The Libretto: Text of the Newly Adapted Poem
Goblin Market: Cantata (1880)
The text of “Goblin Market” was adapted collaboratively by composer Emanuel Aguilar and Christina Rossetti, and this abridged and adapted poem serves as the libretto for Aguilar’s cantata. The musical score was then published under Aguilar’s and Rossetti’s names, and with Rossetti’s explicit permission on the title page: “The Words adapted by permission of the Authoress Christina Rossetti.” Page 1 of the score lists the creators thus: “Words by Christian [sic] Rossetti” and “Music by E. Aguilar.”
According to the Index page, the libretto—advertised as “Books of the Words”—was also available separately at a price of 6 pence each. No copies of this separately printed libretto have been located.
Within the libretto as transcribed below, when singers are simultaneously singing, but singing different words, these distinct texts are presented in adjacent columns. All titles and designated singers that are in capital letters are presented as in the original published score. Anything in square brackets and in lowercase letters is an editorial addition and has been added for clarity.
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No. 1. CHORUS with SOLOS. “COME BUY, COME BUY.” [Chorus] Come buy, Come buy, Come buy,Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy our orchard fruits, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Apples and quinces, Lemons and Oranges, Plump unpeck’d cherries, Melons and raspberries, Bloom-down cheek’d peaches, Swart-headed mulberries Wild free-born cranberries, Crab-apples, dew-berries, Pine-apples, blackberries, Apricots, Strawberries All ripe together In summer weather, Morns that pass by, Fair eves that fly; Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy. [LIZZIE.] We must not look at goblin men, We must not buy their fruits: Who knows upon what soil they fed Their hungry thirsty roots? [CHORUS.] Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, [LAURA.] Look, Lizzie, Look, Lizzie, Down the glen tramp little men. One hauls a basket, One bears a plate, One lugs a golden dish Of many pounds weight. [LIZZIE.] No, my darling: No, no, no; Their offers should not charm us, Their evil gifts would harm us. Come, let us thrust a finger in each ear, And no more linger. [LAURA.] One has a cat’s face, One whisk’s [sic] a tail, One tramps at a rat’s pace, One crawls like a snail. [CHORUS.] Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy, Come buy. [LAURA.] Now they check their scampering pace, They stand and bow with grinning face; Leering at each other, Brother with queer brother; One brings a golden dish With all the fruit for which to wish. [CHORUS UNIS.] Come buy, come buy. [LAURA.] Good folk, I have no coin; To take were to purloin: I have no copper in my purse, I have no silver either, And all my gold is on the furze That shakes in windy weather Above the rusty heather. [CHORUS UNIS.] You have much gold upon your head, Buy from us with a golden curl. [CHORUS.] She clips a precious golden lock, She drops a tear more rare than pearl, She eats our fruits both fair and red: Sweeter than honey from the rock, |
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| [CHORUS.] She eats our fruits both fair and red: She eats our fruits both fair and red: Sweeter than honey Sweeter than honey from the rock, Sweeter than honey from the rock, Sweeter, sweeter than honey from the rock, She eats our fruits both fair and red, Sweeter than honey from the rock, She eats our fruits both fair and red, Sweeter than honey from the rock. |
[LAURA, singing simultaneously with chorus] I never tasted fruits before, Such as that unknown orchard bore; I never tasted fruits before, Such as that unknown orchard bore; Clearer than water flows the juice; Clearer than water flows the juice; How should it cloy with length of use? How should it cloy? How should it cloy with length of use? I never tasted fruits before, Such as that unknown orchard bore, I never tasted fruits before, Such as that unknown orchard bore. |
