in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (in a setting by Byrd), W. Corkine's<br> Instruction Book for the Lute (1610), Dorothy Welde's Lute Book, William Ballet's<br> Lute Book, Dallis' Pupil's Lute Book, University Library of Cambridge Lute MSS,<br> and other texts. The tune was alluded to by Shakespeare, discovers Chappell, in<br> The Merry Wives of Windsor and by Ben Jonson in The Case is Altered and in his<br> masque The Gipsies of Metamorphosed. Chappell gives numerous literary<br> references to "Fortune My Foe" from throughout the latter 16th and the entire 17th<br> centuries. Grattan-Flood, in his History of Irish Music (1906), says:<br> "In February, 1649-50, we read in a contemporary chronicle that the Irish pipers<br> attached to Lord Inchiquin's army drew off from Naas to the march of 'Fortune my<br> Foe'".<br> It was called "The Hanging Tune" because the dirge-like melody was frequently played<br> at public hangings.<br> It was printed in Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Times, vol. 1, (1859),<br> Kines' Songs From Shakespeare's Plays and Popular Songs of Shakespeare's<br> Time (1964),<br> Merryweather's Merryweather's Tunes for English Bagpipes (1989) and<br> Thomas & Leeder's The Singin' Gatherin' (1939).<br> Williamson gives an entirely different major mode tune in English, Welsh,<br> Scottish & Irish Fiddle Tunes (1976).<br> It was recorded by Les Witches on Fortune My Foe: Music of Shaekespeare's Time,<br> Ronn McFarlane on Lute Music of John Dowland and<br> The King's Noyse on The King's Delight: 17th century Ballads for Voice and<br> Violin (1992).<br>
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