I cordially & heartfeltly disagree on Gillington's verse: I call it "sweetly pretty", and no abuse of the melody at all. ("Tell me I'm crazy, maybe I know".) No, of course transgendering is not a problem - the new pastoral words could even be sung by another maiden (a princess on the run?, not necessarily a man of low or high degree) about the nameless shepherdess, with a languishing (or plaintive) note about her enviable happiness. Gillington's shepherdess herself does not languish, but let her be happy before Cupid's dart strikes her bosom: that's what I say, for all is fleeting, youth, beauty, happines, freedom,even in Arcady (even there is He). So languishing is probably in store for the poor maid in her happiness, anyhow. I don't see why everyone should themselves languish because this is typical of the music of its time; others (like those singing about them) can languish about them quite as well. Anyhow, come and hear me sing Gillington's words to Godard's music, and I will make both languish quite sufficiently enough to suit the sternest critic. I do concede that Tauber tends to bellow out his admiration of her, and while his Teutonic tones suit other lyrics, they might be a little misplaced-sounding here.   

It would be nice to have a list of recordings of Gillington's words, but I do not know how to start making one.   

When monogamy went out ("My beloved is mine and I am his"), romantic love went out with it.

I will learn "The Most Beautiful Girl" if you will teach it to me (and in three languages, if you wish).

It is highly likely that when a poet chooses a non-standard language, old and affected or new and unaffected, over a standard one, he chooses (faux-naively, perhaps) to convey his fictive speaker's naivete.   What is the difference between how the two languages sound when the song is sung in them?: that is what I'd like to hear for myself.

Sanjay Sircar