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| No. 2. DUET. “DEAR, YOU SHOULD NOT STAY SO LATE.” [LIZZIE.] Dear, you should not stay so late, Twilight is not good for maidens; Should not loiter in the glen, In the haunts of goblin men. Do you not remember Jeanie, How she met them in the moonlight, Took their gifts both choice and many, Ate their fruits and wore their flow’rs Pluck’d from bow’rs Where summer ripens at all hours? But ever in the noonlight She pin’d and pin’d away; Sought them by night and day, Found them no more, But dwindled and grew grey; Then fell with the first snow, While to this day no grass will grow Where she lies low: I planted daisies there a year ago That never blow. You should not loiter so. [LAURA.] Have done with sorrow; I’ll bring you plums tomorrow Fresh on their mother twigs, Cherries worth getting; Cherries worth getting; You cannot think what figs My teeth have met in. |
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| [LAURA.] Cherries worth getting; Cherries worth getting, You cannot think what figs my teeth have met in, I’ll bring you plums tomorrow Fresh on their mother twigs, I’ll bring you plums tomorrow, I’ll bring you plums tomorrow Fresh on their mother twigs. |
[LIZZIE, singing simultaneously] Dear, you should not stay so late, Twilight is not good for maidens; Should not loiter in the glen, In the haunts of goblin men, of goblin men. |
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| No. 3. CHORUS. “SLEEP SONG” Golden head by golden head, Like two pigeons in one nest Folded in each other’s wings, They lie down in their curtain’d bed: Like two blossoms on one stem, Like two flakes of new-fall’n snow, Like two wands of ivory Tipp’d with gold for awful Kings. Moon and stars gaze in at them Wind sings to them lullaby, Lumbering owls forbear to fly, Not a bat flaps to and fro Round their nest: Round their nest: Cheek to cheek and breast to breast Lock’d together in one nest, in one nest, in one nest, in one nest. No. 4. SOLO. “EARLY IN THE MORNING.” [LAURA.] Early in the morningWhen the cock first crow’d his warning; just [sic] like bees as brisk and busy, I arose with Lizzie: She warbling for the mere bright day’s delight, I longing for the night. At length slow evening came: We went with pitchers to the reedy brook; Lizzie most placid in her look, I much more like a leaping flame. We drew the gurgling water from its deep; The beasts and birds were fast asleep, And Lizzie urged, “Oh Laura, come; I hear the fruit call, but I dare not look; You should not loiter longer at this brook: Come with me home.” Then Then I turn’d cold as stone, cold as stone, cold as stone [sic, no line end punctuation] To find my sister heard that cry alone, To find my sister heard that cry alone. Then, Then, Then I turn’d cold as stone, cold as stone, cold as stone [sic, no line end punctuation] To find my sister heard that cry alone. No. 5. SOLO. “WOE IS ME.” (A week later.) [LIZZIE.] Woe is me! I cannot bearTo watch my sister’s cankerous care Yet not to share, Yet not to share, I night and morning catch the goblins’ cry: Beside the brook, along the glen, I hear the tramp of goblin men, The voice and stir Poor Laura may not hear: Long to buy fruit to comfort her, But fear to pay too dear. But Laura dwindling seems knocking at Death’s door. Now dare I weigh no more Better and worse I’ll put a silver penny in my purse, Better and worse I’ll put a silver penny in my purse, Kiss Laura, cross the heath with clumps of furze At twilight, halt then by the brook: And for the first time in my life... Begin to listen...and look. No. 6 A_APPEARANCE OF THE GOBLINS. Russet and dun, Bob at our cherries, Bite at our peaches, Citrons and dates, Grapes for the asking, Pears red with basking Out in the sun, Plums on their twigs; Pluck them and suck them, Pomegranates figs. Pomegranates, figs. [LIZZIE.] Well met, good folk, Give me much and many: Here is my apron, Take now my penny. [CHORUS.] Nay, take a seat with us, Honour and eat with us, Night...yet is early, Warm...and dew pearly, Wakeful and starry: Such fruits as these... No man can carry; |
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| [Chorus, soprano 1] Half their bloom would fly,.[sic] Half their dew would dry,... |
[Chorus, soprano 2 and alto, singing simultaneously] Such fruits as these No man can carry, |
