The Sapphire Necklace

by Henry F. Chorley (librettist) and Arthur Sullivan (composer)

When Love and Beauty (Madrigal)

(With Sullivan's repeats eliminated)

When Love and Beauty to be married go,

Pheobus, without a cloud,

Smiles on the pair.

Though rose-buds pant and blow,

The birds all sing aloud,

Tumultuous Boreas, whom the cedars bowed,

Tamed, like wane of gentle song doth flow,

Saying, till Echo doth repeat the sound,

"May all who wed in truth with happiness be crown'd."

It is not wealth and state that smooth the way,

Nor bid the desert bloom,

The ploughman at his furrow can be gay,

The weaver at his loom.

Where Honour's Lord content his wife hath room,

And hearts keep light if heads are gray,

Singing, till Echo doth repeat the sound,

"May all who wed in truth with happiness be crown'd."

Over the Roof

Over the roof and over the wall,

Grow, grow, the jessamine grow.

For ever and ever more white and tall

(No matter the dwelling be high or low!)

For yet palace be lofty and moat be wide

And mailed the bridge and lordly the towers,

There love can prevail over pomp and pride

Like the cherished beauty of those sweet flowers!

Love, love, love.

Love will not alter under the sun

While the woods grow and the waters run!

Down by the meadow, down to the sea

(Flow, flow, the river will flow)

The turf may be green, or wither'd the tree

(But the heat is the same on the cobble below.)

For whatever the season around that deep stream,

Be it snow-white winter or summer hot,

There is love, tho' a wand'rer as some might dream

Who passes and passes, yet changes not.

Ah! Love, love, love.

Love will be master under the sun

While the wood grows and the waters run!