Greensleeves

"My Lady Greensleeves" as depicted in an 1864 painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, a ground of the form called a romanesca.

A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in 1580^[1] as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves". It then 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."

The tune is found in several late 16th century and early 17th century sources, such as Ballet's MS Lute Book and Het Luitboek van Thysius, as well as various manuscripts preserved in the Cambridge University libraries.

Greensleeves and Henry VIII

There is a persistent belief that Greensleeves was composed by Henry VIII for his lover and future queen consort Anne Boleyn. Anne rejected Henry's attempts to seduce her and this rejection is apparently referred to in the song, when the writer's love "cast me off discourteously." However, Henry did not compose "Greensleeves", which is probably Elizabethan in origin and is based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after his death.^[2]

Lyrical interpretation

Wikisource has lyrics for the song: Greensleeves

One possible interpretation of the lyrics is that Lady Green Sleeves was a promiscuous young woman and perhaps a prostitute.^[3] At the time, the word "green" had sexual connotations, most notably in the phrase "a green gown", a reference to the way that grass stains might be seen on a lady's dress if she had made love outside.^[4]

An alternative explanation is that Lady Green Sleeves was, as a result of her attire, incorrectly assumed to be immoral. Her "discourteous" rejection of the singer's advances supports the contention that she is not.^[4]

In Nevill Coghill's translation of The Canterbury Tales,^[5] he explains that "green [for Chaucer’s age] was the colour of lightness in love. This is echoed in 'Greensleeves is my delight' and elsewhere."

Alternative lyrics

The hymn What Child Is This? by William Chatterton Dix, set to the "Greensleeves" tune, is used across the Western Christian Church.

A variation was used extensively in the 1962 movie How the West Was Won as the song "Home in the Meadow", lyrics by Sammy Cahn, performed by Debbie Reynolds.^[6]

Early literary 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 "Greensleeves," and Falstaff later exclaims:

Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of 'Greensleeves'!

These allusions suggest that the song was already well known at that time.

In popular culture

Recordings

• Odetta: 1957 album At the Gate of Horn
• John Coltrane: 1961 album Africa/Brass
• Marianne Faithfull: 1964 B side of As Tears Go By
• Vince Guaraldi Trio: 1965 soundtrack A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Elvis Presley: 1968 retitled as "Stay Away" B-side of "U.S. Male"; featured in film Stay Away, Joe
• James Taylor: 1968 debut album James Taylor
• Jeff Beck: 1968 album Truth
• Glen Campbell: 1972 album The Artistry of Glen Campbell
• Leonard Cohen: 1974 album New Skin for the Old Ceremony
• Flanders and Swann: The Greensleeves Monologue Annotated
• Olivia Newton-John: 1976 album Come on Over
• Mason Williams with Mannheim Steamroller: 1987 album Classical Gas
• Loreena McKennitt: 1991 album The Visit
• Timo Tolkki: 1994 album Classical Variations and Themes
• Blackmore's Night: 1997 debut album Shadow of the Moon
• Vanessa Carlton: 2002 album Maybe This Christmas
• Alan Price: 2002 album Based on a True Story
• Ensemble Planeta: 2003 album étoile
• Jethro Tull: 2003 album The Jethro Tull Christmas Album
• David Nevue: 2004 album Sweet Dreams and Starlight
• Kevin Max: 2005 album Holy Night
• Derek Trucks Band: 2006 DVD Songlines Live
• The King's Singers: 2008 album Simple Gifts
• Daniel Kobialka: "Greensleeves Fantasy"; 2009 album Musical Inspirations Series: Peace

Television

• The Simpsons episode "A Star Is Torn": Cameron performed "Greensleeves" in Krusty's Li'l Star Maker singing competition.
• Blackadder II episode "Bells": as the backing track to a medieval style 'hits compilation' parody.
• The Office (US) episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day": Dwight Schrute plays "Greensleeves" on his recorder to a group of children. He says: "That was 'Greensleeves,' the English ballad dedicated to the beheaded Anne Boleyn."
• Lassie, as the theme song beginning with the fifteenth season. [1]
• In Jane and the Dragon, the song is frequently hummed by Jane or Pepper the kitchen wench. (However, this is an anachronism, as the show is supposedly set in the ninth century.)
• The Tudors episode "Look to God First": King Henry VIII (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is seen playing a guitar and humming the song softly, as if composing it. It is played again in the next scene.
• The Secret World of Alex Mack episode "The Solo": Alex performed the song in an imaginary dream sequence at the beginning of the episode.
• Married... with Children episode "Buck Saves the Day": Steve Rhoades (David Garrison) performs it in the woods, during a camping trip.

Film

• The Madness of King George, played by the handbell ringers during the concert scene.

Media

"Greensleeves" is in Dorian mode, though modern musicians sometimes play it in the natural minor scale instead.

	Greensleeves In dorian mode
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

	Greensleeves In natural minor
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See also

• "Turandot (Busoni)" Act 2 Scene 1 opens with the tune, which Busoni thought sounded Chinese.

References

External links

• Free sheet music of Greensleeves from Cantorion.org
• Transcription of A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584)
• Andrew Kuntz, The Fiddler's Companion: see under Greensleeves [2]