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| [Chorus] Such fruits as these... No man can carry; Sit down and feast with us, Be welcome guest with us... [LIZ] Thank you, good people, but one waits At home alone for me: So without further parleying, If you will not sell me any Of your fruits tho’ much and many Give me back my silver penny I gave you for a fee. [CHORUS.] Let’s tread and hustle her, Elbow and jostle her, Tread and hustle her, Elbow and jostle her, [Chorus, soprano 2 and alto] Barking, [Chorus, soprano 1] mewing, [Chorus, soprano 2 and alto] hissing, [Chorus, soprano 1] mocking, [CHORUS UNIS.] Tear her gown and soil her stocking, Twitch her hair out by the roots, Twitch her hair out by the roots, Stamp upon her tender feet, Stamp upon her tender feet, Hold her hands and squeeze our fruits Against her mouth to make her eat. Against her mouth...to make her eat. [UNIS.] Though we goblins prick her, kick her, prick her, kick her, Yet she utters not a word; Will not open lip from lip Lest we should cram a mouthful in: But almost smiles to feel the drip Of juice that syrups all her face, And fills the dimples of her chin, And streaks her neck with quakes like curd. Fling back her penny [sic, no line end punctuation] Kick the fruit along whichever road we take, Not leaving root or stone or shoot; Some writhe into the ground, Some dive into the brake, Some scud upon the gale without a sound. No. 7. FINALE. Come now in the garden, Did you miss me? Come and kiss me, Never mind my bruises, Hug me, kiss me, suck these juices squeez’d from goblin fruits for you, squeez’d from goblin fruits for you, Goblin pulp and goblin dew: For your sake I have brav’d the glen And had to do with goblin merchant men. [LAURA.] Lizzie, Lizzie, Have you tasted For my sake the bitter sweetness? Must your life like mine be wasted, Maim’d and marr’d before completeness? Tomorrow and tomorrow Still waking us to sorrow, Goblin haunted, driven, daunted. [CHORUS.] Tears once again Refresh her shrunken eyes. Dropping like rain After long and sultry drouth; Shaking with aguish fear and pain, Shaking with aguish fear and pain, She kisses Lizzie, kisses Lizzie with a hungry mouth. [UNIS.] That juice is wormwood to her taste. She loathes the feast: Writhing as one possess’d She leaps...and sings, Rends all her robe, and wrings Her hands..in lamentable haste, And mortal strife: Like a wind uprooted tree Spun about like...a foam-topp’d water spout Cast down headlong in...the sea, She falls at last; Pleasure past and anguish past, Is it death Or is it life? [LIZZIE.] Life out of death. All night long have I watch’d by her, Counted her pulse’s flagging stir, Felt for her breath, Held water to her lips, and cool’d her face With tears and fanning leaves: But when the first birds chirp’d about our eaves, And early reapers plodded to the place Of golden sheaves, And dew-wet grass Bow’d in the morning winds so brisk to pass, And new buds with new day Open’d of cuplike lilies on the stream, Laura awoke as from a dream, Laugh’d in the innocent old way, She hugg’d me, but not twice or thrice; Her gleaming locks show’d not one thread of gray, Her breath was sweet as May And light danc’d in her eyes. [CHORUS.] Oh there is no friend like a sister In calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way. To fetch one if one goes astray, [Chorus, three parts singing with staggered entries] |
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| [Alto] To lift one if one totters down, To lift one if one totters down, |
[Soprano 2] To lift one if one totters down, If......one totters down, |
[Soprano 1] To lift one if one totters down, |
| [Chorus] To strengthen and to stay. [Chorus, soprano 1] Oh there is no friend like a sister, [Chorus, soprano 2 and alto] Oh there is no friend like a sister, [Chorus, soprano 1] Oh there is no friend like a sister, [Chorus, soprano 2 and alto] Oh there is no friend like a sister, [Chorus] In calm or stormy weather; [Chorus, three parts singing with staggered entries] |
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| [Chorus, Alto, Soprano 2] To cheer one on the tedious way, To fetch one if one goes, one goes astray, |
[Chorus, Soprano 1] To cheer one on the tedious way, To fetch one if one goes astray, |
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| [Chorus] To lift one if one totters down, To strengthen and to stay. Oh there is no friend like a sister, In calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way, To fetch one if one goes astray, To lift one If one totters down, If one totters down, To strengthen and to stay. |
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